Objections: With Adam Klasfeld

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Reporter Who Broke Ghislaine Maxwell Juror Story Opens Up About the Complicated Fallout (Feat. Lucia Osborne-Crowley) Jan 11, 2022

Show notes

When she landed the world's first interview with a Ghislaine Maxwell juror, journalist and author Lucia Osborne-Crowley knew that the story would be significant—and perhaps even fraught.

"It was a really, really overwhelming interview for me because there were so many things going through my head," Obsorne-Crowley recounted.

The juror, once anonymized only as Juror No. 50 and now known by the name Scotty David, had told her that he was a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. He also told her that those experiences informed his decision to convict Maxwell of sex trafficking and other federal crimes that could lock up the Jeffrey Epstein accomplice for the rest of her life.

"This is a verdict for all of the victims," David declared in what ran as a pull quote in the headline of Osborne-Crowley's exclusive in the U.K.'s Independent.

Now, that verdict may stand in turmoil. Two news outlets have reported that David wrote in a sworn juror questionnaire that he was not a sexual abuse victim, and Maxwell's defense attorneys have asked for a retrial.

On this episode, Obsorne-Crowley—an accomplished journalist, trained lawyer, and published author on the subjects of her own sexual abuse—unpacks the complicated ripples of her major scoop and how it has resonated in her life and career.

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Celebrity Attorney for Eight Jeffrey Epstein Victims Sheds Light on Clients' Perspective on Ghislaine Maxwell Trial (Feat. Lisa Bloom) Dec 15, 2021

Show notes

Throughout Ghislaine Maxwell's sex trafficking trial, her attorneys have sought to discredit her alleged victims along themes of "memory, manipulation and money." The lawyers will likely cast those themes into sharper relief as the defense case begins on Thursday.

Attorney Lisa Bloom, who has represented eight women awarded settlements from a fund designed to compensate Jeffrey Epstein victims, unpacks that defense strategy through the eyes of her clients in the latest episode of Law&Crime's podcast "Objections: with Adam Klasfeld."

"There's no perfect victim," Bloom said in a Zoom interview. "There's no perfect plaintiff, and I do civil cases. And you know, you take your victim as you find them. It's very common that there would be drug abuse, or you know, selling sex for money or inconsistent memories."

"I've never been prouder of a group of clients. They went through so much agony, and so many mental health disorders as a result of being sexually abused by this man," she added later in the show, referring to Epstein.

Bloom's clients are not the same women who took the stand against Maxwell, but they share some similar stories.

This episode was first published the day before the opening of Maxwell's defense case.

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Ex-Sex Trafficking Prosecutor Unpacks the Early Stages of Ghislaine Maxwell's Trial (Feat. Mitchell Epner) Dec 08, 2021

Show notes

In 2000, former President Bill Clinton signed the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act, a landmark piece of legislation later reauthorized by his successors that protect survivors with tools like "T" visas and stiff penalties for alleged perpetrators.

"Prior to that, victims were loathe to cooperate, because they would often be shipped back to towns where the traffickers held power and could exact awful reprisals," attorney Mitchell Epner, a former federal prosecutor who led intake on sex-trafficking cases in the District of New Jersey in 2003 and 2004, told Law&Crime. "Traffickers would often threaten girls and women that, if they cooperated with police/prosecutors, they would be killed in hideous fashion after being deported."

Now of counsel with the firm Rottenberg Lipman Rich PC, Epner drew from his experiences navigating that then-nascent prosecutorial tool to offer insights into the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell. She stands accused of sexually trafficking minors for Jeffrey Epstein and enticed them to travel to perform illegal sex acts.

If convicted of all charges, Maxwell, 59, can be imprisoned effectively for the rest of her life.

Offering analysis at length in a Zoom interview, Epner told Law&Crime's podcast "Objections: with Adam Klasfeld" that the outcome of Maxwell's trial will depend less on the panel's studious parsing of the various exhibits that come into evidence.

Instead, Maxwell's fate will hinge upon something more fundamental: whose account the jury believes.

Quoting the famed trial lawyer Gerry Spence, Epner said: "Facts are not persuasive; stories are."

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Nearly Two Decades After 'Spotlight' Investigation, Key Lawyer in Clergy Sexual Abuse Litigation Is Still Fighting (Feat. Mitchell Garabedian) Nov 30, 2021

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Nearly two decades after the Boston Globe's watershed "Spotlight" investigation blew the lid on sexual abuse inside the Catholic Church, one of the key lawyers who brought that scandal to public light has not relented on his clergy accountability crusade.

Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who was depicted in a film about the "Spotlight" series, discussed the ongoing legal battles, his Hollywood treatment and his continuing fight for disclosure on the Law&Crime podcast "Objections: With Adam Klasfeld."

"The investigation had a tremendous impact and helping notify the public that they have to protect children, where those children and adults are in a caring custody of priests," Garabedian said in the interview, referring to the Globe expose. "And it had great impact in helping clergy sexual abuse victims or survivors try to heal and come forward and report the abuse."

"With a clergy sexual abuse survivor or victim, it's all about validation," Garabedian added. "The survivor of victim has to know that the abuse was not their fault."

In early 2002, the Globe published its Pulitzer-winning series "Spotlight Investigation: Abuse in the Catholic Church," sparking multiple criminal prosecutions and international attention. It also made the already tenacious Garabedian even busier, inspiring other people who said they are survivors to seek legal counsel.

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NRA Exposé Reports 'Chaos' Inside Gun Group Facing 'Serious Existential Threat' (Feat. Tim Mak) Nov 23, 2021

Show notes

With the trials of Kyle Rittenhouse and Ahmaud Arbery's accused murderers coming to a head in November, U.S. gun law and policy have captured global attention the same month a new book exposes the inner workings of the National Rifle Association—the most powerful group in shaping these topics.

NPR's investigative correspondent Tim Mak's book "Misfire: Inside the Downfall of the NRA" details what the author describes in an interview as the "serious existential threat to the NRA" posed by New York Attorney General Letitia James's (D) lawsuit seeking its dissolution.

"The NRA has in the past dealt with revolts from its members. It's dealt with legal problems. It's dealt with allegations of financial malfeasance and dealt with just incredible challenges from within and disparate factions in-fighting," Mak says on the latest episode of Law&Crime's podcast "Objections: with Adam Klasfeld."

"But it's never dealt with all of these things happening all at once and in this acute crisis," Mak added.

James, for her part, campaigned for attorney general by calling the NRA a "terrorist organization." Now, she's running for governor.

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Wisconsin Justice Who Shot Down 'King' Trump’s Bid to Overturn 2020 Election Recalls 'Armed Protesters' Outside During Oral Arguments (Feat. Justice Jill Karofsky) Nov 16, 2021

Show notes

Elected in a landslide just months earlier to Wisconsin's highest court, Justice Jill Karofsky vividly recalls the atmosphere of "intimidation" that greeted oral arguments on Dec. 12, 2020, the day that former President Donald Trump's lawsuit seeking to overturn that case landed in her court.

The Zoom proceedings captured national attention as Trump's then-ongoing legal blitz spectacularly failed in other courts, but Justice Karofsky recalled being well aware of an ominous demonstration boiling outside the view of the cameras.

"During the argument, as I looked out my window, there were armed protesters walking right outside of my window and walking around the Capitol during the oral arguments," Karofsky recounted in an exclusive interview nearly a year after the proceedings.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court operates from the second floor of the east wing of the State Capitol.

"When the arguments were over, I got a police escort to my car," Karofsky continued. "I had a had, you know, beefed up security for quite some time afterwards."

Like public servants throughout the country, Karofsky and her colleagues faced torrents of threats and abuse for months to come. On the podcast, she sounds off on democracy, threats against public servants, and how she was sworn to the the court just before the 2020 presidential election during a 100-mile ultramarathon race.

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After $220,000 Court Win Against Hobby Lobby, a Transgender Manager Finally Can Use the Women’s Restroom (Feat. Meggan Sommerville & Jacob Meister) Sep 01, 2021

Show notes

A little more than a week after her landmark $220,000 victory against Hobby Lobby, a transgender manager and her lawyer have confirmed that the conservative Christian-owned crafts company now allows her to use the women's restroom.

Hobby Lobby denied frame department manager Meggan Sommerville that right for more than a decade, a policy that an Illinois appellate court recently found caused her "emotional devastation" deserving of the toughest penalty the state's Human Rights Commission has ever awarded.

"Fortunately, about a week and a half ago, they told Meggan that, for the first time, they will abide by the court's decision, and she can use the women's room at work," her attorney Jacob Meister reveals on the show.

Fresh from her victory from a unanimous three-judge panel, Sommerville opens up about the turmoil Hobby Lobby's former policy caused her.

"I still will have dreams, nightmares of being in environments where I'm not accepted, where I am just in this constant battle to prove to the world around me who I am," Sommerville said. "It's tough. I don't wish this on anybody. Hopefully one day I will be able to get past it, but it's been emotionally devastating."

Her lawyer Meister unpacks the significance of his client’s court victory for other transgender people in the workplace and explains why lawyers say in cases involving gender: "It always comes down to bathrooms."

Toward the end of the episode, Sommerville shares an anecdote about the support she received from one of her Hobby Lobby customers when she first transitioned.

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Meet One of Fledgling Artist Hunter Biden's Toughest Critics: Obama's Ex-Ethics Czar (Feat. Walter Shaub) Aug 25, 2021

Show notes

From his stint on a Ukrainian oligarch's company board to endless conspiracy theories about his laptop, the career path of the president's son Hunter Biden has ignited controversy for years. His recent foray into the art world, however, has put him under fire outside the familiar corners of the political right.

Take former President Barack Obama's ethics czar Walter Shaub, whose criticism has been persistent and stinging.

The week after the New York Times reported that the First Son hopes to fetch up to $500,000 apiece for some 15 works of art, Shaub did not mince words.

"I just think that's absolutely appalling," Shaub said on Law&Crime's podcast "Objections: With Adam Klasfeld."

"Now, that's a criticism of Hunter Biden, and he's a sympathetic character, who we can feel bad for on many levels," Shaub continued. "But some of his problems are of his own making, in that he has always built his career around being Joe Biden's son. And here he is doing that, once again. If he were a patriot—if he cared about this country—he would not want to tarnish his father's reputation that way."

Learn more about why Shaub believes the fledgling artist's debut showing—and the White House's response to it—stands in the way of an "ethical Renaissance" in Washington, which he fears will undermine the president's promise to turn the corner from the Trump era.

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'Under Wraps and Heavily Redacted': 'Perversion of Justice' Author Reflects on Transparency Fight Two Years After Jeffrey Epstein's Death (Feat. Julie K. Brown) Aug 17, 2021

Show notes

Swift and enduring, the impact of the Miami Herald's three-part investigative series "Perversion of Justice" reanimated the Jeffrey Epstein docket, brought survivors from the shadows onto the record, led to the disgraced exit of a presidential cabinet member, and has been credited with sparking two federal prosecutions. Its author Julie K. Brown's subsequent open records battles foisted thousands of pages onto the public domain and established legal precedent in favor of sunlight.

Still, Brown's accomplishments have not made her optimistic about a new era of openness.

"We've had to fight so hard to get every single little document that we've gotten," she said, exasperated. "Instead of becoming more and more transparent, the process is becoming less transparent, because so many people are involved."

Reflecting on her fight for transparency on Law&Crime's podcast "Objections: with Adam Klasfeld," Brown talks about her new book about her watershed investigation, her interactions with Epstein's victims, her lingering suspicions about his death, and why she believes that courts remain "under pressure" to keep the rest of the story "under wraps and heavily redacted."

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Ex-DOJ Official’s Reported Plot to Subvert the 2020 Election for Trump Raises Expert’s Alarm About ‘Insider Threat’ (Feat. Ryan Goodman) Aug 10, 2021

Show notes

Even by the standards of a feverish post-election cycle, a recently disclosed draft letter by a Department of Justice staffer seeking to undermine the election results in Georgia reached new heights of paranoia.

Jeffrey Clark, the former head of the Justice Department’s civil division under Trump, cited an unspecified theory about hackers having evidence that a Dominion voting machine "accessed the Internet through a smart thermostat with a net connection trail leading back to China," according to a draft letter first reported by ABC News last week.

Dated Dec. 28, that draft letter urged top Peach State officials to evaluate supposed election “irregularities,” and Clark sent it to Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue. Both reportedly rejected the overture, but the disclosure of the thwarted scheme reportedly spurred Rosen to share what he knew about the plans the Justice Department’s inspector general and the Senate Judiciary Committee.

On the latest episode of Law&Crime's podcast "Objections: With Adam Klasfeld," New York University School of Law Professor Ryan Goodman reflects on last week's revelations in Clark's saga and what it means for what national security experts like him call the "insider threat."

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