Reggie Walton | |
---|---|
Presiding Judge of the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court | |
In office February 22, 2013 –May 19, 2014 | |
Preceded by | John D. Bates |
Succeeded by | Thomas F. Hogan |
Judge of the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court | |
In office May 19,2007 –May 19,2014 | |
Appointed by | John Roberts |
Preceded by | Claude M. Hilton |
Succeeded by | James Boasberg |
Senior Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia | |
Assumed office December 31,2015 | |
Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia | |
In office October 29,2001 –December 31,2015 | |
Appointed by | George W. Bush |
Preceded by | Stanley Sporkin |
Succeeded by | Dabney L. Friedrich |
Associate Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia | |
In office 1991–2001 | |
Appointed by | George H. W. Bush |
Preceded by | Sylvia Bacon |
Succeeded by | Robert Rigsby [1] |
In office 1981–1989 | |
Appointed by | Ronald Reagan |
Preceded by | Leonard Braman |
Succeeded by | Zinora Mitchell |
Personal details | |
Born | Reggie Barnett Walton February 8,1949 North Charleroi,Pennsylvania,U.S. |
Education | West Virginia State University (BA) American University (JD) |
Reggie Barnett Walton (born February 8,1949) is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. He is a former presiding judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. [2] [3]
Walton won a football scholarship to get his Bachelor of Arts degree from West Virginia State College in 1971,and then a Juris Doctor from the Washington College of Law at American University in 1974. [4] Walton is a member of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.
Walton served as an associate judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia from 1981 to 1989 and from 1991 to 2001. He also served as associate director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. [5]
In 2001,he was nominated to the federal bench by President George W. Bush,and subsequently confirmed by the United States Senate on September 21,2001. He received his commission on September 24,2001. [6] In 2004,Bush appointed him to chair the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission,investigating ways to curb prison rape. In May 2007,Chief Justice John Roberts appointed him to a seat on the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. [7] His term on the FISA Court ended May 18,2014. He assumed senior status on December 31,2015. [6]
During his FISC tenure,Judge Walton was "exceptionally concerned" about the NSA's "flagrant violation" of the court orders regarding privacy,and he accused the agency of "misinterpretations." [8]
The Washington Post reported,"fellow judges and lawyers who appear before him say Walton's decisions do not appear to be guided by politics but by a tough-on-crime mentality." Walton is known by local defense attorneys as a "long ball hitter" –a judge willing to impose long sentences in order to deter future crimes. [7] In fall 2005,the judge was driving his wife and daughter to the airport for a vacation when he came across an assailant attacking a cab driver on the side of the road. Walton tackled the assailant and subdued him until police arrived. The D.C. police spokesperson noted in response,"God bless Judge Walton. I surely wouldn't want to mess with him." [7]
Walton also presided over the trial of Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff,Scooter Libby. On March 6,2007,the jury convicted Libby of four of the five counts with which he was charged:two counts of perjury,one of obstruction of justice,and one of making false statements to federal investigators. [9] On June 5,2007,Walton sentenced Libby to 30 months in federal prison and a fine of US$250,000,and,subsequently,he ordered that Libby report to jail without bail pending any appeals. [10] On June 20,2007,Libby appealed Walton's ruling in federal appeals court. [11] The next day,Walton filed a 30-page expanded ruling,in which he explained his decision to deny Libby bail in more detail. [12]
Walton received several threatening letters after pronouncing sentence on Libby. [13]
Walton was the presiding judge in Tripoli Rocketry Association,Inc. and National Association of Rocketry v. United States Bureau of Alcohol,Tobacco,Firearms and Explosives,a long-running case brought by the two largest hobby rocketry organizations,which challenged the inclusion of certain types of solid fuel rocket propellant on the list of "explosives" regulated by the ATF. On March 16,2009,Walton ruled in favor of the rocketry organizations. [14]
On August 30,2010, USA Today reported that Walton arraigned former major-league pitcher Roger Clemens on charges of lying to Congress (three counts of making false statements,two counts of perjury,and one count of obstruction of Congress) about the use of performance-enhancing substances. Pre-trial prosecutors brought a motion of conflict of interest against defense attorney Rusty Hardin for having briefly represented Andy Pettitte,who was an important witness for the government. [15]
On July 14,2011,Walton declared a mistrial over inadmissible evidence shown to jurors. The judge said Clemens could not be assured a fair trial after prosecutors showed jurors evidence against his orders in the second day of testimony. Following the mistrial,the US Attorneys Office brought Clemens to trial once more for perjury. On June 18,2012,Judge Walton accepted the jury's unanimous verdict of acquittal. [16]
On October 4,2016,Walton rejected the release of Hillary Clinton criminal indictment drafts prosecutors prepared,but never issued,during the Whitewater investigation in the 1990s. He ruled that Clinton had a "substantial privacy interest" when he rejected a FOIA lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch. [17] [18]
Walton presided over Mohammon v. Bush ,a set of amalgamated habeas corpus petitions,submitted on behalf of Guantanamo captives. [19]
Walton presided over the lawsuit that Steven Hatfill filed against former US Attorney General John Ashcroft. [20] Ashcroft publicly described Hatfill as a "Person of interest" in the FBI's investigations into the 2001 anthrax attacks. On March 30,2007,Walton issued an order warning Hatfill that he may lose his civil lawsuit over the leaks if he did not compel journalists to name their sources and giving Hatfill until April 16,2007,to decide whether to do so. [21] Hatfill's lawyers complied with the order,as reported on April 18 by Gerstein,who warns that a "free press battle looms," as
The reporters in jeopardy now are expected to defy Hatfill's subpoenas and any court order to name their sources. ... one critical issue will be whether Judge Walton imposes fines on the news organizations involved. ... A First Amendment battle could possibly be avoided:The government and Dr. Hatfill's lawyers asked Walton to name a mediator to explore a possible settlement of the case. ... No one has been charged in the anthrax attacks,which killed at least five people. [22]
On August 21,2009,Reuters reported that Walton issued a ruling about "hearsay evidence" that applied to all the Guantanamo detainees' habeas petitions before him. [23] Much of the evidence the Department of Justice (DOJ) presented in the habeas petitions was hearsay evidence.
Walton wrote:
Even the most widespread rumors are often inaccurate in part if not in whole. The court's only point is that otherwise unreliable hearsay cannot be deemed reliable because there is other unreliable hearsay to the same effect.
On August 5, 2019, Politico reported that while hearing arguments regarding lawsuits by BuzzFeed and the nonprofit Electronic Privacy Information Center, as they sought to reveal the approximately 1,000 redacted items in the publicly-released edition of former special counsel Robert Mueller's report, Walton indicated that he would review the redactions before determining whether to make them public. [24]
On March 5, 2020, Walton described Attorney General William Barr's public statements about the Mueller report as "misleading," and said that Barr's representations regarding DOJ redactions from the report could not be credited. He directed the DOJ to submit the unredacted version of the Mueller Report to the Court for in camera review. [25]
On October 6, 2020, President Trump, referencing the Mueller report, tweeted "I have fully authorized the total Declassification of any & all documents pertaining to the single greatest political CRIME in American History, the Russia Hoax”.[ citation needed ] In response to the President's statement, BuzzFeed requested an unredacted version of the report; however, BuzzFeed's request for an unredacted report was denied by the DOJ. The DOJ told Walton that “the President's statements on Twitter were not self-executing declassification orders...” To clear up the position of the President, Walton ordered a continuance until October 21, 2020 so, “I can get something from White House counsel saying that they conferred with the president, and the president, in fact, did not intend to declassify the information...” [26]
On July 25, 2023, the Associated Press reported that Judge Walton vacated the sentence due to Judge Jeffery Nance's failure to report an application to the executive branch as an immigration judge; however, Judge Walton rejected the defense's claim of undue command influence due to Mr. Donald Trump's comments during his campaign trail in 2016. [27]
The United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), also called the FISA Court, is a U.S. federal court established under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) to oversee requests for surveillance warrants against foreign spies inside the United States by federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
Steven Jay Hatfill is an American pathologist and biological weapons expert. He became the subject of extensive media coverage beginning in mid-2002, when he was a suspect in the 2001 anthrax attacks. His home was repeatedly raided by the FBI, his phone was tapped, and he was extensively surveilled for more than two years; he was also terminated from his job at Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC). At a news conference in August 2002, Hatfill denied that he had anything to do with the anthrax letters and said "irresponsible news media coverage based on government leaks" had "destroyed his reputation". He filed a lawsuit in 2003, accusing the FBI agents and Justice Department officials who led the criminal investigation of leaking information about him to the press in violation of the Privacy Act.
The CIA leak grand jury investigation was a federal inquiry "into the alleged unauthorized disclosure of a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employee's identity", a possible violation of criminal statutes, including the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982, and Title 18, United States Code, Section 793.
United States v. Libby was the federal trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, a former high-ranking official in the George W. Bush administration, for interfering with special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's criminal investigation of the Plame affair.
William Pelham Barr is an American attorney who served as United States attorney general in the administration of President George H. W. Bush from 1991 to 1993 and again in the administration of President Donald Trump from 2019 to 2020.
Irve Lewis "Scooter" Libby is an American lawyer and former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney known for his high-profile indictment and clemency.
Emmet Gael Sullivan is an American attorney and jurist serving as a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
The President's Surveillance Program (PSP) is a collection of secret intelligence activities authorized by the President of the United States George W. Bush after the September 11 attacks in 2001 as part of the War on Terrorism. Information collected under this program was protected within a Sensitive Compartmented Information security compartment codenamed STELLARWIND.
Dabney Langhorne Friedrich is an American attorney and jurist serving as a United States district court judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. She previously served as a member of the United States Sentencing Commission.
Stephen Elliott Boyd is an American lawyer who served as the United States Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legislative Affairs from 2017 to 2021. He currently serves as Chief of Staff to Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville.
Bijan R. Kian, sometimes written Bijan Rafiekian, is an Iranian-American businessman, who is based in San Juan Capistrano, California. He has been an executive or board member of many businesses and organizations.
This is a timeline of events in the first half of 2019 related to investigations into the many suspicious links between Trump associates and Russian officials and spies relating to the Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. It follows the timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, both before and after July 2016, until November 8, 2016, the transition, the first and second halves of 2017, the first and second halves of 2018, and followed by the second half of 2019, 2020, and 2021.
The Barr letter is a four-page letter sent on March 24, 2019, from Attorney General William Barr to leaders of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees purportedly detailing the "principal conclusions" of the Mueller report of the Special Counsel investigation led by Robert Mueller into Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 United States presidential election, allegations of conspiracy or coordination between Donald Trump's presidential campaign and Russia, and allegations of obstruction of justice.
The Mueller report, officially titled Report On The Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election, is the official report documenting the findings and conclusions of former Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 United States presidential election, allegations of conspiracy or coordination between Donald Trump's presidential campaign and Russia, and allegations of obstruction of justice. The report was submitted to Attorney General William Barr on March 22, 2019, and a redacted version of the 448-page report was publicly released by the Department of Justice (DOJ) on April 18, 2019. It is divided into two volumes. The redactions from the report and its supporting material were placed under a temporary "protective assertion" of executive privilege by then-President Trump on May 8, 2019, preventing the material from being passed to Congress, despite earlier reassurance by Barr that Trump would not exert privilege.
This is a timeline of major events in second half of 2018 related to the investigations into the many suspicious links between Trump associates and Russian officials and spies relating to the Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. It follows the timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections before and after July 2016 up until election day November 8, and the transition, the first and second halves of 2017, and the first half of 2018, but precedes that of the first and second halves of 2019, 2020, and 2021. These events are related to, but distinct from, Russian interference in the 2018 United States elections.
Aileen Mercedes Cannon is a Colombian-born American lawyer serving since 2020 as a United States federal judge in the District Court for the Southern District of Florida. President Donald Trump nominated and appointed Cannon to the federal bench after confirmation by the US Senate in November 2020. Cannon worked for the corporate law firm Gibson Dunn from 2009 to 2012 and was a federal prosecutor in the Southern District of Florida from 2013 to 2020.
This is a timeline of events from 2020 to 2022 related to investigations into the many suspicious links between Trump associates and Russian officials and spies relating to the Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. It follows the timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, both before and after July 2016, until November 8, 2016, election day, the transition, the first and second halves of 2017, the first and second halves of 2018, and the first and second halves of 2019.
United States v. Flynn was a criminal case in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia which was dismissed without any convictions in December 2020 following a presidential pardon. Michael Flynn, a retired lieutenant general in the United States Armed Forces, had accepted President-elect Donald Trump's offer for the position of National Security Advisor in 2016 and then briefly served as National Security Advisor. He pleaded guilty to one count of making false statements to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Flynn's alleged false statements involve conversations he had with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak when Flynn was incoming National Security Advisor to President-elect Trump, and Flynn agreed to cooperate with the Special Counsel investigation as part of a plea deal.
On August 8, 2022, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago, the residence of former U.S. president Donald Trump in Palm Beach, Florida.
Donald J. Trump v. United States of America, was a lawsuit filed on August 22, 2022, by former U.S. president Donald Trump in the Southern District of Florida. He sought the appointment of a special master to review materials seized on August 8, 2022, during the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago, a part of the investigation into Donald Trump's handling of government documents.
Twelve of the 14 judges who have served this year on the most secret court in America are Republicans and half are former prosecutors.
In the wake of the Guardian's revelations, Reggie Walton, presiding judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (Fisa), said claims that the body was unduly acquiescent to the government's requests for surveillance orders were "absolutely false".
The judge in the CIA leak case got threatening letters when he ordered Vice President Richard B. Cheney's former chief of staff to prison.