Lisa Rubin

Lisa Rubin

@lawofruby.bsky.social

@ms.now senior legal reporter & recovering litigator; former off-air legal analyst @maddow.msnbc.com. Don’t let the pearls fool ya.

76.6K followers27 following102 posts

Lisa Rubin
@lawofruby.bsky.social

NEW: Epstein lawyer and estate co-executor Darren Indyke testifies today before House Oversight. And based on what witnesses, including Epstein victims, told the FBI and DOJ about their interactions with him, there are ongoing questions about what he knew and when. www.ms.now/news/as-epst...

ms.nowAs Epstein’s longtime lawyer testifies, questions remain about what he knewEpstein documents suggest Darren Indyke facilitated payments to women and directed witnesses to avoid talking to law enforcement.
Lisa Rubin
@lawofruby.bsky.social

NEW: DOJ says the ongoing dispute over Alina Habba is one about titles, not authority. What does that mean? And why is their fallback position more frightening for the rule of law than their insistence on keeping her as Acting U.S. Attorney? Read here: www.msnbc.com/opinion/anal...

msnbc.comWas former Trump lawyer Alina Habba ‘validly appointed’ to her DOJ post?Whether or not she is legitimately serving as New Jersey’s U.S. attorney, DOJ’s fallback position is even more concerning.
Lisa Rubin
@lawofruby.bsky.social

NEW: In an email to her now-former colleagues today, veteran SDNY prosecutor Maurene Comey says she was “summarily fired” by “Main Justice” and urges that fear not “seep into the decisions of those who remain.” Read her whole email here: www.msnbc.com/top-stories/...

msnbc.comRead Epstein prosecutor Maurene Comey’s letter to colleagues after DOJ firing“Fear is the tool of a tyrant,” wrote the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, a frequent target of President Donald Trump.
Lisa Rubin
@lawofruby.bsky.social

Pete Hegseth's not the only Trump ally nor the only Trump nominee to express doubts that the executive branch should follow court orders, full stop. It's a disturbing trend, especially when the doubters are themselves federal judicial nominees. My latest for @msnbc.com: msnbc.com/opinion/anal...

msnbc.comHegseth's Senate testimony on court orders proves we're living in the legal upside-downThe defense secretary said, in so many words, that we cannot count on the Pentagon's compliance with a federal court order. That's a big problem.
MS NOW@ms.now

OPINION by @lawofruby.bsky.social: “As for complying with a district court order? Hegseth seemed to deliberately leave that question hanging.” READ MORE: www.msnbc.com/opinion/anal...

msnbc.comHegseth's Senate testimony on court orders proves we're living in the legal upside-downThe defense secretary said, in so many words, that we cannot count on the Pentagon's compliance with a federal court order. That's a big problem.
Lisa Rubin
@lawofruby.bsky.social

The Trump memo launching an investigation into the Biden White House’s use of the autopen allegedly to conceal his mental state is something else. Why is the White House Counsel in charge of this investigation? That is one indicator that something is awry. www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

whitehouse.govReviewing Certain Presidential ActionsMEMORANDUM FOR THE ATTORNEY GENERALTHE COUNSEL TO THE PRESIDENT SUBJECT:       Reviewing Certain Presidential Actions By the
Lisa Rubin
@lawofruby.bsky.social

NEW: Everyone's got a hot take on Trump's beef with the Federalist Society. Mine? Trump wants to eliminate both FedSoc and the ABA's influence over judicial nominations so he's the sole arbiter of nominees' qualifications & fitness. My latest for MSNBC.com: www.msnbc.com/opinion/anal...

msnbc.comAs law firms and clients push back against Trump, he shifts focus to judicial 'vetters'In cutting off the American Bar Association's access to judicial nominees and attacking the Federalist Society, Trump seeks to become the sole arbiter of judicial quality.
Lisa Rubin
@lawofruby.bsky.social

NEW: Pam Bondi & Kash Patel are under increasing pressure to release more info about Jeffrey Epstein’s life and death. But putting aside our own curiosity, doesn’t federal law enforcement owe his victims a review of their own failure to act? My latest at MSNBC.com: www.msnbc.com/opinion/anal...

msnbc.comVictims' lawsuits show FBI and DOJ's focus on Epstein files misses the markInstead of devoting thousands of hours to document redactions, the agencies should determine how to more effectively — and emphatically — respond to sex abuse victims.
Lisa Rubin
@lawofruby.bsky.social

NEW: The audio of Biden's interview with Robert Hur matters less for what he said than how he said it--and underscores, like the Sean "Diddy" Combs trial, why there's often no replacement for actually hearing a witness's account. My latest for @msnbc.com: www.msnbc.com/opinion/anal...

msnbc.comThe significance of Biden’s Hur audio isn’t what he said. It’s how he said it.The release of the Biden audio amid the Sean “Diddy” Combs trial underscores why the public’s ability to watch and listen to court proceedings matters.
Lisa Rubin
@lawofruby.bsky.social

Harvard researcher Kseniia Petrova has been charged criminally with smuggling goods -- e.g., frog embryos and samples thereof on slides, etc. -- into the United States on the same day the judge overseeing her habeas case questioned the government's authority to revoke her visa.

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Lisa Rubin
@lawofruby.bsky.social

Petrova was detained at Logan Airport on February 16. If the case against her is righteous and just, why did it take the feds two months after detaining her to file so little?

Lisa Rubin
@lawofruby.bsky.social

And why was she arrested the same day that a federal judge in another court expressed doubt that customs officials had authority to revoke her visa? Something smells off here -- and it's not the "biological material" Petrova failed to declare on her customs forms.

Lisa Rubin
@lawofruby.bsky.social

Harvard researcher Kseniia Petrova has been charged criminally with smuggling goods -- e.g., frog embryos and samples thereof on slides, etc. -- into the United States on the same day the judge overseeing her habeas case questioned the government's authority to revoke her visa.

View full thread
Lisa Rubin
@lawofruby.bsky.social

Harvard researcher Kseniia Petrova has been charged criminally with smuggling goods -- e.g., frog embryos and samples thereof on slides, etc. -- into the United States on the same day the judge overseeing her habeas case questioned the government's authority to revoke her visa.

Lisa Rubin
@lawofruby.bsky.social

NEW: Beyond detailing the horrors she alleges she suffered at Sean Combs' hands, Cassie Ventura has dropped some other important details: the names of Combs' alleged enablers (aka co-conspirators). I break down why that matters in my latest for @msnbc.com: www.msnbc.com/opinion/anal...

msnbc.comWhy it matters that Cassie Ventura named namesWhile the public focuses on the sexual and physical abuse that Ventura allegedly suffered at Sean “Diddy” Combs’ hands, the charges necessitate proof of who enabled his conduct.
Lisa Rubin
@lawofruby.bsky.social

I am struggling to understand why, when as the Deputy Attorney General acknowledged, it is not appropriate to comment on a pending criminal investigation, it is ok to disparage Newark’s mayor, who now faces charges under a federal criminal complaint, on national TV. 1/

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Lisa Rubin
@lawofruby.bsky.social

And yet, in service of what they call responding in kind, this DOJ doesn’t seem to care a lick about complying with the department policy they claim the preceding administration ignored. 4/

Lisa Rubin
@lawofruby.bsky.social

So just to be clear, DOJ policy prohibits personnel from offering “any opinion as to the defendant’s guilt” except during the proceeding itself or after a conviction. There is no exception for media appearances. FIN.

Lisa Rubin
@lawofruby.bsky.social

I am struggling to understand why, when as the Deputy Attorney General acknowledged, it is not appropriate to comment on a pending criminal investigation, it is ok to disparage Newark’s mayor, who now faces charges under a federal criminal complaint, on national TV. 1/

Lisa Rubin
@lawofruby.bsky.social

Weren’t the public statements of then-SDNY U.S. Attorney Damian Williams a large part of their claim that the charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams were politically motivated? 2/

Lisa Rubin
@lawofruby.bsky.social

That claim was thoroughly dismantled by a federal judge, even after the Justice Department scoured prosecutors’ emails and texts for proof of their purported misconduct. 3/

Lisa Rubin
@lawofruby.bsky.social

So it’s Friday night and Rumeysa Ozturk is out on bail, Ras Baraka is in Homeland Security custody, and Stephen Miller is casually toying with suspending habeas corpus. Do I have that right?

Lisa Rubin
@lawofruby.bsky.social

NEW: News of the passing of retired Supreme Court Justice David Souter made me think immediately of . . . the Federalist Society. Why? Read my latest for @msnbc.com: www.msnbc.com/opinion/anal...

msnbc.comWithout David Souter, the Federalist Society might’ve remained on the fringeMore than any decision he authored, the justice’s legacy was how he surprised legal conservatives, galvanizing a movement to prevent the nomination of federal jurists like him.
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Lisa Rubin
@lawofruby.bsky.social

"He says the early petal-fall is past When pear and cherry bloom went down in showers On sunny days a moment overcast; And comes that other fall we name the fall. He says the highway dust is over all. 3/

Lisa Rubin
@lawofruby.bsky.social

"The bird would cease and be as other birds But that he knows in singing not to sing. The question that he frames in all but words Is what to make of a diminished thing." FIN.

Lisa Rubin
@lawofruby.bsky.social

"There is a singer everyone has heard, Loud, a mid-summer and a mid-wood bird, Who makes the solid tree trunks sound again. He says that leaves are old and that for flowers Mid-summer is to spring as one to ten. 2/

Lisa Rubin
@lawofruby.bsky.social

NEW: On public reports that NY Attorney General Tish James is under federal investigation, her lawyer Abbe Lowell gave a statement to MSNBC: "These baseless and long-discredited allegations, put to rest by my April 24th letter to the Department of Justice, are suddenly back in the news . . . ." 1/

Lisa Rubin
@lawofruby.bsky.social

". . . just days after President Trump publicly attacked Attorney General James. This appears to be the political retribution President Trump threatened to exact that AG Bondi assured the Senate would not occur on her watch. 2/

Lisa Rubin
@lawofruby.bsky.social

Judge James Boasberg has not ordered the Trump administration to facilitate the release and return of those non-citizens now imprisoned at CECOT. But if the discovery he has authorized through a new order backs up their lawyers' claims, it sounds like he's heading there. 1/

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Lisa Rubin
@lawofruby.bsky.social

Boasberg's next sentence is stark: "Those claims, if ultimately borne out, would show that Respondents have violated federal law and Petitioners’ due-process rights." 3/

Lisa Rubin
@lawofruby.bsky.social

But first, Boasberg has to determine the precise contours of the discovery plaintiffs will take to confirm that the U.S. has "constructive custody" over the men in CECOT. And he'll likely outline that in a further order one week from today. Stay tuned. 4/

Lisa Rubin
@lawofruby.bsky.social

Judge James Boasberg has not ordered the Trump administration to facilitate the release and return of those non-citizens now imprisoned at CECOT. But if the discovery he has authorized through a new order backs up their lawyers' claims, it sounds like he's heading there. 1/

Lisa Rubin
@lawofruby.bsky.social

The petitioners say they've "been removed from the United States under the authority of an illegal Proclamation, denied any opportunity to challenge that removal, transferred by U.S. authorities to a foreign prison under contract with the U.S. Government, & held there indefinitely without trial." 2/

Lisa Rubin
@lawofruby.bsky.social

Trump has just nominated Joshua Divine to serve as a federal district court judge in two federal districts. There is a statute suggesting a judge's commission can cover more than one district, but as a practical matter, any legal historians know when this last happened?

Lisa Rubin
@lawofruby.bsky.social

NEW: Ksenia Karelina and Kseniia Petrova are young, Russian-born, and ran afoul of Russian authorities. But the Trump administration rescued one and has started deportation proceedings against the other. Why? My latest @msnbc.com: www.msnbc.com/opinion/anal...

msnbc.comTrump's treatment of 2 Russian women highlights a flawed immigration policyEx-ballerina Ksenia Karelina was freed from a Russian prison, but Harvard scientist Kseniia Petrova remains in ICE detention. Why?
Lisa Rubin
@lawofruby.bsky.social

NEW: Plaintiffs fighting against Trump policies, executive orders, and firings have won roughly 100 injunctions in the first 100 days of his presidency. But is the relief all it's cracked up to be? And will it last? My latest for @maddowblog.msnbc.com: www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

msnbc.comTrump keeps losing in court. But the relief isn’t always what it seems and might not last.A flouting of court orders, recent Supreme Court rulings and a new congressional budget season could hamper efforts to rein in the administration.