In 1970, when I was serving as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy and assigned to Adm. Thomas H. Moorer, the chief of naval operations, I sometimes acted as a courier, taking documents to the White House. One evening I was dispatched with a package to the lower level of the West Wing of the […]
Bernard J. Ebbers, the former chief executive of WorldCom, pleaded for leniency yesterday from the judge who will sentence him for his conviction on charges of orchestrating the largest securities fraud in the nation’s history. Lawyers for Mr. Ebbers, who will be sentenced on July 13, asked the court to depart from federal guidelines when
It was likely the final chapter in a story that has troubled a generation. On the 41st anniversary of the disappearance of three young, idealistic civil rights workers near here, a jury pronounced Edgar Ray Killen guilty today of three counts of manslaughter in their deaths. Mr. Killen, 80, sat in a wheelchair, the thin
Federal prosecutors in New York have asked a judge to sentence former WorldCom Inc. chief executive Bernard J. Ebbers to spend the rest of his life in prison for leading the largest accounting fraud in U.S. history. In a court filing unsealed yesterday, the government urged U.S. District Judge Barbara S. Jones to reject any
A federal grand jury yesterday indicted the former publisher of the Chicago Sun-Times and prosecutors signaled that he is cooperating with a criminal investigation into alleged improper dealings by media tycoon Conrad M. Black. F. David Radler, who was Black’s second in command at Hollinger International Inc., is assisting the authorities and is expected to
Pretrial motions continued on Tuesday for the upcoming second product-liability trial involving Merck & Co.’s withdrawn arthritis drug, Vioxx, this time in a New Jersey state court. Jury selection for the new trial is scheduled to begin on Sept. 12 in the Atlantic City courtroom of Superior Court Judge Carol Higbee. During preliminaries on Monday,
The first barrister to be paid more than £1m in one year from legal aid was named yesterday in a government report which showed that the top 12 lawyers in the field earn more than £600,000 from taxpayers. Top of the list was James Sturman QC, who acted for Jose Mourinho in the Ashley Cole
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a government effort to force tobacco companies to give up $280 billion, leaving the Bush administration with a scaled-back version of its lawsuit. Shares of cigarette makers rose. The high court, without comment, let stand a decision that bars the government from recouping decades of profits it says tobacco companies
President Bush nominated Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr., of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, to the Supreme Court today, four days after his previous choice withdrew her nomination. The nomination is likely to please Mr. Bush’s conservative allies, whose sharp attacks on Harriet E. Miers were instrumental in prompting her
The U.S. Senate has confirmed Judge Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court in a largely party-line vote. He is poised to become the 110th justice on the high court, succeeding Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. Senator Ted Stevens, an Alaska Republican, announced the vote as he presided over the Senate. STEVENS: “On this vote, the ayes
