The judge presiding over a case between Concord Management and Consulting, Putin's chef's company, and Special Counsel Robert Mueller had strong words for the company's lawyers Monday, saying their filings have been "unprofessional and inappropriate" and need to stop.
“I’ll say it plain and simple: knock it off,” U.S. District Court Judge Dabney Friedrich told lawyers for the Russian company, Concord Management and Consulting, at a brief court hearing in Washington Monday morning.
The tone and content of the submissions from Concord’s combative attorneys, Eric Dubelier and Kate Seikaly, in past months has been unusual for lawyers practicing in federal court. A filing last week quoted both the British 19th Century historian Lord Acton and a slightly sanitized expletive uttered by the somewhat less erudite “Otter,” a fraternity brother in the 1970s classic Animal House.
A stern-faced Friedrich, the newest of President Donald Trump’s three appointees to the district court in Washington, made clear Monday that she was not amused by what she called the “clever quotes.” She also chastised Dubelier for ad hominem attacks on Mueller’s attorneys and other prosecutors in the case.
“I found your recent filings, in particular your reply brief filed Friday, unprofessional, inappropriate and ineffective,” the judge said. She suggested the submissions were an effort to bully her into granting pending defense motions to give the owners and officers of Concord greater access to materials Mueller’s office has turned over to permit the defense to prepare for trial.
When Friedrich beckoned Dubelier to the courtroom lectern to address some more technical issues about the exchange of information, he declined to say anything of substance, declaring instead that the judge’s rebuke was so severe that he might need to withdraw from the case. He also accused Friedrich of bias.
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Friedrich insisted that there was no bias and that the defense filings were patently inappropriate, but Dubelier disagreed.
“That’s your opinion,” the defense attorney said.
It appeared that Friedrich called the Monday morning court session in large part to deliver a public dressing-down to Dubelier.
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The courtroom dust-up laid bare some of the tensions created by Concord’s unexpected decision to contest the criminal charges a grand jury acting at Mueller’s request returned in February against the firm, two other Russian companies and 13 Russian individuals ...
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From the outset, Concord’s lawyers have not only fought the legal charges, but used the vehicle of the court filings and open court hearings to mount a public campaign aimed at challenging Mueller’s legitimacy and the validity of the notion that online troublemaking amounts to a criminal conspiracy against the United States, as prosecutors have charged.
Judge blasts lawyers for Russian firm charged by Mueller (Politico)