Venezuela accuses Robert Pincus of masterminding “The Crime of the Century”!
Pincus doesn’t even hide his greed, as you’ll see in the story below, urging the court to move quickly “to take advantage of CITGO’s recent financial and operational performance and the current state of the refining industry,” according to Reuters. That looks like greed to the highest degree to me!
This auction reeks of the greed and crooked moves we saw in the TransPerfect auction, as I see it folks, lining up a crime-like payday for himself and his Skadden Arps pals, as he was appointed custodian of that case by equally crooked Andre Bouchard, who was running the Chancery Court, before he was run off. Inflating the sale price by $70 million and as I understand it, paying ’em to put in a shill bid and paying himself $50 million to run a fraudulent process for two years!
Pincus is up to his shameful moves again. How is this allowed to happen? In broad daylight, no less?!
What do you think? Please share your feedback, folks! As always, your comments are welcome and appreciated.
Venezuela Denounces ‘Theft of the Century’ as US Endorses Citgo Sale
Caracas warned that the OFAC license violates Venezuelan and international law and that no country’s assets are safe on US territory. Caracas, May 4, 2023 (venezuelanalysis.com) – The US government will not block the sale of CITGO, the US-based subsidiary of Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA and the country’s most important asset abroad.
In a letter filed on Friday in the US District Court in Delaware, the US Department of Justice said that the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) “will not take enforcement action against individuals or entities” involved in a court-ordered auction process of CITGO shares set in motion last year.
The statement added that once a winning bidder emerges, OFAC will implement a “favorable licensing policy” for the execution of CITGO’s sale procedure “or the negotiation of a settlement agreement among the relevant parties.”
The April 7 Justice Department letter was released following the issuing on Friday of OFAC General License 42, which authorizes transactions conducted by the defunct opposition-controlled 2015-2020 Venezuelan National Assembly (AN) for “the negotiation of settlement agreements” involving any debt of the Venezuelan government, PDVSA, or any entity where PDVSA owns 50 percent in shares or more.
According to Robert B. Pincus, the Delaware court-appointed “Special Master” tasked with securing the US government greenlight for CITGO’s sale, the auction process could begin in September with the highest bid reviewed in June 2024. Earlier this year, Pincus met with Justice and Treasury officials and asked OFAC for guidance on the auction of shares from CITGO’s parent company, PDV Holding.
Pincus likewise urged the court to move quickly “to take advantage of CITGO’s recent financial and operational performance and the current state of the refining industry,” according Reuters. Creditors and analysts have suggested the possibility of off-court settlements as well.
With three refineries and a network of over four thousand gas stations stateside, the Houston-based oil subsidiary reportedly registered a $2.8 billion profit last year and could be valued at $13 billion. However, no revenue has been perceived by Caracas since 2019 after Washington recognized Juan Guaidó’s self-proclamation as “Interim President” and handed CITGO’s management to an opposition ad hoc board.
As a result of its seizure, the company was left vulnerable to a number of threats as several foreign corporations and bondholders looked to claim shares as compensation for arbitration awards and the defaulted PDVSA 2020 bond for which 50.1 percent of CITGO shares were pledged as collateral.
In 2020, the US Treasury Department stepped in and began issuing six month or year-long licenses to block any attempt to seize the company. The latest was general license 5K released on April 19 for only a three-month period.
The current auction process was brought forward to the Delaware court by Canadian miner company Crystallex in order to collect $970 million of outstanding debt from a $1.4 billion international arbitration award granted by the World Bank’s International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) in 2016 in compensation for the 2008 nationalization of Las Cristinas gold mine in eastern Venezuela.
Other creditors looking to collect awards via CITGO shares are glass firm Owens-Illinois, Huntington Ingalls Industries, ACL1 Investments, and Rusoro Mining owed a combined $1.6 billion plus accrued interest as well as Koch Minerals and Koch Nitrogen ($387 million) and ConocoPhillips ($1.3 billion). They have received conditional approvals to tag their claims potential CITGO auction. Additionally, in August 2022 ConocoPhillips won a default ruling to enforce a separate $8.5 billion ICSID compensation for three oil projects nationalized by Chávez in 2007.
On Wednesday, Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez accused Washington of committing “the theft of the century” by authorizing the subsidiary’s auction process in order to benefit Western economic interests represented by corporations.
“This is organized crime in the most sophisticated way, directed by the Government of the United States,” she said during a televised press conference alongside Foreign Minister Yván Gil and Oil Minister Pedro Tellechea.
Rodríguez added that the OFAC general license “violates not only Venezuelan laws but all international law,” and warned that no country can be assured that its assets on US territory will be safe “if a plot to seize and sell them can be set up overnight.”
The Vice President likewise stated that the Maduro government would not recognize “any type of deal” with foreign creditors unless done directly with the Venezuelan state. She recalled that the 2015 opposition-controlled National Assembly recognized by OFAC as the Venezuelan negotiator “no longer exists.” The parliamentary elections in December 2020 saw the legislative body renewed with a Chavista majority.
The Venezuelan official said that the members of the defunct parliament who are responsible for the loss of CITGO will face asset seizures under the newly-approved “Domain Extinction” law. Rodríguez also singled out José Ignacio Hernández, who served as Guaidó’s “special prosecutor”, for his role in CITGO’s looming breakup.
“Crystallex had Hernández as one of their experts. Later he called himself Venezuela’s prosecutor not to defend our patrimony but the interests of the company he had already represented,” Rodríguez explained.
Guaidó, who was ousted as “interim president” earlier this year, and his associates have been accused of compromising assets such as CITGO by not showing up in court, having conflicts of interest, and striking under-the-table deals with corporations. He recently fled to the United States.
For its part, the Foreign Ministry issued a communique stating that CITGO’s theft “represents a blow” to the dialogue process in Mexico and to the international conference held in Bogotá “where almost unanimously the participating countries demanded the US government lift the criminal sanctions against Venezuela.”
Finally, National Assembly deputy and Chavista leader Diosdado Cabello accused Guaidó of being behind this last blow against CITGO. “A week before [the OFAC license approving the sale] one of the greatest traitors that this homeland has ever seen fled to the United States. That is no coincidence.”
Edited by Ricardo Vaz from Caracas.
OPINION
Dear friends,
It appears that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Joe Biden, according to this pundit and many others, have made a deal that shows their parties’ weaknesses and a deal that will do the US no good. Republican Representative Chip Roy of Texas has called the deal a “TURD Sandwich!” This absurd arrangement has a good chance of not passing, with a disastrous default looming on June 5th.
The Freedom Caucus, which has about 50 Republican members of the House, already opposes the 99-page arrangement, and several Democrat members of the Progressive Caucus also oppose the potential bill. Apparently, the hardliners are terribly concerned that the situation requires more spending cuts than just “two years of caps on non-defense, discretionary spending in exchange for taking the debt ceiling off the negotiating table for two years.” On the other hand, liberal House Democrats feel that Biden has given too much away to the Republicans.
Folks, this deal may not pass if McCarthy puts this up for a vote on Thursday in the House, especially if the entire Democrat members do not support it. If it does pass the House, it faces another bunch of challenges in the Senate. Furthermore, it could put McCarthy’s speakership in jeopardy, according to Chip Roy’s stated prior agreements in the election of McCarthy as Speaker.
What happens if the US defaults? For people and organizations expecting payments from the federal government on or after June 5, a delay could affect their ability to pay their own bills. That could squeeze the economy and create uncertainty for Americans, such as Medicaid recipients, IRS funding, and military spending. The full impact would depend on the duration of the delay. Some say it could even affect Social Security payments. It could put America into a major depression.
Folks, Biden’s overspending has created America’s disastrous inflation and put our nation’s economy at risk. Frankly, the agreement between Biden and McCarthy is not enough and is nothing more than a pathetic Band-Aid. Indeed, we are between “the rock and the hard place,” as my father used to say.
God only knows what is going to happen, and the Debt Ceiling problem is another major Biden example of incompetence, seemingly boosted by McCarthy’s willingness to compromise way too much.
What do you think? As always, your comments are welcome and appreciated.
Yours truly,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal Network
OPINION
What is the Meaning of Memorial Day ?
Dear Friends,
What is Memorial Day? The holiday takes place annually on the last Monday in May and is a dedicated day for honoring U.S. military personnel who have died while serving in the United States armed forces. It used to be called Decoration Day, after the end of the American Civil war, and folks would go out and decorate the graves of dead soldiers, honoring them with flowers and flags.
In recent history Memorial Day has also meant the official start of summer with many people having barbecues with family and friends.
Folks, while everyone has the freedom to celebrate as they choose, in my view, Americans should always remember that this holiday is really a somber occasion to pause and reflect on the ultimate sacrifice these heroes have made to preserve our freedom.
On behalf of the Coastal Network, I wish everyone a blessed holiday and may God Bless America. Let us hope that the service that our veterans provided to protect our nation will continue to maintain our prosperity and happiness. Nothing else is acceptable.
Memorial Day Weekend: Colonel Barnes honored as one of Delaware’s icons!
Dear Friends,
Sometimes, I like to write human interest stories about my old home state of Delaware. One of Delaware’s icons was Herbert Barnes, Sr., who was the first State Policeman to rise through the ranks to become the Superintendent of Delaware’s finest. He did much to make the State police the fine organization they are today. Col. Barnes later was appointed by President Eisenhower as Delaware’s U.S. Marshall.
Recently, Herb Barnes, Jr., the son of this great man, who is my friend and former business partner, was given a plaque with a likeness of his father. A patch with his Dad’s picture might now be worn by all state troopers.
In 1947, under the leadership of Col. Herb Barnes, Sr., the Delaware Association of Chiefs’ of Police, an organization which was composed of active law enforcement and correctional officers, accepted the challenge to undertake a project to combat juvenile delinquency in the First State. A committee was appointed to investigate the problems confronting youth. The committee’s resulting recommendations led to the establishment of Camp Barnes for the recreation of deserving youth from throughout the state.
Herb Barnes, Jr., now handles some of the finances for Camp Barnes and was given this great award in honor of his father.
“Camp Barnes, located on Miller’s Creek, a tributary of Little Assawoman Bay, has since served the needs of thousands of children from throughout Delaware. Camp Barnes was originally designed to provide the children who were unable to attend summer camp an opportunity to experience life at a summer youth camp. Camp Barnes has remained basically unchanged, providing Delaware children with these outdoor experiences for over 50 years.
The summer camp is an overnight residential camp run by the Delaware State Police and is open to children between the ages of 10 and 13 at no cost to the camper or family. Camp Barnes accommodates 60 campers per week for six weeks. The camp is in session from early July through August. All children are eligible to attend regardless of family income.
One of the many positive aspects of Camp Barnes summer camp is the innovative use of adventure based outdoor learning experiences. Camp Barnes has on its grounds an extensive outdoor initiative course with 17 different initiative and team building elements. Some of the many activities campers participate in throughout the week include swimming in an Olympic size pool, kayaking in Millers Creek, arts and crafts, nature walks, and talent shows. Campers also enjoy a scaled down version of the Olympics, State Police demonstrations by the K-9, SCUBA and Aviation units.
Camp Barnes has a staff of 12 counselors, two cooks, and one kitchen assistant. Counselors are required to submit to a criminal background check as well as an interview. There is also a State Trooper on the grounds at all times when the camp is in session.”
Col. Barnes’ contribution to Delaware is unprecedented and I am proud to write about him on this Memorial Day weekend.
This is just a brief column to mention Ron DeSantis’ official announcement as a candidate for President of the United States. Interestingly, he did it on Twitter and there was so much interest, Twitter’s servers crashed. Will DeSantis be able to close the gap between him and Trump with Trump, who has a 30-point lead according to the polls? Time will tell us. Please stay tuned.
As always, your comments are welcome and appreciated. What do you think about the contest at this point?
I appreciate your feedback on the Delaware News Journal finally putting a white-hot spotlight on Chancery Court Corruption and the layers of harm that it is bringing to America’s First State. The damage over the years may be insurmountable at this point. May our elected officials read your words and take action! Here’s a handful of feedbacks that capture what so many of you wrote in to say:
“It is about time that the newspaper of record in Delaware puts heat on this issue!” -Ed M.
“Why it took so long is for another day. Now that the issue is raised, let’s do something about it.” -Cynthia P.
“Thank you for writing about this, Judson. You’ve been saying it for so long. Glad to see others taking note.” -Robert B.
“The Chancery Court is doing damage to Delaware. Our governor needs to strike back.” -Pamela N.
“Excellent piece by Keandra McDole in the Journal. Let’s hear more from her on this.” -Beverly V.
“Delaware is in crisis mode. I’m concerned and my neighbors are too. Thanks, Jud.” -David C.
See my Coastal Network stories below. Thank you for your emails and feedback, which is always welcome and appreciated.
Republican Governor Ron DeSantis is the best Governor in the United States in my view. During Covid-19, DeSantis kept Florida open and free, while many states, especially California and New York suffered totalitarian shut downs, making absolutely no difference in the loss of life and causing financial disaster to many businesses. Florida has prospered and is healthy because of Ron DeSantis. Our businesses are flourishing, opportunity is everywhere, and thousands of jobs are available.
Unlike so many other states and most Democrat controlled cities, DeSantis does not tolerate crime. There is cash bail, crimes are prosecuted, and criminals go to jail. Furthermore, DeSantis is a proponent of the 2nd Amendment, and Floridians are able to be armed. Concealed carry licenses are easy to get for honest citizens.
Because of Ron DeSantis, Florida’s children stayed in school, don’t have to wear masks, and outrageous teachings like Critical Race Theory and Woke culture are forbidden.
The Disney controversy is interesting where this company through its entertainment Park in Orlando was able to have its own operation independent of the State of Florida. However, when it interfered with anti-woke legislation in Florida and began pushing a woke agenda, DeSantis ended their autonomy, and now Disney is no longer going to be able to make “Mickey Mouse” control of anything. It will have to pay taxes like everyone else. I agree with DeSantis’ position.
Folks, Ron DeSantis embraces Former President Donald Trump’s platform, but does not have the baggage that Trump has. Will DeSantis be able to defeat Trump in the Republican primary if he runs for President? Trump has a tremendous lead according to the polls, however the final outcome remains to be seen.
Florida is truly a free state because of Ron DeSantis and as he once said, “Florida is where woke comes to die!” Indeed, thousands of people are flocking to Florida to escape the despotism of New York, California, and many of the criminally controlled Democrat cities that are on the verge of anarchy.
What do you think about Ron DeSantis? Could he be our next President? As always, your feedback is welcome and appreciated.
I am addressing this dissertation mainly to my liberal friends. We are about to lose everything that America is about—freedom of speech is being threatened and open political disagreement with Joe Biden’s ridiculous agenda is seemingly being investigated and prosecuted by corrupt government agencies? Can you imagine concerned parents being investigated by the FBI because they voiced concerns over Critical Race Theory being taught in our schools? Can you imagine a former President’s home being raided for classified documents while our current President had classified documents lying on the floor of his garage? The double standard that is occurring is outrageous and frankly frightening?
After apparently selling out the American people through his son Hunter for millions of dollars in an incredible influence peddling scheme involving the Ukraine, Russia, China, and Romania among others, from which the entire Biden family has profited, President Joe Biden is no doubt severely compromised.
The evidence through Hunter’s laptop and testimony from former partners is overwhelming. Evidence from IRS and FBI whistleblowers has been documented, while these brave individuals are being harassed and removed from further investigation by their respective agencies? A huge cover up seems to be developing. Is President Joe Biden guilty of interfering with the wheels of justice?
One of the few honest journalists left in our country, Miranda Devine, from the NY Post, wrote a realistic expose titled “The Laptop from Hell” laying out the incredible crimes from these corrupt operators.
Besides, destroying our oil operation, taking us from being energy independent to having to buy oil from our enemies, Biden is violating our immigration laws, allowing millions upon millions of illegals to cross our southern border who are given food, clothes, cell phones, and housing in hotels, while veterans are put out on the street!
The FBI and the IRS have been weaponized against Republicans. This is what happens in Banana Republics! Bogus investigations, absurd raids, falsifying documents, and biased viewpoints are prevalent. How can Americans trust these once respected agencies ever again? Apparently, if you disagree openly with the Democrats and are vocal about it, you could be at risk by these weaponized institutions. This is not the America I used to know and it is frightening. Banana Republic???
Folks, the degree of President Biden’s arrogance is real. How one man with the help of left wing extremists and certain members of the Democrat party could severely compromise our freedom is beyond any reasonable understanding? We must stop these monsters who are implementing a totalitarian, socialist government that will take away our crucial freedoms!
I believe, without a doubt, that we are on the brink of losing everything that our constitution provides because of the criminal in the White House! The 2024 election is paramount. Folks, if political changes are not made, our country will evolve into anarchy, with the eventual institution of a communist regime, allowing certain wealthy individuals and politically connected despots to languish in luxury and privilege, while the rest of us wallow in mediocrity?
That is how I see it. Are you as concerned as I am? I wonder if many of you have no clue how bad things really are? As always your comments are welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Submitted.
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal Network
OPINION
Dear Friends, I appreciate your feedback on Keandra McDole’s piece in the Delaware News Journal. Many of you said it’s high time that America’s First State’s largest newspaper put a spotlight on the corruption that I’ve been pounding the pavement on for years. Finally, they get it. They see the economic damage and the reputation destruction a corrupt Chancery Court is doing to our great state. Now that the newspaper of Delaware is concerned, will it force our politicians to act on this crisis?! Keep your feedback coming on this! Read the important story below. It’s time to solve this threat.
Keandra McDoleSpecial to the USA TODAY Network As every native Delawarean knows, our state is the business incorporation capital of the world. Fortune 500 companies want to incorporate in our state for tax reasons and to take advantage of Delaware courts created to handle their specific cases. And, of course, Delaware’s economy benefits financially from these special business laws.
In fact, 20% of our state’s entire budget relies on the incorporation industry and LLC fees. This means that of $14.5 billion of our state’s spending plan, $3 billion comes directly from the incorporation industry and LLC fees. Our schools, roads, police and fire services, and public assistance for those in need — from Wilmington to Dover to Millsboro — rely on this 20%.
Right now, Delaware is facing a crisis that we should all be concerned about. Major corporations like Twitter, TransPerfect — which is a leader in the world of translation services — and many more companies have announced they are leaving Delaware for Nevada. With their departures, these corporations are taking major revenue away from us.
The answer is very simple if you are wondering why these companies are leaving — corruption throughout the Delaware Court of Chancery. The court has made a name for itself in not being transparent or impartial in its structure and its rulings. That is enough for companies to look elsewhere to resolve their disputes fairly.
The chancery court ordered the forced sale of TransPerfect, although the company’s founders and employees objected. Imagine being a respected business owner, and a court tells you that you have no choice but to sell the company you built and founded and have no voice in the matter. The Delaware Court of Chancery does not try to find a middle ground; instead, they use their authority to bring big bucks to the lawyers and systems in front of them. The TransPerfect case mirrors Twitter’s situation — that is why one of the biggest social media platform companies left Delaware for Nevada. Nevada doesn’t have conflict of interests or an entrenched “old boys’ club,” and is consistent and fair in their court rulings on business disputes.
If more businesses decide to follow TransPerfect and Twitter’s lead, Delaware will lose significant tax revenue, which affects all of us who live here in Delaware. And the services that will feel the most loss fall within affordable housing, healthcare, and education — crucial services needed for our most vulnerable neighbors.
As a Black Wilmington native and racial justice advocate, I know personally that loss of tax revenue will disproportionately punish people who need those investments the most. Historically, low-income communities, Black and Latino residents have always been left out, and will be even more left out if tax revenue dwindles. Today in Delaware, Black and Latino people are each more than twice as likely to live in poverty than white people. And while white unemployment in Delaware is 3.4%, it is higher for Latinos at 5% and 7% for Black individuals. I’m not sure the all-white chancery court recognizes the impact their decisions have on the communities of color.
Delaware has a long way to go to reverse the chancery court’s reputation, and it requires acknowledging the unethical ways of the court system. We need a judicial code that incorporates reforms and demands transparent oversight, accountability, diversity and fair rulings to restore faith in Delaware’s position as the “incorporation capital of the world.”
We have seen Nevada take our companies, and more companies will follow suit if we remain silent rather than fighting for change. Further, bold changes are needed to make Delaware a vibrant, prosperous and safe state for our most vulnerable communities for generations after us. We need to look forward to that change but to accomplish it, we need to make our elected leaders hear our voices.
Keandra McDole is a Wilmington activist.
OPINION
Dear Friends,
Folks, you’ve been hearing from me, now hear it from Keandra McDole and her spot-on piece in the Delaware News Journal. Chancery court corruption is threatening Delaware’s economic future, she says in her story. $3 billion a year is at stake in Delaware. She explains how vital that money is to our state’s future!
Delaware is facing a crisis. We should all be concerned. It’s vital we solve this now. This is key to the survival of America’s First State.
Please send your feedback on this. It’s always welcome and appreciated! Read her story in the News Journal below and let me know your thoughts.
As every native Delawarean knows, our state is the business incorporation capital of the world. Fortune 500 companies want to incorporate in our state for tax reasons and to take advantage of Delaware courts created to handle their specific cases. And, of course, Delaware’s economy benefits financially from these special business laws.
In fact, 20% of our state’s entire budget relies on the incorporation industry and LLC fees. This means that of $14.5 billion of our state’s spending plan, $3 billion comes directly from the incorporation industry and LLC fees. Our schools, roads, police and fire services, and public assistance for those in need — from Wilmington to Dover to Millsboro — rely on this 20%.
Right now, Delaware is facing a crisis that we should all be concerned about. Major corporations like Twitter, TransPerfect — which is a leader in the world of translation services — and many more companies have announced they are leaving Delaware for Nevada. With their departures, these corporations are taking major revenue away from us.
The answer is very simple if you are wondering why these companies are leaving — corruption throughout the Delaware Court of Chancery. The court has made a name for itself in not being transparent or impartial in its structure and its rulings. That is enough for companies to look elsewhere to resolve their disputes fairly.
The chancery court ordered the forced sale of TransPerfect, although the company’s founders and employees objected. Imagine being a respected business owner, and a court tells you that you have no choice but to sell the company you built and founded and have no voice in the matter. The Delaware Court of Chancery does not try to find a middle ground; instead, they use their authority to bring big bucks to the lawyers and systems in front of them. The TransPerfect case mirrors Twitter’s situation — that is why one of the biggest social media platform companies left Delaware for Nevada. Nevada doesn’t have conflict of interests or an entrenched “old boys’ club,” and is consistent and fair in their court rulings on business disputes.
If more businesses decide to follow TransPerfect and Twitter’s lead, Delaware will lose significant tax revenue, which affects all of us who live here in Delaware. And the services that will feel the most loss fall within affordable housing, healthcare, and education — crucial services needed for our most vulnerable neighbors.
As a Black Wilmington native and racial justice advocate, I know personally that loss of tax revenue will disproportionately punish people who need those investments the most. Historically, low-income communities, Black and Latino residents have always been left out, and will be even more left out if tax revenue dwindles. Today in Delaware, Black and Latino people are each more than twice as likely to live in poverty than white people. And while white unemployment in Delaware is 3.4%, it is higher for Latinos at 5% and 7% for Black individuals. I’m not sure the all-white chancery court recognizes the impact their decisions have on the communities of color.
Delaware has a long way to go to reverse the chancery court’s reputation, and it requires acknowledging the unethical ways of the court system. We need a judicial code that incorporates reforms and demands transparent oversight, accountability, diversity and fair rulings to restore faith in Delaware’s position as the “incorporation capital of the world.”
We have seen Nevada take our companies, and more companies will follow suit if we remain silent rather than fighting for change. Further, bold changes are needed to make Delaware a vibrant, prosperous and safe state for our most vulnerable communities for generations after us. We need to look forward to that change but to accomplish it, we need to make our elected leaders hear our voices.
Keandra McDole is a Wilmington activist.
OPINION
Trump Does His Thing at CNN Town Hall In New Hampshire
Dear Friends,
I watched with great interest the Town Hall meeting held by CNN. Former President Trump expounded on his achievements and his future platform, while answering questions from the audience. Considering how the CNN Network despises Trump, indeed it was a brave move on his part which, in my view, he handled extremely well, while truly thrust into an adversarial situation with an antagonistic moderator named Kaitlan Collins.
Without a doubt, Collins was rude, caustic, uninformed, and obviously biased. She did everything she could to interrupt Trump, contradict his statements, and do everything possible to make him look bad. If anything she came off as clearly biased and unprofessional. Trump actually made her look incompetent. I laughed when Trump called her a “nasty woman”.
The only issue I had with Trump’s performance was his reference to “the rigged election”. Whether it was rigged or not, it was never proven and that argument does him no good.
Beyond the attacks by Collins, Trump in my view, clearly won the day in an extremely hostile environment. He nailed Biden on his grotesque and failed border situation, his outrageous inflation, and his horrible withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Trump defended himself very well about the January 6th riots, and clarified the truth as to exactly what he said. Collins attacked Trump over and over again about his rape lawsuit and his previous risqué statements. Over and over again, Collins showed her bias and over and over again Trump held his own, making her look like a malicious shrew!
Folks, the bottom line in my opinion, is that Trump advanced his agenda successfully and was able to achieve the publicity he is so good at turning into his political advantage.
I truly believe Donald Trump, through this bold move in going forth with a CNN event (truly enemy territory), has begun a viable campaign in pure Trump style which will put him in a position to win the Presidency. For sure, in this CNN deal, despite the designed controversy by Kaitlin Collins, Trump won the day.
That is how I see it. What do you think ? As always your feedback is welcome and appreciated.
I’ve been reading all about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his failure to disclose trips paid for by a conservative billionaire friend. Such outrage! People on both sides of the aisle are angry about this, but I ask, in all earnestness, what about the lavish trips that Andre Bouchard and Leo Strine took to New Orleans courtesy of taxpayer dollars? Where is the outrage or investigation there, folks?
It’s time to stop Delawareans from paying for it! Indeed, it is TIME we stop this and close down the Good Ole Boys Club. Bouchard and Strine resigned in disgrace, but they were not brought to justice for their corruption in the TransPerfect case. I’ve been asking this for quite some time now, and I ask again: Will Delawareans continue allowing taxpayer money to finance the Chancery trips to New Orleans?
Please send your feedback on this folks, it is always welcome and appreciated.
Senators seek probes into report on undisclosed luxury trips by Supreme Court’s Thomas
By Andrew Chung and John Kruzel
WASHINGTON, April 6 (Reuters) – Conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has for decades accepted luxury trips from a Dallas businessman without publicly disclosing them despite a federal law requiring disclosure of most gifts, a media report said on Thursday, prompting Senate Democrats to call for an investigation.
The report by ProPublica found that Thomas has repeatedly vacationed with real estate magnate and Republican donor Harlan Crow, including on his private jet and superyacht in the United States and around the globe. The news outlet said the frequency of the gifts have “no known precedent in the modern history of the U.S. Supreme Court.”
Thomas and Chief Justice John Roberts did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The report raises new questions over potential conflicts of interest involving the justices and the court, which has endured escalating criticism for its lack of a formal ethics code.
Crow told ProPublica in a statement that he and his wife have been friends with Thomas and his wife since 1996 and have “never sought to influence Justice Thomas on any legal or political issue.”
Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin said his panel “will act” based on the report, without specifying what steps it would take.
OPINION
Dear Friends,
I find it amusing that ironically CNN is hosting a Donald Trump Town Hall Meeting next Wednesday in New Hampshire. Interestingly the left wing is freaking out over the actual giving of Trump free media time by CNN.
Apparently the fairly new CNN Chairman and CEO Chris Licht recognizes that Trump is always big news and intends for the network to be less partisan.
It could turn out to be a major ambush, however, Trump is a master of the media and believes that press exposure, especially concerning controversial issues, always helps him.
I think Trump as the GOP leader is doing the right thing politically and it is a stroke of Genius to arrange this CNN Town Hall Meeting.
Check out the article below and let me know what you think. Your comments are always welcome and appreciated.
CNN’s decision to host a town hall with former President Trump has sparked fresh controversy around media coverage of the former president.
The network, which had a mutually antagonistic relationship with Trump during his time in the White House, will host a New Hampshire town hall in prime time next Wednesday. CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins will moderate.
CNN came under fire almost as soon as the news of the event broke.
MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan tweeted on Monday that CNN was “giving a live primetime platform to an indicted insurrection-inciter, who also incited violence against their network.”
Hasan added that he had been asked many times whether the media had “learned lessons” from 2016 and 2020, and that CNN’s decision indicated to him that “clearly some in our media have not.”
Liberal activists were equally condemnatory of the decision.
Shaunna Thomas, the co-founder and executive director of UltraViolet, a pro-gender equality organization, called Trump “a flagrant misogynist” and “insurrectionist” to whom CNN was about to give “free airtime and an unfettered platform to spew lies and hate.”
Her organization is calling on the network to cancel the event.
Angelo Carusone, president of the liberal nonprofit Media Matters for America, called the proposed event “at least a little odious” and a “transparent attempt to goose their ratings.”
David Kurtz, executive editor of the left-leaning media outlet Talking Points Memo, wrote that CNN choosing to do a town hall event rather than a one-on-one interview “enables Trump and those like him free rein to spew misinformation, falsehoods, and half-truths unhindered by any mediating journalistic considerations.”
On social media, there was plenty along the same lines.
The contours of the debate are familiar from Trump’s original run for the presidency and the years that followed.
The early stages of Trump’s first presidential run, which he launched in mid-2015, were granted enormous media attention.
Critics on the left contended this was one of the major factors that enabled the then-candidate to leapfrog other, more established rivals on his path to the GOP nomination.
While Trump was president, CNN in particular often seemed to adopt an openly adversarial tone — something which boosted ratings, riled conservatives and arguably damaged CNN’s brand.
Chris Licht, who took over as CNN’s chairman and CEO last year, is widely perceived to be seeking to shift the network onto a less partisan footing.
Still, the debate around appropriate coverage of Trump is given added edge in the wake of his fictional claims of election fraud in 2020, his conduct in and around Jan. 6, 2021, his recent criminal indictment in Manhattan and the ongoing trial centered upon E. Jean Carroll’s accusation that Trump raped her in the mid-1990s.
Does the CNN town hall give a platform to a public figure who is uniquely prone to misinformation and inflammatory language, as its critics claim?
Or, as its defenders could argue, is it absurd to suggest that any mainstream organization can ignore a figure like Trump who, these days, is the clear frontrunner for the GOP’s 2024 nomination?
Those in the middle say they appreciate the complexity of the situation.
“It’s too easy to say Trump got elected because the networks gave him so much airtime,” David Greenberg, a Rutgers University professor of history, and of journalism and media studies, told this column. “Simply putting someone on the screen doesn’t magically make them president.”
But Greenberg, who is also the author of a book, “Republic of Spin,” dealing with the presidency, media and communications, added that it was nonetheless important for CNN to retain a sense of proportion in its Trump coverage.
“It is naive to expect that mainstream media will just boycott Trump. And even if they could be pressured into doing so, I’m not sure that would be the right thing to do. You don’t want to boycott Trump but you don’t want to give him a platform disproportionate to the other candidates.”
CNN has so far offered only standard, broad descriptions of the nature of the town hall event, asserting that it is part of a “longstanding tradition of hosting leading presidential candidates,” and that such events are “a critical component of the network’s robust campaign coverage.”
There will clearly be enormous focus on what the network does to push back against any factually untrue comments made by Trump.
Grant Reeher, a professor of political science at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School, said he would be “stunned” if CNN did not offer significant fact-checking of Trump, whether in a dedicated segment, in a post-town hall panel discussion or from Collins herself.
But Reeher also defended the nature of the event.
Trump “is a former president. He is, whether we like it or not, a legitimate candidate for the nomination. So I think it is entirely appropriate to host a town hall,” he said.
Reeher also argued vigorously that it would be an equally serious dereliction of duty if CNN or any other network bowed to the demands of activist groups and de-platformed such a central political figure.
“Some of the networks, during some periods in the last eight years, have dropped their impartiality, but that would be another level,” he said, adding it would amount to the media taking “a giant step over the line.”
The hubbub is sure to continue right up until the event itself, and perhaps beyond it.
Opinion
Dear Friends,
I originally wrote about the Sussex County “Register of Wills Office” several years ago when Andre Bouchard played political games in picking a Chief Deputy, hiring one incompetent Democrat, after another. I also gave tremendous credit to Cindy Green in those days who turned that office around, updating everything to modern times, computerizing the operation.
I apparently can’t say the same thing about the current Sussex Register of Wills, Greg Fuller—a lifelong Democrat who switched parties to get elected. In an absurd “personal pissing match” Fuller was able to get himself elected in a divided Republican party that used, in my view, a personal vendetta to elect someone who was not the most qualified? Perhaps Fuller should be nicknamed “Full of It”?
The first thing this guy did was fire the most competent, educated, and organized worker in the office out of personal spite! He and the County are lucky they were not sued, as evidenced by the fact when the Council realized the huge mistake, they immediately found her another county position with equal compensation.
Since that time, my reliable information has told me the office of the Register of Wills is in absolute chaos and nobody knows what they are doing. It is my understanding there is not a Chief Deputy and the office is basically dysfunctional? Could all this be because the wrong person was elected through a misguided Republican primary. Did the voters make a huge mistake?
If my information is accurate, apparently the Sussex County Council and the County Administration are not doing anything about it, much to the detriment of the people of Sussex County?
Yikes, so be it in this small world of petty politics creating local inefficiency which should not happen?
Anyone who wants to wade in on this or provide some more information, please respond. As always, your comments are welcome and appreciated.
TransPerfect CEO Refers to Delaware as “State-Sponsored Hostile Takeover Attempt.”
He is being magnanimous—he defeated corruption and corporate terrorism by the Chancery Court
Dear Friends,
TransPerfect CEO refers to Delaware as “state-sponsored hostile takeover attempt.” He is being magnanimous – he defeated corruption and corporate terrorism by the Delaware Chancery Court. All of this is outlined in the Multilingual Magazine story below.
“I have battled everything imaginable, from the social and economic impact of the 2008 global financial crisis, September 11th, and two U.S. wars – to over-zealous competitors and a state-sponsored hostile takeover attempt,” he says in the story.
For more, please see the story below. Please give it a read and let me know your thoughts, folks. Your feedback is always welcome.
It’s been a steady climb over three decades for TransPerfect. A company that started in a college dorm room is now a massive operation and, according to the recently released Nimdzi 100 report, the largest language company in the world, as well as the only one with an annual revenue of more than one billion US dollars. With more than 30 years of growth under his belt, TransPerfect co-founder and CEO Phil Shawe can take a moment to pause and enjoy the view from the top. But there isn’t time to rest and reflect for long. With the language and localization industry undergoing a technological transformation, companies are taking steps now to prepare for the future. TransPerfect is no exception. We spoke to Shawe about what comes next, even as he reflects on a long career of growth and success.
According to the recently released Nimdzi 100, TransPerfect once again takes the top spot as the biggest language company in the world. What do you attribute that success to?
TransPerfect began operations more than 30 years ago in an NYU dorm room with little more than two students and a dream. To say we were a “bootstrapped startup” would be an understatement — we gained experience by personally handling every aspect of the business. This instilled a spirit of client commitment and entrepreneurship that is still in TransPerfect’s DNA. However, even back then, we knew that if we wanted to scale the business, we’d have to attract and retain great people. After some painful trial and error, we eventually came to an all-important realization: In the long run, people are the true asset, and the only competitive advantage that a business can sustain over time. Our corporate culture and core values developed from that point onward.
Diversification of customers is another key element of the business that we adopted early on. When we won a big client, it just motivated us to win more. We had seen some of our friends at advertising agencies live through the loss of a major account that made up most of their business — and it wasn’t pretty. This led us to set aside the conventional wisdom’s urge to specialize and instead consciously attempt to service many different industries. “If one sector is down, another is likely up,” we reasoned — and that’s been key to TransPerfect sustaining growth for 30 consecutive years.
Embracing technology and change has also been pivotal to our success. This began in 2002 when we acquired eTranslate and welcomed Mark Hagerty (CTO), Yu-Kai Ng (CIO), and Keith Brazil (SVP, Technology) to our senior management team as well as the nascent GlobalLink platform. Seeing the potential, we invested aggressively each year in technology and developed a suite of integrated solutions — intending to create the world’s leading translation automation platform for businesses.
Lastly, “pay it forward” became one of our mantras. Meaning, when someone attains a certain level of success in the TransPerfect system, we ask them to repay the company by coaching the next generation of leaders. Our company culture became one of continual learning, and we invest heavily in training — also critical to growth. A growth company is really less about being sales-oriented and more about continuing to drive value for existing customers — so you need to retain skilled people to grow. To that end, we coach managers to take a personal interest in the career goals of each individual team member. For TransPerfect, this results in a vision of shared success, interesting career paths, and long-tenured executives.
TransPerfect was founded in 1992 and has grown over 30 years in language work and solutions. Do you believe the timing of the company’s founding contributed to its eventually dominant position in the industry?
Yes. Technology has made the world a smaller place and promoted global business over the past 30 years. We have always had a culture of embracing new technology — and I attribute much of our success to continuous investment in technology and people.
The early 1990s to the early 2020s will likely be remembered as pivotal in the history of globalization. What are some of the biggest changes you’ve observed over that time?
This list is by no means exhaustive: First, we had the advent of the internet, then ecommerce, then SaaS, then mobile apps, then social media, then the proliferation of video — content has evolved both in its form and means of delivery. Just as translation memory completely changed the industry in the 1990s, neural machine translation and AI are doing so today. I see each of these advancements as an opportunity — and TransPerfect’s challenge is to adapt and harness those opportunities to the benefit of our clients. We have a strong track record of embracing technology advancements, investing heavily, and emerging stronger after these inflection points.
Today, our technology R&D budget is larger than it has ever been, and we are leading the charge on human-in-the-loop automation for translation workflows.
Tell us a little about your leadership style. How have you guided TransPerfect through those pivotal years? Have you taken any inspiration from key leaders, either historical or contemporary, in business, government, or elsewhere?
Our management style is based on coaching. We believe in leading by example — and every manager is somewhat a player/coach. The core of what we ask our leaders to do can be summed up in three concepts: Hire the best people, align incentives, and get out of the way.
We’ve taken inspiration from many leaders over the years, including Colin Powell, Charlotte Beers, and Richard Branson — all three have spoken at our training conferences. I’ve also personally drawn inspiration from a vast array of writers that range from Jimmy Buffett to Quentin Tarantino to Alexandre Dumas. And we once did a management training completely focused on the poem If— by Rudyard Kipling. Other cultures are also a source of inspiration — and somewhere there is training based on proverbs posted alongside a trek I did with other managers in Bhutan. Closer to home, my brother and football coach, Larry Shawe; my mom and co-owner, Shirley Shawe, who taught me to stand up to bullies; and our advisory board member, Bruce Redditt, have all been sources of inspiration over the years.
Perhaps most importantly, I take inspiration from our staff — they often solve problems in a better way than I do. And that epitomizes our management style — we’re always trying to hire someone who can do the job better than we can.
TransPerfect has been a leader in the trend of mergers and acquisitions that we’re seeing dominate the industry today. Can you tell us a little about how you formulated your M&A strategy and executed it?
Our M&A approach is fairly unique: We have a long-term approach and are looking for long-term partnerships. We typically go into deals hoping the leadership and the people stay on. We have never done a deal valued on “synergies” — which, in the private equity world, typically means cutting jobs.
More generally, we are always on the lookout for like-minded executives and cool technology that fit well within our existing tool set. Our ideal merger candidate is an entrepreneur who is comfortable in ceding some control to become part of something larger — and we want our incoming leaders to have the autonomy needed to run and grow their businesses.
We have completed more than 30 M&A transactions, and I consider every one of them a success in some way. I cannot overestimate how much the executives who joined us through mergers have made TransPerfect what it is today.
Can you tell us anything about your plans to pursue growth moving forward? Do you have any plans for additional M&A activity, or is that phase of your strategy completed?
Today, our business grows from a combination of organic growth, driven by our sales team, and strategic M&A, and we see this continuing. One thing I love about my first 30 years at TransPerfect is that we have never known the pressure of making quarterly numbers, so we can make decisions based on what we feel is in the long-term best interest of the company, our team, our vendors, and our clients.
Leaning into technology changes has served TransPerfect well over the years. For instance, according to your website, your translation management and website localization technology, GlobalLink, yields a 50% savings in costs, timelines, and translation project management. How did TransPerfect formulate its approach to driving language technology over 30 years?
Our technology roadmap is driven by listening to our customers. A primary place this happens today is the GlobalLink NEXT user conferences, and I encourage all clients to attend. At the last GlobalLink NEXT in San Francisco, I heard executives from companies like Microsoft and Amazon presenting how they use our technology to benefit their businesses — that was a very proud moment for many of us. The GlobalLink Suite has evolved massively over time, adding flagship technologies, such as TransPort and OneLink, alongside Project Director as well as extending our footprint into media and gaming localization.
What does the future of language technology look like, and how does TransPerfect plan to approach it?
We fully embrace Neural MT, AI, and generative technology like ChatGPT. By aggressively harnessing technologies like these within our GlobalLink workflows, we let the machines do what they can and let humans do what they’re best at.
As the largest company in the language industry with 8,000 full-time employees and a network of more than 10,000 certified linguists and subject-area specialists, TransPerfect is a company of enormous size and influence. How did you build a team to manage such a large organization?
First, we promote from within. It is very rare at TransPerfect for someone to manage someone in a job they haven’t actually done. Our executives often become seasoned industry veterans quickly based on our growth, and the organizational chart fills in underneath them. The most challenging thing about running a large, multinational organization with more than 8,000 employees is that with every new layer of management, we have to do our best to make sure that our knowledge, values, and principles get passed down.
There is one trick to running a large organization successfully — and that is to run many small organizations successfully — and then add them up. To run small organizations successfully, you have to develop ways to measure success, and TransPerfect often uses custom metrics that are not easily understood by those not immersed in our business.
Tell us a little about your personal life. What do you do to relax and decompress when you’re out of the office?
I’m an avid fan of American football and all sports, really. I hike, bike, ski, snowboard, and play racquet sports, like pickleball, beach tennis, and padel. I like nature and history and will take any opportunity to go to a UNESCO heritage site. Perhaps most of all, I like to travel and experience other cultures — a passion many of our senior managers share.
I am extremely proud that TransPerfect has grown to a point where our people can make geographic life changes without necessarily having to change careers.
I’m also really proud that, even throughout turbulent times, TransPerfect never stopped our efforts to give back and support the communities in which we live and work.
Before we let you go, is there anything you want to add?
If you always get up after you fall, keep at it, and do the right things daily — odds are you will eventually succeed. I have battled everything imaginable, from the social and economic impact of the 2008 global financial crisis, September 11th, and two U.S. wars — to over-zealous competitors and a state-sponsored hostile takeover attempt. So, whatever storms may come your way, my best advice is to maintain a calm and steady hand at the wheel — and always keep moving forward.
I couldn’t be happier with or more thankful for today’s TransPerfect team, and I can’t wait to see what we do next.
OPINION
Tucker Carlson Fired by Fox & Don Lemon Fired by CNN in Prime Time Media Shake-Up
Dear Friends,
I was frankly shocked to hear that famous Fox talk-show host Tucker Carlson was actually canned by Fox News for apparently lying about the notorious Dominion Voting machines. All I can say is “Wow”. Here today and gone tomorrow.
I liked the guy and his many interviews. His interesting conservative opinions were always enjoyed by thousands thrusting him into the big time. Now he is done, done, done. I will kind of miss him and his glib personality.
On the other hand, raciest, left-wing, self-absorbed Don Lemon was also canned for many of his misrepresentations, as I see it, folks. In my view, this sycophant deserved to be fired. Good riddance!
It seems that both networks, Fox being superior in all ways in my view, have had a stroke of conscience—deciding to implant ultra-integrity into their broadcasts. Of course Fox’s $1 billion dollar settlement might have had something to do with Carlson’s demise.
Nothing is certain and everybody is potentially vulnerable if they cross the line. So be it.
Check out the Fox News and Politico stories below and send me your opinions.
I used to think former President Jimmy Carter was the worst President in U.S. history, but there is nobody worse than Joe Biden! He is without a doubt an abomination. His wife Jill is not much better. She is also a nefarious liar.
Biden’s lies and corruption began when his original campaign for U.S. Senator bribed Frank Sheeran, the former head of the Teamsters Union to call a strike so the Delaware News Journal, which was endorsing his opponent, incumbent Senator Caleb Boggs, could not be delivered. I have the evidence and it will be proven very soon. Biden ended up winning by a narrow margin. He cheated and won. That is how Biden got his start.
His wife Jill, in her book, lied about how they met, saying they met on blind date. NOT True. They knew each other through her former husband and she was fooling around with Biden while she was married to her former husband, as I understand it to have happened, folks. I can prove that also and that will soon be exposed, as well.
Since that time, Biden has become the most corrupt President in U.S. history. He intentionally destroyed our oil industry, creating outrageous inflation. He intentionally opened our Southern Border to millions upon millions of illegal aliens–an absolute criminal offense–violating our immigration laws and putting our national security at risk.
He has intentionally ruined female sports by ordering Transvestites-men who pretend to be women, to be allowed to compete in female sports. This is outrageous and is an insult to every real female in our country.
He is guilty of influence peddling, selling his office to China, Russia and others–all with the help of his crackhead son Hunter. REMEMBER “10% TO THE Big Guy”, clearly described on Hunter’s laptop? Frankly, his actions are tantamount to treason!
He has weaponized The FBI and the IRS to attack and prosecute Republicans illegitimately, while real criminals conduct unbelievable crimes nationwide with impunity.
He is now paying millions of dollars to the Taliban with our taxpayer money–after his disgraceful exit from Afghanistan, which caused the death of 13 American servicemen, and leaving behind thousands of loyal Afghans who served us for many years. He also left behind billions of dollars of military hardware-making the Taliban the most well-armed terrorist group in the world!
Biden is spending millions of our taxpayer dollars on the fallacious Green New Deal which is absurd, while China builds a new coal plant every week.
There is much more, but I don’t have enough time to write a book.
Folks, he is intentionally attempting to ruin America and the damage he has done already is frightening.
Four more years of this monster will ruin our country. He must be defeated if he runs again. He should be impeached, removed from office, and then be put in prison for the rest of his life.
Frankly, anybody who votes for this monster and the Democrats who support him, is either totally ignorant or intrinsically evil.
That is the way I see it and I refuse to live under Biden’s grotesque operation any longer without speaking up. I would rather be dead.
As always your comments are welcome and appreciated. Bring it on, I am well equipped to defend my positions.
Yours truly,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal Network
OPINION Judges Like Andre Bouchard Dodge Public Scrutiny, Our Elected Officials Do Nothing, But Your Feedback Rolls In!
Dear Friends,
After NBC News wrote an excellent spotlight piece on how judges like Andre Bouchard somehow, time and time again, are enabled to dodge and weave and avoid public scrutiny after potential misconduct — you wrote in to underline how unjust this truly is.
Zero or few judges have been sanctioned in recent years, just like with Bouchard, and our elected officials such as Delaware Governor John Carney do nothing.
I’m glad you’re outraged. Here’s some of your feedback. Maybe they’ll listen to us now!
“Our morals are falling to an all-time-low and this lack of punishment of judges is a new low.” -Bruce B.
“If we can’t hold judges accountable, who can you hold?” -Jackie L.
“As you well know, I always learn more about Delaware. The U.S. is collapsing faster than a blink of an eye.” -Georgia P.
“As usual, you succinctly get it all out there, Judson. NBC News is right on with this story.” -Albert G.
“Why is Delaware so unconcerned with this? We’re losing our reputation fast!” -Gail M.
“These judges and those who let them get aways with it are dirtbags!’ William B.
“Until this is fixed, it will likely escalate, Jud. Thanks for your coverage.” -Jill G.
“These guys should be indicted and put in prison.” -Jack R.
Thank you for your welcome feedback, folks. As always, keep them coming.
Folks, although I am a conservative, I have absolutely no problem with men or women who choose to be gay. I am not homophobic. If a man wants to marry a man or a woman wants to marry a woman that is fine with me as well. If a woman wants to pretend to be a man or a man wants to pretend to be a woman—the Transgender situation, that is also fine with me. At one time, Bruce Jenner was my hero, now as the world’s most famous transvestite, Bruce has now become Caitlyn Jenner.
All this being said, there are a few problems, created, ordered, and allowed by President Joe Biden and certain WOKE educators that I find reprehensible and outrageous.
1) A transgender male who wants to be a woman can go into the girl’s bathroom or locker room and expose his penis and testicles to girls that are there. Do you want your daughters to be exposed to that?
2) Certain left wing educators actually try to influence children to be another sex without consulting the parents. Do you want your child to be influenced in that way?
3) Finally, and the most disturbing thing about this is the fact that Transgender males who now want to be women, can now participate in female sports. These individuals are still biological males who are stronger and faster than normal females. If you have a daughter who is a great athlete in any sport, she can no longer be a true winner or be a champion. Already, the top female swimmer in the United States was defeated by a transgender male who is 6 foot 4 inches tall from the University of Pennsylvania. When she attempted to talk about it, she was attacked by vicious Transgender males. Even Caitlyn Jenner, who is very reasonable voiced his/her opinion, stating this was not proper and should not be allowed. If you have a daughter who is an athlete, do you want her to never be able to win because she will in most cases be defeated by a biological male? This affects swimming, track and field, girl’s softball, basketball, tennis, and every competitive sport.
These 3 situations, clearly ordered by President Joe Biden are to me beyond reasonable and are reprehensible. It offends the conscience and is just plain wrong.
That is my opinion. How do you feel about it? As always your comments are welcome and appreciated.
Sincerely Yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal Network
OPINION
Dear Friends,
I shared the video and post as TransPerfect India, thankfully was not bought out by a private equity company, whcih would have laid off employees. Instead, thousands of jobs were saved.
The Chancery Court Corruption was out for destruction, as I see it, folks.
Chancery’s evil plan didn’t work–and the corporation is thriving!
Here are some of your comments, which are always appreciated: “Dysfunctional my ass. It wasn’t at all. I’m glad to see it worked out for this company.” -Michael
“Thanks for sharing this video, Judson. The culture is so festive there. I would never have seen anything like this.” -Stephanie
“Apologies for my repeatedly mundane reply, but I always learn a LOT from you. Stay well. Thanks.” -Georgia
“I do agree the company would have been broken up. But what else was in it for the Chancery and Bouchard? Simply money?” -Frank
“The video is inspirational. I’ve watched it a few times.” -Karen
”Jobs were saved. That’s what matters most. Such a perplexing case.” -Jonathan
”I love the greeting and the music.” -Lisa
”Bouchard was out for his own interests and anyone watching can see that. Glad he wasn’t able to take this company down.” -Nick
“I enjoyed watching this, thank you for sharing, Judson.” -Shaun
Thank you for your welcome feedback, folks. Keep them coming!
I used to think that former President Jimmy Carter was the worst President in U.S. history. Joe Biden, an incompetent wretch who has in the past two years done more damage to our once great society than one could possibly perceive.
Do you like the fact that we have millions upon millions of illegal aliens invading our country who are fed, clothed, educated, and turned loose, not to work, but to suck up our assets, while Americans suffer? All on Biden!
Do you like the fact that thousands of Americans are dying from horrible drug overdoses? All on Biden!
Do you like the fact that Female Sports are now compromised because men who decide they want to be women unfairly compete against female athletes? All on Biden!
Do you like the fact that the fallacious “Green New Deal” is literally breaking America, while China spews devastating crap into our atmosphere? Do you like the fact that we are being forced into buying electric cars that are not even slightly good for the environment? All on Biden!
Do you like the fact that your President with the help of his entire family is guilty of influence peddling–reaping millions of dollars? All on Biden!
Do you like the fact that our American Cities are open sewers of crime, created by incompetent Democrat Mayors, all supported by our grotesque President? All on Biden!
I could fill 20 pages of the despicable acts that this administration has bestowed on our people. If Biden or any of these horrible elected officials are allowed to continue for another 4 years, our country will evolve into eventual anarchy followed by a Socialist Dictatorship that will restrict our former freedoms.
Our only hope is to elect conservative Republicans in Congress and a Republican President. Frankly, in my view, anybody who votes for traitorous Biden and those of his ilk is either incredibly stupid or incredibly evil.
That’s the way I see it. What do you think? Whether you agree or disagree, your comments are welcome and appreciated. I am happy to debate anyone on these issues, because I have the evidence.
Sincerely yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal Network
OPINION
Dear Friends,
My focus on the Delaware Chancery Court over the past decade, starting with former Chancellor Andre Bouchard — doing what, in my view, were unethical and political moves relating to Delaware’s Register of Wills Office — put a bright spotlight on the amount of misconduct by judges. As you’ll see in the story below, in almost every case, ZERO public action is taken against those judges. In Delaware, in my opinion, it’s far worse.
The most outrageous example of the protectionism that is going on in our state: Judges are investigated in New York 200 times the number of investigations in Delaware! If that doesn’t show, in my educated view, how much Delaware’s courts control what’s going on, using the Good Old Boy network (The Delaware Way) to control EVERYTHING that is seen and UNSEEN, nothing does?!
You’ll see in the in-depth NBC News story below, that “no or few judges were publicly sanctioned in recent years”, which fits exactly with what went on with Bouchard.
The story further points out that in three states — Delaware, Hawaii and North Carolina — “misconduct cases are made public only in the final stages of investigations when judges are to be punished.” Delaware is sadly among those states.
When will our elected officials or Delaware Governor John Carney do something to bring back the pride, leadership and integrity in America’s First State? I am not holding my breath, folks.
See the story below and please send your feedback on this, folks. It is always welcome and appreciated.
Thousands of complaints are filed against judges every year, but very few result in discipline. Ethics experts say the time for states to transform the judiciary is now.
By Erik Ortiz
When litigants anger Michael F. McGuire, the county judge in New York state’s Catskills region, he might hit them with “judicial contempt” and order them handcuffed or, in extreme cases, jailed for 30 days.
McGuire, who was elected in Sullivan County in 2011, did it several times over the years without warning: to a man who asked him to recuse himself because, he said, McGuire knew his son, to a mother who had an outburst when she felt ridiculed by McGuire and to a grandmother who contested turning over her grandson to his allegedly abusive father.
That wasn’t his only concerning behavior, according to an ethics complaint filed in 2018 by a state watchdog agency, which accused McGuire of berating court staff members; making “undignified” comments, such as suggesting that people in his court would date a “drug dealer” or a “slut”; presiding over cases in which his impartiality could be called into question; and representing family members and friends in personal cases. The watchdog agency, the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct, said he “lacked candor” during its investigation.
For his pattern of “serious” judicial lapses, a state appeals court agreed last year that McGuire — who earned a salary of $210,161 a year — be removed from the bench, the harshest sanction a judge can face. The public, however, had learned about the ethics charges only months before, in March 2020, more than a year and a half after McGuire was first served with the ethics complaint and when the appeals court said he had been notified of the commission’s unanimous recommendation to punish him.
McGuire ended up resigning in May 2020, but with another job already lined up — as Sullivan County’s head attorney, a position he still holds.
McGuire did not respond to requests for comment. In his resignation letter last year, he wrote that “I am quite proud of our achievements” on the bench and “deeply regret the issues that brought me before this Court.”
Joseph LaPiana, who went before McGuire in a family court case last year and is unable to see his 1-year-old daughter as a result, said, “Judges work for the public — we should know if they are being investigated for any misconduct.”
If McGuire’s misconduct violations had happened in a neighboring state, like New Jersey, Pennsylvania or Vermont, the public would have been alerted earlier — at the outset of the filing of ethics charges.
The timing in when the public is allowed to know about allegations against judges can differ broadly among states. Some allow judges to go months or years before even credible complaints are in the open. As more than 100 million cases are filed in local and state courts every year and as judges exert near-absolute power in deciding who wins custody of children to who can get married to whether people go to jail, the public’s ability to scrutinize judicial conduct is crucial for transparency’s sake, and it deserves as much attention as recent calls for policing and prosecutorial overhauls, judicial ethics experts argue.
Judicial misconduct “undermines confidence in our justice system,” said Susan Saab Fortney, the director of the Program for the Advancement of Legal Ethics at Texas A&M University School of Law.
Secretive states
Misconduct findings are rare in the judicial complaint process. Legal ethics experts say the minuscule share of judges punished every year isn’t necessarily indicative that all is well in the judiciary — it suggests a lack of accountability.
Each state has a form of a judicial conduct commission to which the public can file misconduct allegations against judges. Generally, it’s up to that body, which can be made up of fellow judges, lawyers and laypeople, to determine whether complaints violate a state’s code of judicial conduct — guidelines for judges to act with independence, integrity and impartiality. A judge’s conduct inside a courtroom as well as outside, including on social media, can be subject to discipline.
NBC News’ review of various states’ judicial conduct commission data from 2016 to 2020 indicates that thousands of complaints are filed across the country every year but that about 1 percent of them result in judges’ being publicly disciplined or stepping down after investigations are opened.
While the commissions maintain that most complaints are frivolous — for instance, a litigant is merely disgruntled over how a judge ruled — for a state to typically record zero public sanctions against judges sounds incredible, said Robert Tembeckjian, the administrator and counsel of the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct.
“It’s highly unlikely that any state would have a judiciary that is so above reproach that year after year no one gets disciplined,” Tembeckjian said. “Even in places like New York, where we have very sophisticated judicial education programs, there are numerous cases every year.”
New York’s commission, which oversees about 3,500 state and local judges, has received upward of 2,000 complaints annually in the past five years, and each year, the state has sanctioned a judge or one has resigned for misconduct in one to two dozen cases. Other large states, such as California and Texas, sanction multiple judges every year.
The level of transparency around misconduct cases varies by state. Some that have reported that no or few judges were publicly sanctioned in recent years, such as Iowa, Mississippi, South Dakota and Wyoming, don’t make cases public until the court or panel that decides discipline gets involved. And in three states — Delaware, Hawaii and North Carolina — misconduct cases are made public only in the final stages of investigations when judges are to be punished.
In about two-thirds of states, however, the public can learn much sooner, such as when judicial conduct commissions first charge judges with misconduct or when the judges respond to the allegations.
States where information is kept under wraps argue that confidentiality is necessary for as long as possible to protect judges should they ultimately be cleared. But it turns out that in some cases, depending on the type of transgression, judges can be privately admonished by other judges or sent warning letters, meant to jolt them into correcting their behavior.
NBC News found that many states opt to reprimand judges privately more often than publicly. For instance, Pennsylvania filed formal charges against judges 17 times but issued private letters of warning or reprimand 172 times from 2016 to 2020.
A sweeping Reuters analysis last year of judicial misconduct, which examined thousands of discipline cases over a dozen years, determined that 9 out of 10 sanctioned judges were allowed to return to the bench.
“We have to recognize that oftentimes we have judges judging judges, and they’re ultimately in control and judging their own,” said Charles Gardner Geyh, an Indiana University law professor who studies judicial conduct.
Tembeckjian believes that states, including New York, should be as transparent as possible once there’s sufficient evidence to back up allegations against judges, similar to how grand jury investigations are made public when indictments are unsealed.
Tembeckjian said he’d like his judicial conduct commission to have the authority to suspend judges during investigations, as other states’ commissions can do, and to continue investigating cases even after judges resign. Such changes, however, would require the approval of the New York Legislature.
Ultimately, ensuring that judges are being rightfully held accountable is essential, because guidance from the U.S. Supreme Court allows them to be largely immune from lawsuits for acts done in their official capacity, Tembeckjian said.
“If there’s no sense that you can get a fair shake by going into a court of law and have confidence that the judge is going to be neutral and fair and apply the law honestly and responsibly, it’s ultimately going to lead to anarchy,” he said. “Then why not just settle our disputes in the streets rather than a court of law?”
Making them pay
Efforts are underway to enact meaningful judicial reforms at various levels. On Dec. 1, the U.S. House overwhelmingly passed bipartisan legislation to require federal judges to report their financial holdings in response to a Wall Street Journal investigation. The Journal found that 131 federal judges had broken the law and violated judicial ethics by hearing cases in which they had financial interests. A similar bipartisan bill is pending in the Senate.
On the state side, the Louisiana Supreme Court last month expanded its rules about errant judges when it tacked financial burdens onto the disciplinary process. Not only can judges be made to pay for the costs of investigations if discipline is recommended, but they can also be ordered to repay the costs of installing replacement judges. And if judges decide to retire or resign before formal disciplinary processes conclude, they can still be required to pay investigative costs.
The state’s chief justice, John Weimer, said in a statement that the updated rules ensure that even retiring judges are “held accountable” and that Louisiana taxpayers aren’t on the hook for costs, which in recent investigations have been about $2,000 to $3,000.
About a dozen other states, including Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Kansas, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and South Dakota, fine judges or have similar cost recovery rules, according to the Center for Judicial Ethics at the National Center for State Courts, a nonprofit organization that seeks to improve the judiciary.
Marni Bryson, a judge in Palm Beach County, Florida, faces a public reprimand, an unpaid suspension for 10 days and a fine of $37,500 after the state judicial conduct commission said she was excessively absent from her duties over a four-year period, records show.
In New Hampshire, former Circuit Judge Julie Introcaso was ordered to pay her investigation’s costs, almost $75,000. Introcaso pleaded guilty last month to two counts of tampering with public records and submitting false statements in connection with a child custody case in which she was friends with a lawyer.
Janine Geske, a Wisconsin Supreme Court justice in the 1990s, said she’d like the state to implement similar penalties, which might “encourage judges to take responsibility early on” if their violations are tethered to their finances.
Another option, Geyh said, is to make the payout of judges’ pensions contractually contingent on good behavior.
Ethics experts say that citizen judicial watchdog programs known as court watchers could be effective but that it’s also incumbent upon other courtroom staff members and officials who witness judges’ poor conduct, particularly lawyers, to speak up. They may be reluctant to file complaints, however, because they’re afraid of retaliation if judges learn they were behind the allegations, said Fortney, the legal ethics expert at Texas A&M.
“A large percentage of states require that the complaining party be identified,” she said. “This clearly chills reporting.”
‘I don’t trust any judge’
But there have been cases in which lawyers and court staff members haven’t been afraid to stand up to jurists.
Ohio’s highest court last month suspended a 19-year municipal court judge, Mark Repp, for one year without pay after prosecutors in Seneca County relayed how he had ordered a 20-year-old woman who was sitting quietly in the back of his courtroom to watch her boyfriend’s hearing to get tested for drugs. When she refused, he sentenced her to 10 days in jail.
An investigation found that the woman was forced to take pregnancy tests and undergo full-body scans for contraband; none was detected. And while Repp assumed the woman was under the influence of narcotics, there was no evidence indicating that she was, and she had never been charged with drug-related offenses.
In a recent interview, Repp said that he has been concerned by the growing rate of overdose deaths in his community and that, in dealing with thousands of cases every year, he must “come up with some kind of decision that follows the law and also is appropriate under the circumstances.”
“I knew what I did was wrong,” Repp said. “I’ll try to make amends on that, and I have a whole year to reflect and contemplate my actions.”
===
But it wasn’t the only time Repp, who is up for re-election in 2025, has faced criticism.
“Imagine someone sitting in court for the first time, and now they think it’s what the judicial system is like,” said John Kahler II, a lawyer who once accused Repp of being biased against a client and unsuccessfully tried to get him disqualified from the case.
A woman who appeared before Repp in August did file a complaint to say he had labeled her a “known meth user” in open court. She wrote that she was made to feel “very embarrassed by Repp’s conduct and false accusations.” Repp said the complaint process in Ohio is a “good one” because the public does learn about judges accused of misconduct early on.
But the woman, Ana Petro, who was in Repp’s court for a traffic violation this year, doesn’t believe his suspension can remedy how he made her and others feel: worthless. A reckoning throughout the judiciary is needed, she said.
“I understand it’s not a judge’s job to be nice, but when he’s abusing his power to be a judge, that’s when I have a problem,” Petro said. “And I don’t trust any judge at all because of him.”
OPINION
Dear Friends,
As of Easter Sunday 2023 and after the unprecedented, political indictment of former President Donald Trump by left wing NY City prosecutor Alvin Bragg, he has raised over 12 million dollars already towards his Presidential campaign. The contributions are growing daily as a result of this outrage.
One would think that being accused of illegally paying off notorious porn star Stormy Daniels, facing an indictment in Georgia for election interference, and a possible federal indictment for illegally. keeping classified documents at his home in Palm Beach, his chances of being the GOP nominee would be practically impossible. This amazing burden created by the Democrats to hurt his chances has seemingly backfired.
Right now Trump is way ahead in the polls of all the potential Republican candidates. The question that stands out is if he does get the GOP nod, can he win in a general election?
From my partisan viewpoint, if this country has 4 more years of Joe Biden, our country will evolve into devastating socialism and economic collapse. God help us if that happens.
Regardless, it is a special week, celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ by millions of Christians world wide.
As disconcerting as things are, I hope everyone had a happy Easter and many blessings. Let us pray for the salvation of our nation. Trump has the courage and know how to do it, but can he win in a general election with all these legal challenges?
As always, your comments are welcome and appreciated.
Company is FOUR TIMES the Size as When Andre Bouchard and Kevin Shannon Hatched the Unprecedented Idea for a Dissolution, Government Takeover, and Forced Auction of An Industry Leader
No entrepreneur can ever feel safe in Delaware, because no matter how successful your company is, the Chancery can just take it. The Chancellor can lie to the Public with impunity, against all the witness and testimony, and call your company “dysfunctional,” and try to steal it; making his best friends rich in the process; that’s the real dysfunction here, folks. If it can happen to TransPerfect, it can happen to you.
OPINION
Dear Friends,
Happy Easter to you, your family and TransPerfect employees and their families!
At least we don’t have to worry that Andre Bouchard, Leo Strine, Kevin Shannon, Bob Pincus, and Jennifer Voss won’t be able to put food on their tables this Easter Sunday. I’m sure caviar will be on the feast menu for years to come in their households, all thanks to TransPerfect workers. I pray justice eventually comes for them, but in the meantime:
A Happy Easter celebration all around!
Sincerely Yours,
JUDSON Bennett–Coastal Network
OPINION
Dear Friends,
I was reading about these so-called ‘catch and kill’ payments in Trump’s indictment and, well folks, I’ve heard of supposed situations where the Chancery has caught and killed stories set to run in the Delaware News Journal.
Why is the Chancery Court not being arrested for their role in Catch and Kill? If I had a dollar for every time they supposedly called upon the Delaware News Journal to try to kill a story, I’d be rich! Should the Chancery be arrested for such a scheme?
Half of the Delaware Court stories I write about were probably killed by the Chancery Court at the News Journal! They can’t kill the Coastal Network, folks!
See the ABC News store below and let me know your thoughts on this. I’m curious! I always appreciate your feedback.
Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg detailed the alleged scheme on Tuesday.
In August 2015, shortly after announcing his candidacy for president, Donald Trump convened a meeting at his namesake Manhattan skyscraper to hatch a plan to “suppress negative stories” that might threaten to derail his White House bid, prosecutors claimed in charging documents on Tuesday.
Two of the candidate’s most trusted allies joined him at the Trump Tower confab, according to prosecutors: his longtime attorney Michael Cohen, and a tabloid executive named David Pecker.
The trio agreed to an arrangement in which Pecker would act as the campaign’s “eyes and ears” to identify negative stories, according to prosecutors, after which he would procure their exclusive rights and never publish. Prosecutors claim Trump and Cohen agreed to then “reimburse” Pecker’s company, National Enquirer publisher American Media Inc., known as AMI.
(click on the link above for more…)
Opinion
Dear friends,
For the first time in United States history, a former President, Donald Trump, (other than President Grant, who was arrested for speeding in a horse drawn carriage) has been arrested and indicted in New York City for outrageous and fallacious charges that have absolutely no merit.
Alvin Bragg, a George Soros, New York City funded phony, who promotes crime, refuses to prosecute real criminals, and is totally supported by ignorant liberals, actually ran on a platform of prosecuting Trump.
Yesterday, in an unprecedented horror show, former President Donald Trump was charged with 34 felonies having to do with paying off porn star Stormy Daniels and the alleged falsification of business records.
The case, according to innumerable prominent attorneys including famous litigator and Democrat Alan Dershowitz has absolutely no possibility of being successful. It is possible in extremely liberal NY City, that Trump could be convicted, but it would be overturned on appeal.
The statute of limitations has expired and the charges are not within Bragg’s purview according to innumerable legal experts.
Folks, this is truly a political prosecution caused in my view by a corrupt Democrat party who have weaponized the justice system to go after their opponents. This is what happens in Banana Republics. This is no longer the Constitutional America I was raised in. We are now a State of pure corruption that will come after you with the FBI, if you criticize the current Democrat government. If a former President can have this happen, it can happen to you and me. This is beyond frightening–it is a nightmare !
Trump made a significant speech last night about this horrendous situation. He specified his intentions to keep fighting. He has raised over $8 million dollars since his indictment.
Folks, the door is now wide open, and any state AG who wants to make a name for himself can indict and prosecute any former President. After impeachment or after he leaves office, Biden will be arrested and prosecuted for sure.
We now live in a Banana Republic, and our country is no longer a free society. God help us if we don’t remove these monsters from office.
That is the way I see it, what do you think? As always your comments are welcome and appreciated.
Sincerely Yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal Network
OPINION
Dear Friends,
Here is someone else accusing Robert Pincus of unethical behavior. It’s not just in the TransPerfect case – he’s being accused in this case as well, as you’ll read in the Law360 story below.
For those of you who thought what happened in the TransPerfect case in the Delaware Chancery Court was an isolated incident – Pincus ran the auction process for that company – you’d be wrong! It’s so bad in this case, folks, that one of the Good Old Boys Club members, Morris Nichols, has sought his disqualification.
But, in my view, despite the most serious allegations of wrongdoing in the history of all Custodianships, somehow the establishment is still silent on this. Multiple fouls in multiple cases? Where is the investigation? How is he unscathed after all of this??
In my book, if it smells rotten, it IS rotten. I’ve been saying this for years. Here he is corroding and corrupting yet another case, as I see it.
Read the Law360 story below and tell me what you think. Your opinion is always welcome and appreciated.
Law360 (March 30, 2023, 1:36 PM EDT) — A federal judge on Thursday found no evidence that the special master coordinating a high-profile auction for control of Citgo pressured the U.S. government to change its sanctions policy, rejecting an effort by Venezuela to disqualify the court-appointed master.
The disqualification dispute arose from a Jan. 12 meeting at which special master Robert B. Pincus spoke to representatives from the U.S. Department of Justice, among other federal agencies, about the sale of shares in Citgo parent PDV Holding Inc., a subsidiary of the state-owned oil giant Petróleos de Venezuela SA.
In a ruling given from the bench, U.S. Circuit Judge Leonard P. Stark said Venezuela and the oil companies put forth no evidence that Pincus – a retired partner at Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP tried to convince the government to license that sale.
Rather, the special master seems to have wanted clarity on whether the Office of Foreign Assets Control, a division of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, would approve the Citgo auction, according to Judge Stark. That inquiry, he told the parties Thursday, is entirely reasonable.
“The government’s position could change at any time,” Judge Stark said, adding that he and Pincus “entirely respect and understand” that the Biden administration will have the final word on whether to license the Citgo sale.
Judge Stark was elevated to the Federal Circuit last year but continues to oversee cases brought in the Delaware district court involving Venezuela’s creditors.
The ruling came after Venezuela on Thursday morning pressed him to boot Pincus from the case, saying the court-appointed master appeared to have crossed a line by advocating for a change in U.S. sanctions policy earlier this year.
Details on the Jan. 12 meeting remain unclear – a lack of transparency that counsel for the Venezuelan government said suggests Pincus sought to convince federal authorities to license the sale, despite U.S. sanctions on the South American nation.
Advocacy of that kind is clearly inappropriate conduct for a judicial officer, according to Donald B. Verrilli Jr., of Munger Tolles & Olson LLP, representing Venezuela. Acknowledging that Venezuela can only infer what took place at the closed-door meeting, Verrilli told Judge Stark that urging a shift in U.S. foreign policy is “over the line.”
“That is not impartial administration or enforcement of the law,” he said at Thursday’s hearing.
Venezuela’s push to disqualify Pincus, who was appointed special master in May 2021, threatened to disrupt an auction process that has already proved languid at times.
The sale of shares in PDV Holding would go toward satisfying a $1.2 billion arbitral judgment for Crystallex International Corp., a Canadian mining firm that Venezuela expelled from the country more than a decade ago.
But an auction needs OFAC’s approval due to U.S. sanctions on Caracas. That agency, under the Trump and Biden administrations, has been reluctant to issue a license for selling off control of Citgo – often referred to as the “crown jewel” of Venezuelan assets.
To that end, a lawyer for Pincus told the court Thursday that the special master met with federal officials in January merely to request clarity from OFAC on the government’s position.
Pincus certainly didn’t seek to “subordinate” American foreign policy to his plans for the PDVH auction, according to Ray C. Schrock, of Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP. Instead, the special master was executing his responsibilities by soliciting guidance on whether the auction will go forward.
“We needed clarity about what the U.S. government’s position would be,” Schrock told Judge Stark. “That is, in no way, disqualifying conduct.”
OFAC officials did not attend the Jan. 12 meeting, according to Schrock. In addition to Pincus and the Justice Department representatives, it included lawyers from the Treasury Department and the U.S. Department of State, he said.
Verrilli contended, however, that Pincus never directly denied asking for a policy change.
There is a “categorical difference,” he told Judge Stark, between seeking clarity on a government policy and pressing federal officials to adopt a certain view. Pincus, if he asked OFAC to approve the Citgo sale, is “advocating that the executive branch change its foreign policy judgment,” Verrilli said.
“That is really our core concern here,” he added.
Venezuela had raised concerns over the Jan. 12 meeting just three days prior, asking Judge Stark to allow its representatives to attend the session.
The judge denied the request on Jan. 11, saying Venezuelan officials didn’t give him enough time to consider the issue.
Citgo, along with PDVSA and PDV Holding, subsequently filed a motion to disqualify Pincus from overseeing the auction process. Venezuela joined that effort in late January.
But the timeliness issue still proved problematic.
Judge Stark noted on Thursday that the parties have known for nearly two years that Pincus was engaged in ex parte communication with OFAC. Moreover, he said, they knew in late December that Pincus would meet with federal officials early this year. Still, the movants waited until Jan. 9 to request court intervention.
“I just don’t think you can sit on that kind of an issue for that many days without even contacting the court,” Judge Stark said.
That delay seemed to be “strategic,” he added, since disqualifying Pincus from the Citgo auction would prolong the case even more.
“I do believe it has, at least, a substantial element of being tactical and designed with … a partial goal of further delaying these proceedings,” he said.
Attorneys for Pincus and Petróleos de Venezuela each declined to comment on Thursday. Counsel for the other parties did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Venezuela is represented by A. Thompson Bayliss and Stephen C. Childs of Abrams & Bayliss LLP, and Donald B. Verrilli Jr., Elaine J. Goldenberg, Ginger Anders and George M. Garvey of Munger Tolles & Olson LLP.
PDV Holding and Citgo are represented by Kenneth J. Nachbar and Alexandra M. Cumings of Morris Nichols Arsht & Tunnell LLP, and Nathan P. Eimer, Lisa S. Meyer, Daniel D. Birk, Gregory M. Schweizer and Emily E. Sullivan of Eimer Stahl LLP.
Petróleos de Venezuela is represented by Samuel Taylor Hirzel II of Heyman Enerio Gattuso & Hirzel LLP, and Joseph D. Pizzurro, Kevin A. Meehan and Juan O. Perla of Curtis Mallet-Prevost Colt & Mosle LLP.
Pincus is represented by Myron T. Steele, Matthew F. Davis, Bindu A. Palapura and Abraham Schneider of Potter Anderson & Corroon LLP, and Ray C. Schrock, Alexander W. Welch and Chase A. Bentley of Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP.
Crystallex is represented by Raymond J. DiCamillo, Jeffrey L. Moyer and Travis S. Hunter of Richards Layton & Finger PA, and Robert L. Weigel, Jason W. Myatt, Rahim Moloo, Miguel A. Estrada, Lucas C. Townsend and Adam M. Smith of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP.
The case is Crystallex International Corp. v. Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, case number 1:17-mc-00151, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware.
–Additional reporting by Peter McGuire. Editing by Robert Rudinger.
Update: This story has been updated with more information from Judge Stark’s ruling.
OPINION
Dear Friends,
The United States is now a banana republic. Our freedoms are gone and the prosecution of Donald Trump is absolutely outrageous.
New York City is an open sewer of crime, much of which is no longer prosecuted. Muggings, hijackings, and worse are common and not even considered by corrupt Alvin Bragg! When a former President is charged for nothing, the Orwellian society of the Democrats can and will come after you. We have now lost our country.
I will die before I let this stand. If you are a Democrat you are my enemy. I demand that Biden be impeached for treason and his crackhead son be indicted. That would be pure justice.
I am now backing Trump 100%.
I urge my fellow citizens to rise up and vote these despicable monsters out of office.
That’s all I have to say.
Your comments are welcome.
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal Network
Opinion
Dear Friends.
I yearn for the old, blessed days of “apple pie and motherhood” when we could leave our doors unlocked, when respect for law and order was the way of America. Such things as abortion were illegal and virtually unheard of. I miss the days of pride in my country, when we were respected throughout the world.
Institutions like the FBI were once revered, but now are seemingly corrupt. I always believed that my government was for me, cared about me, promoted freedom of speech and wanted me to enjoy prosperity. “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”– indeed the American dream — were always my reality and what I always hoped to accomplish.
Capitalism, the American right and privilege to be free to engage in our own enterprises whether we win or lose, as permitted by our Constitution to me was always paramount. Now folks, it has all changed and we are on the brink of something much different if our society does not change this frightening trend by many of our misguided youth towards Socialism and eventual Marxism, eliminating many of our freedoms.
Folks, the idea of disrespecting a police officer, resisting arrest, armed robbery, hijacking a car, violent shootings in our schools, smash and grabs by emboldened gangs of arrogant teenagers was beyond anything I could ever imagine. The idea of some boys wanting to be girls and some girls wanting to be boys and indulging in sex change operations was unheard of. Now biological males are taking over female sports, claiming that because they have long hair, have grown breasts through female hormone injections, they are now real women, when in fact they are still stronger and faster than real females. Female sports could soon be totally compromised and ruined.
Folks, I am well educated, I went to a fancy prep school, called “St. Andrew’s School for Boys” (10 people in a class) which is now 40% diverse, which I believe now prepares its high-level students for the “Woke”, liberal Universities that seem to be brainwashing our youth towards something that to me is un-American! Frankly, I believe Felix DuPont, my old school’s founder, is rolling over in his grave.
However, I am sure some of my liberal , former classmates might disagree with me. When I get letters from my old school that are signed “In Community”, I become extremely worried. My old roommate whose father lost his business and home under Castro, told me that is how the Communist, Cuban government signed its written admonitions and policies. When Stamford University Law School Students shout down a guest speaker who is a federal judge, creating an arena of censorship, I am appalled and shocked. These are the future Politicians and Judges in our society. I have a Bachelor’s Degree and a Master’s Degree from the University of Delaware and I am very well read. “Brave New World” by Huxley or “1984” by George Orwell- fiction at the time they were written, stories about a world where the government controls every aspect of human life, are slowly becoming a reality if we continue to let it happen.
Indeed, a country with open borders, allowing millions upon millions of illegal aliens to enter is no longer a viable country. A country that has a corrupt President who has sold out to Communist China is no longer a viable country. A country that defunds its police, allowing crime to the point of anarchy is no longer a viable country. Is this the freedom that our founding fathers intended? I think not. Censorship, a totalitarian FBI and IRS supported by a corrupt DOJ are becoming more and more apparent.
Folks, we are on the brink of disaster if we do not change and do it quickly. President Joe Biden, controlled and supported by a Democrat Party dedicated to destroying the United States as we now know it. There is a pervasive, evil movement throughout our land and it is real. Please make no mistake about that!
I am not giving up and intend to fight this abomination that is creeping into our country until my last breath. Many of you are with me and understand the dangers we are now facing as a nation. The 2024 election is coming quickly where we Americans must vote out these insidious monsters or we will become a nation of mediocrity with no hope or future for prosperity and happiness.
That is the way I see it. What do you think? As always your comments are welcome and appreciated.
I appreciate all of your feedback on the Lucky Charms St. Patrick’s Day ad that ran in the Delaware News Journal.
To answer many of you who asked, Citizens for Judicial Fairness issued the ad “to remind Delawareans of the hypocrisy of the state’s highest courts.” and how our once proud Chancery Court’s “long rainbow ends in pots of gold that fund their lavish lifestyles at the expense of Delaware taxpayers.”
They talk about the “dire state” of courts in Delaware, as I have been pounding the table on that same issue regarding what I see as Chancery Court lies and corruption.
See the link below for more on the, as I call it, Unlucky Charms ad. And keep the feedback coming, it is always welcome and appreciated!
Chancery Court Poorly Chose to Do Business With Credit Suisse, Which Started the Banking Meltdown and Ultimately Had to Be Bailed Out by UBS and Swiss authorities
Dear Friends,
The Chancery Court made an awful choice in keeping sorid company with Credit Suisse, which had to be bailed out this week after severe financial trouble and even being found guilty in a cocaine cash laundering case.
Truly distasteful company our once-proud Chancery Court keeps. This is a sad day for the court, folks.
This untenable bank was THE choice of Robert Pincus and Andre Bouchard for the auction of TransPerfect?! We’re dealing with amatures, as I see it. The Chancery Court deserves better.
See the Reuters story below and send your feedback. It’s always welcome and appreciated.
March 19 (Reuters) – Some of the world’s largest central banks came together on Sunday to stop a banking crisis from spreading as Swiss authorities persuaded UBS Group AG (UBSG.S) to buy rival Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN.S) in a historic deal.
UBS will pay 3 billion Swiss francs ($3.23 billion) for 167-year-old Credit Suisse and assume up to $5.4 billion in losses in a deal backed by a massive Swiss guarantee and expected to close by the end of 2023.
“It’s a historic day in Switzerland, and a day frankly, we hoped, would not come,” UBS Chair Colm Kelleher told analysts on a conference call. “I would like to make it clear that while we did not initiate discussions, we believe that this transaction is financially attractive for UBS shareholders,” Kelleher said.
UBS CEO Ralph Hamers said there were still many details to be worked through.
“I know that there must be still questions that we have not been able to answer,” he said. “And I understand that and I even want to apologize for it.”
In a global response not seen since the height of the pandemic, the Fed said it had joined with central banks in Canada, England, Japan, the EU and Switzerland in a coordinated action to enhance market liquidity. The ECB vowed to support euro zone banks with loans if needed, adding the Swiss rescue of Credit Suisse was “instrumental” for restoring calm.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell and U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen welcomed the announcement by the Swiss authorities. The Bank of England also praised the Swiss.
“The greater risk environment for financials leads to husbanding of capital and risk-taking, less and more conservative investing and lending, and inevitably, lower growth,” said Lloyd Blankfein, former chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N).
“While some banks have been hung up by poorly managed, concentrated risk, the overall banking system is extremely well capitalized and substantially more tightly regulated than in prior challenging times.”
The Swiss banking marriage follows efforts in Europe and the United States to support the sector since the collapse of U.S. lenders Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.
OPINION
Dear Friends,
As the nation watches the fluid attempt by Manhattan prosecutor Alvin Bragg to charge Trump with a ridiculous, shallow, and weak accusation concerning the payoff of Stormy Daniels, the Grand Jury, was told not to convene yesterday, but to stand by today.
Bragg, is an insipid, soft-on-crime idiot who is supported and funded by America hater George Soros. Bragg allows robberies, assaults, hijackings, and much more without prosecution and has helped, along with New York City’s useless Mayor, to turn this once great City into an open sewer of crime. This once fabulous city (The Big Apple) is now the Rotten Apple.
Ironically, this incompetent jerk is now trying to take down Trump for a charge that the DOJ, FCC, and FBI found not to be a valid case. Furthermore, a state prosecutor has no jurisdiction to prosecute a federal crime. Additionally the Statute of Limitations has expired.
The Secret Service has stated that if Trump is charged, he will not be subjected to handcuffs or the public perp walk that Bragg would like to see happen. Trump’s lawyers are confident that even if Trump is indicted, ultimately the case will fail and Trump will be vindicated.
The rumors are rampant, indicating that the Grand Jury is not convinced that Trump should be prosecuted.
Frankly, in my view, Bragg should be the one prosecuted and disbarred. These authoritarian monsters who are supported and elected by Democrats must be eliminated or our country will evolve into anarchy.
Stay tuned folks, we will see what happens?
As always, your comments are welcome and appreciated.
OPINION
Dear Friends,
Take a look at the story below. Is it hard to believe that THERE IS NOT something corrupt going on here? Look who the Chancery Court is doing business with, folks! There are arrests, years and years of outright scandal, including criminals, dictators and shredded docs.
Credit Suisse has the audacity to accuse TransPerfect that its motion is fraud?? When they have a rich and deep history of criminal activity?! Why would Delaware’s Chancery Court pick this bank, of all the banks in the world, to do business with?! It is cloaked in criminal activity, folks!
It’s a stain on the Chancery Court’s reputation to appoint Skadden Arps in the first place. And THEN they appoint Credit Suisse to run the action of the company? Shameful and downright unjust when you look at all the illegal activity that Credit Suisse is associated with.
Credit Suisse criticized TransPerfect’s litigation by saying it was frivolous, litigious and without merit. It is ridiculously ironic that Credit Suisse criticised the company for litigation over the company’s sale, given Credit Suisse’s 35-year long documented criminal activity, as you’ll see in the story below, which has resulted in billions in fines and sanctions.
Let us not forget that attorney Robert Pincus, as the court-appointed custodian, appointed Credit Suisse. He of Skadden Arps goes to the dirtiest investment banking firm out there!
Additionally, former Chancellor Andre Bouchard had an opportunity to say he didn’t want dirty Credit Suisse to work on this! But he didn’t. The custodian works for him, folks! The buck stops with Bouchard, who had the audacity to appoint Pincus, from Skadden, the most expensive saw firm in all of the world.
I’ll say it again. Credit Suisse is a stain on the Chancery’s reputation. Pincus, Credit Suisse, Bouchard and all the controversy that came along with it, all are a stain on the Chancery’s reputation.
Read the Guardian story below for all of the dirty details. I would love to hear your feedback on this, folks.
Respectfully Yours,
JUDSON Bennett–Coastal Network
Robert Pincus, Andre Bouchard, Leo Strine Highlighted in Unlucky Ad!
Dear Friends,
First it was Jabba the Hutts, now it’s Lucky Charms on St. Patrick’s Day!
You all know from reading my columns in recent years that our once-famous-and-proud Chancery Court has been dirtied and sullied by the reign of Andre Bouchard, Leo Strine and Robert Pincus.
They are being called out for their Chancery Court lies and corruption. Look at the full-page ad below, which ran in the Delaware News Journal, to see what these former Skadden Good Old Boys have done to America’s First State’s equity court.
Your feedback is always welcome and appreciated!
Respectfully Yours,
JUDSON Bennett–Coastal Network
OPINION
Dear friend,
President Joe Biden, besides being the worst President in United States history, is without any doubt in my mind, not only a huge hypocrite, phony, and a criminal, he is now and always has been a nefarious liar about everything in his entire life.
He lied about his grades, his education, his accomplishments, his marriage to Jill and how they met, and much more. It amazes me that the majority of the people of Delaware and much of the nation never really recognized, just how bad Biden really is? Not only is he all of the horrible things I mentioned above, he is also quite stupid and incredibly arrogant.
When you are President, eventually, everything you ever said or did is checked and documented. Biden always thought he was immune to being exposed. A corrupt press has apparently been covering up for Biden’s despicable prevarications combined with his previous charisma (which is no more), is the only possible explanation I can offer for his re-elections and now absurd Presidency? Well folks, the chickens have finally started to come home to roost!
The latest outrageous lie that Biden propagated, which was only covered by Fox News, is his laughable and false story about his epiphany concerning his feelings about Gay marriage. Being from Delaware, having played football against Joe Biden at his school (Archmere Academy) and at my old school St. Andrew’s, this latest lie really rubs me the wrong way, and I can personally vouch for his falsehood.
Biden claims at a young age he learned from his father how to appreciate Gay relationships and marriage. Biden said recently, that when he was a young boy, while his father was dropping him off at Archmere Academy, they observed two well-dressed men in business suits kissing, and after the embrace, Biden says he watched one man go into the DuPont building and the other go into the Hercules building across the Street. His father told him it was “because they loved each other.” Biden then said, got out of the car and went into his school.
Here’s the rub folks: The DuPont building is and was 7 miles from Archmere Academy and the Hercules Building was not built until 1989. Biden graduated in 1961. I know the area extremely well. He is lying.
What is even more damming, there is a clear video of Biden stating as a young Senator, “That marriage should only be between a man and a woman and he was opposed to Gay Marriage.”
Folks, Biden has lied all his life, and he is lying to the American people about everything. He must be removed from office and the thought of him being in charge of our country for another term as President gives me chills. He is, in my view, a true abomination.
I personally don’t care what people do in their bedrooms. But Biden, who has always been homo-phobic and definitely touted it as a young man at Archmere Academy in 1961 according to my very reliable information. He has conveniently changed his tune for political purposes and has made up an absurd story to back it up. He is so stupid, he never thought this lie, among his thousands of others, would be recognized. That is the truth as I know it, and how I clearly see it. What do you think?
As always your feedback is welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkCoastal Network Asks: Why Was Andre Bouchard a Controversial Character? We Got Quite the Answer From ChatGPTOPINION
Dear Friends,
I finally tried ChatGPT, folks, after hearing so much buzz about it. For an old guy, I’ll admit I’m slow to try new things, but I was curious to try it and I asked it this question: Why was Andre Bouchard a controversial character?
In summary, Bouchard’s handling of the TransPerfect case got him into deep trouble as he ignored evidence, awarded excessive legal fees, had close ties to his favorite attorneys and firms (Skadden), awareding lucrative legal fees, according to ChatGPT, and his domain over the court defamed it, questioning the integrity and impartiality of the court itself.
Well said, ChatGPT. If you want to try it, just Google ChatGPT and you can start asking questions.
In case you’re not familiar with it, as I also wasn’t, ChatGPT is a language processing tool driven by artificial intelligence technology and creates human-like conversations on the internet. with a chatbot. ChatGPT answers questions, and helps with tasks such as emails and essays.
It’s been on my mind lately as I’ve been writing about Bouchard and the Chancery Court Corruption that he ruled and fueled.
I’ll let you read it, as I pasted the ChatGPT answer below.
I would love to hear your feedback on this, folks. Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks?
Respectfully Yours,
JUDSON Bennett–Coastal Network
From ChatGPT:
Question:
Why was Andre Bouchard a controversial character?
Answer:
Andre Bouchard was a controversial figure because of his actions during his time as a judge in the Delaware Chancery Court, one of the most powerful corporate law courts in the United States. Bouchard was appointed to the court in 2014 by Delaware Governor Jack Markell, and served until 2019.
One of the main controversies surrounding Bouchard involved his handling of a case involving the sale of TransPerfect, a successful translation services company based in Delaware. The case was brought before Bouchard after the company’s co-founders, Liz Elting and Phil Shawe, were unable to agree on how to run the company and decided to sell it.
Bouchard’s handling of the case was criticized by some, including Shawe and several lawmakers, who accused him of overstepping his bounds and favoring Elting, who was represented by attorneys with close ties to Bouchard. Critics also accused Bouchard of ignoring evidence that would have favored Shawe, and of awarding excessive legal fees to the law firm that represented Elting.
In addition to the TransPerfect case, Bouchard was also criticized for his close ties to certain attorneys and law firms that appeared before him in court. Some accused Bouchard of being too cozy with these lawyers, and of awarding them lucrative legal fees at the expense of the companies they represented.
Overall, Bouchard’s controversial actions and decisions during his time as a judge in the Delaware Chancery Court have led some to question the integrity and impartiality of the court itself, which is widely considered to be one of the most important and influential corporate law courts in the United States.OPINION
Dear Friends,The Chancery Court keeps sorid company with Credit Suisse, which postponed its annual report due to financial statement trouble with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This comes after Credit Suisse was found guilty in a cocaine cash laundering case!
First that, now this, folks. What unsavory company our once-proud Chancery Court keeps!
These are the people that Robert Pincus and Andre Bouchard conspired with and hired to auction off TransPerfect, as I wrote about this week.
Now clients are withdrawing billions, which is ironic because greed and a lack of humanity is exactly what got Credit Suisse into this scorching hot mess of quicksand in the first place. They are guilty and deserve this sleazy slop disaster that they’ve gotten themselves into.
This court needs a facelift and pronto, folks!
Please see the Reuters story below and send your feedback on this, folks. It’s always welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
JUDSON Bennnett–Coastal Network
https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/credit-suisse-delays-publication-annual-report-following-sec-call-2023-03-09/
March 9, 2023
Credit Suisse delays annual report after SEC call
By Noele Illien and Oliver Hirt
ZURICH, March 9 (Reuters) – Credit Suisse has postponed publication of its annual report after a last-minute call from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which raised questions about its earlier financial statements.
The unusual intervention by the U.S regulator is the latest blow to Credit Suisse as it attempts to rebuild investor confidence after a series of scandals and setbacks that have sent its shares plunging and led clients to withdraw billions.
The Zurich-based bank said the SEC had called it late on Wednesday regarding “certain open SEC comments about the technical assessment of previously disclosed revisions to the consolidated cash flow statements in the years ended December 31, 2020, and 2019, as well as related controls.”
The bank had revised how it booked a series of cash flows, including share-based compensation and foreign exchange hedges.
Credit Suisse said that following the call it had decided to postpone publication of its 2022 annual report.
“Management believes it is prudent to briefly delay the publication of its accounts in order to understand more thoroughly the comments received,” it said, adding that the 2022 financial results “are not impacted”.
The SEC declined to comment on the matter, a spokesman for the organization said.
Other regulatory authorities were not involved, a person familiar with the matter said.
Swiss financial regulator Finma told Reuters that Credit Suisse had informed it of the delayed publication.
“We are in contact with the bank,” Finma said.
‘CONSTRUCTION SITE’
It remains unclear when the annual report will be released. The delay was unusual, according to five attorneys and experts Reuters spoke to .
“The disclosure is strategically and carefully worded so as not to raise alarms,” said Jacob Frenkel, a former SEC enforcement attorney who is now government investigations and securities enforcement practice chair for law firm Dickinson Wright.
It “lays the groundwork for the explanation for the revisions to the financial statements. Nothing about the release has an ‘enforcement’ centric tone.”
Still, the Credit Suisse announcement concerned analysts.
“(It) does not help investor sentiment and it does not help in rebuilding trust,” said Andreas Venditti from Vontobel.
Switzerland’s second-biggest bank has begun a major overhaul of its business, cutting costs and jobs to revive its fortunes, including creating a separate business for its investment bank under the CS First Boston brand.
Daniel Bosshard from Luzerner Kantonalbank described Credit Suisse as “a major construction site” and said “the share is only suitable for turnaround speculators.”
In February, Credit Suisse reported that 2022 brought its biggest annual loss since the 2008 global financial crisis after rattled clients pulled funds from the bank, and it warned that a further “substantial” loss would come this year.
Among a string of scandals, Credit Suisse was hard hit by the collapse of U.S. investment firm Archegos in 2021 as well as the freezing of billions of supply chain finance funds linked to insolvent British financier Greensill.
The bank was also rocked by a prosecution in Switzerland involving laundering money for a criminal gang.
Meanwhile, credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s downgraded Credit Suisse to just one level above so-called junk status in November last year.
And the Chancery Court is Still, To This Day, Taking Millions From the Company and Its Workers
OPINION
Dear Friends,
Please take a moment to watch this incredible LinkedIn video.
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7035307166345351168/TransPerfect India was facing almost certain destruction at the hands of Andre Bouchard, Kevin Shannon, Leo Strine, Stephen Lamb, Jennifer Voss, and Robert Pincus who are (in my opinion) the pillars of Chancery Court Corruption. If their evil plan to merge TransPerfect into its competitor HIG/Lionbridge had worked, all these jobs, and thousands more closer to home, would have been destroyed. My sources tell me Lionbridge has a large office in another Indian city, and this was a source of sure destruction for TransPerfect India.
Thank god Chancery’s evil plan didn’t work–and as I see it, the complete string of unending lies by Chancellor Bouchard were exposed and debunked. He dissolved a thriving corporation for dysfunction!
I ask you, does this company seem dysfunctional? Please watch and answer. Your comments are always appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
JUDSON Bennett–Coastal Network
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7035307166345351168/Phil Shawe
President & CEO of TransPerfect | Entrepreneur | Philanthropist |
Coach, Mentor, Leader | Fan of Adventure Travel
Just a typical Wednesday at the Pune TransPerfect office…
A great honor of being CEO is having the opportunity to travel to our global offices, meet with our teams, and celebrate significant milestones.
Thank you to Anita G. and TransPerfect India for the warmest welcome I have ever received—what a surprise! Stay tuned for a second post with big news from Pune.
Happy 20th Anniversary TransPerfect India!OPINION
Dear Friends,
Don’t count former President Donald Trump out from winning the Republican nomination for President of the United States in the 2024 election. Despite the bad publicity from the January 6th fiasco and his vociferous and direct style, Trump is the favorite to win the nod, according to the polls. He controls 35% to 40% of the GOP and that percentage is real. Frankly, although in error with his knocking of former VP Mike Pence over the verification of the Electors, Trump never advocated attacking the Capital and he will not be prosecuted successfully for that.
Although very popular and extremely successful in Florida, and indeed a man who would be an excellent President, Governor Ron DeSantis is well behind Trump in the polls. Former Governor and UN secretary Nikki Haley is also a capable candidate, but also well behind Trump. I am hopeful that Trump will resist speaking ill of this competition, however Trump is Trump, and beats to his own drum.
At the CPAC convention in Maryland, Trump easily won the straw vote with 62% of the vote. He gave a dynamic speech covering all the inadequacies of Joe Biden, the worst President in U.S. history—covering his lies, influence peddling, border operation, terrible evacuation of our troops from Afghanistan, destruction of our oil and gas industry, and much more.
Frankly, any Republican candidate over this idiot Joe Biden, would be fine with me. Biden is doing his best to ruin this country. A Donald Trump and Nikki Haley combo would be very hard to beat if indeed the scenario turns out that way.
That’s the way I see it. As always, your comments are welcome and appreciated. Let me know what you think.
Sincerely yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal Network
Highlighting Chancery Court Corruption
Dear Friends,
Many of you checked out Leo the Hutt and his cabal of Jabba the Hutts!
Leo Strine, Andre Bouchard and Jennifer Voss being called out for their Chancery Court corruption indeed is well-deserved for this collection of corrupt and former Skadden Good Old Boys. You chimed in and let me know, ranging from supportive to outraged. I’ll share your feedback in my next column.
Until then, I present the full-page ad that ran in the Delaware News Journal. Your feedback is always welcome and appreciated!
Respectfully Yours,
JUDSON Bennett–Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
I was amazed at the remarkable feedback I received from my last piece: 99% of you are extremely concerned about the huge increase in crime everywhere. Only one response took me to task, saying that since a huge six-foot-five student attacked a Teacher’s Aide in Florida recently, “DeSantis should get his own house in order first, before criticizing any other state or municipality.” The huge difference between how most of these other places operate and the state of Florida is that perpetrators are prosecuted and they go to jail. They are not out the next day, to continue with carjacking, smash and grabs, vicious assaults, and brutal murders like they are in most Democrat controlled cities.
Cash bail, which has been eliminated in many Democrat-controlled cities, is the major problem, while woke, progressive, corrupt prosecutors financed by George Soros — who refuse to do their jobs — is another serious issue. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis does not tolerate this absurdity and if you commit a crime, you are arrested and prosecuted in the state of Florida. I personally had a car theft and a home invasion issue. The police arrested the crook the next day and he is now serving a prison sentence.
I was delighted to learn that Chicago voted out one of the worst mayors in U.S. history: Lori Lightfoot. She actually encouraged crime and allowed an already spiralling crime situation to explode to extreme proportions. Good riddance!
As the American people are finally determined to end this criminal anarchy, they are finally waking up and slowly taking criminal prosecutors and incompetent politicians to task. Nobody wants to live in fear.
Folks, vote these monsters out of office, and look to Florida as the way to best govern in the U.S.A.!
Respectfully submitted,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
Can you imagine walking down the street in New York City and a guy punches you for no reason or throws you off a subway platform? If you own a business anywhere in Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, or even Washington DC among other Democrat controlled cities, imagine organized gangs invading your business, smashing and grabbing your merchandise? In all these places, District Attorneys, financed by George Soros, refuse to prosecute these blatant criminals, and there is no cash bail! The same criminals are able to operate over and over again with absolute impunity.
Folks, I value a person based on how they think and how they treat me. I also have no problem pointing out factual reality. Gangs, involved in vicious attacks, high-jackings, smash and grabs, and other violent crimes have become totally out of control, and we are no longer safe anywhere in most American cities. Crime has increased in all aspects, the police have been defunded and are no longer effective. Where are the parents and community leaders who should be influencing the American youth? Anarchy is happening throughout our country and we are no longer safe.
Interestingly, this rarely happens in Florida, because of Governor Ron DeSantis, where crime is not tolerated, regardless of a person’s race. There is cash bail, there is a stand your ground law (many private citizens are legally armed), and criminals are arrested, prosecuted, and go to jail. I think Florida is the safest state in the Union, because our Governor and his legislature have good sense and are willing to protect the citizens in the Sunshine State.
Folks, the answers to these problems are obvious. Vote out these Democrat Mayors, Governors and weak, prosecuting Attorneys, increase funding for the police, bring back cash bail, and promote more, active community outreach in impoverished communities. It is imperative that repeat offenders are removed from our society and locked up. Do I think this will happen any time soon? No, unfortunately I do not.
Regardless, crime will be a major issue in the 2024 election. The United States should look to Florida as the proper way to govern.
That is the way I see it. What do you think? As always your feedback is welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Submitted,
JUDSON Bennett–Coastal NetworkCheck out Leo the Hutt! And his cabal of Jabba the Hutts, folks! Leo Strine, Andre Bouchard and Jennifer Voss are also being called out for their Chancery Court corruption. Well deserved for this collection of corrupt and former Skadden Good Old Boys.
Below is the full page ad that ran in the Delaware News Journal. Take a look and let me know your thoughts. Your feedback is always welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
JUDSON Bennett–Coastal NetworkOpinion
Dear friends,
Nikita Khrushchev, former Premier of the Soviet Union, once said that the “United States would become communist from within!” It is extremely disturbing to realize, from documented testimony from innumerable students and a few conservative professors, that many of our country’s Universities are dedicated to indoctrinating students towards the destruction of our constitution, the elimination of capitalism, and eventual Communism.
Folks, this is a real and present danger and is actually happening.
Most of your Ivy League Colleges, including Harvard, Yale, University of Pennsylvania, and Columbia have dedicated Socialists teaching our students and indoctrinating them with a communist agenda. Even the University of Delaware has a Woke culture that forces many students to comply with this communist propaganda. In many cases Communist China is sending millions of dollars to various Universities and is also buying up private schools!
To make matters worse, many of the top prep schools, such as Exeter, Choate, and St. Andrew’s have hidden woke agendas, utilizing subtle Diversity Training and Critical Race Theory to prep the students towards a liberal agenda and socialist concepts. By the time these upper level students arrive at their colleges after graduation, they are already geared towards further indoctrination from Communist Professors who are dedicated to destroying our whole system.
Our state Governors, our Representatives and Senators must take legal action to stop the teaching and indoctrination of our students from a curriculum that promotes communism over Capitalism, contrary to our Constitution and American way of life. Folks, this is really happening and is a tremendous threat.
As always, your comments are welcome and appreciated. What do you think?
Respectfully yours,JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
Look at the story below and you’ll see that TransPerfect is still growing and stronger than ever. The company – once saddled with Andre Bochard and his court-appointed cronies like Robert Pincus syphoning millions out of the company – is doing better than ever.
I repeatedly said nothing was ever wrong with this company when Andre Bouchard took it over for 3 years for what I clearly saw as paying his friends off with it. Then Bouchard left and now the company is three times bigger. It’s so offensive that the government took this company over for 3 years. There was never anything wrong with it.
I’m glad to see them thriving after being treated harshly by Bouchard and Leo Strine. Please send your feedback on this, folks. It’s always appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
JUDSON Bennett
US-basedTransPerfecthas released its financial results for 2022. After hitting amilestone in 2021— when TransPerfect became the first language service provider (LSP) ever to record annual revenues of USD 1bn or more —, the Super Agency grew by 4.6% to USD 1.16bn in 2022.
In dollar terms, TransPerfect grew by USD 51m, with the company once again retaining its title as theworld’s largest LSP by revenue. TransPerfect’s President and CEO,Phil Shawe, told Slator, “about half our growth was organic and about half could be attributed to recent M&A partners.”
As a privately-owned company headquartered in the US, TransPerfect is not required to disclose revenues publicly, but has chosen to do so on a regular basis.
Discussing regional activity, Shawe said, “Based on the strong US dollar, we experienced what we hope is an anomaly: some global divisions grew when measuring in their respective local currencies, but actually contracted when converting that same performance into US dollars for accounting purposes.”
On a vertical basis, Shawe highlighted the travel sector as delivering strong growth in 2022. “Perhaps relatedly, our interpretation business also grew significantly and outperformed expectations for the year,” he added. Other outperforming divisions included Trial Interactive eClinical and TransPerfect Legal Solutions (TLS), which “both had record growth years,” with the latter growing 11% in 2022.
MT and Generative AI
TransPerfect’s technology products and related services were also a major driver of growth in 2022. The company’s machine translation (MT) solution, GlobalLink NOW, saw a 100% increase in sales in 2022.
Shawe said the biggest demand for GlobalLink NOW MT was coming from “some of the most established verticals within TransPerfect” such as life sciences, finance, legal, and travel. There was also good uptake among retail, manufacturing, media, and gaming customers.
Shawe also noted that customers either purchase GlobalLink NOW MT “via GlobalLink AI Portal and APIs, [or] use it in conjunction with our flagship GlobalLink platforms such as Project Director, TransPort, and OneLink.”
Asked about his take on the current buzz around generative AI, Shawe said he believes “thehype around ChatGPTand Large Language Models is certainly justified and will have a profound effect on our industry.” He continued, “We consider ourselves the market leader in providing human-in-the-loop automation workflows and see this new generation of AI models as a powerful addition to that toolset.”
Mergers and Acquisitions
TransPerfect acquired two companies in the second half of 2022: UK-based virtual data room (VDR) technology provider,Sterling Technology, and France-based media localization provider,Hiventy.
Discussing the contribution of Sterling Technology thus far, Shawe said, “In the midst of a challenging M&A market, Sterling has continued to deliver growth in Europe. And, we’re excited to help the Sterling team bring their virtual data room (VDR) solution to the U.S. market in earnest in 2023.”
Meanwhile, “the Hiventy integration is progressing,” he observed, pointing out that the acquisition adds scale to TransPerfect’smedia localizationoperations in France, which include previously acquired companies,Lylo and AGM.
In addition, “Hiventy’s BeeHive and Agora technologies have brought complementary capabilities to MediaNext and StudioNext.” Hiventy’s tech will enhance TransPerfect’s project management platform for dubbing and subtitling with additional content distribution and asset management features.
Asked for an update on trading in 2023, Shawe said “Our first month’s revenue is looking similar to January 2022. Since January 2022 was up more than 20% from 2021, we believe this bodes well for 2023.”
OPINION
Dear Friends,
The Biden administration, besides being criminally incompetent in every facet of government, creating unprecedented inflation, opening our southern border to millions of illegals, creating a drug situation that is killing our people, devastating our economy, destroying female sports, and pushing a communist based, woke culture in our schools, has now put our national security at complete risk by allowing China to spy on us, with a potentially weaponized balloon, that was allowed to traverse the entire U.S. continent, gleaning ultra-sensitive information about our military bases and our nuclear capacities, carefully mapping our facilities for a potential, future attack on our homeland??
The rub here is that this balloon was clearly noticed as it approached Alaska and should have been shot down immediately. Instead, it was allowed to continue on its spying mission throughout our entire country, after which it was shot down over the South Carolina Coast with the payload scattered on the ocean floor. Good luck on proper retrieval with the strong tides and currents and contamination from salt water. In my view the whole deal is the result of pure stupidity.
Since then, 4 more flying objects (balloons we assume) have been shot down because the American people have been totally alarmed and it is all the press is talking about. Unfortunately, Biden won’t discuss it with the American people and let us know what the hell is going on. Rumors are running rampant as a result of Biden’s total incompetence and possible collusion with the Chinese government?
Imagine if the original balloon could have delivered conventional or nuclear devices, which hit our military bases and nuclear launch pads, leaving us defenseless to respond to a nuclear attack? That possibility should show the American people just how compromised President Joe Biden truly is?
I say it with unequivocal conviction, President Joe Biden, in my opinion, is criminally negligent in every way possible and we are not safe as long as he is President.
What do you think?
As always, your comments are welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
I watched with disdain and disgust Biden’s State of the Union address. His portrayal of our country’s current state was filled with inaccuracies and propaganda. Biden, despite his limited mental state, is still able to read a teleprompter and was able to deliver his speech successfully, while the insipid and misguided Democrats fawned over his corrupt words.
A couple of notables:
1) New House Speaker Kevin McCarthy remained a gentleman and did not rip up Biden’s speech as did classless Nancy Pelosi during Trump’s last State of the Union address.
2) Jill Biden looked jaded, stressed, and frumpy. Her purple dress was tasteless.
Some of the despicable misrepresentations that Biden regurgitated were as follows:
1) Biden claims that the shooting down of the Chinese spy Balloon was an exhibition of U.S. strength, when in fact it showed very poor judgement. The Balloon should have been shot down way before it transgressed the entire American continent.
2) Biden claimed he inherited a broken immigration system, and is doing everything he can to fix it. Nothing is further from the truth. Biden created the immigration problem and is doing nothing to fix it.
3) Biden said he inherited a high-inflation economy. When this absurd President took office, inflation was 1.45% . It is now 7%.
4) He stated he had reduced our budget deficit by trillions of dollars. The deficit has increased under Biden’s foolish policies.
5) Biden claimed he has brought down energy prices and is doing everything possible to increase our oil and gas production. Biden has depleted our oil reserves, destroyed our oil industry, and created the situation that has inspired the inflation in our economy.
6) Biden claimed the economy was in free fall when he took office. Nothing was further from the truth. The economy was in great shape when he took office. He has destroyed it.
7) Biden stated his illegal possession of classified documents is nothing out of the ordinary. Another outrageous lie.
Folks, Biden is a hypocrite and a criminal in my opinion. The State of the Union is a mess. As long as Biden is President, things are only going to get worse.
What do you think?
As always, your comments are welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkChancery Court Keeps Poor Company in Credit Suisse, Guilty in a Cocaine Cash Laundering Case!
OPINION
Dear Friends,
Look at this story below, folks. Credit Suisse is found guilty in a cocaine cash laundering case! These are the very people that Robert Pincus and Andre Bouchard hired and conspired with to auction TransPerfect. What sordid company our once-proud Chancery Court keeps!
If these are the kind of people that the Chancery Court are consorting with, then you can only imagine what’s truly going on behind closed doors in this crooked court. Remember, folks, Pincus was court-appointed by Bouchard. They are both guilty as sin here, as I see it. What is going on with those they choose to align themselves with is going on with them! This court needs to be changed. It’s time for our governor to take charge and make changes.
Please send your feedback on this, folks. It’s always welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
JB–Coastal Network
By Paul Carrel
– Credit Suisse first major Swiss bank to face criminal trial
– Former banker found guilty of qualified money laundering
– Bank plans to appeal
BELLINZONA, Switzerland, June 27 (Reuters) – Credit Suisse (CSGN.S) was convicted by Switzerland’s Federal Criminal Court on Monday of failing to prevent money-laundering by a Bulgarian cocaine trafficking gang in the country’s first criminal trial of one of its major banks. read more
A former employee was found guilty of money-laundering in the trial, which included testimony on murders and cash stuffed into suitcases and is seen as a test case for prosecutors taking a tougher line against the country’s banks.
The ruling marks another headache for Switzerland’s second-biggest bank, which has been reeling from billions in losses racked up via risk-management and compliance blunders.
Federal prosecutor Alice de Chambrier welcomed the verdict as “good for transparency”.
Both Credit Suisse and the former employee had denied wrongdoing.
Credit Suisse said it would appeal against the conviction. read more
The judges looked at whether Credit Suisse and the former employee did enough to prevent the cocaine trafficking gang from laundering profits through the bank from 2004 to 2008.
The court said on Monday it found deficiencies within Credit Suisse both with regard to the management of client relations with the criminal organisation and with regard to the monitoring of the implementation anti-money laundering rules.
“These deficiencies enabled the withdrawal of the criminal organisation’s assets, which was the basis for the conviction of the bank’s former employee for qualified money laundering,” the court said.
“The company could have prevented the infringement if it had fulfilled its organisational obligations,” the presiding judge said in handing down the verdict, adding that the former employee’s superiors had been “passive”.
Credit Suisse said the case arose from a investigation that dated back more than 14 years.
“Credit Suisse is continuously testing its anti-money laundering framework and has been strengthening it over time, in accordance with evolving regulatory standards,” the bank said.
“Generating compliant business growth in line with legal and regulatory requirements is key for Credit Suisse.”
Credit Suisse was fined 2 million Swiss francs ($2.1 million). The court also ordered the confiscation of assets worth more than 12 million francs that the drug gang held in accounts at Credit Suisse, and ordered the bank to relinquish more than 19 million francs — the amount that could not be confiscated due to internal deficiencies at Credit Suisse.
The court handed the former employee, who cannot be named under Swiss privacy laws, a suspended 20-month prison sentence and a fine for money laundering.OPINION
Dear Friends,
Is Hunter Biden ready to call in favors from Andre Bouchard and his cronyistic Chancery Court pals now that he admits the sordid laptop is his? Will he reach out to Andre Bouchard or Kathaleen McCormick?
Last May, Hunter said he controls the Chancery Court and threatened to sue business enemies because he knows “every judge” and bragged about his ability to control outcomes in the Chancery Court. He boasted that as he’s personal friends with all the Chancellors, he can automatically win there because of who he knows.
The question now is what will Hunter ask of those he knows in America’s First State’s Chancery Court??
See the New York Post story below for more. As always, your feedback is appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
Judson Bennett–Coastal Network
By Jonathan Turley
February 2, 2023
Hunter Biden appears to have finally achieved clarity.
Months after The Post’s October 2020 reporting, Biden was warning reporters that his “alleged” laptop might be Russian disinformation — or it might be his. He seemed tortured by doubt in a 2021 CBS News interview: “For real, I don’t know. I don’t have any idea — I have no idea whether or not.”
It now appears he does know “for real.” His lawyers sent letters Wednesday requesting investigations into figures associated with former President Donald Trump who have used information from the laptop. The first son’s sudden shift to the offense follows a meeting of a Legion of Doom of Democratic operatives reportedly planning attacks on potential witnesses against Hunter.
At the same time, Biden agents are planning to create a large legal fund for the next stage. In a city where influence peddling is the leading industry, Hunter’s plight could easily become a cause célèbre. Indeed, there hasn’t been a greater sense of urgency or outpouring of humanity since the Kato Kaelin housing crisis.
The letters to federal and state prosecutors seem to confirm the plan for a scorched-earth strategy. The Biden lawyers accuse people using the laptop contents of possibly violating federal and state laws “in accessing, copying, manipulating, and/or disseminating Mr. Biden’s personal computer data.”
The Biden team is also threatening media that have covered the story, including Fox News, with defamation lawsuits. (For the record, I appear as a legal analyst on Fox News.) And it’s asking the IRS to consider removing the tax-exempt status of groups that used the material such as Marco Polo, a charitable organization run by Garrett Ziegler — in a letter copied to the agency’s criminal investigation unit chief.
The letters raise serious constitutional and political concerns. Critics using publicly available material are allowed to reach their own conclusions about the implications of these files.
The Biden team, for example, threatens a lawsuit against Fox News host Tucker Carlson while demanding a retraction of “false and defamatory statements.” It maintains Carlson falsely portrayed Hunter Biden as involved in a “money laundering scheme to finance President Biden’s lifestyle” by paying him $50,000 a month in rent. It claims the story was debunked.
But Hunter Biden is a public figure who must shoulder a high standard for defamation of “actual malice,” requiring that a false statement be made “with knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not.” Courts are highly protective of the exercise of opinion, particularly on subjects of great political significance like influence peddling.
The laptop’s legal status is also key. To all appearances, Hunter abandoned the laptop at John Paul Mac Isaac’s Wilmington, Del., computer repair shop. That’s different from the claims of Hunter’s sister, Ashley, who triggered a nationwide FBI investigation into the theft of her diary. While she left her diary at a third party’s home, she insists she did not abandon or forget it. Under standard terms of the agreement, an item left beyond a certain number of days at a business or rental housing becomes abandoned property. It can generally then be left on the curb, sold, or given away.
What’s most striking about the Hunter Biden claim is the delay. For more than two years, Hunter has refused to admit the laptop is genuine despite email recipients confirming the content of the communications. The laptop also shows Hunter engaged in potential crimes from drug use to prostitution offenses. Yet he insisted it might all be those pesky Russians again.
Now the laptop is his, and he is fighting mad. Indeed, he’s shocked that anyone would treat his property in this fashion — a property he left at a computer shop and failed to claim for years.
In the effort to target Marco Polo, the Biden team insists it “has operated as little more than a thinly disguised political operation to attack the Biden administration and the Biden family.” That sounds more vindictive than virtuous. Indeed, if the Biden administration started yanking the tax-exempt status of Biden critics, it would trigger an outcry over weaponizing the IRS. (A similar controversy during the Obama-Biden administration involving IRS official Lois Lerner led to a financial settlement with targeted conservative groups.)
What’s most striking about the Hunter Biden claim is the delay. For more than two years, Hunter has refused to admit the laptop is genuine despite email recipients confirming the content of the communications. The laptop also shows Hunter engaged in potential crimes from drug use to prostitution offenses. Yet he insisted it might all be those pesky Russians again.
Now the laptop is his, and he is fighting mad. Indeed, he’s shocked that anyone would treat his property in this fashion — a property he left at a computer shop and failed to claim for years.
In the effort to target Marco Polo, the Biden team insists it “has operated as little more than a thinly disguised political operation to attack the Biden administration and the Biden family.” That sounds more vindictive than virtuous. Indeed, if the Biden administration started yanking the tax-exempt status of Biden critics, it would trigger an outcry over weaponizing the IRS. (A similar controversy during the Obama-Biden administration involving IRS official Lois Lerner led to a financial settlement with targeted conservative groups.)
Under the tort of “public disclosure of embarrassing private facts,” you can be sued for publishing even true statements that a reasonable person would find offensive. Showing Hunter’s selfie videos allegedly having sex with prostitutes would qualify as embarrassing to most people. But the tort has an exception for “newsworthy” stories or matters of great public interest. Biden may not be the energy or transportation expert his previous positions suggest, but he is most certainly newsworthy.
What is clear is that the letters mark a new chapter in this saga as his legal team attempts to move from the hunted to the Hunter.
Jonathan Turley is an attorney and a professor at George Washington University Law School.Dear friends,
The evidence mounts, much from Hunter Biden’s own stupidity and that of his Lawyer. There is no doubt in my view that Hunter Biden sold his father’s influence to Ukraine, Russia, and China, and very possibly used classified documents given to him by his corrupt father (The Big Guy). I also believe President Joe Biden was part of an influence peddling scheme and received 10% of the millions Hunter and the Biden family received from these hostile governments. The situation is so serious that it could amount to actual TREASON where the security of the United States has been compromised.
The audacity and stupidity of Hunter Biden and his lawyer to publicly suggest that the contents of the infamous laptop, left in a Wilmington, Delaware repair shop by Hunter, were illegally obtained and distributed, is beyond absurd. Hunter signed an agreement when he left the computer there, that if he didn’t pick it up within 90 days, the computer became the property of the repair shop owner. This is nothing more than an arrogant smoke screen which only exacerbated the extent of Hunter’s illegal activity and that of his corrupt father.
Check out the story below and the disgusting photos of Hunter Biden in his crack induced state. As always your comments are welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Submitted,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal Network
Hunter Biden finally admits infamous laptop is his as he pleads for criminal probe
By Victor Nave Miranda Devince and Samuel Chamberlain
February 1, 2023 7:49pm
So much for “the laptop ‘could be’ mine.”
First son Hunter Biden’s lawyers admitted late Wednesday that the infamous laptop that the now-52-year-old abandoned at a Delaware computer repair shop in the throes of his crack cocaine addiction does indeed belong to him.
The revelation came in a petulant letter from Hunter’s lawyers seeking a criminal probe into what they called attempts to “weaponize” its contents.
In the 14-page letter to Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings, Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell claimed that repair shop owner John Paul Mac Isaac “unlawfully” accessed Hunter’s laptop data and worked with former President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani to “weaponize” sordid and incriminating contents on it against Joe Biden.
“This failed dirty political trick directly resulted in the exposure, exploitation, and manipulation of Mr. Biden’s private and personal information,” Lowell wrote.
“Mr. Mac Isaac’s intentional, reckless, and unlawful conduct allowed for hundreds of gigabytes of Mr. Biden’s personal data, without any discretion, to be circulated around the Internet.”
Mac Isaac took possession of the laptop and hard drive late in 2019 after trying and failing for months to notify Hunter that the device was ready to be picked up. Once the shop owner saw the laptop’s contents — including emails detailing influence-peddling involving then-Vice President Joe Biden and videos of the younger Biden smoking crack and having sex with prostitutes and his work subordinates — he alerted the FBI.
Hunter Biden’s lawyers admitted the laptop filled with scandals belongs to the president’s son.
The feds picked up the laptop in December 2019, but not before Mac Isaac made a copy and gave it to Giuliani’s personal lawyer, Robert Costello.
Giuliani provided The Post with a copy of the hard drive in October 2020.
Lowell’s letter singles out Mac Isaac, Giuliani, Costello, former Trump White House adviser Steve Bannon, former Trump White House aide Garrett Ziegler, Bannon associate Jack Maxey, and Yaacov Apelbaum, founder and CEO of cyber analytics firm XRVision and former aide to Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), as parties who gained unauthorized access to the laptop’s contents and disseminated it to the media and lawmakers.
“We believe that the facts and circumstances merit further investigation as to whether the conduct of Messrs. Mac Isaac, Costello, Giuliani, Bannon, Ziegler, Maxey, and Apelbaum violated several provisions of Delaware’s criminal code — including, but not necessarily limited to, computer-related property offenses … theft … possession of stolen property … and misapplication of another’s property … Each of these offenses, if violated, has the potential to be a felony, depending on the value of the property in question,” Lowell writes.
Letters were also sent by Hunter Biden’s lawyer on Wednesday to the Justice Department’s National Security Division and the IRS.
Mac Isaac said he alerted the FBI when he saw the laptop’s contents, including confidential emails, Hunter Biden smoking, and having sex.
“I think with Congress starting investigations next week, it’s a scare tactic,” Mac Isaac told The Post Wednesday.
“The flak is heaviest when you are over the target!” he added.
The House Oversight Committee will commence hearings next week on Hunter Biden’s alleged influence peddling, and claims he cashed in on ties to his then-vice president father to rake in millions from foreign companies, Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), the chairman of the panel, told the National Press Club on Monday.
Ziegler, who worked as an aide to Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro and has published the laptop’s data on his Marco Polo USA website, told The Post on Wednesday that the letters were a “desperate attempt” by the Biden family to get the spotlight away from “their crimes.”
There are claims that repair shop owner John Paul Mac Isaac unlawfully accessed Hunter’s laptop data.Robert Miller
“With respect to the letters from the president’s son pleading with his daddy’s agencies to target those who expose his blatant criminality, Kevin Morris did not get a lot of bang for his buck,” Ziegler told The Post, referencing Hunter Biden’s fixer and “sugar brother” Kevin Morris, who allegedly lent the president’s son $2 million to help pay off his overdue federal taxes and has become the architect of Hunter Biden’s legal and media strategy.
“You’d think that Morris would spend $1,400-plus an hour on an actual tax attorney when funding Hunter’s legal misadventures, which Abbe Lowell is not,” Ziegler said.
“The letter to the IRS about Marco Polo is full of speculations and basic misunderstandings about the case law surrounding 501(c)(3) organizations. Hopefully, federal and state investigators will see this for what it is: a desperate attempt by Hunter and his family to get the attention off of their crimes,” he added.
Costello told The Post that Lowell’s allegations were “ridiculous” and a sign of “desperation.”
The laptop included emails detailing influence-peddling involving then-Vice President Joe Biden.
“This letter is a ridiculous attempt to intimidate that will not succeed. It is the product of desperation by Hunter Biden because they know judgment day is coming for the Biden family,” he said.
Costello points out that Mac Isaac has a “signed work order that gives [him] authorization to examine the hard drive and the property is deemed legally abandoned after 90 days. It is the property of John Paul Mac Isaac.”
Mac Isaac said it’s no coincidence the letter from Hunter Biden’s lawyer comes just as House Republicans are ready to open probes into the president’s son.
The laptop scandal has exposed a dark side of Hunter Biden.
The laptop has images of Biden partaking in drug activity.
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Biden posed nude in many photos found on the laptop.
Beginning on Oct. 14, 2020, The Post published a series of exclusive reports about the laptop’s contents, including emails proving Hunter introduced an executive of Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma to his father while Joe Biden oversaw the Obama administration’s policy toward the Eastern European nation.
The reports were initially dismissed by former top intelligence officials as the product of “Russian disinformation” — only to be belatedly confirmed by media outlets including the New York Times, the Washington Post and CBS News.
Hunter Biden and his own lawyers have previously tried to sow doubt that the allegedly water-damaged computer abandoned at Mac Isaac’s shop was Biden’s.
“There could be a laptop out there that was stolen from me,” Hunter Biden told CBS during a 2021 interview. “It could be that I was hacked. It could be that it was then — that it was Russian intelligence. It could be that it was stolen from me.”Dear Friends,
I struck a nerve in my recent column about the severe drain from Chancery Court corruption in the now well-known TransPerfect case, which was in the court full of cronyism, and infested with a Good Ole Boy Network that continues to enrich its friends, as I see it, at the expense of TransPerfect workers.
Here are the top comments from all that were sent in:
“How can this court in good conscience let these salaries be impacted??”
-Jacqueline
“Can this company continue to lose millions? When will this stop?”
-Thomas
“The Chancery Court should not be able to touch people’s holiday bonuses, Judson.”
-Melinda
“The hell with McCormick. She needs to get out of this company’s business. I have my own company, Judson, and if this woman continued to lean on my company like this, I’d sue her ass!”
-Gary
“Good for them. I’m glad to see the company growing in spite of this greedy court.”
-Laura
“How much longer can this go on? This case should have ended a couple of years ago.”
-Robert
Thank you for your always-welcome feedback, folks. Keep ’em rolling in! I appreciate it.
Respectfully Yours,
JUDSON Bennett–Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
This article will be the first of several to expose Joe Biden for what I believe is the truth about his entire political career, which is not what many people think it is! It is a career based on innumerable falsehoods and an amazing operation of influence peddling that resulted in millions of dollars coming into the entire Biden family from foreign governments that are not friendly to the United States of America, including Iran, China, and Russia.
Being born and raised in Lewes, Delaware, having been involved in politics as a district leader, a campaign manager, an elected official, a lobbyist, and a consultant, I probably know more about Joe Biden than he knows about himself. I even played football against him in high school when he attended Archmere Academy and I attended St. Andrews School for Boys.
Indeed, I have spent years checking, observing, analyzing, and calculating his many agendas, speeches, and falsehoods. It is truly amazing and clever how he actually won his first Senate seat many years ago through a clandestine operation. There is no doubt that at one time Biden presented a handsome persona, had remarkable charisma, a glib sense of humor, and the ability to captivate an audience with one prevarication after another.
I am convinced that if Trump had hired me as his campaign manager or as a political consultant when he ran against Biden, he would have been re-elected. I actually tried to apply for the job without success. Instead his 2nd campaign was a disaster which was run by incompetents without proper knowledge or procedures. Even then, I still am not certain Biden actually won legitimately.
However, Trump in an unprecedented move, hurt himself with the January 6th debacle and a subsequent attack against his loyal Vice President, Mike Pence. Indeed, Trump has severely compromised his chances at even being the candidate for President in 2024, because of his post-election actions and various mistakes.
No doubt, in my view, Trump had a wonderful platform that was skewed by a dishonest press and a corrupt FBI, propagated by several elected Democrats from New York and California. So be it. Frankly, Trump has hurt himself as well, through his statements, and indeed many Republicans are looking to Governor Ron DeSantis to be the next President of the United States. We will see how it all shakes out.
All this being said, Joe Biden with the help of his brothers, won his first Senate seat through extraordinarily dishonest means. The incumbent Senator at the time was Caleb Boggs, a former Governor, and a man of great character who apparently made the terrible mistake of turning off a possible helper and sent him into the Biden camp which ironically affected that person’s life and indeed the entire country. I am speaking in general terms now, as specifics will be breaking later when Biden and his crime family are exposed for what they are.
Here is what I know happened and the evidence will be forthcoming. My friend was approached by one of the Biden brothers and was asked to come up with $3000 which was to be paid to the head of the Teamsters Union—an actual bribe, as far as I know, folks. The money was given by my friend in cash, the Bidens then paid off the Teamsters. As a result, The local Delaware Paper, the News Journal, which was endorsing Caleb Boggs, was not delivered when it should have been. Through this payment, a strike was called a week before this historic election, the truckers did not deliver the newspapers until a week after the election, and the endorsement of Biden’s opponent was never seen until it was too late. Biden won the election by only 2000 votes, and kicked off his amazing career of years of being a U.S. Senator, then Vice President, and ultimately President – much to the detriment of the American people. This actually happened and is known by a few insiders, but is not generally public information. This is how Biden began his political career, through what I saw as a bribe.
Folks, Biden, through his intrinsically evil agenda and dishonesty, has done more damage in the two years he has been in command than any other President in U.S. history. The corruption is unprecedented and will soon be presented to the American people through the new Republican House of Representatives.
Please stay tuned, as there is much more to come. I have presented this true story to wet your whistles for future publications.
As always, your comments are welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,This is what happens to a public servant, less-connected than Andre Bouchard, when they violate public trust.
See the story below: In my view, this official’s crimes do not hold a candle to the corrupt conduct of Bouchard and Strine before they resigned.
It appears justice comes for you, unless you’re Chancellor Andre Bouchard and his cabal. He and Strine have never denied corruption allegations. Will they and their Good Old Boy pals at Skadden Arps ever face justice or even a formal investigation? Or do their connections run too deep?
Send in your feedback on this, folks. It’s always welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
JUDSON Bennett–Coastal Network
https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/politics/2022/10/19/delaware-auditor-mcguiness-conviction-sentencing-corruption-politics/69571392007/
State Auditor Kathy McGuiness sentenced for public corruption convictions
Xerxes Wilson Delaware News Journal
The only statewide-elected official in Delaware history to be accused and convicted of crimes while in office was spared prison time and resigned her office on Wednesday.
Delaware Auditor Kathy McGuiness was sentenced to a year of probation, 500 hours of community service, and a $10,000 fine for her misdemeanor conflict of interest and official misconduct convictions, guilty verdicts that stemmed from hiring her daughter to work in the auditor’s office.
Through tears, McGuiness addressed the court during Wednesday’s hearing, thanking her family and supporters, stating that she never intended to betray the public’s trust and affirming that she will continue her effort to “clear” her name.
“I regret that my decision to hire my daughter has been seen as a violation of trust,” McGuiness said.
Prosecutors had asked the judge to sentence McGuiness to 30 days in prison based on her lack of remorse. McGuiness’ attorney argued that a $1,000 fine was sufficient punishment.
A jury found the Rehoboth Democrat guilty after a multi-week trial in July, a proceeding that also saw her acquitted of felony theft charges related to her daughter’s employment as well as felony intimidation charges in which prosecutors said she spied on employee emails and sought to intimidate whistleblowers. McGuiness was also acquitted of a misdemeanor tied to payments made to a campaign and issues consultant through her office.
“We believe there is a message to be sent by virtue of the court’s sentence,” said Mark Denney, the lead prosecutor, during Wednesday’s hearing.
Since her guilty verdicts, McGuiness has presented an unabashed face, claiming that hiring her daughter, who worked as a part-time employee and continued to be paid while she was enrolled in an out-of-state college, was not illegal.
Steve Wood, her defense attorney, called prosecutors’ request for prison time “unjust,” comparing it to other cases where public officials were actually caught funneling public money to themselves and were spared prison time.
“Remember: what we are here to sentence her for today is hiring her daughter as a college intern,” Wood said.
As she unsuccessfully ran for a second term as auditor, a position that is elected statewide and is meant to be a fiscal watchdog over state and school district spending, McGuiness pointed fingers at state lawmakers whose children have been employed by the General Assembly.
“They have never been prosecuted,” Wood said during Wednesday’s hearing.
Prosecutors have punched back at this comparison saying they are not aware of a situation where a public official’s child was both hired and allowed special privileges under their parent’s supervision in state office.
On Wednesday, Wood took the judge through a litany of what he described as “distortions” and “half-truths” by prosecutors regarding the employment of McGuiness’ child and how it compared to other part-time employees. Ultimately, the jury was convinced that McGuiness’ child received benefits not afforded to similar employees in convicting the auditor.
“It is true that she didn’t think hiring her daughter was a crime, and to be candid, she didn’t think that then and she doesn’t think that now,” Wood said, adding that McGuiness intends to appeal her guilty verdicts to the Delaware Supreme Court.
Wood also defended McGuiness’ characterization of the prosecution as political, listing a number of missteps in the prosecution of the case. Those included Department of Justice attorneys and investigators presenting incorrect information in a sworn affidavit and prosecutors failing an obligation to turn over certain evidence to the defense in a timely manner.
“This has hardly been an exemplary prosecution,” Wood said.
Ultimately, presiding Judge William C. Carpenter Jr. opted for no prison time, a sentence of probation and a fine.
“Your lack of good judgment and common sense at times is reflected in the facts of this case and have led you to this day,” Carpenter told McGuiness.
McGuiness lost her reelection bid in the September Democratic primary and her term expires at the end of the year.
A push by Democrats in the state legislature to remove McGuiness was rebuffed largely due to a legislative roadblock created by House Speaker Peter C. Schwartzkopf, a Democrat and longtime ally of McGuiness.
Gov. John Carney’s office has said he could not remove McGuiness from office until her sentencing. During Wednesday’s hearing, Wood said that McGuiness resigned on Tuesday, effective Nov. 4. After Wednesday’s sentencing hearing, she confirmed sending that resignation the day prior.
Later Wednesday, a spokesperson for the governor said McGuiness sent a letter to the governor “this afternoon” resigning effective 4:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Contact Xerxes Wilson at (302) 324-2787 or [email protected]. Follow @Ber_Xerxes on Twitter. OPINION
Dear Friends,
I was extremely disturbed to learn that Fox News Reporter Gianno Caldwell was asked to leave a North Miami restaurant because of his conservative agenda and affiliation with Fox News. Caldwell is an African American whose younger brother was murdered in Chicago. Indeed, Gianno Caldwell is a dedicated activist who promotes conservative values and ideas for black communities, promoting more funding for police, bringing back cash bail, and teaching basic capitalism instead of socialistic handouts. The name of the restaurant is the “Paradis Books and Bread” (there is no “e”on Paradis) located at 12831 W. Dixie Highway, North, Miami, FL 33161. Interestingly, there is no telephone listing anywhere for this establishment. It also seems that Fox News is the only network publishing the story?
According to Gianno Caldwell, he and some friends were eating breakfast at this restaurant. They were quietly discussing his agenda, not creating a disturbance of any kind. Suddenly, the owner approached the table and ordered them to leave, because she had overheard their conversation and was offended by who he is and his conservative platform. Can you imagine if this had been a group of liberals who were asked to leave by a Republican restaurant owner?? Regardless, Mr. Caldwell and his friends left the restaurant rather than creating a scene.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion,sex, and national origin. It does not mention a political affiliation or a particular philosophy. Regardless, in my mind that would fall under “Religion” as a protected category. The fact that Caldwell is black and promoting a political agenda that is related to black communities may also fall under the “Race” category as well.
Folks, apparently, the owner of “Paradis Books and Bread” does not want Republican or Conservative business and if she overhears you discussing your philosophy, she will kick you out? In my view, I think the place should be boycotted and perhaps even a demonstration outside by Conservative protesters. There is the possibility of a Civil Rights lawsuit as well.
Folks this is just more of the outrageous hypocrisy generated by the far left. Here you have a woman in business to make money, but she discriminates against people with different ideas who come into her restaurant.
As always, your feedback is welcome and appreciated. Please let me know what you think and what should happen?
Respectfully yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal Network
Every Quarter is an Illegal Payday for Skadden Arps, but the Fight for Justice Continues
OPINION
Dear Friends,
Being a big college football fan, I love a good afternoon or evening bowl game around the holidays. I was happy to see TransPerfect continuing to support college athletics despite Chancery Court Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick’s stranglehold over the company.
The company’s employees continue to battle for Justice and against Delaware’s Chancery Court. The court is full of cronyism and a Good Ole Boy Network that runs deep. Too deep, as you’ve seen from my reporting. The overbearing court continues to enrich its friends, and as I see it, at the expense of TransPerfect workers, as if it is beyond reproach.
The company has lost millions and its workers have suffered for too many years, having their salaries and Christmas bonuses swiped by Bouchard, and now McCormick. Why? Perhaps the corruption in this case is “too big to fail.” But the question remains: Why have McCormick’s tentacles become so embedded in TransPerfect operations, a decade later?
Send your feedback, it’s always welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
JUDSON Bennett–Coastal Network
What’s the future of bowl games? Where there’s legitimate concern and where there’s overreaction
Connor O’Gara |
It’s a fair question to ask.
Ten years from now, what will bowl games look like? Will they still exist with that 6-win threshold? Is there still enough incentive for corporate sponsors? What, if anything, can be done to increase incentives to avoid bowl opt-outs?
It does feel like we’re at a bit of a crossroads with the current postseason format, especially as Playoff expansion is on the horizon in 2024. With college campuses set to host first-round matchups in December, there’s never been more incentive to reach the Playoff, and perhaps, that means there’s never been more of a letdown to miss the field.
The optics of decreased attendance certainly don’t favor the 40 non-Playoff bowls moving forward, but optics don’t always tell the full story.
So what is the full story? And what do the people with stake in the game think about the present and future of bowls?
“I think bowl games are gonna continue to be here,” TransPerfect Chief Revenue Officer Kevin Obarski told SDS. “I think it’s a great opportunity for the universities and the teams to continue to practice to get themselves to play in amazing game here and then going into the future, too.”
TransPerfect took over as the title sponsor of the Music City Bowl back in 2020. The first year of the bowl game was canceled because of COVID,. Since then, it had both sides of the spectrum in terms of the non-Playoff bowl experience.
In the company’s first game as the Music City Bowl sponsor in 2021, Tennessee and Purdue played in a 48-45 overtime game that recorded 5.6 million viewers, which was the most-viewed non-New Year’s 6 bowl of the season and the 3rd-most viewed non-New Year’s 6 bowl game in the past 6 seasons. A thrilling ending made a difference.
It peaked with 8.9 million viewers, and in the final 15 minutes, it was the No. 2 trending topic on Instagram.
“I would bet 80% of all of those people had probably never heard of TransPerfect,” Obarski said.
It was ideal for a bowl sponsor like “TransPerfect” who admittedly wasn’t a household name and had more brand awareness incentives to be gained from a competitive game. It was the type of game that confirmed why the company initially wanted to get involved in bowl sponsorship back in 2012 before beginning those conversations with the Music City Bowl in 2018. It helped recruit employees and clients in a unique way for a company with quarter-to-quarter growth over the last 30 years.
Of course, the circumstances of 2022 were a different story. There were opt-outs galore — neither Kentucky nor Iowa had their respective starting quarterbacks — and the over/under hovered around 31 points. The game also produced a 21-0 result with a combined 391 total yards and 1 offensive touchdown.
So was it a bad return on investment to have approximately 27,000 less fans in paid attendance than the previous and a non-competitive game? Not necessarily.
Even in that scenario, the game drew 2.966 million viewers, which was more than double the most-watched college basketball game that week and more than 6 times as many viewers as the most-viewed NBA regular season game that week. The Music City Bowl, despite the fact that it went in the same noon ET time slot as the Sugar Bowl and it wasn’t competitive, was still the 12th most-watched bowl game. You can bet the legalization of sports betting in 35 states (that number went to 36 when Ohio became legal on New Year’s Day) might’ve had something to do with that.
There’s still tremendous upside for a bowl game sponsor, even if it’s between a pair of 6-6 teams on a weeknight. Hence, why the Liberty Bowl between Arkansas and Kansas drew an average of 3.9 million viewers — that’s right in line with the Christmas day NBA game ratings — to watch the 3-overtime thriller. Sure, the headline was “Rose Bowl draws lowest viewership in game history,” but Penn State-Utah still got over 10 million viewers and paid attendance was 94,873.
That’s great incentive for bowl sponsors, who don’t have a long list of places where they can ensure they get their name on an event with millions of eyeballs, which aren’t limited to the traditional TV viewer.
“I don’t think we would make the decision just on the ratings,” Obarski said. “It’s important for us, but how do we activate that sponsorship all season long? We’re able to activate the sponsorship whether you’re at the game, whether you’re watching the game or whether you’re following along on Twitter.”
And if you don’t know what Obarski meant by “activate the sponsorship,” look no further than the mayo overload we now get annually in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl.
In-game optics add to the product, though the TV eyeballs are what really move the needle. You’d never know that the Mayo Bowl had fewer viewers (2.676 million average) than the Music City Bowl.
Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl CEO Gary Stokan pointed out how beneficial it is that Nielsen began tracking out-of-home ratings in 2020. You can also get “live” and “same day” ratings combined for those who record games. The Peach Bowl thriller, which concluded with a last-second field goal as the ball dropped on New Year’s Eve, drew 22.1 million viewers, which was the most viewers for a semifinal game since Year 1 of the Playoff format when Ohio State-Alabama drew 28.27 million viewers. The 2022 Peach Bowl, a Playoff semifinal, peaked at 23.9 million viewers.
But the future of bowl games isn’t really about whether the Playoff will draw eyeballs. “At the end of the day, the CFP is gonna make its money with TV,” Stokan said. We’ve got 9 years worth of data that shows why bowl sponsors, TV networks and advertisers want a piece of the Playoff action.
More pressing is the issue of bowl opt-outs once the Playoff expands. Can anything be done? And what’s the urgency like from bowl executives?
“I do worry about the bowls that aren’t New Year’s 6 and that aren’t ESPN bowls, how the (expanded) Playoff is gonna affect them,” said Stokan, who had a phenomenal Peach Bowl audience for the Playoff game but dealt with stars Kenny Pickett and Kenneth Walker III opting out of the non-Playoff New Year’s 6 game in 2021. “We’re already seeing a lot of opt-outs in bowl games that aren’t semifinal games. That’s the next unintended consequence.”
The New Year’s 6 Bowl CEOs hop on a conference call every 2 weeks. They discuss problems like opt-outs and if they can create bigger rewards for players in non-Playoff bowl games. Is NIL the solution? If it is, it certainly isn’t a clear one.
Besides the fact that it’s a state-by-state issue until there’s federal legislation, Stokan questioned if a $50,000 cash prize for a potential bowl winner or MVP would be enough incentive for someone with a $20 million signing bonus on the way (that’s what a top-5 pick is slotted to receive). Besides, it’s not just opt-outs by future NFL Draft picks that are hurting the product of the non-Playoff bowls.
“We’re the 2nd-most favorite sport in this country behind the NFL and it’s in terrible condition,” Stokan said. “To have what we’re going through in December, with (Early Signing Period), transfer portal, coaches leaving, getting ready for bowl games, it’s a mess. Even the opt-outs. We need to deal with first-round draft picks. How are we gonna provide them with some sort of insurance or coverage? We’ve got to work with the NFL. Where’s the relationship with the NFL owners?
“There are so many issues that we should be dealing with and unfortunately, we all talk about it, but we gotta get something done.”
There’s also an interesting NIL-based idea that’s being discussed for those who opt in to bowl games and who don’t necessarily have an NFL future — get the individual collectives to set up trusts and/or future employment opportunities.
“We keep pandering to the 1% when they’re gonna be fine,” Stokan said. “They’re gonna get their opportunity, they’re gonna get their signing bonus. They play 4, 5, 15 years, whatever. It’s up to them. But the 99% of the kids who come to college for the opportunity to get a degree, let’s get them a job because those are the people who are going to comprise the majority of our society and we’re not doing anything with them.”
Stokan expressed hope that incoming NCAA president Charlie Baker would appoint a college football commissioner to deal with those aforementioned football-specific issues. In the meantime, it’ll be up to the current Power 5 commissioners like Greg Sankey to push for an end to the Early Signing Period. As Stokan alluded to, the ideal result of that would be having reduced pre-bowl personnel movement both with coaches leaving for other jobs/getting fired and players hitting the transfer portal, which is open until Jan. 18.
Clearly, there are plenty of details that need to be figured out. Even something like college campuses hosting first-round Playoff games has logistical issues that have to be navigated. For example, what happens if a small town like Clemson is asked to host a Playoff game the same weekend of December graduation? Will there be enough hotels to support that?
Questions like that are being asked because while it seems like a simple postseason formula — give every mediocre team a postseason stage, have millions of viewers, make money, rinse, repeat — there are countless layers to it. There’s no sister model to the college football postseason. Frankly, there’s really nothing remotely similar to bowl season.
Perhaps that’s why it feels like there’s so much unknown. What we know is that bowl sponsors don’t appear to be going anywhere because as long as eyeballs are there, so too is corporate incentive. What we don’t know is what solution (if any) will be in place to increase player incentive for non-Playoff bowl games. Players sell tickets and while in-stadium attendance isn’t a deal-breaker, surely nobody likes the optics of a sparse crowd.
An interesting new era awaits. Bowl games will continue to be here. We have TV to thank for that.
But to borrow a line that Sankey likes to recite from Bob Dylan, “the times, they are a-changin’.”OPINION
Dear friends,
Finally, the American people are seeing the acute Hypocrisy, absurd dishonesty, and grotesque incompetence of Joe Biden and his entire administration! When asked about the unprecedented raid on Mar-A-Lago ordered by Attorney General Garland and conducted by the FBI, Biden was quoted as saying on 60 Minutes, “he had never seen anything so irresponsible”, referring to Trump’s, in my view, legitimate holding of formerly classified documents which he claims he had declassified.
Trump, as the former President, had the right to those documents and had been negotiating in good faith with the Records Library and the FBI. Such a raid on a former President has never happened before and is frankly outrageous. The Feds even went through Melania’s underwear drawer! This raid occurred and was ordered intentionally by, in my opinion, a corrupt Attorney General right before the Midterm elections which affected the outcome.
Amazingly, Biden has been found with Top-Secret documents held in the Penn Library funded by the Chinese. Biden received over 900-thousand dollars in payments from this suspicious arrangement. Additionally more classified documents were found in Biden’s garage next to his Corvette. More documents were found in his house.
The horrible rub here is that AG Garland knew about this in November and covered it up in order to protect the Democrats in the Midterm elections. Folks, what an outrageous hypocrite Joe Biden is. Interesting, Biden as VP had no right to classified documents, which is when they were apparently taken. This is a clear violation of the Espionage Act and Biden should be impeached and then go to prison. Crackhead son Hunter lived in the Wilmington House, surely had access to the garage, and certainly the possibility that these sensitive papers could have ended up in Chinese hands or other enemies of America who have paid Hunter millions, certainly does exist? Folks we then could be talking about Treason!
Interestingly, the House of Representatives will be investigating this entire situation and I believe the Biden criminal activity including influence peddling, the border fiasco, and now this illegal possession of classified documents will be exposed. I do not expect this corrupt AG’s office, even with special prosecutors involved, to do the right thing. However the truth will be presented on national TV, and hopefully in the 2024 elections the voters, once informed, will take back our country and end this Democrat nightmare of incompetence, hypocrisy, and dishonesty which has put our country at risk.
As always your comments are welcome and appreciated.
Sincerely yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
The once great Delaware Chancery Court continues down the path of cheapening its reputation as Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick makes glib movie references and makes up words in the TransPerfect and Twitter cases. Both cases that should have emboldened our court, instead they underlined the failings of it.
The cronyism, hypocrisy and playing by their own court rules have now been exposed across our country. See the Law360 story below that an attorney pal of mine sent over to me and we had a laugh about this idiocy. It’s truly sad how our once proud Equity Court, in America’s First State, has cheapened itself.
See the story below and send me your feedback, folks. It’s always welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
JUDSON Bennett–Coastal Network
By Leslie A. Pappas
Law360 (December 22, 2022, 3:36 PM EST) — In the language of law, precision matters. Chancery Court watchers know the fate of complex courtroom battles may pivot on a single word. So when judicial officers at the world’s most preeminent court of equity have something to say, we pay attention.
Here are some of our favorite words of note from Delaware’s Court of Chancery in 2022.
Former Vice Chancellor Joseph R. Slights III
Vice Chancellor Joseph R. Slights III, who retired in May and joined Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati PC in June, was known for his creativity and well-crafted opinions.
A case involving a disgruntled buyer of a Florida trash and portable toilet business who overlooked the seller’s obvious disorganization sparked this memorable opinion introduction:
“Yogi Berra said, ‘You can observe a lot just by watching,'” he wrote. “The buyer in this post-closing fraud and breach of contract case apparently was not of this mindset as it approached the transaction at the heart of this dispute.”
The former vice chancellor took writing seriously. In a conversation with Law360 after joining Wilson Sonsini, he advised:
“Effective lawyers write briefs that are declarative, avoid unnecessary adverbs and provide respectful critiques of the opponent’s positions while supporting their own. If the judge has to ask herself or himself whether an argument has crossed the line, it probably has.”
Vice Chancellor Nathan A. Cook
Filling the seat Slights left on the bench was former Block & Leviton LLP partner Nathan A. Cook, who soon found himself in the thick of controversy over two Delaware voting statutes.
The newest Chancery Court vice chancellor overturned one statute but left the other intact, declaring that:
“In analyzing the Constitution … my duty is not to seek out ways to invalidate statutes.”
Vice Chancellor Paul A. Fioravanti Jr.
Vice Chancellor Paul A. Fioravanti Jr. stood up for stockholders after one company’s attorneys relentlessly grilled a 92-year-old stockholder who was seeking books and records.
“Section 220 does not require a stockholder to have the sophistication of a corporate lawyer, investment banker, or law professor,” the vice chancellor wrote. “The statute does not require a stockholder-plaintiff to pass a memory test administered by a savvy litigator, and it is not an invitation to harass.”
Vice Chancellor Sam Glasscock III
Vice Chancellor Sam Glasscock III set the bar for metaphors in one contract case that he dismissed and sent to the Superior Court for lack of jurisdiction.
“This would not be the tail wagging the dog,” Vice Chancellor Glasscock wrote, “it would be an unanticipated second dog biting that tail — the possibility of such a speculative cause of action does not, to my mind, open the kennel of equity.”
Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster
Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster got historical in a decision about a company director who allegedly bought more than 1 million shares while covering up for months that a big buyer was attempting to buy the company.
“He looks like a self-dealing agent engaged in what Tammany Hall philosopher George Washington Plunkitt called ‘honest graft,'” the vice chancellor said.
Chancellor Kathaleen St. J. McCormick
Chancellor Kathaleen St. J. McCormick referenced movies and made up new words when her cases grew beyond dictionary definitions.
In response to a new development in the TransPerfect saga, she wrote:
“In a twist of Shyamalan-ian proportions, the company has moved to dismiss its own complaint for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.”
And when a stockholder tried to pile on to existing Twitter litigation with Elon Musk, the chancellor declared:
“Plaintiff essentially asks this court to ignore the Titanomachy of the Twitterverse proceeding in parallel and declare that defendants controlled Twitter before and at the time of termination. At the thirty-thousand-foot level, that is simply not a reasonable ask.”
Vice Chancellor Morgan T. Zurn
Vice Chancellor Morgan T. Zurn had a flair for the dramatic, especially during bench rulings.
At a hearing over board disputes at GenapSys Inc., she told parties: “It would appear that I’m being dragged into the granular level of the operation of a company.”
In another hearing, rejecting a proposed settlement, she proclaimed, “The ‘get’ is so ethereal in value as to be potentially weightless.”
Vice Chancellor Lori W. Will
Vice Chancellor Lori W. Will was more understated but no less powerful. In one bench ruling about quorum requirements, she got to the point:
“The fact that an action is legally authorized does not mean that it is equitable,” she said.
Not a bad thought to carry into the New Year.
Stay tuned for more quotes and wisdom in 2023.
–Editing by Alyssa Miller.Dear friends,
After some consternation and acute worry, I am much relieved that the House of Representatives Speaker is Kevin McCarthy. This important body can go about the people’s business. The House basically controls the purse strings and can defund activities it deems necessary, such as the totalitarian effort by the Democrats to hire 87,000 IRS agents to harass the Middle Class. This will be done.
I was also pleased that Kevin McCarthy was willing, after considerable negotiations, to compromise with his detractors and agree to some important and in my view, positive changes that will make the operation of the House actually better. There will be new House rules that I believe will be passed.
Some of the positive changes that were agreed upon for the next congress: 1) cap on spending, no more pork in bills, a bill can only address the main issue (unlike the outrageous Omnibus bill that mostly wastes taxpayer’s money through personal Democrat, selfish issues. 2) addressing the border crisis, 3) full-scale Investigations into the FBI in regard to censorship and cover-ups, 4) complete investigations into the Biden influence-peddling through Hunter Biden, 5) a return to the Thomas Jefferson operation that lasted 100 years, until Pelosi changed it, where any member of the House can call for a removal of a Speaker, and a vote to that effect happens accordingly. 6) no more voting remotely, it must be done in person.
These are just some of the important issues that McCarthy agreed to. The fact that McCarthy is willing to be held accountable for his Speakership operation is indeed significant and shows his sincerity. For all intents and purposes, I believe the Republican majority in the House of Representatives is now unified.
No doubt, there is some skepticism that is justified, however, I am hopeful. The reality of the situation is the Senate is still controlled by the Democrats and Biden is still President, What the House does under McCarthy’s leadership could very well determine the future election in 2024 as to the control of both Houses and the Presidency. That is the way I see it.
As always, your thoughts and opinions are important, welcome, and appreciated. I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
As a life-long Conservative, Patriot, and Republican activist, having worked incessantly to elect Republicans in the midterm elections and finally seeing the achievement of the GOP majority in the House of Representatives, it is upsetting to see what transpired last week!
Republican leader Kevin McCarthy did prevail, after many failed attempts over days and frankly, in my view, it was a national embarrassment. Congress could not operate to do the people’s business until a Speaker was elected. What I found most disturbing was that the elected Republicans (all of them) could not get it together!
Twenty rebellious Republican Representatives had refused to support McCarthy and the majority of the rest refused to abandon McCarthy. Can you imagine what a disaster that would have been had he not won?
The Border crisis, outrageous Fentanyl deaths, increasing inflation, ridiculous spending, and investigations of Presidential criminal activity are all needed activities, among a plethora of others, that the House must address. This country is on the verge of authoritarian Socialism and the GOP House of Representatives is the last defense against that happening.
All this being said, I urged either the necessary votes (218) come about to elect Kevin McCarthy as Speaker or for McCarthy to have resigned and the majority elect someone else. Any credibility Republicans have established in our narrow majority in the House may have dissolved. Compromise is the essence of Democracy. I’ll write more about how his win came about and what it means going forward.
As always, your feedback is welcome and appreciated. Please let me hear your views.
Respectfully yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
Shamelessly, once again, the Delaware Chancery Court appoints someone from law firm Skadden Arps for one of the few roles on the court. Why is Skadden the feeder firm at the highest equity court in the land? From my view, the corruption is startling.
There have to be consequences for more of the same, which will lead to more of the same cronyism and Good Ole Boy wheeling and dealing as this court keeps everything in-house and keeps bringing in more from Skadden.
See the Law.com story below and send in your feedback on this folks. It’s always appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
JUDSON Bennett, Coastal Network
https://www.law.com/2023/01/03/meet-the-newest-master-in-delawares-court-of-chancery/?slreturn=20230003233054
Meet the Newest Master in Delaware’s Court of Chancery
With the addition of Bonnie W. David, formerly counsel for Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom’s Wilmington office, the business court has its largest complement of personnel in its history.
Bonnie W. David began serving as a master in Chancery on Tuesday, rounding out what’s now the largest Chancery bench in Delaware history.
With David, formerly counsel for Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom’s Wilmington office, onboard, all 10 positions on the Court of Chancery are now filled. With the addition of Loren Mitchell, previously a deputy attorney general for the Delaware Department of Justice, as a third master in Chancery in December, the court now has more judicial officers than ever before in an effort to accommodate growing caseloads.
David joined the master seat vacated in December by Master Patricia Griffin, who is continuing to serve on the court on a part-time basis. Her chambers are in the Court of Chancery courthouse in Georgetown.
The newest master in Chancery has represented corporations and directors in actions before both the Court of Chancery and Delaware federal court, appearing in cases disputing transactions, contracts, corporate governance and corporate statutes.
After graduating summa cum laude from Boston University in 2010 and cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 2013, David clerked for Vice Chancellor Sam Glasscock III. During law school, she served as senior editor for the University of Pennsylvania Law Review.
“This court and the people and state it serves are very fortunate to get a master with the experience, intelligence, work ethic and demeanor of Bonnie David,” Glasscock said. “And personally, it is a great pleasure to welcome her back to Sussex County.”
David has authored dozens of articles on Court of Chancery matters in a number of publications, including Delaware Business Court Insider. During her time at Skadden, she has served as a director for the Delaware Bar Foundation’s governance board, the treasurer for the Court of Chancery’s historical society and an associate member of the Delaware Supreme Court’s board of bar examiners.
OPINION
Dear Friends,
For the past few years, I have spent considerable time writing about certain perceived inequities and appearances of impropriety in the Delaware Court of Chancery. I have observed various conflicts of interest between Chancellors and lawyers, unprecedented sanctions imposed on certain litigants, rulings that were clear takings in violation of the Fifth Amendment, and enrichment in the amount of millions of dollars for certain cronies of the Chancellor, rather than providing equity. In my view these problems are untenable and require fundamental change.
Most Fortune 500 companies are incorporated in Delaware, because of the once-respected Court of Chancery. Unfortunately, this Equity Court has become tarnished by the appearances of impropriety that continue to be prevalent. The franchise taxes that come from these incorporations are and have been a bonanza for the State of Delaware. Frankly folks, I believe these financial windfalls are in jeopardy because of the actions of certain Chancellors. Famous Law professor and litigator Alan Dershowitz once said, “Any lawyer who has his client incorporate in Delaware is guilty of legal mal-practice.”
Do the people of Delaware want our famous Court of Chancery to be anything less than pristine? Should there ever be any doubt about bias or corruption within this esteemed institution? In these hard times with out of control inflation, can the State of Delaware afford to lose any revenue? The answers to these questions have to be a resounding “No”.
Folks, all this being said, I write these things because I truly want needed changes in the Court of Chancery. Delaware’s Sussex County is where I was born and raised. I want my state to prosper and do well. Indeed, It will take legislative action to improve the system. I urge more intense vetting of Chancery candidates by the Senate. I urge changes be made to the operational discretion of the Chancellor in regard to existing law and decisions made accordingly. Legislation from the bench is unacceptable.
As we move into 2023, I have hope that the Delaware woke culture evaporates and positive legislation develops that insures true equity in our Delaware Court of Chancery. There has got to be a better way.
I wish everybody on the Coastal Network a very prosperous and Happy New Year.
As always your feedback is welcome and appreciated.
Sincerely yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
I got quite the rise out of many of you in my last column with the advertisement that ran in the Delaware News Journal. This guy is the ultimate Grinch! He’s scandalous! As I see it, folks, it is well-deserved for the guy to get his comeuppance as he helped lead the decade-long swindle of 8,000 hard-working TransPerfect families. These people had money and healthcare and ultimately food taken out of the mouths of their families.
I enjoyed hearing from all of you over the holiday weekend. Here are 10 comments from all that were sent in.
“I cringed when I saw this, Judson. Awful for this guy to be portrayed like this.”
-Jack
“I’ve been reading your columns for years and this one is right on point!”
-Rebecca
“Oh my goodness, he looks just like the Grinch! I laughed out loud.”
-Susan
“This is rude to this guy. He doesn’t look green in real life, but this makes him look green and sick.”
-Morgan
“Way to go after the corrupt Chancery Court, Judson! This is a punch in their nose.”
-Arthur
“How could you do this to this guy, Judson? This is awful. His family has to see this and cringe.”
-Robert
“If he truly cost this company this much money, then he deserves all of this!”
-Samantha
“I never write in, but read your columns all the time. I had to take a minute to tell you how much I love this ad. I’m showing everyone. This guy could be the next Grinch!”
-Pauline
“This poor soul! You want to look away, but just can’t. Can I buy a figurine? Hah! Thanks, Jud!”
-Jonathan
Thank you for your feedback, folks. Keep ’em coming! They are always welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
JUDSON Bennett–Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
As the year comes to a close, I have a few honorable mentions and reiterations of what’s happening in the world that is fast becoming upside down, because of the acute arrogance, criminal activity, intentional disruptions, absurd decisions, and a clear Socialist and Orwellian agenda by President Joe Biden and the insidious left-wing handlers that are propping him up.
I am laughing out loud daily as Elon Musk is driving the LEFT and the White House crazy by releasing clear-cut proof of FBI interference in the 2020 election through its Twitter Censorship operation. The infamous Laptop owned by Hunter Biden that incriminates certain members of the Biden family will be huge public news this time around once the new House of Representatives, under Republican control, begins its needed investigations into the Biden criminal operation.
The Southern border is in a crisis that is unprecedented. Joe Biden took a successful, under control Mexican border operation designed by Donald Trump, and completely eliminated it, opening our border up to the entire world. Billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money is being spent to coddle and encourage these invaders to come into our country and indeed, they are coming in by the millions including drug dealers, terrorists, and gang members. Our national security is now at risk. There are solutions, which include finishing the Wall, obeying the existing immigration laws, temporarily putting the U.S. military on the border, and hiring many more Border Patrol Agents instead of IRS agents.
One final fiasco that has been in the news that deserves mention is the idiotic prisoner trade that Biden made, thereby giving the Russians the worst arms dealer in history for a liberal, female professional basketball player who hates America, while leaving a U.S. Marine behind to languish in a Siberian prison. That is typical of Biden as he left many patriots in Afghanistan and got 13 heroic service people killed through his absurd and incompetent withdrawal of U.S. forces there.
As I have stated over and over again, Biden is the worst, most incompetent, and intrinsically evil President in United States history. It is frightening to think how bad he can make things over the next two years.
As always, your feedback is welcome and appreciated.
Best regards,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
See the ad below, which perfectly captures the injustice that has gone on in Delaware’s Chancery Court for nearly a decade. See for yourself and tell me what you think!
May the Chancery’s decade-long swindle of 8,000 hard-working TransPerfect families end in 2023. And Merry Christmas to all!
Opinion
Dear Friends,
I hit a nerve that resonated with my readers about how incapable Delaware’s Governor and our now shamed Chancery Court of making a monumental, or big decision as the nation watches. It’s sad that America’s First State pales in comparison to other states in our grand country when it comes to thinking of the greater good, and not just what’s good for the cronies in Delaware.
I enjoyed hearing from you all… here are 10 interesting comments I chose to share from the hundreds that everyone sent in. I removed the last names to protect your privacy.
“Our Governor is the most anonymous Governor in the U.S.A.”
-Harold
“You are right to give our dumpster fire of a governor a hard time. Carney is nearly invisible at this point.”
-Jesse
“You’ve described so well how much of what really goes on in our Chancery Court is simply to appease those in power in our state. No one seems to care or even take notice.”
-Susan
“I used to think you were making controversy when there really wasn’t any. Now I know that you have been a lone voice for a long time and people and the media now are saying what you’ve been saying!”
-Fred
“Judson, I think you’re beating a dead horse here.”
-Thomas
“Maybe you’re right. Maybe they’ll do nothing. Let us know what happens..”
-Jerry
“I don’t have faith in our leadership to make a strong decision.”
-Roxanne
“I laughed when I read your “act on matters of great concern.”
Not in this century or the last. It’s sad.”
-Walter
“This advocacy group can press for as long as they want. They’ll get nothing out of our leaders.”
-Edward
“This is important. I hope these guys step up for a change.
-Louis
Thank you for your feedback, folks. Keep them coming! They are always welcome and appreciated.
Best Regards,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear friends,
Do you remember not too long ago, it was “RUSSIA, Russia, Russia”, with the Democrats and DOJ constantly attacking President Donald Trump from the time he was elected til his Presidency ended in a compromised election, with a victory by Joe Biden, the absolute worst President in United States history!
Factual evidence of FBI corruption, falsifying documents in support of a phony hit piece paid for by Hillary Clinton, and millions of dollars of taxpayer money wasted on a baseless investigation that was ultimately proven to be totally invalid, is the unconstitutional standard of our crooked President and the crooked Democrats who support him!
To the contrary, the falsely elected Joe Biden has weaponized the FBI, which is illegally being used to harass, intimidate, and attempt to entrap American citizens.
In addition to the clear violation of our immigration laws and clear evidence of influence peddling by Joseph Biden, it has now been discovered through the heroic distribution of the “telling” censorship operations by the FBI, in regards to Twitter and it has been a shocking revelation to informed and caring Americans. Thank goodness new Twitter owner Elon Musk has our back!
Folks, the 1st Amendment to the constitution, clearly states that “no freedom of speech shall be abridged by the United States government.” When agents of the FBI (our sacred, top, supposedly trusted, law enforcement governmental agency) prevented Twitter from publishing the Hunter Biden scandal, which broke in a New York Post story prior to the 2020 election, they intentionally censored free speech, which is our most sacred constitutional right, thereby violating federal law.
Folks, we now live in a Banana Republic with a corrupt Federal Bureau of Investigation which has been created as an arm of a compromised President of the United States. The bottom line — no doubt the intrinsic and despicable rub here — is that Biden would not have been elected, if the FBI had not interfered in the 2020 election through its censorship operation with Social Media companies. It is so dangerous, so terribly wrong, and such a basic violation of our American ethics and constitutional operation, it is indeed mind boggling.
If the American electorate does not ultimately — through the House and Senate — eliminate these criminal activities, our country will become a huge dictatorship with a corrupt society that nobody wants. The problem is that a compromised press does not tell the truth and half the American people have no idea how bad things really are.
Folks,that is the way I see it. As always, your comments are welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Submitted,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
Delaware’s Governor and the once-prestigious Chancery Court are once again faced with an issue that is bigger than what America’s First State appears capable of solving and handling at its root. As I wrote last week, it’s not an issue I’ve championed over the years. Yet, I remain curious to see how our Governor and Chancery Court handle this challenge as a nation watches.
See the Delaware Live story below for more. Delaware and the Chancery Court have shown a real inability, in my opinion, to act on matters that are of great concern. Instead, they’re all about circling the wagons and cronyism. Can either step up? We’ll see.
Please send your feedback on this, folks. It’s always welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
Judson Bennett–Coastal Network
Justice James T. Vaughn Jr. announced recently that he will retire as of May 1, 2023, after 25 years on the Delaware Supreme Court.
Justice Tamika Montgomery-Reeves, who in 2019 became the first Black judge on the state Supreme Court, has been nominated to serve as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals Third Circuit in Philadelphia. She is expected to resign after her confirmation.
That will leave Delaware’s highest court without a justice of color in a state with a nonwhite population of more than 30% – including 23% Black and 10% Latino, a press release said.
“Delaware prides itself on its trailblazing constitutional legacy, yet the principles of justice and equal opportunity enshrined within that hallowed parchment are suddenly at risk in the First State,” Sharpton said in a press release.
Spokesmen for the state court and Carney declined to comment.
“Refusal to act at this urgent crossroads will kill diversity on the state’s highest court – and an all-White Supreme Court would be a terrible stain on democracy,” said Sharpton.
He and many others across the nation believe a largely white judiciary is one of the reasons that the country’s prisons are full of largely non-white people.
“Carney must seize this pivotal moment and nominate two justices of color to fill both of these looming Supreme Court vacancies,” Sharpton said. “Should Gov. Carney fail to ensure representation across the state’s judiciary, he will send the awful message that in Delaware, bragging about the Constitution matters far more than the rights and values protected by it.”
While there’s no evidence that Carlney or the courts are paying attention, the state last week announced a Black woman would join the Court Of Chancery as a Master In Chancery. Loren Mitchell’s chambers will be in the Leonard L. Williams Justice Center in Wilmington.
A master of chancery is a senior judicial officer who focuses on things such as guardianships and other issues. The Chancery Court traditionally has had two, but the General Assembly this year approved a third Master’s position, and Mitchell fills that role.
A graduate of the North Carolina Central University School of Law and the University of Delaware, she had been serving as a deputy attorney general at the Delaware Department of Justice.
She had been general counsel to the Department of Labor’s Division of Industrial Affairs, the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation and the Department of Health and Social Services. She also was unit head in the Civil Division and chaired the Department’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee.
Mitchell will be addressed as Master Mitchell. There is no mistress in the court system.
It’s not unusual for those who are Masters of Chancery to go on to a seat on the Chancery or another court.
Sharpton has been the star of several huge media campaigns condemning Delaware courts for their lack of color paid for by the Citizens for Judicial Fairness and its predecessor, Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware.
The pro-business group rose in the wake of the Transperfect case decided by the Delaware Chancery Court, which many consider the best place for businesses to resolve internal conflicts. One of the parties in any suit there must be a company incorporated in Delaware.
In the Transperfect case, the Shawe family that owned the language translation company were angry over the court’s order that it must be sold, which it was to owner Phil Shawe.
Since then, members of the Shawe family and the two advocacy groups have worked against Carney’s election, been critical of the Chancery Court and the lack of minority judges.
The organization has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying for changes and protesting the $3.9 million in fees that Custodian Robert Pincus’ and Skadden Arps — a vast American international law firm — charged during the court battle.
The group shifted names and focus this year.
Opinion
Dear friends,
Since Elon Musk, touted as the World’s richest man, the creative genius of Tesla, electric cars, has purchased Twitter, the Biden administration and the corrupt left are freaking out. Musk is blowing the whistle on an unprecedented and illegal operation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation whereby it covered up high crimes by the Biden family, forcing Twitter and Facebook to kill the story.
That all being said, there is no doubt that the compromised FBI and DOJ illegally covered up the bombshell discovery of Hunter Biden’s laptop in a Wilmington, Delaware computer repair shop. The laptop presented evidence clearly indicating influence peddling involving the President, Joe Biden, child molestation by son Hunter, including a huge compilation of damaging facts that seemingly incriminate the entire Biden operation, which is tantamount to treason.
The New York Post got the information and wrote a blockbuster story which the FBI at its highest level, in collusion with Twitter executives, prevented the story from being published. There is absolutely no doubt that this outrageous interference affected the 2020 election and prevented Donald Trump from being reelected and put who in my opinion is a criminal named Joe Biden in the White House.
After purchasing Twitter, Musk is exposing this outrageous and treasonous operation by the FBI, and is ending the horrible roadblocks on social media against the truth and our freedom of speech. Musk is rightfully concerned about his personal safety, as the government of the United States is indeed a criminal operation.
Folks, the House of Representatives is now controlled by the Republicans, and the investigations are coming. Elon Musk is my hero and he is definitely the impetus behind it all.
As always, your comments are welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully submitted,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
When the judge in charge of the Delaware Chancery Court says there’s a “lack of racial diversity among its judges” then you know there is an issue. It’s certainly not an issue I’ve championed over the years, folks. I’m one who thinks the best person for the job should get the job, regardless of diveristy.
See the Bloomberg Law story below for more. In my opinion, Delaware has been made a target for this issue and the Chancery Court now has to deal with it. It’s keeping the court in the news after the Twitter vs. Elon Musk Case is finally out of the headlines.
Please send your feedback on this, folks. It’s always welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
Judson Bennett–Coastal Network
– Chancery Court was venue for Twitter-Musk, other M&A
disputes
– Judge said the state was working to ‘fix’ the all-White court
By Jef Feeley
December 2, 2022 at 4:19 PM EST
The chief judge of the influential Delaware Chancery Court decried the lack of racial diversity among its judges but said state officials were working to address the issue.
Judge Kathaleen St. J. McCormick remarked on the court’s lack of diversity Friday at a corporate mergers-and-acquisitions conference at Columbia University in New York.
“The lack of diversity is a black mark,” McCormick said. “But we are working hard to fix that.” The setting for the judge’s comments reflects the court’s status as the nation’s premier forum for disputes arising from M&A and other corporate transactions. McCormick herself recently oversaw the pitched legal battle between Twitter Inc. and Elon Musk over his attempt to withdraw from his $44 billion takeover offer for the social-media platform. Musk capitulated and agreed to go through with a deal before a trial.
McCormick said that Delaware struggles to get African-American and other minority lawyers into its pipeline for future judges. The state’s supreme court last year set up an initiative to address racial disparities, she noted.
Delaware has been targeted by some civil-rights leaders — including the Rev. Al Sharpton — for failing to diversify the chancery court, whose judges are business-law experts and hear cases without a jury. The court’s importance is due in large part to the fact that more than 60% of Fortune 500 companies are incorporated in Delaware.
Tamika Montgomery-Reeves became the first African American appointed to the chancery court in 2015. She was later elevated to the Delaware Supreme Court and has since been tapped by President Joe Biden to serve on the federal appeals court in Philadelphia.Opinion
Dear Friends,
Thousands upon thousands of illegal aliens are literally walking into our country. The approximate count is over 4 million. Basically, the southern border is controlled by the drug cartels as is the country of Mexico. Over a 150,000 U.S. citizens have been killed by deadly Fentanyl poisoning that is coming across the southern border by cartel infiltrators. Criminals and terrorists are entrenching themselves throughout America and are clearly supported and enhanced by the Biden administration.
These illegals are given food, clothing, water, money, cell phones–put up indefinitely in hotel rooms, and their kids are given welfare and education, while American veterans and homeless do without. The cost to American taxpayers is well over 200 billion dollars a year.
When elected, Biden swore an oath to uphold our laws. Besides the despicable influence peddling by President Joe Biden with help from his son Hunter (soon to be proven for all to see), Biden is violating our immigration laws. The man is despicable and should be impeached and removed from office. His actions are tantamount to treason! Unfortunately impeachment and conviction probably won’t happen, however through the new Republican House of Representatives the Biden crime syndicate will be exposed. What will happen next remains to be seen??
What do you think? As always your comments are welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
To clarify my recent piece on the Coastal Network, the gist of the issue is the itemized bills in TransPerfect’s Chancery Court case invoiced by former Skadden Arps attorney and court-appointed custodian Robert Pincus. As I understand it, he hired one of his buddy attorneys in Delaware to represent TransPerfect when they were under the court’s custodianship and then told him to tell the shareholders there was no need to see the itemization of the millions of dollars he was charging the company for an auction I now believe was a possible fraud?
The very same attorney who was submitting itemized bills to TransPerfect and had a fiduciary duty to do what was best for TransPerfect, apparently took direction from the custodian, who as I understand it, told him to keep his bills hidden. The company went to court to say, this is an obvious case of legal malpractice (not to mention a form of corruption) and the court said even though we don’t have jurisdiction over this, we’re going to decide on this case anyway. To nobody’s surprise they found no malpractice. Typically judges in these types of cases will write a 10-page decision, but Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick only found the time to write one paragraph, in essence writing that she didn’t see malpractice. I guess when the law is not on your side, the less you say the better! What hypocrisy!
In their circling-the-wagons protectionist move, the court took a case form New York, because in my opinion, based on years of writing about this corrupt court and my extensive research, they know that once another court looks at what’s going on in Delaware, they’d be outraged and rule against them!
As I see it, Delaware will do anything to keep a case, so she dismissed the case. Then the Delaware Supreme Court follows along, protecting its own. They don’t want other courts saying, “What kind of nonsense is this? You’re not providing itemized bills for millions of dollars? What company doesn’t have the right to see bills and have an attorney properly advocate for them.” In my opinion, that’s crazy!
Only in Delaware folks. In my view, this type of blatant protectionism which can be perceived as possible corruption, will eventually collapse like a house of cards. Who will suffer the most? The good citizens of Delaware!
Simply put, and in my educated view from covering these courts, they don’t want other courts involved as they do everything they can to keep it in house-strictly inside Delaware, because it could only expose the appearances of impropriety which should never happen.
Please see the story below and send in your feedback, it is always welcome and appreciated. These comments are based on my extensive research in these matters.
Respectfully Yours,
Judson Bennett–Coastal Network
By Jeff Montgomery
Law360 (November 17, 2022, 9:18 PM EST) — Delaware’s top court late Thursday upheld the Court of Chancery’s dismissal of a TransPerfect Global breach of duty suit against Ross Aronstam & Moritz LLP and, in a separate decision, let stand the lower court’s refusal to terminate a TransPerfect escrow that funded a court-appointed custodian.
Justice Gary F. Traynor wrote both brief orders, joined by Justice Karen F. Valihura and James T. Vaughn Jr. in the Ross Aronstam decision, and by Chief Justice Collins J. Seitz Jr. and Justice Vaughn on the escrow appeal.
The decisions resolved two controversies in an 8½-year, sometimes multistate saga that saw Chancery Court drawn into a dispute between the founders of a small translation business that now provides language services, technology and content creation and other services in 43 countries.
Disagreements between founders Philip R. Shawe and Elizabeth Elting became a bitter thread that has run through the company’s story from its founding in 1995 to the present. Personal disputes between Shawe and Elting grew over the years into a Chancery Court suit, court-ordered sale and appointment of a custodian, Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom attorney Robert B. Pincus, now retired, who himself became a target of Shawe’s scrutiny and objections.
The orders on Monday agreed with a decision by Chancellor Kathaleen St. J. McCormick that rejected claims by TransPerfect’s co-founder that RAM and name partner Garrett B. Moritz breached professional duties by failing to disclose that, in opposing a shareholder demand for records on fee payments to the custodian and law firm, it was taking direction from a purportedly conflicted custodian whose fees were ultimately paid by TransPerfect.
The justices sided with the chancellor in finding that “it is not reasonably conceivable that [RAM has] breached a professional obligation, and [that] TransPerfect has therefore failed to state a claim for legal malpractice upon which relief can be granted.”
In her decision, Chancellor McCormick observed that “Defendants had one client: TransPerfect.” An earlier sale order “made the custodian TransPerfect’s exclusive authorized agent empowered to direct counsel retained in connection with the sale process. Defendants thus acted appropriately in following the instructions of the custodian.”
The justice agreed, noting: “TransPerfect’s claims against RAM, moreover, include a challenge to the custodian’s authority to retain and direct the activities of counsel on TransPerfect’s behalf; as such, they fall squarely within the exclusive-jurisdiction provisions of the Court of Chancery’s prior orders.”
Martin Russo, lead counsel for TransPerfect, said in an emailed statement late Thursday: “This is more of the same from the Delaware judiciary. They circled the wagons and ruled without reasoning because the decisions cannot be supported by law or reason.”
Separately, the justices agreed with the Chancellor in finding in November 2021 that an authority for a multimillion-dollar escrow fund — established to fund the custodian’s sale of TransPerfect, related matters and claims against the custodian — had not yet lapsed, although the sale closed in May 2018,
Pincus was discharged from his custodial duties in April 2021, but claims coverable by the escrow remained.
In August 2021, Shawe sought termination of the escrow, a request rejected by the lower court based on a conclusion that claims had yet to be settled by a final, non-appealable order.
The justices said the escrow order provided for its continuation for three years following closing of the TransPerfect sale and one year after any claims against the custodian are resolved in a non-appealable court order.
Based on the timing of remaining appeals and their resolution, “less than one year has passed since these claims were resolved,” Justice Traynor wrote. “Moreover, the Court of Chancery did not err when it declined to address the ‘unripe’ issue of whether ‘purely hypothetical’ claims identified in the future would permit the escrow fund’s survival.”
In the Pincus case, TransPerfect Global Inc. is represented by Frank E. Noyes of Offit Kurman PA and Adam K. Bult of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck LLP
In the Ross Aronstam case, TransPerfect Global is represented by Frank E. Noyes II of Offit Kurman PA and Douglas Capuder of Capuder Fazio Giacoia LLP.
Philip R. Shawe is represented by Jeremy D. Eicher of Eicher Law LLC and Alan M. Dershowitz.
Robert B. Pincus is represented by Jennifer C. Voss, Cliff C. Gardner and Elisa M.C. Klein of Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP.
Ross Aronstam and Garrett B. Moritz are represented by David E. Ross, Bradley R. Aronstam, Eric D. Selden, S. Michael Sirkin, Adam D. Gold and Benjamin Z. Grossberg of Ross Aronstam & Moritz LLP.
The cases are TransPerfect Global Inc. et al. v. Robert Pincus, case number 132,2022, and TransPerfect Global Inc. v. Ross Aronstam & Moritz LLP et al., case number 131,2022, in the Supreme Court of the State of Delaware.Opinion
Dear Friends,
I hope everybody had a pleasant and happy Thanksgiving Day. It has been a rough year with Covid combined with the terrible inflation we are all experiencing. Regardless, as Americans, we still have it better than most of the world these days. For that, we should be eternally grateful.
As a Conservative Republican and patriot, I am delighted and extremely thankful that my party has won back control of the House of Representatives. Indeed, I truly believe our country has hope now and this is the beginning of turning things around.
Blessings to all on this traditional American holiday weekend.
Sincerely yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
Delaware’s Supreme Court is doing its own bidding, once again, folks. We’re seeing it in two rulings in the TransPerfect case as it upheld the dismissal of a legal malpractice lawsuit and also rubber-stamped a Chancery Court ruling refusing to terminate the custodian and allowing him to continue to dip into a slush fund that was meant to expire one year ago.
What we’re seeing here, shamefully, is that nothing has changed in these Delaware courts, as I see it, whose primary function has turned into protecting its own and keeping outsiders out — at any and all costs! See the Law360 story below detailing exactly how this outrageous behavior lives on, as they “circled the wagons and ruled without an opinion to explain their reasoning because their decisions simply cannot be supported by law or reason.”
This has been my point exactly for years, folks! No matter how deeply these Justices and Kathaleen McCormick go to justify previous rulings, without any legal precedent, no one in power in America’s First State does a damn thing about it! What happened to checks and balances in Delaware? The Delaware judiciary has gone off the rails. Those wagons are circled tight. No one from the outside is making a dent in this Protectionist Society.
I had hoped that Chief Justice Seitz would be the voice of reason and maturely lead the way out of this groupthink, but instead he “swoops in” and reiterates this cronyism. He’s the chief of all cronies. That’s how I see it, folks. This Delaware Court Groupthink is dangerous and doesn’t allow for critical thinking or analysis backed by law or reason.
See the story below and send your feedback. It’s always welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
Judson Bennett–Coastal Network
Del. Justices OK Toss Of TransPerfect, Shawe Claims
By Jeff Montgomery
Law360 (November 17, 2022, 9:18 PM EST) — Delaware’s top court late Thursday upheld the Court of Chancery’s dismissal of a TransPerfect Global breach of duty suit against Ross Aronstam & Moritz LLP and, in a separate decision, let stand the lower court’s refusal to terminate a TransPerfect escrow that funded a court-appointed custodian.
Justice Gary F. Traynor wrote both brief orders, joined by Justice Karen F. Valihura and James T. Vaughn Jr. in the Ross Aronstam decision, and by Chief Justice Collins J. Seitz Jr. and Justice Vaughn on the escrow appeal.
The decisions resolved two controversies in an 8½-year, sometimes multistate saga that saw Chancery Court drawn into a dispute between the founders of a small translation business that now provides language services, technology and content creation and other services in 43 countries.
Disagreements between founders Philip R. Shawe and Elizabeth Elting became a bitter thread that has run through the company’s story from its founding in 1995 to the present. Personal disputes between Shawe and Elting grew over the years into a Chancery Court suit, court-ordered sale and appointment of a custodian, Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom attorney Robert B. Pincus, now retired, who himself became a target of Shawe’s scrutiny and objections.
The orders on Monday agreed with a decision by Chancellor Kathaleen St. J. McCormick that rejected claims by TransPerfect’s co-founder that RAM and name partner Garrett B. Moritz breached professional duties by failing to disclose that, in opposing a shareholder demand for records on fee payments to the custodian and law firm, it was taking direction from a purportedly conflicted custodian whose fees were ultimately paid by TransPerfect.
The justices sided with the chancellor in finding that “it is not reasonably conceivable that [RAM has] breached a professional obligation, and [that] TransPerfect has therefore failed to state a claim for legal malpractice upon which relief can be granted.”
In her decision, Chancellor McCormick observed that “Defendants had one client: TransPerfect.” An earlier sale order “made the custodian TransPerfect’s exclusive authorized agent empowered to direct counsel retained in connection with the sale process. Defendants thus acted appropriately in following the instructions of the custodian.”
The justice agreed, noting: “TransPerfect’s claims against RAM, moreover, include a challenge to the custodian’s authority to retain and direct the activities of counsel on TransPerfect’s behalf; as such, they fall squarely within the exclusive-jurisdiction provisions of the Court of Chancery’s prior orders.”
Martin Russo, lead counsel for TransPerfect, said in an emailed statement late Thursday: “This is more of the same from the Delaware judiciary. They circled the wagons and ruled without reasoning because the decisions cannot be supported by law or reason.”
Separately, the justices agreed with the Chancellor in finding in November 2021 that an authority for a multimillion-dollar escrow fund — established to fund the custodian’s sale of TransPerfect, related matters and claims against the custodian — had not yet lapsed, although the sale closed in May 2018,
Pincus was discharged from his custodial duties in April 2021, but claims coverable by the escrow remained.
In August 2021, Shawe sought termination of the escrow, a request rejected by the lower court based on a conclusion that claims had yet to be settled by a final, non-appealable order.
The justices said the escrow order provided for its continuation for three years following closing of the TransPerfect sale and one year after any claims against the custodian are resolved in a non-appealable court order.
Based on the timing of remaining appeals and their resolution, “less than one year has passed since these claims were resolved,” Justice Traynor wrote. “Moreover, the Court of Chancery did not err when it declined to address the ‘unripe’ issue of whether ‘purely hypothetical’ claims identified in the future would permit the escrow fund’s survival.”
In the Pincus case, TransPerfect Global Inc. is represented by Frank E. Noyes of Offit Kurman PA and Adam K. Bult of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck LLP
In the Ross Aronstam case, TransPerfect Global is represented by Frank E. Noyes II of Offit Kurman PA and Douglas Capuder of Capuder Fazio Giacoia LLP.
Philip R. Shawe is represented by Jeremy D. Eicher of Eicher Law LLC and Alan M. Dershowitz.
Robert B. Pincus is represented by Jennifer C. Voss, Cliff C. Gardner and Elisa M.C. Klein of Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP.
Ross Aronstam and Garrett B. Moritz are represented by David E. Ross, Bradley R. Aronstam, Eric D. Selden, S. Michael Sirkin, Adam D. Gold and Benjamin Z. Grossberg of Ross Aronstam & Moritz LLP.
The cases are TransPerfect Global Inc. et al. v. Robert Pincus, case number 132,2022, and TransPerfect Global Inc. v. Ross Aronstam & Moritz LLP et al., case number 131,2022, in the Supreme Court of the State of Delaware.OPINION
Dear Friends,
This story is getting some legs folks, as more and more news outlets are spreading the word about how Credit Suisse and former Skadden Arps partner Robert Pincus drove up the price of the TransPerfect sale in the Delaware Chancery Court case.
Pincus is looking like a fool and a thief for driving up the price of the sale by $70 million, according to the Bloomberg story below, as it looks as if he paid to put in a shill bid somehow and Credit Suisse earned a commission buying its own shares?!
I’ve been saying this auction was a sham forever. I had spoken with employees, and as I understood it, no one showed up to the bidder meetings. I’ve been saying it was a sham for years because of that. Thank God that Pincus is going to be brought to justice for paying himself $50 million to run a fake auction.
Please send your feedback on this, folks. It’s always welcome and appreciated. It’s criminal and I’d love to hear your thoughts on how this is allowed to happen in Delaware.
Respectfully Yours,
Judson Bennett-Coastal Network
Bloomberg Law Story:
(Bloomberg Law Subscription)
By Martina Barash (Bloomberg Law) — Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC and the attorney who shepherded the sale of translation services company TransPerfect Global Inc. drove up the price by $70 million by falsely citing other offers, according to a suit by the winning bidder—a company controlled by a TPG co-founder
TransPerfect Holdings LLC’s complaint, filed Wednesday in the US District Court for the District of Delaware, is the latest salvo against Robert Pincus, a former partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, over his role as the custodian for the court-ordered sale of TransPerfect Global. The translation giant recently lost a challenge in the Delaware Supreme Court to the $3.2 million in fees that Pincus charged
TPH is 99% owned by TransPerfect’s co-founder Philip Shawe, according to the complaint
The forced sale of TransPerfect took place after the breakup of Shawe’s romantic relationship with the company’s other founder, Elizabeth Elting, led to an irreconcilable deadlock, according to the Delaware top court’s ruling
Shawe, through a company called PRS Capital LLC, bought out Elting in a modified auction following novel rulings by the Delaware Chancery Court and state supreme court ordering the company sold and placed under a custodianship based solely on the management deadlock, despite its continued profitability. PRS Capital then became TPH
In its new suit, TPH alleges Pincus bypassed independent advisers’ recommendations and orchestrated the auction, which would be profitable for him and Credit Suisse. The bank served as TransPerfect Global’s exclusive financial adviser
When no one bid higher than Shawe’s pre-auction offer, “Pincus had to act to justify the tremendous cost of the auction and preserve his reputation,” TPH says. “He and Credit Suisse then misrepresented to Plaintiff that there were higher value bids,” forcing it to raise its offer by $70 million, it says
“We believe these allegations are entirely meritless and intend to vigorously defend ourselves,” Credit Suisse said in an emailed statement Thursday
Martin Russo, lead counsel for TPH, said in an emailed statement, “We have confidence in the federal judiciary and encourage you to really focus on the allegations to see how serious the conduct was.”Opinion
Dear friends,
Donald Trump is definitely running for President in 2024. His declaration speech was given last night in Palm Beach. His speech was centered, on point, and focused on the issues that the American people care about. I tend to agree with several high ranking Senators who think that if Trump stays on track without going into divisive waters, he just might pull it off and win again.
On the other hand, if Trump continues to attack fellow Republicans like successful Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who has remained a gentleman and not responded in kind to Trump’s remarks, then he could become a force that divides the Republican party with devastating consequences in 2024.
We will have to see how it all develops. There are indeed those who would prefer that Trump play golf and step aside. Please read the open letter below by James Greenfield:
As always, your comments are welcome and appreciated.
Sincerely yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal Network
COMMENTARY
By James Greenfield
November 09, 2022
AP
Dear President Trump:
In mid-August, shortly after the FBI made its unannounced, unprecedented search of Mar-a-Lago, you acknowledged America’s rising levels of anger and polarization and you made an extraordinary offer:
“The temperature has to be brought down in the country. If it isn’t, terrible things are going to happen,” you said. “I will do whatever I can to help the country.”
Offer accepted. Here’s how you can best help the nation step back from the precipice of civil disorder: Declare you will not be a candidate for president in 2024.
And by the way – President Biden, who falsely cast himself as the unity candidate in 2020 and has since made a series of dark, incendiary speeches demonizing all Republicans as a threat to democracy, should step to a Rose Garden podium and make a similar announcement. Only then will the healing begin, and the risk of politically inspired violence begin to diminish.
I’m a conservative who voted for you in 2016 and 2020 and I regret neither vote. Had you continued in office in 2021, the U.S. and the world would be safer and in far better economic condition today because you would have continued to encourage the exploitation of our vast energy resources; completed your efforts to close our southern border and stem both unfettered immigration and the importation of deadly fentanyl; ensured that law enforcement had the resources it needs to control rising crime that has all Americans on edge; and tried to slow the spread of racially divisive and sexually inappropriate materials in our schools.
You deserve great credit for engendering a political realignment that will ensure conservative ideas remain relevant. As many U.S. corporations have tacked left, intent on imposing an intolerant “woke” agenda far beyond their boardrooms, you have persuaded increasing numbers of working people and minorities that their best interests are no longer represented by a Democratic Party drawn to fringe ideology that matters to only a sliver of the electorate.
But these initiatives can and should proceed without you as Republicans continue to take advantage of a favorable electoral environment.
As I shuffle in the general direction of retirement, I expect the 2024 election to produce eight years of conservative leadership more likely to foster economic prosperity and stability which will prevent the further erosion of my retirement funds. You cannot offer us eight years. Because you’ve already been elected president once, the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution limits you to one more term. That’s probably a good thing because in November 2024, you’ll be 78, five months older than Joe Biden was on Election Day 2020.
If you run again, the electorate’s attention will be diverted from winning issues which beg for exposition. Corrupt Justice Department jackals, at the behest of the Biden White House, will not let you rest. Whether the cause du jour is Jan. 6, classified documents, or your business operations, they will continue to harass and likely indict you. You will be playing defense when your team is poised to take the ball and drive down the field.
The merits of the claims against you are almost beside the point. What matters is that none of the other leading Republican contenders will have to contend with such distractions. We can’t afford to let distractions dilute the message.
You cannot secure personal vindication in 2024. Yes, there were irregularities in 2020. Two of them are undeniable: Mark Zuckerberg’s injection of $420 million to turn public elections administrators into get-out-the-vote activists in swing-state Democratic municipalities; and the FBI’s pressure on social media to censor reporting detrimental to Biden, including the Hunter Biden laptop story.
But it will never be possible to quantify the effect of those irregularities on the 2020 vote. Instead of relitigating 2020, there must be focus through 2024 and beyond on preventing the repeat of assaults on election integrity. (This week’s election of Republicans at the state level is a positive step in closing election loopholes.)
Another important consideration – you have never been a stranger to controversy. You thrive on being in the arena, duking it out, counterpunching, exposing hypocrisy. But the country can’t handle the daily maelstrom anymore, especially when it gets personal. The ties that bind us are on the verge of unraveling. As you’ve recognized, we need calm.
At the 2016 Republican National Convention, you famously said, “I alone can fix it.” That is no longer an argument for your candidacy. You may not publicly admit it right now, given your publicly expressed ambivalence toward Ron DeSantis, but you know he’s capable of carrying on the work you began. Equally worthy are Nikki Haley and Glenn Youngkin (to identify only two among several), both of whom offer the values, administrative experience, and calm demeanor we need to right the ship.
Your selfless decision to withdraw from the 2024 race would be statesmanlike, truly a historic “America First” moment. Think of the endorphins your announcement will release. Can you leave the political stage with such goodwill and positive energy? If you truly recognize what’s best for the country, you can and will.
Call any time if you want to discuss my proposal. I speak only for myself, but I know there are many committed conservatives who agree. My very best to you and Melania, and thanks for your service.
— Jim Greenfield
James Greenfield is a business litigator and real estate lawyer in Villanova, Pa.OPINION
Dear Friends,
Shockingly, folks, I’m learning that former Skadden Arps attorney Robert Pincus in his capacity as custodian for TransPerfect in now being sued for misrepresenting to now current owner and CEO Philip Shawe that there were other competitive bids during the final round of the auction process to induce Mr. Shawe to pay an additional $70 million dollars! He even went as far as offering to pay $4 million to one of the bidders to stay in the auction so he wouldn’t look like a fool and a thief for paying himself $50 million to run a fraudulent process for two years! That’s how Skadden makes its money. Truly shocking! What is more criminal than this, folks?!
This is beyond belief! Such highway robbery should not be allowed and as I see it, this should be prosecuted to the highest extent of the law! I’ve been saying this auction was a sham since back when I was talking with employees and no one was showing up to the bidder meetings. I’ve been calling this out as a sham forever! Thank God Pincus is going to FINALLY be brought to justice for paying himself $50 million for running a fake auction.
In Delaware Chancery Court’s now famous TransPerfect case, Pincus was put in charge as the court custodian for the sale of the company. When bids for the company were not as rich as expected, it looks like Pincus led the way to misrepresent higher bids, to, in essence, inflate the final sale price by $70 million! Paying ’em to put in a shill bid, in summary, folks. Outrageous!
Former Skadden attorney Pincus, who acted as court custodian for the sale, and Credit Suisse Securities LLC are being accused of securities fraud, as you’ll see in the Law360 story below. I also heard from my sources that Credit Suisse who was hired by Pincus earned a commission in the range of $15 million to maintain a phony auction and forced the TransPerfect CEO to pay a commission on buying back his own shares.
Another black eye for Delaware. This all smells to high-heaven folks and heads need to roll, here. Please send your feedback to this news folks. I want to hear your thoughts on this. They’re always welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
JB-CN
By Andrea Keckley· Listen to articleLaw360 (November 10, 2022, 4:21 PM EST) — Language translation company TransPerfect Holdings LLC has sued a retired Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP partner and an investment banking company in Delaware federal court, alleging that the attorney misrepresented the results of a judicial auction and caused the company to pay an extra $70 million when it already had the highest bid.TransPerfect Holdings accused former Skadden attorney Robert Pincus, who acted as court custodian for the sale, and Credit Suisse Securities LLC of securities fraud Wednesday.“We have confidence in the federal judiciary,” Martin Russo, lead counsel for TransPerfect, told Law360 Pulse, adding that the allegations show “how serious the conduct was.”Credit Suisse was hired by Pincus to act as a financial adviser to TransPerfect Global Inc., which is owned by TransPerfect Holdings, in connection with the sale of the company. According to court documents, Pincus was appointed to conduct the sale of TransPerfect Global by the Delaware Chancery Court. TransPerfect’s complaint alleged that Pincus orchestrated “an ill-advised but highly profitable (for Defendants) auction process to sell TransPerfect Global Inc.”“When the auction failed to produce bids materially better than those Plaintiff’s principals had made pre-auction, Pincus had to act to justify the tremendous cost of the auction and preserve his reputation,” the filing said. “He and Credit Suisse then misrepresented to Plaintiff that there were higher value bids requiring Plaintiff to bid $70 million more to win the auction. In reality, Plaintiff already was the highest value bid and had won the auction without the need for any price improvement.”According to court documents, the judicial auction took place after TransPerfect Global co-founder Elizabeth Elting petitioned the Court of Chancery for the dissolution and forced sale of TransPerfect Global due to alleged shareholder and director gridlock. The following year, the court ordered that TransPerfect Global be sold as a going concern.Pincus hired investment banking company Houlihan Lokey Inc. to assess sale alternatives. He sent a report to the Court of Chancery recommending a modified auction that the report said was dependent on an ungranted, post-sale competition restriction to be imposed by the court on Elting and TransPerfect Global co-founder and CEO Phil Shawe, according to the complaint. In July 2016, the Court of Chancery issued a saleorder that adopted Pincus’ recommendation for a modified auction but declined to impose the noncompetes. TransPerfect alleges that Pincus failed to inform the court of the editorial control it says he had over the report.“In the end, as explained further below, Pincus achieved his true goal – he ran a costly ‘broad auction’ with 92 participants and made many tens of millions of dollars for himself, Skadden and his advisors in the process,” TransPerfect said in its complaint. “The results of that auction were clear by November 8, 2017, but Pincus and Credit Suisse sought to extract more from Holdings through misstatements and omissions.”Credit Suisse was hired in November 2016, according to court documents. Credit Suisse and Pincus are alleged to have come up with a sale process that involved three “discrete” rounds of bidding but changed the rules and increased the bidding rounds along the way to create the false impression of real price competition in the auction.According to court documents, on Nov. 8, 2017, Blackstone Inc., H.I.G. Capital and Shawe submitted Phase III bids. TransPerfect alleges in its complaint that by that time, Credit Suisse and Pincus knew that Shawe’s bid was “best in economic value and certainty” while Blackstone was not competitive and H.I.G. had reached the top of its bid. TransPerfect accused Pincus of paying one of the three remaining bidders up to $4 million to stay a bidder.Pincus did not immediately respond to a request for comment.TransPerfect Holdings is represented by Jeremy D. Eicher of Eicher Law LLC and Martin P. Russo and Robert Sidorsky of Russo PLLC.Counsel information was not available for the defendants.The case is TransPerfect Holdings LLC v. Robert Pincus and Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, case number 1:99-mc-09999, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware.–Editing by Gemma Horowitz
OPINION
Dear Friends,
As we wait for the final results of the Midterm elections from the incompetent officials in Arizona, there have been, in my view, disturbing statements (obviously politically motivated) by former President Donald Trump against The Governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis.
This diatribe by Trump against Governor DeSantis, in the wake of certain conservative pundits, saying the poor Republican showing was partially caused by Trump, has really upset this patriot. Nobody supported Trump with innumerable hours of work, money, and dedication than I have. I also admire and support Florida’s Governor DeSantis who has done nothing wrong and is the best governor in the United States. Do I think Trump was totally responsible for the red wave that did not happen, no I do not. Most likely the abortion issue was the reason.
Trump obviously plans to run for President again and considers DeSantis a threat to his chances in capturing the nomination, as DeSantis created a true Red Wave in Florida and we the people love him. For me, it is like having two close friends, both whom I admire, and one who showed a flaw that is hard to accept and has created, in my mind, a serious and devastating political debacle that will most likely backfire. It unfortunately shows a flaw in Trump’s character, which to me is untenable. I am so disappointed in Donald Trump who created the best platform in my lifetime. To attack DeSantis was the worst thing he could have possibly done and will divide the Republican party, which could end up a disaster for future victories and give the Democrats the ability to continue their devastation of our country.
I once dated a very attractive and bright woman who worked closely for Trump for many years. She told me he was a genius, extremely creative, and effective in his business operations. She said he treated her very well and never hit on her, However, she also said that periodically, he demonstrated the emotional stability of a 12-year-old and sometimes acted like an egomaniac. Her comments didn’t at the time resonate with me and indeed I was all-in for Donald Trump when he ran for President and I was terribly upset when he lost to Biden who is incompetent, malicious, and dishonest. Indeed, Biden is the worst President in United States history.
At this point, all things considered, I hope Trump does not run, and if it is between DeSantis or Trump, I would have to support DeSantis who clearly has a great platform like Trump’s, but without the baggage. Trump has, in my view, made a huge political mistake, which will hurt him and also divide the GOP.
It is hard for me to say these things, yet that is the way I see it. As always, your comments are welcome and appreciated.
Sincerely yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOpinion
Dear Friends,
For the past several years, I have combined logic, Patriotism, and my political experience to express publicly through the Coastal Network the necessity of electing Republicans. I put in countless hours, sending the message to my readers. Frankly, I did not sleep a wink last night as I watched the mid-term results.
There was no “RED WAVE”. At this point the control of both houses is not yet determined. It is shocking that there are so many ignorant people in this country, especially in the states of New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Arizona! Can you believe Fetterman won in Pennsylvania?
Apparently, many of these people do not care about inflation, open borders, and horrible crime.
Florida came through big, which was fantastic, however, this country is in huge trouble and God help us if the House is not determined to be in favor of the Republicans. The Senate is in a dead heat. We will see if we have a victory at all in either place in the coming hours or perhaps days. Looks like there will be a run-off election in Georgia for the Senate. At this point I am experiencing tremendous anxiety. If it goes wrong, which it might, half the American people have no clue how bad it is going to get.
That’s all I have to say. I am saying a personal prayer to my God to save this nation.
As always, your comments are welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Submitted,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
Apparently, the Chancery did not learn its lesson on violating constitutional rights in the TransPerfect case.
Here the mafia of robed scoundrels goes again, folks… changing property ownership rights in any manner that suits their whims, and their friend’s pocketbooks.
Batshit crazy Chancellor quote of the week: “Because shares of stock in a Delaware corporation are personal property within the jurisdiction of the Court,” it was empowered to transfer the Shares’ ownership?! WTF??? By this logic, Chancery can just use their contempt power to move private property from one citizen to another, anytime!
Laster, who was rebuked for making inappropriate public comments about the TransPerfect case, appears to be trying to legitimize Bouchard’s corrupt rulings.
Folks, I have always said unchecked and unsupervised power leads to corruption. For proof, read the “Chancellors Gone Wild” story below. As always, your feedback is welcome and appreciated.
October 10, 2022
On October 3, 2022, in In re Stream TV Networks, Inc. Omnibus Agreement Litigation,[1] Vice Chancellor Laster of the Delaware Court of Chancery issued an extraordinary order unwinding a transaction by divesting a party’s ownership of shares in a Delaware corporation and vesting ownership of those same shares in another litigant. Finding the divested party in contempt because of its efforts to undermine the Court of Chancery’s earlier orders in the case, Vice Chancellor Laster accomplished this result in reliance on a Court of Chancery rule that does not appear to have been relied on in any previously reported decision, but which empowers the Court to reassign ownership of Delaware property. This decision should serve as a powerful wake-up call to Delaware litigants as to both the extent of the Court of Chancery’s authority and the dangers of being “too clever by half” in attempting to narrowly construe its orders.
Facts and Procedural HistoryIn re Stream involved an agreement between Stream TV Networks, Inc. (“Stream”), its secured creditors, including Hawk Investment Holdings Ltd. (“Hawk”), and certain of its shareholders, that was entered into after Stream had defaulted on its secured debt. The creditors’ debt was secured by all of Stream’s assets, which primarily consisted of shares in an operating subsidiary incorporated in Delaware (the “Shares”). In the agreement, Stream agreed to transfer all of its assets to SeeCubic, Inc. (“SeeCubic”), a newly formed entity controlled by the secured creditors, while Stream’s minority shareholders received the right to exchange their shares in Stream for shares in SeeCubic.[2] Stream’s majority shareholders objected, leading to litigation in the Delaware Court of Chancery concerning the agreement’s validity.
In December 2020, the Court of Chancery held that the agreement was enforceable and preliminarily enjoined the parties from “taking any action to interfere with it,”[3] after which SeeCubic acquired Stream’s assets, including the Shares. The Court of Chancery subsequently granted summary judgment as to the validity of the agreement and issued a permanent injunction in September 2021.[4] The Delaware Supreme Court reversed, however, holding that the agreement was invalid because it had not been approved by Stream’s majority shareholders, and remanded the case for further proceedings.[5] Because the agreement was invalid, the Court of Chancery directed that the disputed assets be returned to Stream, including the Shares.[6] Hawk then sought permission to immediately exercise its rights as a secured creditor prior to that transfer, which the Court of Chancery denied.[7] Vice Chancellor Laster explained that returning the parties to the same positions they had enjoyed prior to the since-reversed rulings was “not possible” due to the passage of time, but “unwinding the transfer of the [assets was] nevertheless the closest possible alternative” and would allow Stream “to conduct business and make efforts to satisfy the claims of Hawk and Stream’s other creditors.”[8]
According to the Court of Chancery, on September 30, 2022, SeeCubic and Hawk next engaged in “a series of coordinated acts in which SeeCubic would transfer the Shares to Stream in a manner that would enable Hawk to seize them by acting before Stream could respond,” ensuring that they would end up in Hawk’s possession.[9]
First, SeeCubic informed the Court that the assets had been returned to Stream. Next, twenty-three minutes later, Hawk sent a letter consisting of “dense legalese”—replete with defined terms, as well as citations to and quotations from several contracts and court orders—that “could not have been drafted in the twenty-three minutes that [had] elapsed,” which demanded that title to the Shares immediately be registered in Hawk’s name.[10] That registration occurred three minutes after the letter was sent, so quickly that the letter’s recipient “could not have reviewed Hawk’s letter, considered its implications, and updated [its] stock ledger.”[11] Finally, one hour later after the shares were registered in Hawk’s name, Hawk wrote to the Court that it now owned the Shares and had exercised various rights as shareholder of the operating subsidiary, including changing the subsidiaries bylaws and the constitution of its board of directors.
In all, “[t]he choreographed sequence of events took place during an extended lunch hour, starting at 11:45am and ending at 1:18 p.m.,” causing Vice Chancellor Laster to comment that “[i]t was not possible for [the parties] to have taken the actions they did without advance notice, preparation, and an overarching plan.”[12] Later that same day, Stream filed an emergency motion with the Court of Chancery, which the Court granted.
The Court’s Ruling
On October 3, 2022, the Court of Chancery held SeeCubic and Hawk in contempt because they had acted in concert to undermine the Court’s earlier orders. Vice Chancellor Laster divested Hawk’s ownership of the Shares, vested their ownership in Stream, and temporarily enjoined SeeCubic and Hawk from interfering with Stream’s ownership of the Shares.
The Delaware Court of Chancery exercises discretion in imposing contempt sanctions, employing an equitable standard in deciding whether a party failed to obey the court’s orders “in a meaningful way.”[13] SeeCubic argued that it complied with the earlier order because it had transferred the Shares to Stream, but the Court focused on the intentionally transitory nature of Stream’s ownership, which lasted for only minutes before title was further transferred to Hawk as a result of SeeCubic and Hawk’s coordination. Vice Chancellor Laster explained that he had intended for Stream to have ownership of the Shares that afforded it a meaningful opportunity to engage with its secured creditors.[14] SeeCubic and Hawk deprived Stream of this intended opportunity, however, ignoring that Vice Chancellor Laster’s earlier decisions “did not envision a choreographed transfer” by SeeCubic and Hawk to “seize the Shares before Stream could react.”[15] By purposefully frustrating the intended result, SeeCubic and Hawk acted in contempt.
Employing an apparently unprecedented remedy, the Court of Chancery divested Hawk’s ownership of the Shares, vesting their ownership in Stream instead. The Court’s rules provide that, “in proper cases” in which a “party [is] in contempt,” the Court “may enter a judgment divesting the title of any party” to “real or personal property . . . within the jurisdiction of the Court” and “vesting it in others.”[16] Because “[s]hares of stock in a Delaware corporation are personal property within the jurisdiction of the Court,” it was empowered to transfer the Shares’ ownership.[17] Vice Chancellor Laster commented that the pertinent rule has never before been invoked in a reported Court of Chancery opinion. He reasoned that “[e]xtraordinary facts will sometimes call for extraordinary remedies” in order “to give the parties that to which they are entitled,” however, and “the fact that a particular form of relief is unprecedented does not mean it is unwarranted or unavailable.”[18]
Further, the Court of Chancery granted a ten-day injunction barring SeeCubic and Hawk from interfering with Stream’s ownership of the Shares, in an effort to restore the parties to roughly the same state they had occupied before the Court of Chancery’s since-reversed December 2020 decision.[19] Because Hawk had not yet exercised its rights as a secured creditor at that time, Stream was entitled to some period of time to act as owner of the Shares without Hawk’s interference. Reassigning the Shares’ ownership and granting a temporary injunction, Vice Chancellor Laster explained, would achieve the outcome envisioned by the earlier order that SeeCubic and Hawk sought to evade.
CONCLUSION
Despite the Delaware Court of Chancery’s observation that this case involved “[e]xtraordinary facts,” In re Stream may have significant implications. And, at a minimum, is a powerful reminder to litigants in all courts of the dangers inherent in playing fast and loose in adherence with court orders. As demonstrated by In re Stream, technical attempts to abide by the letter of the law while ignoring its spirit may not end well.
Dear Friends,
Former Chancery Court Chancellor Andre Bouchard was interviewed by Litigation Daily and answered their questions. I carefully read the article and my bullshit meter was in overdrive, folks. I decided to answer some of the same questions to give readers what they deserve: The truth. More on this in Part II, where I’ll address his BS answers.
The question and answer article is about Bouchard’s thoughts on Chancery. That is rich, folks! Since he did everything in his power to destroy that court’s reputation and use it as a plaything to enrich his friends and former business partners (Yes Kevin Shannon and Steven Lamb, I am talking about you, Bouchard put forth ungodly amounts of money as a judge to both of you). First of all, as I see it, except for illegally enriching his friends, must not miss the TransPerfect case, since his corruption there got him kicked off the bench. Bouchard says he’s doing “a lot of mock judging experiences” these days – good choice of words – he’s always been a mock judge – making a mockery of justice.
He was asked what it takes for a firm not from Delaware to build a successful Chancery Court practice. I’ll tell you: Connections and Payola. That is Bouchard’s sad legacy, as I see it, folks. Mr. Shannon and Mr. Lamb can perhaps attest – Lamb cashed a $1.7 million check from Bouchard’s doings, then what? His firm hired Bouchard into private practice! Coincidence?
Bouchard openly talked about Chancery Court “guidelines” that his mentor Leo Strine put in place and that he himself revised during his short tenure in power. In the story, he was asked if there was anything during his time on the bench that he thought newcomers should know about the court. That’s an easy one folks, it’s all about who you know, and who you can influence at fancy Country and Supper Clubs.
See the story below from Litigation Daily. It’s full of BS and answers that you’d have to really be drinking the false kool-aid to buy. Those not making a living off this system can smell a pile of excrement when we see one. Agree? Disagree? Please send your feedback. It is always welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
JUDSON Bennett–Coastal Network
Delaware Law Journal
‘Don’t Waste the Court’s Time’: A Delaware Chancery Court Primer from Paul Weiss’s Andre Bouchard
“You’ve got to jealously guard when you get the court involved in matters,” says Bouchard, the former Chancellor of Delaware’s Court of Chancery, now a partner at Paul Weiss.Dear friends,
Have you heard the old sayings, such as “Payback is a bitch?”, “What comes around goes around?”, “People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones?” and “The wheels of justice move slowly?” Well folks, it appears that despite a compromised FBI in collusion with the Democrat party, which falsely attacked former President Donald Trump and covered up Hunter Biden’s potentially nefarious crimes, potential justice could very well eventually prevail.
It looks like the Republicans are going to take over the House and probably the Senate. If that happens, the proper investigations and criminal prosecutions for the suspected. grotesque influence peddling, by the Bidens, which I believe has compromised our national security, will take place.
The evidence gleaned from Hunter’s laptop, testimony from former business partners, and evidence gleaned from FBI whistleblowers, indicates serious crimes, especially with China, that could actually be paramount to treason. The 10% clearly designated for the “Big Guy” (President of the United States-Joe Biden) written on Hunter’s laptop and the words from Joe Biden’s brother when asked how the Biden’s got away with their suspicious enterprises by former business partner Tony Bobilinski – “Probable Deniability” were the explanations used as part of the method of operation by the Biden Family, which has gleaned millions of dollars from foreign providers.
Indeed, when the Republicans take over, the real activities of the entire Biden Family could actually be exposed with impeachments and criminal prosecution. The wheels of Justice move slowly, but eventually it gets there.
Payback is indeed a bitch and I predict it is definitely coming. In my view, what has occurred through the Biden operation has compromised the entire safety and national security of the American people. These activities must be accounted for and. if accurate, severe consequences must happen.
What do you think? As always your comments are welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
Highway robbery is happening in broad daylight in Delaware’s Chancery Court, folks. It’s not an exaggeration to say, in my view, it’s criminal and cronyism at its worst. It’s detestable and the once-respected Delaware Chancery Court no longer has national respect. I believe Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick should be ashamed of herself that this behavior is condoned and allowed in her once-proud, but now disgusting court.
See the story below that Delaware’s Chancery Court approved a stunning $400,000 in legal fees for just a 3-month period to a custodian chosen by his friend and former Chancellor Andre Bouchard to run an auction that ended 5 years ago! The money is for former Skadden Arps attorney Robert Pincus, who is the court’s hand-picked custodian in the TransPerfect case.
Sadly and disgustingly, hardly any legal action or movement in the lawsuit has happened over those 3 months. Yet, Chancellor McCormack keeps approving these monstrous bills with no oversight. This is why the Delaware Way is going to ruin the incorporation business that is so vital to our economy. Greed and deep-rooted corruption by Skadden in the system is the only explanation.
It is no coincidence that Skadden is one of the law firms representing Twitter in its battle with Elon Musk.
How is this still happening, folks?! In our fine country and America’s First State?! Please share your feedback, folks. It is always welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
JUDSON Bennett–Coastal Network
Citizens for Judicial Fairness Slams the Chancery for Allowing Self-Dealing Lawyers to Continue Lining Their Pockets at Expense of TransPerfect Employees as Court Action Stalls and Case Goes Nowhere
October 24, 2022 12:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time
WILMINGTON, Del.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Today, Citizens for Judicial Fairness campaign manager Chris Coffey issued the following statement after new financial records show the Delaware Chancery Court approved an additional whopping $400,000 in legal fees last quarter for its hand-picked custodian, former Skadden Arps attorney Robert Pincus, in the TransPerfect case – despite little legal action or progress in the suit over the past three months.
“Making a cool $400,000 for no work is a pretty sweet gig if you can get it – but tragically that’s business-as-usual at the Delaware Court of Chancery, which acts more as a conveyor belt of cash for its legal cronies than a hallowed hall of justice. The latest payout goes to the Chancery Court’s own hand-picked custodian in the TransPerfect case, former Skadden attorney Robert Pincus, and required virtually no legal action or court proceedings – just an insider connection to land a cushy appointment. And the Chancery Court has no qualms about bilking a successful, job-creating company and its hundreds of hard-working employees to line the pockets of its friends. While it’s murky what work was actually done to earn $400,000, this much is clear: the fees aren’t about the administration of justice or the disposition of a legal matter, they’re nothing but a court-approved kickback.”
OPINION
Dear friends,
”Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire”… the old adage that without a doubt identifies the biggest hypocrite, liar and exaggerator in the whole world. This insidious prevaricator is President Joe Biden. It is indeed a terrible thing to have someone who is so completely dishonest in charge of your country, using his position and power for his own benefit, while compromising your constitutional rights, freedom, and future prosperity.
Folks, I am from Delaware-born and raised, and I have been observing the unbelievable phenomenon of Joseph Biden all my life. I played football against him, ran a campaign against him in Sussex County, and have completed hours of opposition research on this man’s fallacious existence. It wouldn’t surprise me if I know more about him than he knows about himself.
Biden has been coddled, protected, and propped up by the media and hundreds of Democrat operatives who have basked in Biden’s amazing, reflected glory, in a career that is so filled with intrinsically evil operations and misrepresentations, within both the public and private sectors, that any educated individual who knows the reality of his existence is truly appalled.
Folks, this man should never have been President of the United States. As a local Delaware politician, Biden always had “the gift of gab”, a remarkable charisma that enabled him to propagate and enable a career of deception that Delawareans and eventually the Democrat hierarchy bought into, enabling him to achieve the highest office in the land.
From the very beginning, when Biden stole his original election in Delaware for U.S. Senator by bribing the head of the Teamsters Union, a career of deception, lies and criminal activity, has been propagated ever since. The Teamster’s President was bribed for $3,000, the Delaware newspapers endorsing Biden’s opponent were never delivered and Biden narrowly won his original election. Folks, I know the man who put up the money—from his lips to mine.
He lied about his grades and degrees in college. He was suspended for plagiarizing a paper in law school, and in a previous run for President, plagiarized a British orator’s words and was forced to end his campaign. He once said he was arrested with Nelson Mandela—a complete lie. He even lied about his marriage to Jill and how they met. There has been one prevarication after another, and yet Biden always got away with it, protected by the “apple, polishing, wart healing” media along with innumerable Delaware sycophants.
Remember the scandal of democrat aid, Tara Reid, who claimed Biden molested her? That situation was nicely covered up by the press, as I see it. Biden should have been arrested and thrown in jail. The influence peddling with help from son Hunter and the apparent millions of dollars gleaned by the entire Biden family is unprecedented. “TEN PERCENT FOR THE BIG GUY”. How do they get away with it? One Biden brother called it “Feasible Deniability”. The evidence found on Hunter’s laptop and testimony from former business partners indicates that our president has been involved in activities that have compromised our national security.
Biden continues to lie to the American people about everything—the compromised Southern border, the energy crisis, the economy, inflation, and every aspect of our society, which is absolutely under serious attack. Biden’s cloaked dishonesty, enhanced by a Democrat party that intends to subjugate us by weaponizing the DOJ, the IRS, and the FBI is beyond disconcerting and frightening. In my opinion, folks, it is hard for this writer to believe how this incredible con-man, named Joe Biden, was able to get himself elected President of the United States and how in two short years has managed to completely disrupt our nation.
Folks, on November 8th, we have the opportunity to control and eventually eliminate the abomination that Joe Biden has become by voting Republican. Indeed my words are harsh, but that is the way I see it.
This is my opinion based on my years of political experience and extensive observations of Biden’s method of operation. The facts are available to those who wish to do the research. As always, your feedback is welcome and appreciated.
Sincerely yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
It looks like our nation will not get to see all the incestuous players in Delaware’s Chancery Court as the Elon Musk vs. Twitter may be coming to an end. The company is being prepared to be bought by Musk as you’ll see in the Bloomberg News story below.
Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick has imposed an October 28, 5pm Eastern time deadline, and it looks as though Musk will close his deal to buy Twitter.
It’s a shame that the spotlight won’t be shined brightly on the cronyism and the Good Old Boy corruption with all of the world watching. The incestuous ways of Delaware’s Chancery Court, which are apparent to some of us, will remain cloaked in secrecy to most of the world.
Politically, the left is freaking out, because Musk will not ban people or prevent the truth from being published on Twitter, which the company has maliciously done in recent years. Free speech, folks. That’s what I stand for!
Secrecy reigns in Delaware’s equity court, while free speech is set to open back up on Twitter. Let me know your thoughts on this folks. Your feedback is always welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal Network
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-10-18/twitter-locks-employee-stock-accounts-in-anticipation-of-deal
Twitter Locks Staff Stock Accounts in Anticipation of Deal
-Updated FAQ page for employees says account activity frozen
-Musk, Twitter approaching Oct. 28 deadline to close deal
By Kurt Wagner and Edward Ludlow
October 18, 2022 at 1:32 PM EDTUpdated onOctober 18, 2022 at 1:37 PM EDT
Twitter Inc. froze the equity awards accounts for employees on Monday as the deadline to seal a deal with Elon Musk approaches.
The social media company updated its employee FAQ page this week to alert staff that they won’t be able to access or trade shares from the Equity Award Center. The page said the change was done “in anticipation of the closing of the pending acquisition of Twitter by an entity controlled by Elon Musk,” according to two people familiar with the change.
“This freeze allows Schwab to perform final reconciliation of employee accounts prior to close of the acquisition,” the update reads. Restricted stock units for a number of workers are due to vest early next month, the people said. A number of staff have been seeking other jobs and plan to resign once the stock vests, they said.
A Twitter spokesperson declined to comment.
The move is a signal that Twitter is marching forward with the proposed deal. Twitter’s shares jumped 1.9% after the news.
Musk and Twitter are nearing an Oct. 28 deadline to finalize a $44 billion sale that was first announced in April. Musk previously tried to walk away from his offer, prompting Twitter to sue in an effort to consummate the agreement. A judge delayed a planned trial, originally scheduled for this week, to give the two sides more time to finalize the details.
Employees have been waiting anxiously for the deal to close, and many are worried about the possibility of job cuts. On Blind, an anonymous app for employees to chat with one another, some have started to share tips with colleagues on how to prepare for layoffs.OPINION
Dear Friends,
The November Midterm elections are less than a month away. This election is the most important Democratic process in the history of our Republic. All the polls indicate that the Republicans should win the House by 14 to 20 votes. Control of the Senate will be determined by 1 or 2 elections in Pennsylvania and Georgia.
President Biden and the Democrat Party have done their best to destroy this nation. The lies and corruption of this administration are terrible and intrinsically evil. The absolute absurdity, among innumerable other things, of destroying our oil industry (taking us from energy independence to begging totalitarian dictatorships for oil) and intentionally opening our Southern Border to millions of illegal aliens, has created devastating inflation that will put us in huge economic distress. The possibility of food shortages, gasoline prices off the charts, brainwashing our children in schools, loss of freedom of speech, and a true totalitarian government with a weaponized DOJ, FBI, and IRS, is indeed a reality. Even the progressive, left-wing liberals won’t like what could develop. Unprecedented crime to the point of anarchy is happening now in every major American city and is getting worse every day.
Folks, if we don’t get out and vote on November 8th, and vote Republican to change this potential nightmare, and stop the grotesque bleeding, we could lose the House and the Senate with devastating consequences. This is what will surely happen if that is the case: The Democrats in the Senate will do away with the Filibuster, the Supreme Court will be stacked with Liberals, Puerto Rico and Washington D.C. will become States, (creating a guaranteed Democrat majority in the Senate), the Electoral College will be eliminated, and everything you do will be monitored by an authoritarian government. The true greatness of America and the opportunity for Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness will be eliminated. God help us if that happens.
Folks, do you want to live in poverty and lose your freedoms? Do you want to live in a true Socialist/Communist society? Your actions in this Midterm election will determine our fate!
As always, your comments are welcome and appreciated. God bless America!
Respectfully Submitted,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
I recently wrote an article about the Delaware Chancery Court allowing over $200 million to be billed in the Twitter vs Musk case, even though Elon Musk has decided to now buy the company and the lawsuit should be dropped. This brief column is my personal follow-up.
Folks, after watching carefully for several years, this formerly revered, unique court of equity — once famous and respected nationally for resolving corporate legal problems that could not be solved internally — I believe the court has evolved into a “Good Ole Boys Club” with a select few of connected lawyers who in my view rape the system.
Seventy percent of most fortune 500 companies have incorporated in Delaware, which means that this court gets to make decisions that involve millions of dollars. It appears from my observation that the value and righteousness of a legal issue in an important case is not always the deciding factor. Many of the most successful (winning lawyers in the Court of Chancery) are former business partners with the Chancellors or connected to the Chancellor or court in other ways.
Bottom line folks, who you hire, especially if the attorney was buddies with the judge, makes a difference in the outcome? It is unfortunate that the world may not now get to see this Delaware extravaganza in operation with its innumerable conflicts of interest and appearances of impropriety. Many lawyers, I know personally in Delaware, folks jokingly call the Chancery Court the Delaware Court of Inequity.
A few connected lawyers who make their living in the Chancery Court took exception to my last article, declaring absolute integrity in the Delaware Court of Chancery. I say “BS”. Folks, throughout Delaware law, it is stated that the Appearance of an Impropriety is as bad as the Impropriety itself. When a judge has lunch with one of the opposing lawyers during the decision making time of a trial, that is the appearance of impropriety. When a judge is a former business partner of one of the lawyers in a case, that is a conflict of interest. When a judge legislates from the bench in an unprecedented manner, that is improper. When a judge allows one side to milk a litigant for millions of dollars without precedent, especially when the lawyer for that side was a former business partner of the Chancellor, I call that the appearance of impropriety. I even witnessed a Chancellor allowing bills to be submitted for the time used to create the bill. Folks, the purpose of the Delaware Court of Chancery is to provide fair and equitable solutions, not to enrich the Chancellors’ special friends.
Power eventually corrupts, and folks the Chancellors in Delaware have ultimate power. The outrageous rulings in the TransPerfect case were over the top, and to me indicated a form of subtle corruption.
Now Twitter and Musk have contributed millions to connected lawyers, all capitalizing on the unique equity industry that is alive and well in Delaware and the case hardly got started. I urge legislative change and better oversight of this unique Court, so there can never be a doubt about its integrity.
As always your comments are welcome and appreciated.
Yours truly,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
As crazy as it sounds folks, legal fees are reportedly as high as $200 million in the Twitter vs. Elon Musk case as the Delaware Chancery Court outrageously enables these sky-high cronyistic legal billings. The companies in this battle not only hired firms with the closest connections to the court, they encouraged and allowed hundreds of millions to be billed in this case. Citizens for Judicial Fairness is speaking out loudly — calling out the equity court for allowing bills to be padded by millions of dollars — while calling for judicial reform because of it.
Is this a court, or a country club, with everyone winking and nodding as the meter runs endlessly? Do we simply stand by as the Chancery Court elites are enabled to get richer, while others suffer? See the Delaware Business Now piece below for the full story. It’s time for reform, folks. Will our Delaware elected officials act? Let me know what you think of this corruption. Please send your feedback, which is always welcome and appreciated. Respectfully Yours, JUDSON Bennett-Coastal Network
https://delawarebusinessnow.com/2022/10/judicial-fairness-group-takes-aim-at-legal-fees-paid-in-musk-twitter-case/
Judicial fairness group takes aim at legal fees paid in Musk-Twitter case
Delaware Business Now
October 7, 2022
Following a report noting that lawyers in the Musk-Twitter lawsuit have run up as much as $200 million in legal fees, Citizens for Judicial Fairness Campaign Manager Chris Coffey released the following statement:.
“Our courts must be a bastion for justice and fairness – not a scam for connected lawyers to fatten their wallets by fleecing the businesses that they’re meant to serve and that provide the livelihoods of thousands of hardworking employees and their families.
“Once again, the Chancery Court is top of class in empowering legal elites to enrich themselves at the expense of everyday people just because they go to the same country clubs as court ‘justices.’ Every day this disgraceful self-dealing system racks up money for rich, well-connected lawyers is a day hard-working people have to work even harder to make up the difference. The time for judicial reform is long overdue because instead of serving the lofty ideals of justice, or the needs of our communities, at the Delaware Chancery Court, the meter’s always running.”
Citizens for Judicial Fairness was born out of the dispute over the ownership of New York-based translation services company TransPerfect and the legal fees paid in that case between two owners with 50-50 ownership. The case was settled with TransPerfect owner Philip Shawe prevailing.
The group was later rebranded and focuses on the lack of Black judges in Delaware.
The TransPerfect and Twitter cases differ, especially when it comes to the value of the two companies and the fortune of Musk, who is believed to be worth $230 billion.
TransPerfect was sold for $770 million in 2018 under an offer from Shawe that was approved by Chancery Court. Shawe has disputed the legal costs coming out of the case and fees paid to a court-appointed custodian who recommended the sale to Shawe,
This year, Tesla founder Elon Musk pulled out of a deal to buy social media company Twitter for $44 billion, a Tesla sued in Chancery to force Musk to live up to the signed agreement, and Musk recently reversed course and agreed to buy the company after legal maneuvers to delay a Chancery Court or produce a way to walk away from the deal trial failed.
Depositions and other pre-trial activity have continued in the Twitter case.
OPINION
If former White House adviser Peter Navarro is ordered to relinquish presidential records from “at least one unofficial email account” (see MSN’s court story below) then Andre Bouchard, former Chancery Court Chancellor, should be forced to give access to his Protonmail account.
Bouchard does not dispute conducting state business in the Delaware Chancery Court’s TransPerfect case, on his Protonmail account, so therefore he should be ordered to give over access to this account, no matter that it is not an official government account, because he admitted that he conducted Delaware state business, which should open it to inspection.
As I see it, folks, the TransPerfect case was what forced him out of office when he retired less than halfway through his Delaware Governor-appointed 12-year term. Shouldn’t we be allowed to know what really happened? Do you agree?
Send your feedback. As always, your comments are welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal Network
‘Those Records Are the Property of the United States’: DOJ Uses Rare Procedural Device to Claw Back ProtonMail Account from Peter Navarro
Adam Klasfeld – Sep 27
Former Trump White House Advisor Peter Navarro (L) talks to reporters with his new attorney John Rowley after Navarro was arraigned at the Prettyman U.S. Courthouse on June 17, 2022 in Washington, D.C.
Federal prosecutors deployed a rare procedural maneuver on Monday night to seek a judicial order for former White House adviser Peter Navarro to relinquish presidential records from “at least one unofficial email account” without conferring immunity to him.
“There is no genuine dispute of fact that Dr. Navarro used at least one unofficial email account to conduct official business, that those records are the property of the United States, and that Dr. Navarro has refused to return the records to the United States,” prosecutors wrote in a 14-page memorandum. “Indeed, his counsel has expressly admitted as much. Because Dr. Navarro remains in possession of property that belongs to the United States, this Court should issue a writ of replevin requiring Dr. Navarro to return what he wrongfully continues to possess.”
Facing a pending criminal prosecution for contempt of Congress, Navarro courted a civil lawsuit against him in August over the use of a ProtonMail account when he served as former President Donald Trump’s trade adviser. The Swiss-based email company offers end-to-end encryption on emails sent to each other on their servers. The lawsuit, filed in the District of D.C., accused Navarro of flouting the Presidential Records Act and stonewalling the National Archives and Records Administration.
Facing a pending criminal prosecution for contempt of Congress, Navarro courted a civil lawsuit against him in August over the use of a ProtonMail account when he served as former President Donald Trump’s trade adviser. The Swiss-based email company offers end-to-end encryption on emails sent to each other on their servers. The lawsuit, filed in the District of D.C., accused Navarro of flouting the Presidential Records Act and stonewalling the National Archives and Records Administration.
The Justice Department turned up the heat on Navarro on Monday evening, seeking what is known as a writ of replevin.
“Because there is no genuine dispute that Defendant has unlawfully retained and withheld Presidential records that are rightly the property of the United States, this motion seeks summary judgment and a writ of replevin from this Court ordering Defendant to return all Presidential records in his possession to the United States,” the memo states.
Before the Justice Department filed suit, Navarro’s counsel refused to produce any records without a grant of immunity, according to court papers.
Former federal prosecutor Mitchell Epner told Law&Crime that the Justice Department’s motion would avert this impasse.
“This is a very clever procedural device by the DOJ to get the documents from Navarro without conferring immunity upon him for the act of producing the documents,” said Epner, who is now a partner at Rottenberg Lipman Rich PC.
According to Epner, this type of government request is uncommon — but then again, so is the alleged conduct that prompted it.
“I have never seen it done,” Epner added. “It is very rare that a defendant has physical possession of documents that, by operation of law, belong to the U.S. Government.”
Navarro’s attorney John S. Irving did not immediately respond to Law&Crime’s email requesting comment on the latest development.
In response to a prior inquiry, the lawyer asserted: “Mr. Navarro has never refused to provide records to the government.”
“As detailed in our recent letter to the Archives, Mr. Navarro instructed his lawyers to preserve all such records, and he expects the government to follow standard processes in good faith to allow him to produce records,” Irving said in August.
Having lost his recent bid to advance even a “colorable” claim of selective prosecution, Navarro will stand trial for contempt of Congress trial on Nov. 17.
Opinion
Dear Friends,
It is my view that President Joe Biden is the most hypocritical, incompetent man on the planet. He and his insipid Vice President Kamala Harris have done everything possible to ruin this country. Can you imagine a President calling out a DEAD Congresswoman from the audience, when a week before he had sent condolences from the White House? Can you imagine a Vice President who does not know the difference between North and South Korea? Well folks, that is what you got running this country.
Here are the current administration’s accomplishments:
1) Biden completely destroyed the oil and natural gas industry, taking us from being energy independent to depending on foreign oil.
2) Biden took a controlled Southern Border and intentionally opened it up to the world. Millions of illegal aliens are pouring into our country, sucking up benefits, taking jobs with cheap labor, bringing in drugs which have killed over a hundred thousand citizens, and committing heinous crimes with impunity.
3) Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan was a disaster and an indication of his true incompetence. The weakness he displayed there opened the door for Putin to attack Ukraine.
4) Biden gave away billions of dollars in financial aid for unemployment and pandemic problems that created inflation that is devastating everyone’s economic stability. Millions of dollars were stolen through fraud.
5) Biden has weaponized the FBI, the IRS, and the DOJ to control us. He is operating a totalitarian government that is frightening beyond belief.
Folks, I could write a book about how bad things really are and how bad they could get. Biden with help from his son Hunter has sold out his country. The evidence of influence peddling and corruption is overwhelming. The book “The Laptop from Hell” is totally incriminating. Miranda Divine, the New York Post’s top reporter, wrote a realistic expose of the Biden Crime operation which everyone should read. Tonight, Hunter Biden’s former partner, Tony Bobalinski, will testify on Fox News’ “Hannity” about the Biden corruption. He has thousands of documents and a tape of Joe Biden, clearly indicating his complicity.
Folks, as bad as things are, if we vote Republican in November, we have a chance of taking back our country, saving our freedoms, and enjoying some prosperity. If not, we will be forced into mediocrity and much worse. That’s the way I see it.
As always, your comments are welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
We’re less than a month away from the trial of the year in Delaware’s Chancery Court as Twitter and Elon Musk are set to battle on October 17.
When heading to a trial in Delaware’s Chancery Court, who you hire is as important – if not more important – than the merits of the case. It’s a sad reality that to litigate a case in the Chancery, the strategy about what connections your firm might have with the Court is more important than finding a lawyer who can best win the case based on legal strategy.
The lawyers in this case are hiring firms with close connections to the Chancery Court, because as I see it, it’s not truly a court, it’s more like a Delaware lobbying arm. It’s who you know and how they are tied to the court. The strategy is to hire a retired judge now working in private practice or a firm or lawyer who was once a former employer of the current Chancellor. With these links to the court, your chances of success are much higher.
Sadly, it’s a winning strategy. At the end of the day it’s not about what you know but who you know.
See the Associated Press story below, which sets the stage for the trial, which is scheduled to last five days.
I’d love to hear your feedback on this folks. It’s welcome and appreciated. It’s so important now as this court is being thrust in the spotlight for all the world to see the cronyism and injustice that lies within.
Respectfully Yours,
JB-Coastal Network
By BARBARA ORTUTAY
September 26, 2022
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — Tesla CEO Elon Musk won a reprieve from questioning by Twitter lawyers Monday, according to several press reports. The billionaire had been scheduled to give a deposition in his high-stakes court fight with Twitter over whether he has to follow through with his agreement to buy the social platform for $44 billion.
Instead, Musk’s questioning was postponed to a future date. Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, who was also scheduled to face Musk lawyers on Monday, likewise postponed his deposition, according to a person who was briefed on the matter.
The Musk postponement was reported by Bloomberg, Reuters and the Wall Street Journal, all of which attributed the information to anonymous sources.
News of the postponements fueled a brief rally in Twitter shares, which jumped 5.4% to $43.03, apparently on hopes of a settlement in the case. That enthusiasm waned later in the day. Twitter shares closed Monday at $41.58, eight cents higher than they opened.
Court watchers said that such postponements are not unusual ahead of major pretrial hearings. A hearing on several significant pretrial motions is scheduled for Tuesday.
Both men were expected to answer questions posed by opposing lawyers ahead of an October trial that will determine who is at fault for the seeming collapse of Musk’s Twitter bid, not to mention who owes whom large sums of money as a result. The trial is set to begin October 17 in Delaware Chancery Court, where it’s scheduled to last just five days.Opinion
Dear friends,
November 8th, the upcoming Midterm election is fast-approaching. At that time we Americans have an opportunity to change history, take back our country, and stop the bleeding. Folks, I have never seen anything like it in my lifetime. Crime is absolutely out of control, the cost of living is spiraling as inflation is going up, and over-priced gas and heating oil are crippling everyone.
The Southern border is in a major crisis with over 2 million illegals that have been allowed in our country, not including at least a million “got a ways” that were not apprehended. Over 100,000 Americans have died from deadly drugs that have been smuggled across the border, as well.
There is only one man to blame for this and that is President Joe Biden, along with his Democrat cohorts. Without a doubt, Biden and his son Hunter, have compromised our national security through despicable influence peddling. Interestingly, the FBI and the DOJ have a double standard and have been weaponized against those who do not embrace the left wing agenda, however the Bidens seem to go unscathed?
Folks, an Orwellian society, with “Big Brother watching you” is right around the corner if we do not change things. Please vote Republican in November and save your country.
Do you want a Socialist, totalitarian government that keeps you poor with no hope for prosperity? I think not!
Respectfully Submitted,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal Network
Like the TransPerfect Trail, It Will Cost Time and Money
OPINION
Dear Friends,
In the Twitter vs. Elon Musk trial, the big question is why is the trial being expedited? One has to question why Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick is expediting this trial? Is there more to it than meets the eye? Who’s benefiting from this expedited trial, Twitter or Musk?
In Delaware’s TransPerfect case, judge Andre Bouchard, also forced an expedited one-week trial. We know in the TransPerfect Chancery Court case, an expedited trial was at the expense of CEO Phil Shawe’s side, because it limited his witnesses and amount of evidence to present. The expedited trial benefitted litigant Elizabeth Elting because she had no evidence and was her only witness.
In Twitter vs. Musk, also in the Chancery Court, the word on the street is that Twitter is benefitting from the judge expediting the trial. If the company is benefitting, one has to question why McCormick is orchestrating this? Is it because Twitter’s law firm has an ex-Chancellor on it? Why did she order this?
In the case of Shawe vs. Elting, while Shawe ultimately won the case, the expedited trial cost him and the company millions of dollars and years of time. We all know how valuable time and money are, folks.
One must question, in Delaware’s crookedly run Chancery Court, why? Why is McCormick giving one side an edge? Twitter is no different now than before Musk made his offer. He made his offer and revoked his offer, but the operation of the company remains unaffected. So why is Twitter being given the benefit of the expedited trial?
Please see the story below about Musk, who is about to be grilled next week. Maybe it winds up costing Musk extra time and money. Maybe he’ll ultimately prevail. But again I ask, at what cost and why? What’s truly behind this?
Please send your feedback on this, folks. It’s always welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
JUDSON Bennett–Coastal Network
It’s almost money time in the Elon Musk-Twitter (TWTR) saga, which has been keeping markets and social networks spellbound since April.
As sports fans and athletes know well, it’s a pivotal moment. Any mistake can be very costly.
In the legal battle between the world’s richest man and the influential microblogging website Twitter, the star is about to enter the scene.
Musk will answer questions from the platform’s lawyers on Sept. 26 and 27 at a law firm in Wilmington, Del., according to a court filing.
This deposition, which is not public, might be extended to Sept. 28.
One open question is whether the tech tycoon will appear in person or by videoconference. Musk can be whimsical, so either prospect is possible.
Deposition of Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey
In addition to speaking with Musk, Twitter lawyers will depose his lawyer, Alex Spiro, on Sept.25, and Musk’s lieutenant, Jared Birchall, according to separate court filings.
Before everyone else, it was Jack Dorsey, the founder and former CEO of Twitter who was to answer questions from the lawyers of his former group on Sept. 20.
Dorsey, who is a friend of Musk, was to be questioned by attorneys for both sides via Zoom. He was particularly supportive of Musk’s efforts to acquire Twitter.
These depositions can influence this battle, the trial of which is scheduled for Oct. 17 before Delaware Court Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick.
The Trial Is Getting Closer
It all started with Musk taking a stake in Twitter in early April. The billionaire and CEO of Tesla then became the group’s largest shareholder with a 9.2% stake.
He subsequently terminated an agreement with management that gave him a seat on the board. At the end of April, he made an offer valuing the platform at $44 billion.
He then explained that he wanted to take Twitter private and fix the problem of spam bots, or fake accounts, which according to Twitter represent just under 5% of users.
OPINION
Dear Friends,
I actually woke up at 2 a.m. this morning to watch the repeat edition of Sean Hannity’s interview with former President Donald Trump. The fascinating interview and discussion about the New York harassment of Trump’s organization and the unprecedented FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago were the in-depth topics.
Folks, from the very beginning, from the moment Donald Trump and his wife Melania came down the escalator at Trump Towers in New York City to announce his candidacy for President of the United States, the FBI, DOJ, and CIA – using false documents created and funded by Hilary Clinton, to spy on Trump’s campaign – began an unbelievable agenda to destroy an administration elected by the American people. The absurd Muller investigation in regard to erroneous accusations by and from the Democrat party and certain malicious Republican officials were proven to be unfounded. Documents were even forged by an FBI lawyer to promote and continue the harassment. There were 2 attempts at impeachment by the Democrat House, which proved to be unsuccessful in the Senate. Bottom line, proven corruption by the Democrats who have clearly weaponized the federal law enforcement agencies to attack Republicans has apparently become a reality. For this writer and patriot these actions are frightening and disconcerting.
According to Trump, the recent and unprecedented raid on his home is just more of the same. Trump, whose popularity is quite strong, and in light of the Biden debacles, is indeed a threat to win back the Presidency. It is apparent, the Democrats hope to destroy his chances by finding anything that could prevent him from running again. Thus, the raid on Trump’s home, searching for documents that the DOJ says he should not have, was implemented. Baron Trump’s bedroom, Donald’s son, was ransacked as was even Melania’s underwear drawer.
During the Hannity interview, Trump emphasized two major points. The first was that the NY harassment was without evidence and should not be happening, and the Mar-a-Lago raid was totally illegal in that the documents were protected under the “Presidential Records Act” and were all declassified under his authority. Trump explained that he had been working with the authorities about the records and had followed precedent and the law accordingly. Yet, out of the blue, comes this unprecedented raid based on, at the best, insignificant technicalities and the worst clear corruption by the FBI and DOJ.
My concern is that Trump will be indicted by this corrupt government for the sole purpose of preventing him from running again. Folks, if this unprecedented action could happen to a former President of the United States, it could happen to you. That’s the way I see it.
As always, your feedback is welcome and appreciated.
Sincerely yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
I see the Chancery Court and Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick finding a way to heist millions from Elon Musk and Twitter. It’s that simple. It’s what I’ve seen from this court and what I expect to see from this court. Sadly, our Delaware representatives refuse to act.
The court appears to make and live by its own rules, as you’ll see in the Axios story below. I tuned into the Chancery Court call last week to listen to both sides in the Elon Musk vs. Twitter case. McCormick appears to be just as much a bully as her predecessor Andre Bouchard. She is insisting the trial date of October 17 will hold firm in spite of what sound like reasonable objections for more time to prepare their respective cases.
Why hold the date steady when it won’t hurt either side to delay it? As we’ve seen from both McCormick and Bouchard in the TransPerfect case and other cases, this court makes its own rules, litigants be damned. As long as Delaware’s Good Old Boy Network is able to collect enormous, copious and criminal attorney fees.
Please send your feedback, folks. It’s always welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
JUDSON Bennett, Coastal Network
Twitter’s former security chief, whistleblower Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, levied a host of accusations against the platform to the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday, saying Twitter maintained lax security standards, did not vet employee access to user data and would not improve its practices even in the face of government fines.
Why it matters: The testimony comes as Twitter’s court fight to get Elon Musk to make good on his deal to buy the company for $44 billion moves forward, but it did not appear to offer much new ammunition for Musk’s case.
Very little of Zatko’s testimony covered Musk’s main argument since July for leaving the deal: his charge that Twitter has been untruthful about the number of bots and fake accounts on the platform.
When Zatko’s whistleblowing report became public last month, it appeared that his complaints against the company could be of use in Musk’s defense.
Zatko alleged that Twitter lacked the internal resources to fully count the number of bots on the service and had little interest in doing so.
Musk’s lawyers immediately introduced new filings based on Zatko’s claims, and the judge in the case, which is set for trial beginning Oct. 17, ruled last week that Musk could introduce this new evidence to the proceeding.
While Zatko’s Tuesday testimony was light on bot-talk, he elaborated on the many security risks he says he observed in his position before the recently installed CEO Parag Agrawal fired him last January.
Zatko said that he found that Twitter’s engineers, some 4,000 employees, all had extensive access to company and user account data.
He said that one-time government fines for violating regulations — such as the $150 million Twitter paid to the Federal Trade Commission over improperly selling user data earlier this year — were built into the company’s operating budget.
Twitter has said that Zatko’s complaint is “riddled with inconsistencies and inaccuracies.”
The intrigue: Senators from both parties made it clear they support increased government regulation of Twitter and other social media platforms — and that would affect Twitter’s future, whoever wins in court.
Zatko said he was concerned the FTC didn’t have the resources to properly investigate Twitter’s security protocols or vet the information that Twitter provided to the agency.
Senators on both sides of the aisle discussed strengthening federal regulatory bodies. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) even suggested the creation of a wholly new agency focused on enforcing tech regulations.
Yes, but: Years of similar hearings have not moved Congress to approve broad legislation imposing new regulations on the industry.
Yes, but: Zatko’s 200-page whistleblower report filed with Congress and other U.S. agencies could still cause Twitter problems and help Musk’s case.
Parts of his testimony alleged poor internal reporting practices, which could conceivably be used by Musk in his case.
“There was a culture of not reporting bad results up, only reporting good reporting results up because that was the internal incentive structure,” Zatko told the committee. “You were rewarded based upon relationships and how you performed in an emergency — not for identifying existing errors and doing the ground work for keeping the lights on and running the business.”
What’s next: As with last year’s Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, Zatko could be called before lawmakers again.
Despite multiple attempts by Musk to delay the case, the Oct. 17 court date still stands — unless the parties decide to settle sooner.
Before the testimony began, Musk tweeted a popcorn bucket emoji.Dear friends,
Delaware had its primary election. Congratulations to those who attained victory and my condolences to those who lost. Regardless of the winning or losing – the fact that you ran is significant and appreciated!
Sussex County had quite a vitriolic election, and indeed yours truly was on the wrong side. Unfortunately, primaries can be extremely contentious, and hopefully, the hatchet can be buried and the business of the people carried on.
Elections always make me think of Teddy Roosevelt’s famous speech, which addresses the issues of elections and the important fact that candidates had the courage to run, regardless of victory or defeat.
Respectfully Submitted,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal Network
Scroll down to read Teddy Roosevelt’s brilliant words:
The Man in the Arena
Subjects: Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919; Citizenship; Citizenship–Study and teaching
Theodore Roosevelt delivered the speech entitled “Citizenship in a Republic” at the Sorbonne in Paris on April 23, 1910. The speech is popularly known as “The Man in the Arena.” His statements at the Sorbonne were part of a larger trip to Europe that also included visits to Vienna, Budapest, and Oslo. On May 5, 1910, he gave his Nobel Prize speech. This trip came in the midst of Roosevelt’s frustration with the Taft administration and followed his African safari with Kermit. After completing his tour of Europe, Roosevelt would make a triumphant return to the U.S.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
Shame on the man of cultivated taste who permits refinement to develop into fastidiousness that unfits him for doing the rough work of a workaday world. Among the free peoples who govern themselves there is but a small field of usefulness open for the men of cloistered life who shrink from contact with their fellows. Still less room is there for those who deride or slight what is done by those who actually bear the brunt of the day; nor yet for those others who always profess that they would like to take action, if only the conditions of life were not exactly what they actually are.
The man who does nothing cuts the same sordid figure in the pages of history, whether he be cynic, or fop, or voluptuary. There is little use for the being whose tepid soul knows nothing of the great and generous emotion, of the high pride, the stern belief, the lofty enthusiasm, of the men who quell the storm and ride the thunder. Well for these men if they succeed; well also, though not so well, if they fail, given only that they have nobly ventured, and have put forth all their heart and strength. It is war-worn Hotspur, spent with hard fighting, he of the many errors and the valiant end, over whose memory we love to linger, not over the memory of the young lord who “but for the vile guns would have been a valiant soldier.”OPINION
Dear Friends,
Folks, life right now for me and half the country is terribly disconcerting. Indeed, I have great concern for the future of our nation. Polling indicates that the predicted Red Wave in Congress in the Midterm, November elections may not happen. The Democrats could actually maintain control.
There is no doubt in my mind that if that happens, many of the freedoms we enjoy now will be removed or diminished.
Taxation will be outrageous, your 1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th Amendments to the Constitution will be compromised, and the FBI, the IRS, and the DOJ will be completely weaponized to control you.
We have already experienced and observed blatant corruption on various levels from these sacred institutions. George Orwell, in his classic novel “1984” wrote about a government that controlled every aspect of people’s lives – “THE BIG BROTHER is watching you” concept. Folks, if you vote for a continuation of this crazy Democrat agenda, a totalitarian, Orwellian existence of fear, enforced Socialism, mediocrity, and limited prosperity for only a few will become our reality.
I ask you these questions:
1.) Do you want to be forced to live in a country that requires the limitation of fossil fuels, being totally dependent on electric cars? The batteries alone cost $30,000 and the minerals, products, etc. to produce them are completely controlled by China. Do you want to live in a country that has to buy its oil to maintain its existence from foreign entities such as Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela while we have the internal capacity to be energy independent and be the world’s number one exporter of oil and natural gas? Does it make sense to restrict and punish our citizens over a phony issue like the GREEN NEW DEAL, while China, Russia, India, and much of South America operate with oil impunity?
2.) Do you want to live under a government that taxes you into oblivion to pay for absurd and unfair expenses, like paying off deadbeat student loans with taxpayer dollars?
3.) Do you want to live in a country that removes your freedom of speech, violates your constitutional rights to bear arms, and completely compromises your 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 5th Amendment rights? When the home of a former President is raided by the FBI, nothing is sacred and it can happen to you.
4.) Do you want open borders where millions of illegals, some carrying drugs, many who are dangerous criminals, and some terrorists are literally walking into our country? The government gives them cell phones, money, and puts them up in hotel rooms—all paid for by tax dollars.
5.) Do you like the fact that over 100,000 Americans have been killed by illegal drugs that are pouring across the Southern Border? Do you like the fact that 770 illegals have died trying to get here already this year? Biden is directly responsible for the illegal border situation. He is violating the law and the Democrats are supporting his corruption!
6.) Do you like the fact that your President is clearly corrupt, and is involved through his son Hunter in outrageous influence peddling?
7.) Folks, how did you like the withdrawal from Afghanistan? Biden got 13 service people killed and left billions of American weapons behind, making the Taliban the best equipped terrorist organization in the world. I could go on and on about how bad things are and how bad they could get if “we the people” allow this to continue.
On a local Delaware note, Sussex County is having World War III over some of its offices. The County Council race between Keller Hopkins and John Rieley in the upcoming Republican primary is beyond contentious. I support Keller Hopkins who I worked with when he was the Chairman of the Sussex Republican party. The man is extremely efficient, and is by far the best candidate for the position.
I predict Keller will win in a narrow victory, He has knocked on over 5,000 doors. For the office of Register of Wills, Candice Green Wilkinson, is the only true Republican, taking on former Democrats Greg Fuller and Ellen Magee, both who are not even close to being as qualified as Candice Green Wilkinson. I predict she wins by 10 points and will be the next Register of Wills.
For the Recorder of Deeds office, Scott Dailey (who has done an excellent job) will easily prevail over the newcomer Ms. Reed. Much of the opposition support in all these races is based on petty crap and personal vendettas, especially coming from the actual and official Sussex Republican Committee
I find it quite amazing and disconcerting that the Sussex GOP is supporting unofficially Greg Fuller who has always been a Democrat. Apparent campaign violations are being hurled at the Rieley camp by the Hopkins group. From my experience it appears the accusations are legitimate and there are indeed some serious inequities.
Regardless, one great and wonderful thing for Delaware is that the University of Delaware defeated the Naval Academy in football last Saturday in a remarkable victory 14 to 7. I love my “Fightin Blue Hens” who I predict will be in contention for a National Championship in their division this year.
Interestingly, weekend talk show host, Duke Brooks, told me the game wasn’t important; chided, demeaned, and insulted me on Facebook for my enthusiasm. In my view he is truly out of touch with Delaware and its citizen’s sports loyalty. I question his abilities, recognition of reality, and professionalism. Regardless, we Delawareans love our Blue Hens and this victory over Navy is a boost for a depressing Delaware situation with an incompetent government.
Some musings from this concerned patriot! As always your comments are welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
The Twitter vs. Musk case is heating up in Delaware’s Chancery Court and I’m on top of it, folks.
There was a hearing this week and as I see it, Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick has decided the winner (Twitter) behind the scenes with the insiders at the country club. All of this legal pomp and circumstance is a show for the shareholders, journalists and so many others watching this case around the country.
McCormick is not deciding this case on its merits in my view. She cleverly threw Musk a bone this week, allowing him to amend his complaint about Twitter inflating their user numbers with millions of fake accounts for two reasons. 1: It’ll help her decision on the case stick, so it’s protected during the appeal process. And 2: To let her buddies bill hundreds of hours of useless work, as I see it.It’s a sham. Expect to see some decisions go his way so he doesn’t accumulate big appeal points, my attorney friends are telling me. For that reason, she’ll indulge all of his objections, issues and motions before the October 17 court date.I truly believe none of the legal maneuvers in this case matter because it has been decided. Her attorney pals get to run up their bills and get richer as she seemingly orchestrates the case and Musk gets screwed. That’s the bottom line, folks. You heard it here first.
Read the Reuters story below for more on this week’s case. Send me your feedback. It’s always welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
JUDSON Bennett–Coastal Network
WILMINGTON, Del., Sept 7 (Reuters) – Elon Musk’s can use a whistleblower’s claims in his legal case against Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) but the billionaire cannot delay the trial over his attempt to walk away from his $44 billion deal for the company, a judge ruled Wednesday.
“I am convinced that even four weeks’ delay would risk further harm to Twitter,” wrote Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick of Delaware’s Court of Chancery, in affirming the trial will start next month.
Shares of Twitter rose about 4% in early Wednesday trading to $40.15.
“We are hopeful that winning the motion to amend takes us one step closer to the truth coming out in that courtroom,” said Alex Spiro, an attorney for Musk, in a statement.
Musk’s legal team argued on Tuesday that justice demanded delaying the five-day trial so Musk could investigate claims by whistleblower Peiter Zatko, known as “Mudge,” that Twitter hid weaknesses in its security and data privacy.
Musk’s initial case against Twitter claimed the company misrepresented the prevalence of spam or bot accounts on the platform.
Last month, Zatko’s allegations became public and provided Musk, the world’s richest person, fresh ammunition to bolster what legal experts said was a long-shot attempt to walk away without paying a $1 billion termination fee.
“We look forward to presenting our case in court beginning on Oct. 17th and intend to close the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr. Musk,” said a statement from Twitter spokesman.
In July, Twitter sued Musk, who is also chief executive of electric vehicle maker Tesla Inc(TSLA.O) to hold him to his April agreement to buy the company for $54.20 per share. The company has alleged that Musk got cold feet over the deal as global politics and inflation rattled markets soon after the deal was signed.
Late on Wednesday, McCormick ordered Musk and Jared Birchall, who helps manage Musk’s wealth, to obtain and turn over phone records to allow Twitter to confirm that Musk did not text about the deal during key periods, as Musk has claimed.
McCormick said there had been “glaring deficiencies” in the text messages that Musk has provided to Twitter in the litigation.
At Tuesday’s hearing, Twitter’s lawyer read a message from Musk that came to light during the litigation that the lawyer said showed the billionaire was not actually concerned about spam accounts.
Musk sent a message to a Morgan Stanley banker in May, as Russia’s President Vladimir Putin was warning the West over his country’s war in Ukraine, that read “it won’t make sense to buy Twitter if we’re heading into World War III.”
The deal contract allows Musk to walk away under certain narrow conditions, although a war is specifically excluded.
Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware Editing by Nick Zieminski and David Gregorio
OPINION
Dear friends,
The only real Republican in the election for the Sussex County Register of Wills is Candice Green Wilkinson!
Both of her opponents, Greg Fuller and Ellen Magee are Democrats masquerading as Republicans! Both are lifelong, tax and spend, Democrat insiders working hard against Republicans their entire lives! Both of them helped Biden and Obama win the White House! Democrat Governors Minner and Carney appointed Fuller and Magee to finish the terms of their past REPUBLICAN Registers of Wills, Dave Wilson and Cindy Green.
Candice Green Wilkinson is a lifelong Republican. She shares your Republican values. She will never raise your fees or taxes. Democrat Greg Fuller attempted to do this back in 2009! Candice has the knowledge, experience and leadership qualities necessary to continue the excellent Republican run record of the Register of Wills.
Don’t be fooled by wolves in sheep’s clothing! Fuller and Magee are Democrats trying to sneak in the back door of the Register of Wills! Please vote for the only real Republican, Candice Green Wilkinson on Tuesday, Sept 13th.
Polls are open from 7am until 8pm. If you are unsure where you should go to vote, please call the Dept. of Elections at 302-856-5367 or go to ivote.de.gov/VoterView.
Thank you for your consideration !
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkDear Friends,
I enjoyed hearing from all of you about Andre Bouchard’s abuse of power and blatant corruption, which lost him his once-powerful job running the Chancery Court.
Here’s your feedback about his paying former business partner Steven Lamb millions and THEN getting a job there, while not mentioning the TransPerfect case that fueled the payment, because he knows he was busted.
“How can this be allowed, Judson?! We want to hear more.”
-Franklin
“Bouchard played the court, but wound up getting canned. There was a measure of justice.”
-Tom
“From what I see on the website, he didn’t mention anything, Judson. It wasn’t written by him.”
-Susan
“The story link looks positive on Bouchard. I don’t understand the controversy.”
-Ralph
“This judge abused his power and deserves all the abuse you give him!”
-Bernard
“Glad you’re pointing this out. No one else is making this point.”
-Jerry
“What a mess our court is. To think it used to be the pride of Delaware.”
-Melvin
“The abuse of power needs to be checked. Keep checking the abuse.”
-Riley
Thank you for your feedback, folks. Keep them coming! Always welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear friends,
I usually write about national events, however as a political pundit and as a person who has an interest in Sussex County where I was born and raised, I can’t resist writing about the interesting, unusual, and embarrassing situation that developed at the recent County Council meeting that happened this past Tuesday. I was able to listen to the meeting from the podcast provided by Dan Gaffney’s Delaware 105.9 FM radio show. Frankly folks, I have never heard anything like it since I have been involved in the political scene.
There is a legal statement throughout Delaware law that clearly emphasizes this premise: ” The Appearance of an Impropriety is as bad as the Impropriety itself”. That being said, here is what apparently happened. John Rieley who is a Councilman and also a farmer had several dump trucks of top soil delivered to his farm from a developer. The developer also provided heavy equipment which spread the top soil on Rieley’s fields. This is an expensive operation and easily was close to $10,000 dollars in value and cost Rieley nothing.
The problem here is that Rieley makes decisions on land use and development projects. Nobody would have known that this occurred if the dump trucks had not been spotted by a local citizen who reported the situation. The problem here is that when the time came to vote on a relevant development, Rieley’s vote could possibly be compromised? That folks is the “Appearance of an Impropriety” and should be avoided by elected officials.
Mark Schaeffer, another Councilman, brought up the issue at the Council meeting which he had every right to do. His complaint about the situation that occurred at Rieley’s farm was legitimate as it was the appearance of an impropriety. John Rieley, to his benefit, was articulate in his response and emphasized his honesty and willingness to recuse himself from any vote involving that developer. The rub here is that he should not have accepted the delivery and extensive spreading of the top soil in the first place, or at least attempted to clear the situation upfront before the Council, in advance of the gifted delivery and use of the developer’s heavy equipment.
Frankly, the person who was out of line was the President of the Council, Mike Vincent. He was caustic, rude, and embarrassing. He made the situation political, because he supports John Rieley in the upcoming primary on September 13th against the challenger, Keller Hopkins. He unjustly gaveled down Mark Schaeffer and presented one of the most embarrassing diatribes I have ever heard. He should not be the President of the Council.
Folks, I believe that Schaeffer was justified in bringing up the issue and Rieley shouldn’t have accepted the delivery without an upfront clearance. It is the appearance of impropriety. President of the Council, Mike Vincent was a disgrace and in my view shouldn’t hold public office.
That’s the way I see it, like it or not. Agree or not, please send your feedback, it is always welcome and appreciated.
Judson Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
Just a very brief dissertation on how bad things are and how bad they are going to get, IF the congress is not changed over to Republican control in the November elections. Folks, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Joe Biden is the most hypocritical, nefarious, incompetent, and dishonest President in United States history.
Taking into consideration, the innumerable lies and evil deeds, propagated by Joe Biden—the slander of Curtis Dunn who collided in his truck with Biden’s first wife, killing her and her daughter, the stealing of a supporter’s wife (Jill Biden), the sexual assault allegation from Tara Reid, the influence peddling through son Hunter, and much more, should have disqualified him from ever being elected in the first place.
Unfortunately, this despicable human being, was elected and has destroyed our oil industry, opened our border to millions of illegals–creating a crisis that is beyond belief, totally mismanaged the Afghanistan situation–allowing 13 servicemen to be killed and giving the Taliban billions of dollars of military hardware, and denigrating our military to the point we have little respect from our allies–putting us at huge risk with China and Russia!
Now, to add to the grotesque situation, this monster is now going to create an economic fiasco that will increase the already difficult problems for working Americans. Folks, it all is just untenable. The ridiculous “Inflation Reduction Act” that has nothing to do with inflation will spend billions on the fallacious Green New Deal and hire 87 thousand IRS agents to investigate and harass regular citizens. When you add the $10K forgiveness for student loans, the taxes on middle class Americans will eventually escalate to the point that we can’t ever get ahead and we will be controlled and manipulated by a despotic government that will maintain power at all costs, weaponizing the FBI and the IRS to keep us in line.
Folks, what about those people who chose not to go to college or those that paid off their student loans? This is pure socialism that will destroy the American dream and will eventually morph into a veritable dictatorship; an Orwellian society, taking away any chance at achieving prosperity and removing many of your personal freedoms that our founding fathers created.
I cannot emphasize enough how important the November elections are. Indeed, If the necessary change is not accomplished, God help us all.
As always, your feedback is welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
I’ve been writing about the Chancery Court news since Andre Bouchard caught my attention by what I saw as abuse of power. The bottom line, folks, is the blatant corruption ran deep when he ran the court and he was run out of the job.
Before he was unceremoniously dismissed, he paid his former business partner Steven Lamb $1.7 million and THEN he got a job there. See the Paul, Weiss website below about when Bouchard joined. You’ll see that Bouchard doesn’t even mention his biggest case: TransPerfect. Why? Because he knows he was busted.
This is why I continue to cover this court like a shark circling bloody waters. See the website below and decide for yourself. Send your feedback, folks. It’s always welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal Network
October 18, 2021
Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP announced today that Andre G. Bouchard, former Chancellor of the Delaware Court of Chancery, will join the firm as a partner in the Litigation Department, resident in the Wilmington office. Mr. Bouchard will focus on special committee and investigative matters, corporate governance and compliance issues and litigation strategy.
“We are thrilled that Andy, who has had a profound impact on Delaware jurisprudence, including as Chancellor the past seven years, is joining our partnership,” said Paul, Weiss Chairman Brad S. Karp. “Andy’s unique perspective on Delaware law, his powerful intellect, and his long and successful career as a litigator, will offer extraordinary benefits to our clients.”
“Andy is an incredible jurist and many of his decisions as Chancellor have had national and international impact,” said Litigation Department Co-Chair Jessica S. Carey. “At a time when Paul, Weiss is already a go-to firm in Delaware for the most significant deal challenge and shareholder rights litigation, Andy adds unparalleled strategic firepower to our thriving Delaware and M&A litigation practices.”
“I am excited to join Paul, Weiss, which has one of the most successful and dynamic practices involving high stake issues of Delaware law,” Mr. Bouchard said. “I also greatly appreciate Paul, Weiss’s collegial, collaborative culture, and look forward to working closely with my new colleagues, many of whom I already know and admire professionally.”
Mr. Bouchard served as Chancellor of the Court of Chancery from May 2014 until his retirement in May 2021, adjudicating some of the highest-profile business matters, such as the merger dispute between Viacom, Inc. and CBS Corporation and the recent restructuring battle involving WeWork, among others. His decisions on the bench have had a profound impact on business law, including in In re: Trulia Inc. Stockholder Litigation (2016), which set tougher standards for disclosure-only stockholder settlements; in In re: HomeFed Corp. Stockholder Litigation (2020), which clarified the terms under which a deal involving controlling investors can qualify for business judgment deference; and in FdG Logistics LLC v. A&R Logistics Holdings Inc. et al. (2016), which built on the law surrounding disputes over anti-reliance clauses, among others. As Chancellor, Mr. Bouchard also oversaw an expansion of the court from five constitutional judicial officers to seven, enabling the court to better handle a growing caseload, and oversaw the court’s successful pivot to all-remote proceedings during the pandemic.
Prior to his appointment, Mr. Bouchard spent almost three decades in private practice, including 17 years as the managing partner of a corporate and commercial litigation boutique he founded alongside former Vice Chancellor and current Paul, Weiss of counsel Stephen P. Lamb, handling corporate law litigation, partnership and alternate entity disputes, and commercial litigation on behalf of both plaintiffs and defendants. Among others, he represented The Walt Disney Company in one of the Chancery Court’s most famous cases, a shareholder lawsuit in which the company successfully defended itself against claims by investors challenging a $140 million severance package paid to Michael Ovitz in 1997.
Mr. Bouchard earned his B.A., summa cum laude, from Boston College and his J.D. from Harvard Law School. By appointment of three Delaware governors, he served as chairman of the Delaware Human Relations Commission, as vice chair of the Delaware Health Information Network and as a member of the Governor’s Council on Equal Employment Opportunity, the Sentencing Accountability Commission and the Criminal Justice Council. He is also former chairman of the Judicial Nominating Commission. Mr. Bouchard is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and of the American College of Governance Counsel, and a member of The American Law Institute. He was recently named chair of the board of advisors of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware.OPINION
Dear Friends,
See the Delaware Grapevine article by Celia Cohen below. Ironically called “The Curious Scales of Justice” from 2015. How telling this story turned out to be.
In my view, these are the two biggest courthouse criminals in Delaware history. And lo and behold they shared an office. Imagine Leo Strine and Andre Bouchard sharing an office and then think of all that was hatched in that office.
If legislators had heeded the warning in this article, Delaware may have been spared the TransPerfect government takeover fiasco, money heist, and the ensuing negative reputation—all of which is sure to be highlighted in the Twitter v. Musk case, coming to Delaware’s Court of Chancery in October.
Let me know your thoughts on this, folks. Your feedback is always welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
JUDSON Bennett–Coastal Network
Posted: Feb. 20, 2015
By Celia Cohen
Grapevine Political Writer
The judicial gods have struck again. It was only an illusion that Jack Markell had free will as the Democratic governor, when he named the leaders of Delaware’s three major courts.
In the course of the last year, Leo Strine Jr. took over as the chief justice, Andy Bouchard became the chancellor on the Court of Chancery, and Jan Jurden just had her investiture as the president judge of Superior Court.
Strine and Bouchard once worked in the Wilmington office of Skadden, a global giant of a law firm, as new lawyers, even sharing an office. Jurden is out of Young Conaway Stargett & Taylor, one of the most prominent of the state’s homegrown practices.
This should not come as a surprise. Skadden and Young Conaway are like the yin and yang of the state’s court system.
It is well-known the courts have to have a political balance of Democratic and Republican judges, because the state constitution says so.
Somehow there is also this weird rough parity of the scales of justice between Skadden and Young Conaway, maybe because the judicial gods say so?
“It’s just coincidence,” said Bill Chandler, who has been watching lawyers turn into judges for more than 30 years, as the current chair of the Judicial Nominating Commission and previously as a chancellor and also counsel to Pete du Pont, the Republican governor from 1977 to 1985.
That is as good a mortal explanation as there can be, but whatever, it exists for sure.
The choice for chief justice was said to come down to either Strine or Jurden to run the Supreme Court, which at the time included a couple of justices who have since retired — Carolyn Berger, who had been at Skadden, and Jack Jacobs, who was from Young Conaway.
The nomination for chancellor could have gone to either Bouchard with his Skadden roots or to Dave McBride with a corporate practice at Young Conaway.
When Jurden was up for president judge, a Superior Court colleague also known to be under consideration was Eric Davis, whose lawyering days were spent at — where else? — Skadden.
Not that the state judiciary is a wholly-owned duopoly. Naturally there are plenty of other firms whose former lawyers people the top three benches of the Supreme Court, the Court of Chancery and the Superior Court, where collectively 31 judges sit.
Not to mention there is a large contingent stocked from the public side. Judges have come out of places like the Attorney General’s Office, the Cabinet and the Office of Disciplinary Counsel.
Still, there is no getting around the prevalence of the Skadden and Young Conaway judicial connections, which also extend to Karen Valihura, who joined the Supreme Court directly from Skadden, and Scott Bradley, who came to the Superior Court from Young Conaway.
At Young Conaway, where there are about 100 lawyers, the call to the bench is viewed as part of the culture of the firm, going back to its founding in 1959 and the public-minded philosophy of its original partners like H. Albert “Hy” Young, a past attorney general.
“Public service is sort of the fabric of the firm,” said Bill Johnston, a senior partner who edited a history of Young Conaway.
Johnston cited the words of the late Bruce Stargatt, an original partner who once wrote: “We have been from our earliest days led by professionals . . . [who] took pleasure in participating in activities strengthening the courts and the bar. They felt they could not be good lawyers without being good members of the community.”
Whatever prompts the leap to the bench from Skadden, a gigantosaurus of a firm that grew from modest beginnings in New York City in 1948 to 23 offices around the world, it is elusive, because Ed Welch, who heads the Wilmington operation of 60 lawyers, did not make himself available to say.
Maybe it is a secret formula, like Coca-Cola.
The Skadden-Young Conaway axis even goes further into public life than the courts.
It has manifested itself in the governor’s office. Mike Barlow, the chief of staff, used to work at Skadden, and Drew Fennell, the deputy chief of staff, once practiced at Young Conaway.
At the most microcosmic, it even extends to a single public official. Matt Denn, the Democratic attorney general, went to Skadden out of Yale law school but switched to Young Conaway, where he made partner.
Nor should it be overlooked that Len Stark, the chief judge of the federal District Court here in Delaware, was once at Skadden.
Oh, and Chip Flowers, the Democratic ex-treasurer now in exile, came out of Skadden, too. Never mind, no law firm is perfect.OPINION
Dear friends,
The unprecedented raid on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-A-Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida, roughly about 3 miles from my condo, has literally rocked the nation. Locally, the situation is on everybody’s lips and the constant topic of conversation. Some of the people are joyful and others appalled.
Folks, this is an extremely frightening development, as it appears the FBI and the DOJ have been weaponized by AG Garland to attack Donald Trump–the political opponent of Joe Biden and very possibly the next Republican candidate for President of the United States in 2024. The authoritarian/ Orwellian agenda of the Socialist Democrat Party and President Joe Biden is to subjugate the American people into indefinite mediocrity and to control every aspect of our lives. This can only be enforced by a secret police organization and that apparently is what is happening with the FBI. If this can be done to a former President, it can be done to anybody!
When I combine the absurd, one sided January 6th hearings led by the Vice Chair, Liz Cheney, the hate filled Republican Congress Woman who neglected her state of Wyoming in her dedicated quest to prevent Trump from running for President again, with this Mar-A-Lago debacle, I clearly recognize the evil genius of the Democrats.
The only good thing is Cheney got her walking papers and was defeated in the Wyoming primary by 40 points. The major concern for me and those of us who constantly monitor this stuff is that the original, predicted red wave could now be in jeopardy? Everything is about TRUMP, TRUMP, TRUMP, and how bad he is, and I am concerned, the worst administration in US history, that has killed our economy by destroying our oil industry, increased inflation to dangerous levels, opened our borders to millions of illegals, and compromised and corrupted our military to deal with China, is going to be able to continue its destruction of America. The police state that will eventually come could become a reality if the Democrats are still in power after the November elections?
Right now, because of the Democrat’s evil genius and constant harassment of Trump which is seemingly supported by the press, the Republicans are now down by 4% from taking back the Congress. The American people don’t know what is really going on and have no clue how bad it could get if that happens! Folks we could lose our freedom and any chance of prosperity. That is the absolute bottom line!
The latest development is that the Federal Judge, who signed the original warrant, has ordered the affidavit, which explains the probable cause for the warrant to be able to raid Mar-A-Lago, be made public; however the DOJ may redact informative parts of the document to protect informants and certain sensitive aspects of the procedure. This may or may not be helpful to the Trump defense.
Regardless, the GOP leadership had better concentrate on providing the American people with the truth about the Democrat agenda and how bad things really are and how bad things are going to get, if indeed the Republicans do not prevail in November! The polls indicate that if the election were held today, the Democrats will maintain control of Congress.
Frankly, I wish Trump, as much as I loved his platform, would not run now, all things considered, and Governor DeSantis, America’s best Governor here in the great State of Florida, take the helm as our future leader. Then we Republicans can concentrate on messaging the need to win back the congress in November. I do my best to get out the message of this fervent need for change, with my limited sphere of influence through the more than 20,000 followers on the Coastal Network, but without your help, I am deeply concerned that this Socialist, authoritarian government will prevail and destroy our freedom.
Folks, as things stand today, we are in a true and present danger of losing our county to a nefarious Democrat agenda. God help us if that happens !
As always, your feedback is welcome and appreciated, so please let me know what you think.
Respectfully Submitted,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOpinion
Dear Friends,
I give TransPerfect Chief Executive Philip Shawe a lot of credit for speaking out against Chancery Court corruption. It’s one thing for me, as an opinion columnist, to call out the court corruption I’ve seen since the Andre Bouchard years. It’s another thing for this man–who runs a billion-dollar-plus company–to speak out strongly against it.
Look below at this New York Daily News opinion piece, written by Shawe, about Chancery Court corruption. Please read it and send me your thoughts. Your feedback is always appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal Network
https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-the-obscure-delaware-court-that-will-settle-the-fight-between-twitter-an-20220814-b6wobvqfajgi7khfpl2dfbk4km-story.html
By Phil Shawe
New York Daily News
•
Aug 14, 2022 at 5:00 am
The richest person in the world, and one of the most recognized businesses on the planet, are squaring off in a legal battle for the ages.
Already one of the most-watched events in the world, the Elon Musk-Twitter lawsuit will send shockwaves throughout the technology and legal communities. And this clash of titans could very well be decided by an obscure and ethically compromised business court: The Delaware Court of Chancery.
Wielding jurisdiction over the majority of publicly traded companies and the Fortune 500, Delaware’s Chancery Court is without a doubt the most influential judiciary that most Americans have never heard of. But this bombshell case will finally provide the public a glimpse into what has traditionally been a star chamber tribunal, without a shred of transparency.
And while an opaque Chancery could compromise the results of this lawsuit, the American people deserve to see how the self-dealing philosophy of “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” drives this court’s agenda.
Take it from me, because I learned the hard way.
My story started as a textbook American Dream business success. As a founder and CEO of TransPerfect, I led our global translation services company from two people in a college dorm room with a great idea and fiery drive to succeed into a billion-dollar industry leader with 7,000 employees worldwide. Yet in 2015 I watched helplessly as that dream became a nightmare when kangaroo court proceedings in the Delaware Chancery Court granted one of my partners a baseless exit strategy by public auction — the first time in U.S. history a court forced the sale of a profitable company, and it happened by order of the Chancery Court.
This was an unprecedented decision in American legal and business history, and it sent my company and our thousands of workers into a mass panic. And while I was ultimately able to prevail and reacquire the business I’d founded, the Chancery’s incredible damage was done. Lives were traumatized and upended for years with uncertain futures, while the case racked up a whopping $250 million in legal and custodian fees.
And that’s precisely the point of the Delaware Chancery — a lucrative money-maker for the state’s small, insular and powerful legal community. And it’s what awaits Musk, Twitter shareholders and anyone else who finds their case adjudicated by this haven of legalized corruption.
The fundamental issue with the Chancery Court is its failure to remain unbiased and free from its own external influences. The current chief chancellor, Kathleen McCormick — now overseeing the Twitter v. Musk case — has admitted that the members of the Delaware State Bar Association have “always had each other’s backs, we’ve always gone out for drinks after arguments.”
But this is par for the course. In a system where hometown relationships are everything, chancellors assign cases by hand, potentially to drive outcomes — not randomly assigned by wheelspin, as all federal courts do to eliminate any favoritism or appearance of impropriety.
The Chancery Court is a shining example of revolving door machinery at work. Chancellors are picked by the governor in a secret process, and then spend their time returning the political favors that won them the position — or angling for paydays when they leave the bench — as was the case when former Chancery Court Chancellor Leo Strine, currently serving as counsel to Twitter, Inc., left his post for a partner job at Wachtell Lipton.
Compounding the issue, Delaware judges are not subject to financial disclosure laws. There is nothing compelling them to disclose if they own Twitter stock, for example. No requirement to reveal if a judge started a business with one of the attorneys in a case before them — as was the case in my litigation, where the judge had been business partners with opposing counsel. Adding insult to injury, Delaware has no inspector general, so there is no independent oversight whatsoever on this nepotistic system.
The Chancery Court may have once been the bastion of fairness it markets itself as, but those days have given way to revolving-door favoritism. The interest of corporations, stockholders and employees mean nothing compared to the personal interests of judges and the lawyers who hold their future offer letters.
As this legal drama unfolds, with billions at stake and thousands of jobs on the line, Musk and Twitter shareholders should be warned that there is actually a third party in this case, the Chancery itself. Despite all the oaths and lofty platitudes, this hidden club has a higher loyalty to their cronies over the litigants or the people of Delaware.
Like me, Musk and Twitter will learn this the hard way. But perhaps this high-profile lawsuit will finally provide the scrutiny needed to reform this archaic and feudal system once and for all.
Shawe is founder and CEO of TransPerfect Global Inc.OPINION
Dear friends,
In an unprecedented act, never before happening in United States history, a former President’s home was raided by the FBI. President Donald Trump, while on personal business in New York City, learned from his son Eric that his famous Florida, Palm Beach home (Mar-A-Lago), was actually raided by 30 FBI agents, under the orders from United States Attorney General Garland, with approval of FBI Director Wray, and signed off on by a low-level Florida, Federal Magistrate named Bruce Rinehart who once defended convicted, Pedophile Epstein. The Search warrant was exceptionally broad, allowing the agents to literally take anything, anywhere in the home that had anything to do with Donald Trump’s entire Presidency.
Apparently, the unprecedented warrant was for the purpose of gleaning suspected, illegally possessed, highly classified documents that Trump was not supposed to have, which would, if proven, could be a violation of the Espionage Act?
However, the warrant was so clearly extensive in its scope, it allowed the search and seizure of everything. The agents spent over 12 hours ransacking the entire residence, including the bedrooms, the offices, the basement, and Melanie Trump’s closet, clothes and underwear drawer!
Trump’s lawyers were not allowed to observe the search and were forced to leave the buildings during the raid. The rub is that Trump and his staff had been working with the FBI and the Archives division in June. Everything was discussed and upfront. “Trump even offered to give the authorities anything they needed.” The Feds asked Trump to put an additional lock on the basement door where innumerable boxes were stored. Former Presidents have always kept documents and worked it out with the Archives division.
Nobody has seen the Affidavit which states the “probable cause” for the raid. Folks, nothing like this has ever happened before and it should not be happening now. The way this was done is absurd and beyond outrageous. Apparently, the extremely aggressive FBI agents took 20 boxes into their possession labeled with various levels of classification from top secret to personal. Trump claims that everything had been declassified by his direct orders. So folks, why was this unprecedented, obscene and tyrannical raid conducted??
Here is what I think: The Democrats and their leaders are so fearful of the possibility of the Republicans taking over the Congress in the 2022 November elections and Trump winning the Presidency in 2024, that they are on another, determined witch hunt to label him with a crime, so he can’t run and are hopeful this unethical tribulation will create so much controversy that the Democrats will maintain control of the government. I predict that, regardless of what the raid uncovers, even if nothing, Trump will be indicted and charged with a crime, just to hurt his credibility.
Folks, this entire, unethical operation is designed to deter, thwart, and cover up the horrible incompetence and tyranny of the Democrat Party and their ruthless henchmen who wish to control your lives and take away your freedom. If the Democrats and their weaponization of the FBI, the DOJ, and the IRS are allowed to get away with this and they can, with impunity, do this to a former President of the United States, imagine what they can and will do to you if you openly disagree with their policies? Be afraid, be terrified, because the constitution, the rule of law, and everything we Americans hold dear is now in jeopardy.
That’s the way I see it. Vote these monsters out in November or live in a hopeless world of mediocrity and poverty with a fanatical, ruthless, and authoritarian government determining your life and taking away your freedoms. God help us if we do not prevail.
As always your comments are welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully submitted,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
As most of you know Twitter and Elon Musk are about to do battle in the Delaware Court of Chancery. I’ve seen this movie before. The Delaware legal mafia will make out like bandits, leaving shareholders and eventually workers to pick up the tab.
What I saw was Kevin Shannon’s lies and misconduct in the TransPerfect case—and now what do I see? McCormick has blessed some country club side deal to let Kevin Shannon quit Tesla, and take up arms against Musk?!? The same Kevin Shannon who travelled with Andre Bouchard to New Orleans in the TransPerfect case, and then magically won victories with no witnesses??!
LIke TransPerfect’s shareholders and employees, Twitter will get fleeced by Shannan and his other Bouchard confederate—Leo Strine.
“Uncertainty,” is what Strine and Shannon now complain is a bad thing for Twitter shareholders and employees—and it’s exactly what they argued was a good and necessary thing—when it suited them to destroy TransPerfect worker’s lives and fleece them.
Please send me your feedback on this, folks. It’s always welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal Network
New York (CNN Business) Twitter’s battle with Elon Musk is weighing on its business.
The company on Friday reported revenue of $1.18 billion for the three months ending in June, a decline of 1% from the prior year. Twitter attributed the sales drop in part to “uncertainty” related to Musk’s pending acquisition, which he is currently fighting to get out of.
Twitter (TWTR) also said the shrinking sales were due in part to challenges with its advertising business caused by issues in the larger economy, potentially adding to concerns about an advertiser pullback in the social media industry. Snapchat’s parent company on Thursday reported slower than expected revenue growth, which it blamed in part on recession and inflation fears cutting into advertising budgets. Snap stock was down 31.5% in premarket trading Friday.
Investors appeared to have a more muted reaction to Twitter’s numbers. Shares of Twitter were down about 2% in pre-market trading Friday following the report.
While revenue declined, Twitter’s user base continued to grow. The company’s monetizable daily active users grew more than 16% on a yearly basis to 237.8 million during the quarter. However, Twitter posted a net loss of $270 million during the quarter, up from a profit of $66 million during the same quarter in the prior year.
The results come after a judge this week ruled that Twitter’s case against Musk would go to trial in October, an early win for the social media company, which had requested expedited proceedings. Musk earlier this month filed to terminate the $44 billion acquisition deal over accusations that Twitter breached the agreement by failing to turn over information related to the number of bot accounts on its platform. Twitter hit back with a lawsuit alleging that it was Musk who violated the deal and asking a court to force him to complete it.
Due to the pending acquisition by Musk, Twitter did not provide financial guidance for the upcoming quarter nor host an earnings call with Wall Street analysts. Prior to the dispute between Twitter and Musk, the acquisition had been expected to close before the end of this year.
Dear Friends,
As most of you know Twitter and Elon Musk are about to do battle on October 17 in the Delaware Court of Chancery. I’ve been reading every story I can find, as I follow the Chancery and keep you updated on this trial, blow-by-corrupt-blow.
I cringed for both Twitter and Musk when I saw the CNN story, posted below, saying that Musk’s association with Twitter hurts the company. My take is what everyone including CNN is missing: Just wait until the uncertainty of dealing with Chancery Court corruption hits Twitter! TransPerfect’s employees have been financially and emotionally hurt for years due to Andre Bouchard and Leo Strine’s Cronyism Court.
Like TransPerfect’s employees didn’t know how much money the Chancery court would cost them, Twitter employees have no idea what’s about to hit them once they are in the greedy grasp of Kathaleen McCorrupt McCormick’s court.
Please send me your feedback on this, folks. It’s always welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal Network
Twitter says ‘uncertainty’ with Elon Musk is hurting its business
By Clare Duffy, CNN Business
Updated 1241 GMT (2041 HKT)
New York (CNN Business) Twitter’s battle with Elon Musk is weighing on its business.
The company on Friday reported revenue of $1.18 billion for the three months ending in June, a decline of 1% from the prior year. Twitter attributed the sales drop in part to “uncertainty” related to Musk’s pending acquisition, which he is currently fighting to get out of.
Twitter (TWTR) also said the shrinking sales were due in part to challenges with its advertising business caused by issues in the larger economy, potentially adding to concerns about an advertiser pullback in the social media industry. Snapchat’s parent company on Thursday reported slower than expected revenue growth, which it blamed in part on recession and inflation fears cutting into advertising budgets. Snap stock was down 31.5% in premarket trading Friday.
Investors appeared to have a more muted reaction to Twitter’s numbers. Shares of Twitter were down about 2% in pre-market trading Friday following the report.
While revenue declined, Twitter’s user base continued to grow. The company’s monetizable daily active users grew more than 16% on a yearly basis to 237.8 million during the quarter. However, Twitter posted a net loss of $270 million during the quarter, up from a profit of $66 million during the same quarter in the prior year.
The results come after a judge this week ruled that Twitter’s case against Musk would go to trial in October, an early win for the social media company, which had requested expedited proceedings. Musk earlier this month filed to terminate the $44 billion acquisition deal over accusations that Twitter breached the agreement by failing to turn over information related to the number of bot accounts on its platform. Twitter hit back with a lawsuit alleging that it was Musk who violated the deal and asking a court to force him to complete it.
Due to the pending acquisition by Musk, Twitter did not provide financial guidance for the upcoming quarter nor host an earnings call with Wall Street analysts. Prior to the dispute between Twitter and Musk, the acquisition had been expected to close before the end of this year.OPINION
Dear friends,
The United States Senate just passed the most Orwellian, authoritarian, tyrannical, and dangerous bill in American history. It authorized $790 billion dollars to be spent on the Green New Deal and the creation of 87,000 new IRS agents who will be weaponized to audit, harass, and intimidate small businesses and the working middle class, while it gives subsidies to the wealthy, so they can buy electric cars. This is a total Democrat initiative passed by one vote, 51 to 50 on total party lines, with VP Kamala Harris breaking the tie!
The name of the bill is completely fallacious as it does nothing to reduce inflation. It will increase inflation, raise your taxes, and destroy your freedom.
The payment of billions of dollars of our taxpayer dollars to invest in windmills and solar energy, while destroying our oil industry for sources of energy that are incomplete and only good for limited use, while Russia and especially China utilize oil at will is absurd. The real rub is that all these payments will go to China which controls the market on the creation of solar panels and also the cobalt industry used in the batteries for electric vehicles. Folks, this horrible bill puts our country at great risk, while the government intends to control your lives through tyrannical audits that will devastate your economic balance and destroy any chance you have at achieving prosperity.
Folks, this bill is an abomination designed by Joe Biden and his Democrat cronies, who intend to subjugate and control our lives through this despotic, socialistic outrage. Our only hope is to take back our county in the Midterm November elections by voting Republican.
Folks, if we do not prevail, then your lives will become a living hell and this great country will no longer be the land of freedom and opportunity. That is the way I see it. As always your comments are welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
The L.A. Times story below points to a shocking fact about the upcoming Elon Musk vs. Twitter trial. Not only are Twitter shares in jeopardy, but Tesla shares are too, because they are both incorporated in Delaware.
If Musk suffers an unfavorable judgment and has to pay up big, will the Delaware Chancery Court force the sale or auction of Tesla shares? That’s what the court did in the TransPerfect case. It forced the sale of a profitable, growing, prospering company. Will they do this again? Will this be allowed? Can the lawyers and judge force Musk to sell, so that he can be forced to buy? The story says Musk and his lawyers “will be under tremendous pressure to comply.”
“Delaware law allows (the court) to essentially take control of Musk’s assets — chiefly Tesla shares — and to satisfy the judgment by ‘selling them on the auction block.’ The court could appoint a receiver with the authority to sell the shares, if necessary,” according to the Times story. Sounds like the TransPerfect case all over again, folks.
When this trail begins on October 17, EVERYONE will find out about what I see as the crooked, cronyistic Good Old Boys and its leader, Kathaleen “McCorrupt” McCormick as she follows in the footsteps of ousted Andre Bouchard and Leo Strine. Well see if she flaunts and abuses her power, dealing with the biggest case in history!
Please send your feedback on this dramatic news, folks. It’s always welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
JB-Coastal Network
BY MICHAEL HILTZIKBUSINESS COLUMNIST
JULY 15, 2022
6 AM PT
Most nonlawyers probably have no idea that the Delaware Chancery Court even exists. Thanks to Elon Musk and Twitter, it’s about to become world-famous.
The Delaware court is the principal forum for legal disputes involving public corporations in the U.S. That’s because most corporations take advantage of the state’s corporation-friendly laws and procedures by incorporating in Delaware, which gives the chancery court jurisdiction over a huge universe of business disputes.
If you’re a corporate lawyer, you better have the court’s procedures and precedents at your fingertips. if you’re anyone else, its rulings on contract law are snooze-inducing.
The sensible thing…would be for everybody to sit down and work out…some face-saving solution where Musk doesn’t end up owning Twitter, but Twitter gets to take a pretty good chunk out of Musk’s hide.
— UCLA law professor Stephen M. Bainbridge
That’s about to change because both Twitter and Tesla, the shares of which constitute the bulk of Musk’s wealth, are incorporated in Delaware.
You’ll be hearing a lot in coming weeks and months about Chancellor Kathaleen St. J. McCormick, in effect the court’s chief judge, who has assigned herself the Musk/Twitter dispute.
One is that Twitter is an unusually large company to be a party in a busted merger agreement. Another is Musk’s habit of thumbing his nose at governmental authority. As the nation’s principal arbiter of business law, the chancery court can’t afford to allow its orders to be flouted.
Before we go further into the court’s options, let’s examine the background of this legal maelstrom.
As we’ve reported, Musk signed an agreement in April to acquire Twitter at $54.20 per share, or $44 billion, and take the social media platform private.
After that, the stock market suffered a strong downturn that slashed the value of Tesla shares, some of which Musk had pledged to finance the deal. The value of Twitter also fell sharply, making his $54.20 offer look ridiculously excessive.
Musk started ginning up transparently bogus excuses to place the deal “on hold,” even though the merger agreement gave him no such option.
On July 8, Musk formally pulled out of the deal, asserting (without evidence) that Twitter had misled him about the state of its business.
Twitter promptly filed suit in Delaware Chancery Court, asking that it enforce a clause in the merger deal calling for “specific performance” — that is, that Musk be required to follow through on the deal’s original terms.
Many legal experts believe that Twitter has a strong case. “If the case goes all the way through trial and appeal, I think Twitter will prevail in the judicial system,” says Stephen M. Bainbridge, corporate law professor at UCLA.
Not only did the merger agreement identify specific performance as a remedy for a contract breach, but it also states that neither Musk nor Twitter can challenge the appropriateness of specific performance in court. In other words, even if Musk believes that being forced to buy Twitter would be inappropriate or unfair, he can’t bring that argument before the Chancery Court.
So what are the court’s options? Legal professionals say there are three.
One is to allow Musk out of the deal for $1 billion, a fee written into the merger agreement if either side withdraws for any of a limited set of reasons. None of those appear to be relevant to this merger.
In any case, given the damage that Musk has allegedly done to Twitter by his on-again-off-again dalliance with its purchase, $1 billion looks like a pitifully small assessment.
A second is for the court to find some grounds to issue a judgment somewhere between $1 billion and $44 billion. Given the difficulty of finding the proper number, however, that may not be a choice the Chancery Court wishes to make.
The third option is to order Musk to buy Twitter on “specific performance” grounds.
The Chancery Court has not been shy about issuing such orders on numerous occasions where the provision is explicitly contemplated in a merger agreement negotiated by sophisticated parties represented by sophisticated lawyers, as is the case here.
It’s true that the court has some flexibility about ordering a merger to go through when one party balks. In an oft-cited 2006 case, the court observed that “when balancing the equities ‘[we] must be convinced that specific enforcement of a validly formed contract would [not] cause even greater harm than it would prevent.’”
The court has never actually exercised that option, business law experts say.
It’s possible that this may be such a case. The court may need to consider “the appropriateness of requiring a merger against an unwilling buyer for a company this size and this kind of social footprint,” Ann Lipton, a business law expert at Tulane University, said during a panel discussion hosted by UC Berkeley’s law school on Wednesday.
On the other side of the argument is the Chancery Court’s interest in upholding its own reputation. Legal and business authorities have been debating online what might happen if Musk simply refuses to comply with a court order either to complete the acquisition of Twitter or pay a steep price to abandon the deal. It’s unlikely that the court would allow him to do so.
“The notion that Musk can somehow lose in Chancery Court and refuse to go forward strikes me as absurd,” Bainbridge says. “The hallmark of Delaware law is that they provide predictability and certainty…. If Delaware says ‘We’re going to make an Elon Musk exception,’ the damage to Delaware’s brand would be enormous.
Chancellor McCormick, moreover, is known as a tough judge. “She’s not somebody to be trifled with,” Bainbridge says. “She’s not somebody intimidated by wealth or power.”
If Musk is slapped with an unfavorable judgment — either an order that he complete the acquisition or pay significantly more than $1 billion in damages, he will be under tremendous pressure to comply.
Some of that pressure will come from his lawyers. “His professionals’ reputations will be on the line,” David Hoffman, a contract law expert at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, told me. “The lawyers know that if they have a noncompliant client in Delaware, where they have to appear as litigators, there’s risk for them.”
Second, Delaware law allows it to essentially take control of Musk’s assets — chiefly Tesla shares — and to satisfy the judgment by “selling them on the auction block,” Hoffman says. The court could appoint a receiver with the authority to sell the shares, if necessary.
Then there’s the basic reality that Tesla, as a Delaware company, is subject to Delaware courts’ authority in myriad ways. “I don’t think as a practical matter you can be the head of a public company incorporated in Delaware and be constantly in contempt of the Delaware courts,” Lipton said in the Berkeley webcast.
The most likely outcome may be one in which the Chancery Court forces Musk and Twitter to the negotiating table.
“The best outcome for a court always is settlement,” Hoffman says. “I expect the chancellor to signal very aggressively, if she’s convinced that Musk breached his contract, that she’s intending to grant specific performance in hope or expectation that the parties settle.” The first hearing in the case, on Twitter’s motion to expedite proceedings, is scheduled for July 19.
Bainbridge agrees. “The sensible thing for everybody to do, if we were dealing with ordinary folks,” he says, “would be for everybody to sit down and work out a deal that either increases the break-up fee or is some face-saving solution where Musk doesn’t end up owning Twitter, but Twitter gets to take a pretty good chunk out of Musk’s hide.”
OPINION
Dear Friends,
In the Elon Musk vs. Twitter Chancery Court drama, the latest shocker is Kevin Shannon of Potter Anderson dropping an Elon Musk/Tesla case for a bigger payday with Twitter in the company’s case against Musk. Can who I see as a filthy lawyer turn on you? Only in the Corrupt Boy Club of the Delaware Bench and Bar. Truly outrageous!
Adding insult to injury, Kathaleen McCormick grabbed control of a Tesla case away from the new Vice Chancellor, in order to take it for herself. It appears the spotlight of the Twitter vs. Musk case isn’t enough for her.
Folks, the Chancery Court is a Kangaroo Romper Room!
Please read the latest Law360 story below on Musk vs. Twitter and share your thoughts. Your feedback is welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
Judson Bennett-Coastal Network
By Rose Krebs
Law360 (August 4, 2022, 4:27 PM EDT) — Potter Anderson & Corroon LLP, which is representing Twitter in its blockbuster Delaware Chancery Court battle with Tesla CEO Elon Musk, has dropped out as counsel for the electric car company in yet another high-profile case.
Chancellor Kathaleen St. J. McCormick approved an order Thursday for Bayard PA to replace Potter Anderson as Tesla’s counsel in a shareholder derivative suit over the company’s allegedly unfair and excessive board compensation practices.
Last week, Ashby & Geddes PA was substituted as counsel for nominal defendant Tesla in two other cases in which Potter Anderson had represented the company: one that is on appeal with the Delaware Supreme Court over the company’s purchase of SolarCity, and another over Musk’s multibillion-dollar compensation package that is slated for a Chancery Court trial in the fall.
Potter Anderson is on a counsel team representing Twitter in a Chancery Court suit it filed last month seeking to force Musk to close on a $44 billion take-private deal.
Per Thursday’s order, a Bayard team will now represent nominal defendant Tesla in the board compensation case, replacing a Potter Anderson team that had included Kevin R. Shannon, who serves on Twitter’s counsel team in its suit against Musk.
In its suit, filed in 2020, The Police and Fire Retirement System of the City of Detroit accused Musk and former and current Tesla directors of lining up director pay and stock option benefits valued at an average $8.7 million in 2018 alone — more than 29 times higher than the average for S&P 500 index company boards.
The pension fund seeks damages and disgorgement of what it contends were years of “outrageous” board stock awards that cost the company hundreds of millions of dollars. Also, it asks for reforms to board equity compensation policies.
In a September 2020 filing, Musk and the directors called the suit’s claims, which allege breaches of fiduciary duty and unjust enrichment, “cynical and opportunistic.”
They argued that the electric car company’s director compensation plan was fair and created strong incentives for company growth. Company revenues have increased from $413.3 million in 2014 to $24.6 billion in 2019, the filing said.
The pension fund plaintiff “is no victim here,” they asserted. “It is the beneficiary of Tesla’s extraordinary success, enabled by the innovative and fully disclosed compensation policies” that are attacked in the complaint despite having “enriched” the investors.
Tesla’s board argued that the company had opted for large stock awards in order to “align the incentives of its executives and directors with the company’s own objectives.” The practice put much of the compensation of board members at risk, with years passing before directors began seeing returns, the filing said.
Also, none of the allegations in the complaint, they argued, are outside liability-shielding exculpations for the board in the company’s charter or ordinary court deference to business judgment. Stockholder approval of the challenged compensation policies also bars the claims, as does the fairness of the policies, the filing argued.
Chancellor McCormick recently took over the case as it was previously assigned to Vice Chancellor Joseph R. Slights III, who retired from the court’s bench earlier this year. The litigation had been slated to be adjudicated by his successor, but the chancellor notified counsel in a letter on July 29 that she was reassigning the case from newly sworn-in Vice Chancellor Nathan Cook to herself “effective immediately.”
Counsel for the pension fund declined to comment Thursday.
Counsel for the other parties didn’t immediately respond Thursday to a request for comment.
The Police and Fire Retirement System of the City of Detroit is represented by Andrew S. Dupre and Sarah E. Delia of McCarter & English LLP, William J. Fields, Christopher J. Kupka and Samir Shukurov of Fields Kupka & Shukurov LLP, and Javier Bleichmar and Nancy A. Kulesa of Bleichmar Fonti & Auld LLP.
Musk and the other directors are represented by Raymond J. DiCamillo and Kevin M. Gallagher of Richards Layton & Finger PA, and Evan Chesler, Vanessa A. Lavely and Jackie L. Carleton of Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP.
Tesla Inc. is represented by Jason C. Jowers, Brett M. McCartney and Sarah T. Andrade of Bayard PA.
The case is The Police and Fire Retirement System of the City of Detroit v. Musk, et al., case number 2020-0477, in the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware.
–Additional reporting by Jeff Montgomery. Editing by Ellen Johnson.
For a reprint of this article, please contact [email protected]
Dear Friends,
As a former Republican leader and activist in Sussex County, Delaware in many different capacities, I recognize that primaries can be divisive and disconcerting. I also know hypocrisy and official improper actions when I see it. In Sussex County, the primary contest for the Register of Wills Office has become outrageous because of the absolute lies and hypocrisy published by the leadership of the Sussex GOP. Apparently, a mailer from a long-term, independent, Republican Committee called the “35th Representative District Conservative Committee”, pointing out that one of the candidates, Greg Fuller, who happens to be an African American, was a life-long, democrat, was sent out to Sussex County Republican voters.
That statement is absolutely true and indeed Greg Fuller did spend his life working against the Delaware GOP as a Democrat. Regardless of the fact that I support, Candice Green, the daughter of the former Register of Wills, Cindy Green, I believe that the flip flopping by Greg Fuller was done because he clearly knew he could not win as a Democrat, and therefore switched parties. I also believe it is important to bring out that fact to all the Republican voters.
Below are two publications, first a letter signed by the Chair (Marilyn Booker) and the Vice Chair (Lewis Briggs who is Greg Fuller’s campaign manager). Second is the actual postcard from the 35th Committee which has a picture of Greg Fuller.
The Chair and Vice Chair have falsely accused the 35th District Committee of Racism and clearly are hypocritical by saying the official Sussex GOP Executive Committee can’t support an individual candidate, yet the letter they sent out clearly and indirectly supports Greg Fuller. The additional rub is that the Vice Chair is Greg Fuller’s campaign manager. I have put these false and hypocritical statements in red below for your observation. Below the wrongful and untruthful letter from the Sussex GOP is the postcard from the 35th district rightfully pointing out Greg Fuller’s life- long loyalty to the Democrat Party and indeed a legitimate issue. There is absolutely nothing that is racist or untruthful in the 35’s publication, but the letter from the Sussex GOP is in my educated opinion, terribly prejudiced, hypocritical, untruthful, and a cloaked endorsement of Greg Fuller, a true Democrat who is pretending to be a Republican.
Folks, please carefully read both publications below and you decide what is real, fair, and proper. As always, your comments are welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Submitted,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal Network
SUSSEX GOP LETTER which is false and hypocritical:
Good afternoon, fellow Republicans,
It appears that a group calling themselves the “35th Representative District Conservative Committee” has sent a mailer to Republicans in Sussex County. There are a couple of things to which I want to alert you:
· Please DO NOT confuse this group with the Sussex County Republican Committee (SCRC) or with the 35th Representative District Republican Committee – the only group sanctioned by the SCRC.
· The Sussex County Republican Committee’s rules prohibit the Committee from supporting a particular candidate in which there is a primary for a local election. We must remain neutral and we have done this. (HYPOCRISY ?)
However, we DO NOT support or agree with these types of dirty political games.
· The target of this “hit piece” was at one time a registered Democrat – just like Ronald Reagan was.
· This is a three-way primary and two of the candidates were at one time registered Democrats. They have seen the “darkness” in the Democrat Party and support the values of our party no matter what this group says.
· Leaving the Democrat Party is a very bold and courageous action and should be applauded and not denigrated.
· The party is working hard to attract minority voters because we believe in inclusiveness and that who you are and what you believe is more important than what you are. The candidate who is the object of this hateful mailer is African-American.
· This type of rhetoric is unhelpful and racist. We will not tolerate it. (Absolutely False ?)
Please learn as much as you can about all the candidates for this and each of the seats in which there is a primary. Beware of this type of thuggish behavior. These types of activities do not have a place in our Party’s election process nor do they serve the citizens of Sussex County well.
Marilyn Booker, Chair
Lewis Briggs,II, Vice-Chair
Sussex County Republican Executive Committee
Sussex County Republican Committee
OPINION
Ron DeSantis, the BEST Governor in the United States!
Dear friends,
Having left Delaware seven years ago, after my wife died of breast cancer, to move to Palm Beach, Florida and being an experienced political operator and pundit, it is extremely easy for me to recognize true leadership that includes the use of solid logic, efficiency, fairness, and dedication to the people who are being served.
Folks, besides not having a state income tax, having great weather year round, enjoying innumerable palm trees, beautiful beaches, fabulous fishing, and much more, the great state of Florida, I can tell you, without reservation, is being operated the way it should be by our Governor Ron DeSantis.
DeSantis, a Navy veteran, graduate of Harvard, a former Congressman, and now the Governor of the great state of Florida has exercised superior control over the state’s operation with an emphasis on promoting freedom to conduct business (regardless of the Covid pandemic), not requiring unhealthy masks for our school children, outlawing the teaching of critical race theory and the teaching of sexual orientation (the LBTG and transgender absurdity) to kids under the age of 9, thus leaving that up to the parents. People are flocking to Florida, especially from California and New York, in the hopes of enjoying the freedom that Florida offers.
Disney executives in their Orlando, Florida, Disney World operation, made the huge mistake of openly criticizing the legislation involving Florida school policies, while attempting to move Disney into a “Woke”, left-wing agenda that dangerous radicals in several states are promoting. Disney for years has been allowed to operate its own government in Florida, with special consideration in many areas, including no property taxes. Governor DeSantis, through his inspired legislation, has now removed Disney from its special privileges and Disney must now operate like everyone else. The arrogance and audacity by Disney World operators has come home to roost, and DeSantis has ended their former situation for good and rightfully so.
Interestingly Gavin Newsom, the idiotic Governor of California, where crime, homelessness, huge taxes, and despotism reign, has had the audacity to publish TV ads criticizing Florida and DeSantis. DeSantis, unlike California’s incompetent Governor, promotes family values, is tough on crime (cash bail required in Florida), is for border security, and is the complete, polar opposite of the insipid leadership promoted by so many Democrat Mayors and Governors throughout the United States. People are leaving California in droves and coming to Florida to enjoy the freedom that DeSantis offers, and the worst Governor in America, Gavin Newsom, doesn’t like it.
Folks, I could write a book about how great Governor Ron DeSantis is because of the superb job he has done in Florida. I predict he will be President of the United States some day, if not in 2024, especially with Trump’s controversial situation developing.
That’s the way I see it. The world has gone crazy and the United States is being severely damaged by President Joe Biden and the Democrats. Governor Ron DeSantis, like the state he leads, offers us hope and sunshine.
As always, your feedback is welcome and appreciated.
Best regards,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkDear Friends,
After years of coverage, Bouchard’s BFF and man I view as Delaware’s filthiest attorney and his employer—Kevin Shannon and Potter Anderson—are about to cash in, in the Twitter vs. Elon Musk case. Shannon’s relationship with the Chancellor greased the TransPerfect case into a 7-year $250 million of orchestrated corruption in Delaware’s Court of Chancery. Twitter shareholders and employees have no idea what’s about to be unleashed in terms of fees.
To make matters completely bonkers, Kevin “able to win cases with no witnesses” Shannon has teamed with his old pal, disgraced ex-Chancellor Leo Strine, who resigned mid-term amidst corruption allegations.
Shareholders and employees are sure to get fleeced, as the Good Old Boy Network starts dancing its Delaware two-step.
Both Shannon and Strine have been hired by Twitter, because they’re not stupid, folks. They fully agree with what I have been saying all along: To win in Delaware, where the “fix is in” you need to hire fixers. When I close my eyes and imagine this case, I see a business murders row I’ve studied for years with Shannon, Strine, Skadden, and now Andre Bouchard’s replacement, Chancellor Kathaleen “McCorrupt” McCormick.
How long will Delaware’s elected officials allow Shannon and Strine to profit from cronyism?
I would love to hear your feedback on this! It’s always welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINIONWomen’s Sports in Trouble Thanks to Democrats??
Dear Friends,
For many years women have fought extremely hard to get equal scholarships (same as men) in our Universities for Track and Field, Swimming, Basketball, and innumerable other sports. They have worked hard to get equal pay in professional sports as well. Women have their own, unique sports.
It is a scientific fact that men are stronger than women physically. A man who desires to be a woman, through modern science, can develop breasts, grow long hair, and for all intents and purposes look like a woman. These transsexual people who wish to be women have every right to do so. However, they are not biological women. They are still men, who are stronger and faster, because of their God-created gender.
It is acutely unfair for a biological man, regardless of his sexual change desires, to participate in female sports–yet it is happening and being permitted because of President Joe Biden and the Progressive Democrats. Outrageous? Absurd? Acutely unfair? It must be stopped or Female sports will be dominated by transmales who wish to be women, thus compromising all female sports.
Recently, at the University of Pennsylvania, a Transgender male who is 6′- 4″ has dominated female swimming, crushing competing real females. Even Transmale Caitlyn Jenner (former Bruce Jenner), one of the world’s greatest male athletes, recognizes the unfairness of this situation and has called for its prohibition.
Folks, this horrible situation has been caused, promoted, and effected because of the Democrat Party. It is part of their POLICY! How would you feel if you had a daughter who was a great athlete, who could win, but never does because she always loses to a biological male?
Frankly, I can’t understand how any woman could vote for a Democrat in any venue, because of this! Women’s sports are about to be destroyed by the Democrat party and their absurd liberal ideas. Folks, I implore you to vote these Democrats out of office. The preservation of viable, female sports is a legitimate reason, among many, to vote for Republicans in November.
As always, your feedback is welcome and appreciated. Let me know what you think.
Respectfully yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
I wish I was wrong, but I told everyone that Bouchard’s, Strine’s and now McCormick’s corruption would eventually catch up with Delaware. And now, folks, it has! Read and weep about our Chancery Court’s tarnished image. It’s a sad reality that our once proud court is now so deeply stained.
Please send your feedback on this! It’s always welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal Network
The judge won’t really be bound by the law, either.
That’s because Twitter brought its lawsuit against the Tesla billionaire in the Delaware Court of Chancery, where some of the world’s biggest businesses often battle out their disputes in obscurity.
Insiders say the so-called equity court, a relic of the British legal system, is an insular judicial body where the judges are often friendly with the lawyers they hand down wins to — and where money and jobs are traded without much second-thought.
“Cases in the Delaware Chancery are really heavily based on your attorney’s relationship with the given chancellor that’s handling your case,” said Phil Shawe, CEO and co-founder of translation company TransPerfect, who has had matters heard before the court.
“The people you’re arguing with in court, you’re also having dinner parties with,” Shawe said, describing a “collegial” environment unfriendly to outsiders.
Even Hunter Biden helps make the case for the Chancery’s apparent cronyism. In 2018, the president’s beleaguered and scandal-prone son was upset that his business dealings with Chinese energy company CEFC were going awry — so he threatened to sue.
“I will bring suit in the Chancery Court in Delaware — which as you know is my home state and I am privileged to have worked with and know every judge in the chancery court,” he wrote in a March 14, 2018 email found on his abandoned laptop first revealed by The Post.
Shawe said Biden’s message “sums up” the court’s reputation.
“He says, ‘If you cross me, I’ll take you to Chancery Court and I know everybody and therefore they’re gonna rule how I tell them,’” Shawe told The Post. “It’s a good microcosm of how this place works.”
A different set of rules
It’s not surprising that Twitter, which is incorporated in Delaware, brought its case to the Chancery.
There, cases are tried by appointed judges who are experts in business law and are supposed to find a “fair” verdict — one that can go far beyond the scope of the law.
Monetary damages are usually sought in cases like Twitter’s, but the social media giant filed suit in the Chancery court specifically because it wants to force Musk to go through with the deal he reneged on — buying the company for $44 billion.
Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick said during a Tuesday hearing that Musk and Twitter will have an expedited five-day trial in October.
The chancellor decides which of the six vice chancellors will preside over what case. She can also assign herself any case she wants.
In other state courts including in New York, judges are assigned cases at random to avoid possible favoritism.
Insiders alleged to The Post that the Chancery, meanwhile, appears to run on favoritism.
“The chancellor can pick and choose,” said Jeremy Eicher, a lawyer who has represented Shawe and has more than a decade of experience with the chancery.
“In recent years, more chancellors and vice chancellors and going directly into the firms that appear before the courts most often, which creates an appearance of a potential conflict of interest,” Eicher said.
“It is not uncommon for the vice chancellors to leave and then be employed by firms that they’ve awarded large numbers of remedies and damages towards.”
Chancellors, if they so please, can assign former colleagues custodianships that give them millions of dollars in work, Eicher noted.
Verdicts elsewhere are usually decided by “testimony, witnesses, facts, merits, or the things that normally drive cases,” said Shawe, whose New York City-based company is the world’s largest private provider of translation services.
Shawe, who sarcastically says he “probably had the honor” of being the most experienced litigant in the Chancery, noted that Twitter and Musk intentionally beefed up their teams with lawyers who have connections to the court.
Cozy counsel
The Musk-Twitter spat has brought the shadowy court into the spotlight, and insiders say it’s not pleasant to look at.
The legal teams that Musk and Twitter have respectively chosen appear to bolster this claim, according to people with knowledge of the court.
The two sides “have sought out lawyers with deep connections to the Court of Chancery” to duke out the case, said Eicher.
In its attempt to force Musk into the $44 billion deal, Twitter hired the heavyweight New York City law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz LLP, which has close ties to the court.
A partner there, Leo Strine, is a former Chancery judge who served as a vice chancellor and then the chancellor over a period of 15 years. Another partner, Bill Savitt, who will be litigating the case, is a seasoned and well connected attorney who has successfully argued several matters before the Chancery.
Twitter also retained Chancery stalwart Brad Sorrels, of the California-based Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where a current vice chancellor once worked.
Musk, meanwhile, has lawyered up with firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, which is also known to have close ties to the court, sources say.
Skadden, which is headquartered in NYC, has “outsized representation on the court,” Eicher claimed.
“They must believe on some level that gives them an advantage,” he said.
‘Blatant judicial activism’
Delaware State Senator Colin Bonini said there is a “legitimate criticism that the court is very insular” and “not super transparent.”
Delaware is a small state with a small bar, and the lawyers there frequent the same country clubs, insiders noted.
Bonini, a Republican, said he’s seen examples of “blatant judicial activism,” where chancellors and outside actors have a “political agenda” they want to achieve that can’t be passed in the state legislature.
For instance, a chancellor recently decided to require property reassessments for homeowners and businesses in an effort to raise tax money for education, he said.
“The consequences of that are going to be massive property tax increases. If the chancellor believes we need more money for education, then he should’ve run for the State Assembly or State Senate,” Bonini said.
Local activist Keandra McDole, meanwhile, claims Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings filed suit against her in the Chancery believing she’d have the best chance to win there.
McDole had been protesting outside Department of Justice employees’ homes after two Delaware police officers who killed a black man were cleared of wrongdoing in early 2021. Jennings took her to the Chancery to try to limit her ability to protest.
“I was terrified because I noticed immediately… the Chancery has their own rules,” McDole said. With the help of the ACLU, McDole won her case.
“I feel as though we were sent to the Chancery Court because the attorney general and deputy attorney general thought they would have their way there,” she told The Post. “Nobody in the Chancery Court really pays attention to police shootings and what goes on in the inner city.”
The court, McDole noted, currently only has white chancellors in a state that is 24% black and 10% Latino.
“It is there that a Court with seven justices has not one person of color on the bench, and has only had one Black justice in the entirety of its 230-year history,” the Rev. Al Sharpton said in a statement, calling the Chancery “archaic.”
“Justices operate in secret, with no cameras or microphones in the courtroom, few – if any – public financial disclosures by justices, and with barely a modicum of transparency in how the Court operates,” he said.
The Chancery Court, the Delaware Attorney General, Wachtell and Skadden all did not respond to requests for comment.OPINIONState of the Union–Biden Meltdown?
Dear Friends,
I write this brief missive with great anxiety, concern, and consternation. Folks, it is bad enough that President Joe Biden destroyed our oil industry, taking us from being totally energy independent, being the number one oil exporter in the world, to being dependent on foreign oil controlled by despicable tyrants like the Saudi Crown Prince, but his recent actions are over the top! Biden’s recent trip to Saudi Arabia to beg for Saudi oil was grotesque, outrageous, and despicable.
Because gasoline dropped a few pennies, he actually bragged about what a good job he is doing, when he clearly created the energy crisis we are now suffering because of his ridiculous policies. He is also selling our oil reserves to Communist China. This precious commodity is for specific, internal, US emergencies, not to be sold to foreign entities, especially to China and to a company that Hunter Biden still has an interest in? That should concern all Americans, because it appears that our national security could be compromised by Biden’s possible influence peddling with the help of his nefarious son, apparently drug addicted, but truly a slick operator!
I have become friendly with Miranda Divine, famous New York Post reporter. She receives my emails and we occasionally speak on the phone about the alleged “Biden Crime Family,” the “Delaware Way,” and the empaneled federal grand Jury in Wilmington, Delaware that is investigating Hunter Biden’s possible crimes. Miranda recently wrote a bestseller titled, “The Laptop From Hell”, all about Hunter’s suspicious activities which from the evidence indicates, Joe Biden, the President of the United States was directly and indirectly involved in “Influence Peddling,” which might have not only compromised many aspects of our national safety, but also our economy. The information on the Laptop, which Hunter apparently left in a Wilmington repair shop is beyond incriminating, indicating quite a few possible crimes. “TEN Percent to the BIG GUY” (Joe Biden)???
The book is great, very enlightening, and I highly recommend it. Folks, can you imagine how dangerous, how risky, and how ill conceived, the possible scenario of having a President calling the shots, who has not only sold out to Russia, but also Communist China?? Is this Treason???
As always, I want to hear what you think. I appreciate your opinions and look forward to your feedback.
Sincerely Yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal Network
Disclaimer: This article represents the opinions of the writer based on his constant and extensive political research.Chancellor Kathleen McCormick to Elite Lawyers, “We’ve always had each other’s backs”For a Judge Outside of Delaware Chancery, this Quote Probably Lands in the Slammer, but McCorrupt Says it to Reuters!!!OPINION
Dear Friends,
Direct quote from Reuters article below…
“We’ve always had each other’s backs, we’ve always gone out for drinks after arguments and maintained this level of civility,” she told a gathering at the University of Delaware this year.
Not since Hunter Biden emails unveiled by the @nypost showed that his influence allowed him to in essense control verdicts in Chancery with his influence, have I seen such a startling confession. The Judge in the huge upcoming Twitter vs. Elon Musk case had the nerve to say, “We’ve always had each other’s backs,” about the very attorneys profiting from the case, the Jennifer Voss’s, the Kevin Shannon’s, the Leo Strine’s of the world who in my view, plainly profit from their illicit influence.
Imagine in any other state other than Delaware, if a judge had said something like this?! That judge would go to jail! Instead, we’re giving her the biggest case in history!
It’s awful and criminal that in Delaware, these elite few run roughshod over the justice system–making so blatantly that their cronyism is not only permitted, but brazenly flaunted by the Chief Chancellor.
“We’ve always had each other’s backs, we’ve always gone out for drinks after arguments and maintained this level of civility,” she told a gathering at the University of Delaware this year, according to the Reuters story below.
I’m outraged by this Good Old Boy cronyism and doubly angry that she says it to STUDENTS, as if this is widely accepted behavior by a judge–it’s DISGUSTING. Please write to your elected leaders and tell them not to spend our tax dollars on McCorrupt and her confederates.
Chancellor McCormick has made my jaw drop, and that’s hard to do. Am I overreacting? Your thoughts are always welcome.
Respectfully Yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal Network
By Tom Hals and Hyunjoo Jin
July 15 (Reuters) – The judge overseeing Twitter Inc’s (TWTR.N) $44 billion lawsuit against Elon Musk has a no-nonsense reputation as well as the distinction of being one of the few jurists who has ever ordered a reluctant buyer to close a U.S. corporate merger.
Kathaleen McCormick took over the role of chancellor or chief judge of the Court of Chancery last year, the first woman in that role. On Wednesday, she was assigned the Twitter lawsuit which seeks to force Musk to complete his deal for the social media platform, which promises to be one of the biggest legal showdowns in years.
“She already has a track record of not putting up with some of the worst behavior that we see in these areas when people want to get out of deals,” said Adam Badawi, a law professor who specializes in corporate governance at the University of California Berkeley. “She is a serious, no-nonsense judge.”
In contrast to Musk’s brash and volatile behavior, she is known as soft-spoken, approachable and amiable — but a person who also stands her ground. She advocates respect among litigants and integrity at legal conferences.
“We’ve always had each other’s backs, we’ve always gone out for drinks after arguments and maintained this level of civility,” she told a gathering at the University of Delaware this year.
After weeks of confrontational tweets suggesting Twitter was hiding the true number of fake accounts, Musk said on July 8 he was terminating the $54.20-per-Twitter share acquisition, worth $44 billion. On Tuesday, the social media platform sued.
McCormick on Friday scheduled the first hearing for July 19 in Wilmington, when she will consider Twitter’s request to expedite the case and conduct a four-day trial in September.
Shares of Twitter were up about 2% to $37.11 in midday trading on Friday, but still more than 30% below the deal price.
Judges have ordered reluctant buyers to close corporate acquisitions only a handful of times, according to legal experts and court records. One of those was McCormick.
Last year, McCormick got the attention of Wall Street dealmakers by ordering an affiliate of private equity firm Kohlberg & Co LLC to close its $550 million purchase of DecoPac Holding Inc, which makes cake decorating products.
She described her ruling as “chalking up a victory for deal certainty” and rejected Kohlberg’s arguments that it could walk away because of a lack of financing.
The case has many parallels to the Twitter deal. Like Musk, Kohlberg said it was walking away because DecoPac violated the merger agreement. Like Musk, Kohlberg argued in part that DecoPac failed to maintain ordinary operations.
There are also differences. Musk’s deal is magnitudes bigger, involves a publicly traded target company in Twitter and might have implications for Tesla Inc , the electric vehicle maker that is the source of much of Musk’s fortune.
Tesla shares were trading up slightly on Friday at $718.04, down from around $1,000 when the Twitter deal was announced.
In other cases, she has come down on the side of shareholders when they clashed with management.
Last year, she prevented energy company The Williams Cos Inc from adopting a so-called poison pill anti-takeover measure, saying it breached their fiduciary duty to shareholders.
Last month, she said shareholders of Carvana Co (CVNA.N) could sue the board for a direct offering of stock to select investors when the share price was depressed during the early pandemic.
A graduate of Notre Dame Law School, McCormick started her career with the Delaware branch of the Legal Aid Society, which helps low-income people navigate the court system.
She went into private practice “mainly for financial reasons,” she told the Delaware Senate during her confirmation hearing, joining Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor, one of the state’s main firms for business litigation.
She joined the Court of Chancery in 2018 as a vice chancellor and became the first woman to lead the Court of Chancery last year.
Despite her mild manner, Eric Talley, who specializes in corporate law at Columbia Law School, said he doubts McCormick would be cowed by Musk.
“I would not be placing my bets on Chancellor McCormick suddenly becoming weak-kneed,” he said.
Delaware Chancery Court’s Corrupt Vultures are Circling
Dear Friends,
When I heard about Elon Musk backing out of his proposed $44 billion purchase and Twitter taking him to court in Delaware, I choked on my eggs! “The Twitter Board… plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement,” according to the MarketWatch story below. Here’s the kicker: “We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery.” Hah!
Because an elite and corrupt cadre of Delaware judges and attorneys use the Chancery Court to enrich themselves, no one should be confident of anything! Today’s Chancery is a joke–it’s capricious, arbitrary, and a completely unpredictable Romper Room–but you cannot know about it because there are no cameras and no recordings.
Regardless of the headlines, my prediction is that Twitter shareholders will not prevail–and Musk will not prevail either. You know who will prevail?? The disgraced wanna-be leftist politician Leo Strine, and in my opinion–the filthiest attorney ever to pass the Delaware Bar, Kevin Shannon of Potter Anderson, and their Clubby little network will prevail, at the expense of the litigants and the taxpayers.
Ever since Chancery became the Strine and Bouchard clown car, the court has been brazen with its corruption. It continues under Kathaleen “McCorrupt” McCormick who is still paying off Skadden Arps every month for its no-show TransPerfect “work.” In my view, this den of co-conspirators must be stopped if our Chancery Court has a prayer of restoring its reputation.
The Good Old Boys are salivating at the thought of getting a piece of this $44 billion action for themselves! Unfortunately, in Delaware, crime and cronyism still pay. I have been beating the reform drum for years, and now, the world will see why.
As always, your feedback is welcome and appreciated.
Forever Delaware,
JUDSON Bennett–Coastal NetworkElon Musk terminates deal to buy Twitter, and Twitter’s chairman promises a legal fight
Last Updated: July 14, 2022 at 6:05 a.m. ET
By Jeremy C. Owens
Tesla chief executive sends letter announcing the abandonment of his agreement to buy company for more than $40 billion, which will likely lead to a courtroom battle
Elon Musk is backing out of his agreement to buy Twitter Inc., and Twitter’s chairman has already promised a legal fight.
In a letter sent to Twitter’s TWTR, -7.20% chief legal officer on Friday, the Tesla Inc. TSLA, -3.35% and SpaceX chief executive claimed that he was ending the agreement because Twitter would not share requested information with him, and the information that was shared, he contended, had confirmed his belief that there were more bots on the service than Twitter claims in its securities filings.
“Mr. Musk is terminating the Merger Agreement because Twitter is in material breach of multiple provisions of that Agreement, appears to have made false and misleading representations upon which Mr. Musk relied when entering into the Merger Agreement, and is likely to suffer a Company Material Adverse Effect,” reads the letter, which was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
A “company material adverse effect” would be a material change in the underlying business since the deal was signed or misrepresentation when signing the deal that would allow it to be terminated. In the letter, Musk and his lawyers claim that misrepresentations about the number of bots on the service meets the threshold, but also note that the business could be facing issues that would also serve the purpose.
“Mr. Musk is also examining the company’s recent financial performance and revised outlook, and is considering whether the company’s declining business prospects and financial outlook constitute a Company Material Adverse Effect giving Mr. Musk a separate and distinct basis for terminating the Merger Agreement,” the letter reads.
Twitter’s chairman, Bret Taylor, used the social-media platform to respond to Musk and promise to take him to court in Delaware. “The Twitter Board is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr. Musk and plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement,” tweeted Taylor, Salesforce.com Inc.’s CRM co-CEO. “We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery.”
Musk agreed to purchase Twitter for $54.20 a share in April, after starting to build a position in the social-media company in January. Twitter shares closed Friday at $36.81, then fell more than 6% in after-hours trading after the Musk letter was made public. The stock was down 7% in premarket trade Monday.
In agreeing to purchase the company, Musk waived due diligence and signed a contract to purchase the company at a price of roughly $44 billion. Since that agreement, as the broader stock market has declined sharply, Musk has asked for more information about bot accounts on the service.
The agreement includes a $1 billion breakup fee for either side, providing predetermined reasons for breaking the contract. Twitter could seek more than the $1 billion fee in court, up to and including the full $44 billion Musk promised in April to pay.
In the letter to Twitter, which was addressed to Chief Legal Officer Vijaya Gadde, Musk cited Twitter’s bot count as well as other issues with the way it collects and provides data on its monetizable daily active users, or mDAUs.
“Although Twitter has not yet provided complete information to Mr. Musk that would enable him to do a complete and comprehensive review of spam and fake accounts on Twitter’s platform, he has been able to partially and preliminarily analyze the accuracy of Twitter’s disclosure regarding its mDAU. While this analysis remains ongoing, all indications suggest that several of Twitter’s public disclosures regarding its mDAUs are either false or materially misleading,” the letter reads.
Specifically, Musk claims that the true bot count on Twitter is “wildly higher” than the 5% that Twitter claims in its filings with the SEC, and that Twitter executives admitted in a June 30 call that they include suspended accounts in their mDAU count.
In addition, Musk claims that Twitter’s board declined to provide requested information on its financial performance and expectations.
“Mr. Musk requested on June 17 a variety of board materials, including a working, bottoms-up financial model for 2022, a budget for 2022, an updated draft plan or budget, and a working copy of Goldman Sachs’ valuation model underlying its fairness opinion. Twitter has provided only a pdf copy of Goldman Sachs’ final Board presentation,” the letter reads.
Musk also claims that he was not consulted on staffing changes at Twitter in the period since the acquisition agreement was signed, including the firing of two executives, the resignations of three other executives, layoffs in the talent-acquisition team that were confirmed by MarketWatch on Wednesday, and a general hiring freeze.
“The Company has not received Parent’s consent for changes in the conduct of its business, including for the specific changes listed above,” the letter concludes. “The Company’s actions therefore constitute a material breach of Section 6.1 of the Merger Agreement.”
Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives, in a note Friday afternoon, called the emerging situation “a disaster scenario” for Twitter’s board.
“This is a disaster scenario for Twitter and its Board as now the company will battle Musk in an elongated court battle to recoup the deal and/or the breakup fee of $1 billion at a minimum,” Ives wrote. “Twitter’s stock on a stand-alone basis will now likely trade in the $25 [to] $30 range when the stock opens on Monday with no deal likely.”
Tesla shares increased nearly 3% in after-hours trading following the news. Ives wrote that “For Tesla’s stock, this will be some relief rally as this situation was an overhang on the stock, but the Street is wary of the looming court battle ahead between Musk and the Twitter Board.” The stock was down 0.3% premarket Monday.
Shares in Digital World Acquisition Corp. DWAC, 17.94%, a blank-check company seeking to merge with the Truth Social property affiliated with Donald Trump, also gained in late trading.OPINION
Dear Friends,
Kathaleen “McCorrupt” McCormick, the bank-breaking Judge who has kept Chancellor Bouchard’s habit of thieving TransPerfect workers going and going and going, will keep the Musk-case for herself (shocker).
All eyes will be on our home state’s Kangaroo Chancery Court, which does not have any rules whatsoever in place to prevent something like McCormick say… owning shares of Twitter personally. In fact, Chancery judges don’t even have to disclose their conflicts of interest to the parties. We know this, because all the while she’s ruling against TransPerfect, she’s never disclosed that she was actually H.I.G. Capital’s attorney.
She is the first female Chief Chancellor, but don’t be fooled, she’s as “Good Ole Boy” as they come–circling the wagons to keep paying off Skadden, Chancellor Bouchard’s former employer, with money from TransPerfect employees. McCorrupt and Skadden should be ashamed, but they should also be fearful. Why?
Because Chancery, where verdicts can be bought with influence according to Hunter Biden’s emails, will be on the national stage. And, the Coastal Network will continue to shine a spotlight on corruption, as I bring you the latest on the Musk-Twitter fight that everyone from disgraced Leo Strine to filthy Kevin Shannon is looking to cash in on.
If you have thoughts on Musk-Twitter, McCorrupt, or anything related to draining Delaware’s swamp, your feedback is always welcome.
Respectfully Yours,
JUDSON Bennett, Coastal Network
WILMINGTON, Del., July 13 (Reuters) – The first female chief judge on Delaware’s nationally known business court will oversee Twitter Inc’s (TWTR.N) lawsuit that seeks to hold Elon Musk to his agreement to buy the social media platform for $44 billion, according to court records.
Kathaleen McCormick took over the role of chancellor, or chief judge, last year after the retirement of Andre Bouchard on the Court of Chancery, a favored venue for large corporate disputes.
Among McCormick’s first decisions will be a request by Twitter to hold a four-day trial in September, an incredibly tight time frame for such a complicated case.
McCormick’s final ruling on the merger can be appealed to the Delaware Supreme Court.
Twitter accused Musk of a long list of violations of the merger agreement in the lawsuit it filed on Tuesday. It said the world’s richest man wanted to back out in part because of a downturn in the stock of Tesla Inc , the electric vehicle maker where he is chief executive.
Musk accused Twitter of breaching the merger agreement because it refused to share information on spam accounts, made misrepresentations and strayed from its normal course of business by firing executives.
McCormick is also overseeing a case by shareholders of Tesla who are seeking to void Musk’s $56 billion compensation package from the automaker. She scheduled an October trial in that case.
Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Del. Editing by Matthew Lewis
OPINION
Dear friends,
The President of the United States, Joseph Biden, has in my opinion, committed innumerable illegal acts that have damaged the economy and the safety of the American people. Folks the man is incompetent and has sold his soul to the extreme left whose ultimate agenda is to institute, Orwellian, Socialistic/Communistic control over our lives. Much of the heinous operation of the current government is covered up by the liberal press which is complicit in the destruction of our prosperity and our freedoms. The business connection between President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, clearly evidenced by the captured laptop, indicates the despicable illegal activities the two engaged in.
Folks, remember the Airforce 2 trip to China when Biden was Vice President. Son Hunter went with Daddy to China and came back with over a billion dollars of Chinese money. I believe influence peddling is against the law? That said, let’s segway forward to what just happened! We are in an energy crisis, especially since Biden intentionally destroyed the American oil industry. The price of gasoline and diesel fuel is off the charts creating unprecedented inflation and economic chaos on the American people. We have strategic oil reserves that have been accumulated over many years to help us in the event of a severe national emergency in case we cannot effectively utilize needed oil for the proper operation of American security. These important oil reserves belong to the American people and are for our specific use in the event of a severe national emergency. Well guess what folks? Biden has been dipping into our oil reserves to the extent that half will be gone by the end of August. It gets worse, President Joseph Biden has been selling our strategic oil reserves to China. Interestingly, the entity in China that purchased the oil is the same company that son Hunter has a financial interest in and which apparently financed the billion dollars. “10% to the Big Guy?” Outrageous? Suspicious? Illegal? How can this happen?
Folks, when the President of the United States sells part of our strategic oil reserves to China (our number one enemy), putting our national security at risk, it is beyond earth-shaking. My God, I am sitting here shaking my head in amazement as I write this article. Let me know what you think. As always your comments are welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
Thank you so much for your continuous feedback. I appreciate your viewpoints tremendously.
Candice Green Wilkinson is the best candidate for this office. Please give her your support!
Feedback from my endorsement of CANDICE GREEN WILKINSON for Sussex County Register Wills:
“Thank you!! you have a way with words.I appreciate your time and endorsement, it means a lot.”Candice Green Wilkinson”Wonderful Endorsement, she has my vote.”-John W. “I appreciate your concern.
I will ask Greg about this the next time I see him.”-Bryant R. “Judson, that’s an outstanding article, thank you very much.” -Keller H.”I have to call you out on this one Judd. You don’t know Greg Fuller at all. This man is probably closer to Jesus than most of us in his faith.
He does not support abortion. He left the party because of his Christian principles that he could no longer be a part of what the Democrat party represents today. And Greg Fuller is the only register of wills that used to work his ass off and go out to senior centers and help them to understand the importance of having a will.
Not to mention Greg Fuller has used his faith to help families mend after a loved ones death versus fighting over who’s going to get what.
I don’t have a problem with you endorsing Candace Green, but you don’t know Greg Fuller.”-Scott W.”The office is not closed. It has stayed open throughout COVID.The only change is that all business is by appointment only now, like a lawyer or doctor’s office.Things run much smoother now, for everyone, including the public.”-Eric. B.
Keep your wonderful feedback coming, folks! I enjoy reading it and appreciate sharing it with all of you.
Respectfully Yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
HAPPY FOURTH of JULY from the COASTAL Network!!
Some History on this blessed day that we so dearly cherish:
“During the American Revolution, the legal separation of the thirteen colonies from Great Britain in 1776 actually occurred on July 2, when the Second Continental Congress voted to approve a resolution of independence that had been proposed in June by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia declaring the United States independent from Great Britain’s rule. After voting for independence, Congress turned its attention to the Declaration of Independence, a statement explaining this decision, which had been prepared by a Committee of Five, with Thomas Jefferson as its principal author. Congress debated and revised the wording of the Declaration to remove its vigorous denunciation of the slave trade, finally approving it two days later on July 4th.
Historians have long disputed whether members of Congress signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, even though Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin all later wrote that they had signed it on that day. Most historians have concluded that the Declaration was signed nearly a month after its adoption, on August 2, 1776, and not on July 4 as is commonly believed.
By a remarkable coincidence, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, the only two signatories of the Declaration of Independence later to serve as presidents of the United States, both died on the same day: July 4, 1826, which was the 50th anniversary of the Declaration, Jefferson even mentioning the fact. Although not a signatory of the Declaration of Independence, James Monroe, another Founding Father who was elected president, also died on July 4, 1831, making him the third President who died on the anniversary of independence. The only U.S. president to have been born on Independence Day was Calvin Coolidge, who was born on July 4, 1872”
Some Events that brought the AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE up to present times were:
In 1777, thirteen gunshots were fired in salute, once at morning and once again as evening fell, on July 4 in Bristol, Rhode Island. An article in the July 18, 1777 issue of The Virginia Gazette noted a celebration in Philadelphia in a manner a modern American would find familiar: an official dinner for the Continental Congress, toasts, 13-gun salutes, speeches, prayers, music, parades, troop reviews, and fireworks. Ships in port were decked with red, white, and blue bunting.
In 1778, from his headquarters at Ross Hall, near New Brunswick, New Jersey, General George Washington marked July 4 with a double ration of rum for his soldiers and an artillery salute (feu de joie). Across the Atlantic Ocean, ambassadors John Adams and Benjamin Franklin held a dinner for their fellow Americans in Paris, France.
In 1779, July 4 fell on a Sunday. The holiday was celebrated on Monday, July 5.
In 1781, the Massachusetts General Court became the first state legislature to recognize July 4 as a state celebration.
In 1783, Salem, North Carolina, held a celebration with a challenging music program assembled by Johann Friedrich Peter entitled The Psalm of Joy. The town claims it to be the first public July 4 event, as it was carefully documented by the Moravian Church, and there are no government records of any earlier celebrations.
In 1870, the U.S. Congress made Independence Day an unpaid holiday for federal employees.
In 1938, Congress changed Independence Day to a paid federal holiday.
Folks, our continuing Independence and the enjoyment of the freedoms we have, clearly depend on who we elect in the future. GOD bless you all and God bless America!
I hope you enjoyed your day and celebrating the greatest country on the planet.
Sincerely yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
I have been watching the January 6th House Committee Hearings, which is investigating former President Donald Trump, as they present a one-sided show. This quite obviously orchestrated event is being put on in order to prevent the impending Republican takeover in November and also deter Trump from possibly running again in 2024.
Lots of feedback has been rolling in on this, folks, so let’s open up the mailbag:
Hi Jud, I always enjoy reading your articles and opinions. If you haven’t had a chance to see 2000 Mules, I recommend it. The geo-tracking evidence is very interesting. It’s an hour and 28 minutes and worth watching.
-Susan
As you make excellent, salient points. The hearings are a humongous waste of time & $$$$$$$$$$$. Liz Cheny is a lousy lady who is another attention seeker. Interesting that her parents have said zilch for a LONG TIME.
-Pete
Donald Trump is only “out there” as a possible candidate – to raise $$ – the usual.
I do not support Pence. I met him twice in New Hampshire, and his people skills are quite lacking. I support DeSantis & Youngkin. For vice president, maybe Winsome Sears?
-Georgia
As we old-timers would say: “you hit the nail on the head, Jud”!
-John
Quoting your line, Jud:
“Although slightly ambiguous, the Constitution does not allow for the Vice President to do that. Trump was misguided and ill-advised to go that route which unfortunately, although unintentional, inspired the disastrous invasion of the Capitol building.”
-Sally
The Constitution certainly DOES allow for the Vice President to do that. And the “insurrection” was the Democrats way to STOP this Constitutionally allowed way to contest the votes in AZ, PA, WI, MI and GA. They thought Pence just might send the electors back to the state so they, along with their accomplices in the FBI/CIA and Media concocted this ‘Insurrection’ bullshit. It was literally to stop Pence from doing what he should have done
-Tim
Trump is teetering, but he ain’t gonna fall, my friend.
-Jack
I feel your pain on this ridiculous hearing Jud.
Fear not, people have short memories. They’ll forget by November.
-Ted
A little insight, without the political finger pointing.
-Peter
I don’t see how Trump recovers from this. No way, Jud.
-Frank
I can’t turn this covering off, it’s captivating.
-Joan
So many of Trump’s people have turned against him.
They are all traitors!
-William
This just proves that Trump will bring down the Republicans if he runs in 2024.
There’s no way the leadership should allow him to run.
-Ernie
Don’t worry, sir. Not many people who love Trump are watching.
This won’t have the impact the Democrats think it will.
-Robert
Keep the feedback coming, folks. It’s always welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
JUDSON Bennett-COASTAL NETWORK
OPINION
Endorsement of CANDICE GREEN WILKINSON for Sussex County Register of Wills Office
Dear Friends,
It is my honor and pleasure to endorse Candice Green Wilkinson in the upcoming Republican primary being held for the Sussex County Register of Wills office in September. Candice has been a lifelong Republican and has worked on many GOP campaigns. She is the daughter of the former Register of Wills Cindy Green and because of that is completely familiar with the operation. She is a computer specialist and understands the modern technology needed to maintain an effective operation for the benefit of all of Sussex County. It is my understanding that the actual physical office location has been closed, and she promises to get it open again.
Folks, that being said, this is a REPUBLICAN primary and therefore, a real Republican should be the actual candidate. I find it interesting that Greg Fuller, a former Democrat operative who was once appointed by the Democrat Delaware Governor to the Register of Wills office has now changed his party affiliation to Republican in order to fool the voters of Sussex County. Fuller supports Delaware’s abortion laws which include late-term abortion up until birth. Fuller supports mandatory union hiring practices in Delaware. WHEN DID Fuller experience his epiphany and give up his Democrat Party leadership to run as a Republican? Just a few months ago. We did this with Senator Margaret Rose Henry. Don’t be deceived again. Fuller is not just a Democrat he is a Delaware Democrat Party Elite Leader.
Greg Fuller switched parties and came out early and some of the Sussex Republicans didn’t realize what a real liberal he is and a dedicated Democrat at heart. Folks, I urge you to elect a truly qualified, conservative Republican in Candice Green Wilkinson whose dedication to the Republican party is unprecedented.
I thank you for your consideration and I urge you all to evaluate the two candidates accordingly. You will see that Candice Green Wilkinson is without a doubt the best candidate for the job.
Dear Friends,
I have watched with great interest the January 6th House Committee Hearings which is investigating (actually presenting a one-sided show) former President Donald Trump. This orchestrated event which basically allows no cross-examination of witnesses and presents prepared, taken out of context, videos of various testimonies, is clearly designed to skew or possibly prevent the impending Republican takeover in November and also deter Trump from possibly running again in 2024.
It does appear that Trump did everything he could to push former Vice President Pence to replace electors in the Capitol on January 6th. Although slightly ambiguous, the Constitution does not allow for the Vice President to do that. Trump was misguided and ill-advised to go that route which unfortunately, although unintentional, inspired the disastrous invasion of the Capitol building. It also appears that Trump made calls to various state officials to investigate and change what he perceived to be fraudulent votes. However, no substantial evidence was ever produced. Additionally, from the testimony, Trump apparently made several attempts to install a new Attorney General who would be favorable to his agenda in changing the results of the election.
Frankly, as much as I liked Trump’s platform, this ill-conceived, poorly planned situation, has indeed hurt Trump’s future for another run in 2024. Indeed, I hope he doesn’t run and maintains his support of Republican candidates.
It should be noted these absolute facts: 1) Trump clearly authorized and offered 20,000 National Guard troops to guard the Capitol on January 6th. They were turned down by Nancy Pelosi. If the troops had been installed and placed properly as they should have been, the Capitol invasion never would have occurred. 2) During his speech on January 6th, Trump clearly stated that the crowd “should go to the Capitol and protest peacefully”. 3) There were FBI infiltrators in the crowd which indicates some entrapment possibilities. Bottom line, although terribly misguided and stubborn, there was clearly no intention on Trump’s part to stimulate a violent insurrection nor were his actions criminal.
None of this changes the despicable, intentional, authoritarian, destruction of the U.S. economy by Marxist Democrats led by President Joe Biden. Biden’s criminal activity (influence peddling) with help from son Hunter was remarkable in its audacity. The ruining of the American oil industry (closing the Keystone Pipeline and restricting drilling), the absurd border policies allowing millions of illegals to come into our country un-vetted, and the outrageous and incompetent withdrawal from Afghanistan, have shown how dangerous and frightening the Democrat agenda truly is!
America now has inflation reaching 8.6%; gasoline and food prices are off the charts. We the people are suffering and this is just the beginning. Biden and the insidious Democrats are 100% to blame.
The point here is simple. Folks don’t let this biased hearing, which is out to get Trump, change anything. Trump screwed up in his reluctance to admit he lost the election. It has nothing to do with how bad things are now because of Biden and the Democrats.
Governor DeSantis should and could be our next President in 2024. In November, we must remove these Socialist/ Communist Democrats from office and take back control of the House and Senate or this nation will implode. We the people are slowly losing our freedoms and will lose any chance of future prosperity, especially if Biden’s malicious and incompetent agenda (supported by Democrat legislators) is allowed to continue.
That is the way I see it. As always, your feedback is welcome and appreciated, so let me know what you think.
Respectfully yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal Network
OPINION
Dear Friends,
I went to the post office yesterday, only to find them closed in honor of Juneteenth, a holiday commemorating the emancipation of enslaved people in the U.S.
Those who know me know that I’m a dedicated Republican, and frankly I believe that Governor John Carney leads a bunch of Limousine Liberals running this state. In my view, it is the kind of administration that would sit still to see Delaware’s “Democratic” elite milk the workers of TransPerfect in a $250 million dollar scam. It is my opinion that the Skadden Arps’ TransPerfect caper will go down as one of the biggest scams in Delaware history — bigger than when someone who did not own the Eiffel Tower, but sold it for scrap metal or someone who sold the Brooklyn Bridge!
Folks, sarcasm is not my bag, nor is racism. Regardless, I have always believed in hiring the best and most qualified person for the job, especially in government positions, regardless of race or religion. I also despise hypocrisy. Interestingly, diversity in Delaware’s Chancery Court has been a constant rub by Al Sharpton in Delaware!
But someone has to say something, so I will: Congrats to Governor Carney so far for ignoring liberal calls for “diversity” just for the sake of diversity, which to me sounds like hiring someone who is not best qualified for the job. Hiring a person just to fill a racial quota, regardless of qualifications, is wrong. That seems racist to me. So far, Governor Carney has not bowed down to extreme liberal pressure, as you’ll see in the WDEL story below.
Governor Carney defied tremendous pressure, perhaps from the Bidens themselves, to leave the all-white institution as is. Perhaps he will give in to the extreme left and appoint an African American, even if less qualified, in the future. It was probably extremely difficult not to bow to serious pressure to be overly diverse and appoint someone from the LGBTQ+ community from joining the archaic Court as well.
Putting the corruption and cronyism that I personally believe infects our Chancery Court aside, hiring the best person for the job is always the right decision. We will see what Carney does down the road.
As always, your comments are welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal Network
P.S.: Send any feedback you have by email in response to this column in your inbox, or directly at [email protected].
The views expressed in this article represent my personal opinions and not those of anyone else.
To read more of my views, please see my coastalnetwork.com site for all of my latest columns.
Check out my latest thoughts and news on Twitter at twitter.com/Judson_Bennett
Governor John Carney on Friday announced two judicial nominations, one of which is likely to draw the ire of parties who’ve been calling for a diversification of the Chancery Court.
Carney nominated Kelly Hicks Sheridan, a current Assistant Unit Head for the Juvenile Delinquency and Truancy Unit within the Delaware Department of Justice, to the position of Commissioner for Family Court in New Castle County.
He also nominated Nathan Cook, a 16-year veteran of Chancery Court litigation and currently a managing partner for Block & Leviton, to the position of Vice Chancellor of the Court of Chancery.
Cook’s nomination should come as a disappointment to those who have been asking Carney to nominate a minority to the position in light of the pending retirement of Vice Chancellor Joseph Slights III, including Rev. Al Sharpton, who was at Legislative Mall in Dover on Tuesday, May 24, 2022, for exactly that request.
“It’s like the Rocky Mountains, the higher up you get, the whiter it gets,” Sharpton said of the court during his visit, stating that the makeup is not at all reflective of Delaware’s population demographics.
Carney’s nominations will have to be considered by the state Senate for confirmation.
“I want to thank these two qualified nominees for their willingness to serve the people of the State of Delaware,” said Carney. “I’m confident that each has the experience and judgment necessary to serve as part of Delaware’s world-class judiciary. I look forward to the Senate considering these nominations.”
In Vacating Former Chancellor Bouchard’s Orders Against Shawe as ‘Improper and Personal’
Dear Friends,
A broad thank you for the overwhelming feedback on my recent column about some semblance of justice in the TransPerfect case.
Victory and vindication for Phil Shawe from nearly 10 years of Andre Bouchard’s diabolical and premeditated abuse of power is now at hand — it took far too many years — but justice finally prevailed. I have done my best to shine a bright light on Bouchard’s Chancery Court corruption — and reading your many responses from this column truly makes me feel as though my efforts to fight corruption and make Delaware better have not gone in vain. His successors and Skadden Arps’ friends should know my watchful eye remains upon them.
Respectfully Yours,
JUDSON Bennett, Coastal Network
Here’s the top 20. Your thoughts are always appreciated.
Keep ’em coming!
“Glad to see Bouchard’s diabolical plan didn’t work.”
-Sam
“The truth comes out. In our court system, it takes years!”
-Gerard
“Glad he’s not on the hook for these sanctions.
Sounds like a white-collar way to steal someone’s money.”
-Franklin
“This feels like a vendetta against the judge who already lost his job. He’s been embarrassed and dethroned. How else should he pay?”
-Joan
“This Bouchard guy is a goon and he’s gone.”
-Andy
“Glad good is winning. Keep the coverage coming.”
-John
“This story is hard to follow, but I’m glad Darth Vader lost.”
-Pamela
“I’m not sure exactly what you’re saying here, Judson. I’m glad the good guy beat the bad guy.
-Eric
“Shawe has been unbending in his pursuit for justice. Have to tip my cap to for him not giving up.
-Tim
“I’m confused by this one, sir. Glad you’re covering this and not me.”
-Robert
“Someone has to prevail over this corrupt system. Good for him!”
-Gary
“I love when truth prevails. It most often does, but takes far too long.”
-Sandra
“Thank God the press got involved. No one would have ever known.”
-Bobby
“How could Bouchard get so close to stealing this company? How is this legal?”
-Tom
“Justice finally to these crooks. Good work, Judson.”
-Ernie
“Strine brought in Bouchard and together they sunk the ship.”
-Keith
“They deserve what they got for destroying the lives of the workers.”
-Joanna
“I still think whoever took their places will not learn from this injustice.”
-Frank
“Time for this court to pay for these deeds. Keep after them Jud!”
-Jane
“I remain incredulous. This is too deep rooted.”
-WilliamOPINION
Dear friends,
In my educated view, the midterm elections coming in November are extremely important. If the Republicans do not take back the House and the Senate, I believe we as Americans are going to lose any chance of economic prosperity, lose our freedom of speech, lose our right to bear arms, lose our domestic safety (crime is out of control), and our national security.
Folks, the situation is in “extremis”, and President Joe Biden has screwed up everything. Biden’s seemingly, intentional destruction of the American oil industry by initially closing the construction of the Keystone Pipeline (killing thousands of good paying jobs), driving the cost of gasoline, natural gas, and heating oil to unprecedented extremes and creating a domino effect of outrageous inflation on the cost of basic living, has put the middle class in a frightening situation.
People are now actually choosing whether to buy gasoline or food. Inflation is up to 8.6%, the highest it has been in 40 years. People are hurting and suffering! Folks, if we don’t take back our country from these incompetent politicians in the Democrat party, we are not just going to have a recession, we are going to have a depression with bread lines and gasoline rationing. Furthermore, a war with China could also occur.
When you consider, Biden’s destruction of our oil industry, taking us from being the number one exporter of oil and natural gas, totally energy independent, now having to depend on foreign oil, and driving up the cost to unaffordable levels to the point that the average citizen can’t operate, the situation is absurd and outrageous. Folks, Biden is a monster who has sold out to the Progressive, Socialist, Communist agenda which will and is destroying America. When you consider Afghanistan and Biden’s incompetent withdrawal leaving billions of dollars in military equipment for the Taliban making them the best equipped terrorist organization in the world, any reasonably intelligent person has to wonder?
Folks, Putin recognized from that fiasco that Biden was weak and totally incompetent which gave Putin the confidence and the green light to invade the Ukraine. Biden through his son Hunter sold his influence to Russia, China and others. The man has been running a crime syndicate and he should be in jail. No doubt he is the worst President in United States history. The border situation where over 2 million illegals are being allowed to enter our country un-vetted—bringing in dangerous gangs involved in terrible crime, diseases, human sex trafficking, drugs, and death are all an intentional situation created by Joe Biden and is his sole responsibility.
That all being said, former President Donald Trump gave us great prosperity, a secure border, energy independence, and a real chance at achieving the American dream of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of happiness. Trump, in my opinion, had a spectacular platform and the ability to implement it. Unfortunately, as much as I like the guy and believe in his abilities to govern, he was way off base in his misguided idea that VP Mike Pence could change the course of the election.
January 6th was a disaster, it never should have happened, and Trump’s unmitigated attack on Mike Pence was terribly wrong. Frankly, Trump should not run for President in 2024 as a result. The Hearings that are going on now are designed to make Trump look guilty and take away the attention on Biden’s absolutely horrible and malicious agenda which is intentionally driving us into financial destitution.
I hope Trump chooses not to run, however his ego is so huge he probably will. My concern is can he win with the label the Democrats are attempting to put on him? If he does run and gets the nomination, I will fervently support him, however I have some serious concerns. I am hoping he does not run, and Florida’s DeSantis takes on the challenge. He has Trump’s ideas and platform without the baggage.
That’s the way I see it. What do you think? As always your feedback is welcome and appreciated.
Best regards,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal Network
Over Andre Bouchard as the Delaware Supreme Court Vacates Contempt and Sanctions
Justice Prevails: Going Deeper Into TransPerfect CEO Phil Shawe’s Long- and Hard-Fought Victory Over Andre Bouchard as the Delaware Supreme Court Vacates Contempt and Sanctions
OPINION
Dear Friends,
Thank all of you for your feedback on my recent column regarding TransPerfect’s and its CEO Phil Shawe’s recent victory over what I view as “corruption in plain sight” by Andre Bouchard. It really restores my faith in Delaware, to see some level of justice finally prevail.
To simplify what happened, because this is America…
Andre Bouchard couldn’t simply steal Shawe’s company and give it to his lawyer and private equity friends without fabricating a ridiculous story. So against the testimony of 10 witnesses live, plus over 100 affidavits explaining that Shawe was a great manager and a Steve Jobs’ type…
Bouchard plowed ahead and seized the company for 3 years and installed his friends… a Putin-like move, designed to steal the company to make his pals rich, folks.
But seizing it wasn’t enough. He had to 1) order a “fair auction” and 2) make Shawe unable to get financing. In my opinion, he wrote lie after lie after lie — attempting to fraudulently trash Shawe’s reputation — so Bouchard lawyers and private equity companies could steal the company, offshore the jobs, and flip it — potentially making $500 million for the judge’s pals.
However, Bouchard got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. And thanks to the freedom of the press, a bright light was shined on his treachery and abuse of power — and both Bouchard and Leo Strine were forced to resign over allegations of corruption.
They destroyed the lives of many employees for nearly a decade, but justice has eventually prevailed.
Thanks again for your feedback. Please share any feedback you have about this, and I will include it in my feedback column this week. Finally, some justice!
Forever Delaware,
Judson Bennet–Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
A few months ago, I was the victim of a home invasion, where my loaded shotgun was stolen, my car was stolen, and frankly I feel lucky to be alive. The police and the State Attorney so far have been slow and non-commutative. This week, I had to give a deposition to the Public Defender who represents the criminal who invaded my house.
After zero communication for months from anybody, I had to learn the name of the State Attorney from the Public Defender. The prosecutor didn’t even bother to come to the deposition. Even in parts of the great state of Florida, where freedom reigns, the Criminal Justice System stinks. In places like New York and Chicago, it is pathetic. Even though Florida has a great Governor, there are enclaves of Democrat control – and like parts of the rest of the country – where these fanatics operate, Palm Beach County, in my view, has a sub-standard Criminal Justice System.
In my case, the perpetrator came into my apartment, leaned over my sleeping body, lifted a loaded shotgun from a nearby couch, then on the way out took my car keys that were hanging on a hook in my kitchen. He then stole my Infinity car, which was parked in the front parking lot of my condominium and simply drove away. Remarkably, he was arrested the next day, because the license number was listed as stolen and an alarm went off in a West Palm Beach Detective’s car. Wow, great police work right? WRONG!
Here’s why: The whole incident of his robbery was captured on video. The criminal was wearing a mask. After studying the video and after studying the perpetrator’s picture, I believed without a doubt that the guy caught driving my car was indeed the actual person who came into my unit and robbed me. By the way, the criminal once arrested was released with minimal bail the same day. When I told the cop I could identify the guy, he said he could arrest me for lying, because there was no way I could identify him because the perpetrator was wearing a mask. He also said I should “feel sorry for someone that is desperate enough” to invade my home.
Bottom line, the perpetrator has been charged with driving a stolen vehicle, not actual car theft or the home invasion and burglary. Folks, it seems as if the entire operation is geared to help and protect the criminal and my welfare and the institution of justice is secondary.
I have since learned that the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s office, under Democrat Control with a liberal State Attorney, controlling all of this, is operating with 30 less attorneys than required, that the operation is a revolving door of arrests, releases, and liberal judges. I gave my deposition, the trial is June 21st, and I expect the extremely dangerous perpetrator (who already has an extensive criminal past) to get a slap on the wrist and soon be released back into society to continue his life of crime. His next arrest could very well be a homicide. Certainly, if I had awakened, while he leaned over my sleeping body, he would have executed me on the spot. I intend to identify him and am certain he is the perpetrator. If justice is served and he gets some serious time, I will be pleasantly surprised.
To add insult to injury, I had to pay a $300 towing charge before the cops would release my car, then $400 for new keys, and a $400 cleaning fee after I got my car back to get the sticky yellow tape and fingerprint dust all over my car cleaned up.
Folks, I am not optimistic. I now sleep with a loaded revolver. I never dreamed that life would be like this in one of the richest counties in America, a veritable paradise with great fishing, beautiful beaches, and fabulous weather. Parts of West Palm Beach are war zones with rampant crime and the criminals come into the wealthy areas to operate with apparent impunity.
Folks, in my view, it is all about leadership, and Democrat Mayors and Prosecutors seem to be weak on crime to the detriment of our citizens.
Stay tuned folks, I will let you know how it all turns out after the trial. As always your thoughts and opinions are welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Endorsement of Keller Hopkins for 5th Council Seat in Sussex County Delaware!
Dear Friends,
It is my honor and pleasure to endorse Keller Hopkins in the Republican Primary for the 5th Council District in Sussex County, Delaware. The seat is currently held by John Rieley who is being primaried by Keller Hopkins, and justifiably so.
Folks, I had the distinct privilege of being the Republican Chairman of the 37th District several years ago when Keller Hopkins was the Chairman of the Sussex County Republican Committee. Under Keller’s leadership, a spectacular team of winners was created. A dedicated plan and operation was organized by Keller and it was magnificent. Keller even spent a small fortune of his own money to enhance the extremely well organized situation that he invented and orchestrated through his innovation and hard work. Keller is a very successful business man and has the intelligence, drive, and expertise to perform on the Sussex County Council for the great benefit of our county’s citizens. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Keller is the best man for the job.
I have always liked the incumbent, John Rieley as a person, however I am disappointed with his voting record, especially his “NO” vote on the Industrial Park which cost many jobs. Folks, it is time for a change and Keller Hopkins will bring about needed, positive change on the Sussex County Council.
Please vote for KELLER HOPKINS in the Republican Primary, Tuesday, September 13, 2022. The character, the expertise, and dedication of this man is incomparable.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely yours,
JUDSON Bennett–Coastal Network
as Delaware Supreme Court Vacates Contempt and Sanctions as Improper and Personal
OPINION
In what seems like a lifelong fight for justice in Delaware, TransPerfect and Phil Shawe finally succeeded in overturning the key rulings of Chancellor Andre Bouchard on appeal. These decisions (now vacated) were for Contempt and Sanctions – and a reflection of just how far Bouchard would go to damage a successful entrepreneur’s reputation, as long as allowed him to pay off his pals.
In my view, these Sanctions Rulings were the epitome of corruption, not only because they were falsified and fabricated with inflammatory rhetoric, as I understand it, but also because they were specifically premeditated to make it difficult for Shawe to obtain financing.
Why would this be important for Bouchard and his henchmen, Kevin Shannon, Robert Pincus, and Jennifer Voss? …because this crew was simultaneously working together to put Shawe’s company up for auction – and Chancery wanted to be sure to toss the founder from his own company.
To Ex-Chancellor Bouchard:
Let me just say this to you personally, Andy: An Ambitious and Diabolical plan… but a huge fail! Shawe got financing, bought back his company you’d illegally seized, overturned your sanctions, and recently led TransPerfect to pass $1 billion in sales.
And what did you get for your lies and treachery? You got to be asked to retire 6 years early from the bench. And as I clearly see it, you got to personally ruin the image of our once-great Delaware Chancery Court – and made it synonymous with “Corruption”– Congrats!
Please see the Law.com article below. Finally, the Delaware Supreme Court recognized wrongdoing by Bouchard and overturned him. Finally some justice for Shawe and TransPerfect.
Please send your feedback on this. It’s always welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully yours,
JUDSON Bennett–Coastal NetworkDelaware Supreme Court Vacates Contempt Order on TransPerfect CEO
The high court upheld orders on fees charged by a custodian from Skadden but ended eight years of litigation by ruling CEP Philip Shawe should not have been held in contempt.
June 01, 2022 at 05:38 PM
By Ellen Bardash
The Delaware Supreme Court issued an opinion Wednesday afternoon generally finding the custodian in the TransPerfect Global Inc. case wasn’t wrong in how he petitioned the Court of Chancery for fees.
The court did partially reverse one of the Chancery orders challenged by TransPerfect and CEO Philip Shawe, finding Shawe couldn’t be held in contempt for the Nevada lawsuit that spurred a Delaware contempt motion against him and the company because Shawe wasn’t a named plaintiff in that suit and because the Court of Chancery didn’t specifically determine in its contempt finding that he had been responsible for TransPerfect filing the case.
“Shawe owns 99% of TPG, but this does not, without more, make him personally liable for the company’s violation,” Justice Gary F. Traynor wrote.
But with the 2019 filing of that lawsuit breaching a court order in the Chancery matter, the court was right to hold TransPerfect itself in contempt, stated the opinion.
The Chancery case has been ongoing for eight years, with at least half that time exclusively litigating the billing of fees for work by Robert Pincus, who worked for Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom when the custodianship began.
The Supreme Court upheld the two other court orders, both issued in April 2021, challenged by TransPerfect: one discharging Pincus as a custodian and the other awarding him over $3.2 million for fees incurred between May 2019 and December 2020. The opinion also found that because Shawe is no longer being held in contempt, $1.1 million attributable to contempt sanctions must go away
TransPerfect attorney Martin Russo said Wednesday the partial reversal is validation of what Shawe’s side has been claiming for years.
“The court vacated the sanctions and suggested the chancellor overreacted,” Russo said, referencing former Chancellor Andre Bouchard, who handled the case until his retirement last year and issued the contempt order. “It’s not often the Delaware court finds in our favor, and this ruling is important in making the case that TransPerfect and Phil Shawe had been dealt a heavy, uneven hand in its legal challenges for equity and fairness.”
Skadden attorneys did not immediately comment on the decision.OPINION
Dear Friends,
There is one man who stands above so many others in our modern culture right now and that man is Elon Musk. He’s assertive and he brings massive attention. The man is nobody’s fool as he runs two huge companies that lean into our future. Quite simply, he gets things done.
So when Elon Musk is asked via Open Letters in Austin and San Francisco newspapers to join the fight against Chancery Court corruption, you just know that the elite’s assholes have been puckering all over Wilmington.
See the story below for the details and the ad running in the San Francisco Chronicle and Austin American-Statesman that urges the Tesla and SpaceX CEO to join Citizens for Judicial Fairness’s fight to create equity and transparency in a court that is buried in cronyism by former Chancellor Andre Bouchard, former chief justice of the Delaware Supreme CourtLeo Strine and current Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick.
The Chancery Court crew has now turned into a group of Batman Super Villains! Is Musk the Caped Crusader we need to clean up Chancery—now dirtier than Gotham ever was?
Let me know your opinion on Musk: Potential savior? Part of the problem? Or that he won’t care as long as the Chancery corruption does not damage his holdings? I hope he does care and takes an interest in Chancery reform!
Agree or disagree, your opinion is always welcome!
Respectfully Yours,
Judson Bennett-Coastal Network
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220601005945/en/Civil-Rights-Leader-Reverend-Al-Sharpton-Urges-Elon-Musk-to-Join-Citizens-for-Judicial-Fairness’s-Fight-for-Equity-and-Transparency-in-Delaware-Courts-Amidst-Potential-Twitter-Acquisition
Through an open letter print advertisement published in the Austin American-Statesman and San Francisco Chronicle, Sharpton called on Musk to lend his platform to Citizens for Judicial Fairness’ movement
WILMINGTON, Del.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–This week, Citizens for Judicial Fairness published an open letter print advertisement from Reverend Al Sharpton in the San Francisco Chronicle and Austin American-Statesman urging Tesla CEO and incoming Twitter CEO Elon Musk to join CJF’s campaign for equity and transparency in the Chancery Court given his upcoming court battle there.
In the letter to Elon Musk, CJF and Sharpton warn that the Chancery Court continues to push nontransparent actions like holding proceedings without juries, prohibiting cameras in the court, resisting randomized wheel spin for case assignments, and even dismissing requests for publicly-accessible financial disclosure by state justices. The same institution that does not have a single justice of color also rules more than half of the country’s Fortune 500 companies.
In the letter to Musk, Reverend Al Sharpton said:
“With the impending retirement of Vice Chancellor Slights from the Chancery Court, the nation’s largest business court whose decisions affect millions of workers in Delaware and across the country, we have joined our voices to demand that Governor Carney nominate a Black justice to replace him, and urge the State Legislature to enact our reform agenda.
“Though we don’t agree on all issues, as someone who appreciates the value of diversity in the technology industry and Twitter community – which though lacking is still head and shoulders above the Chancery Court – I feel your voice on these issues could be substantial. We ask you to join us in this fight and use your influence to urge Governor Carney to diversify the Delaware Chancery Court and enhance judicial fairness in the First State.”
Citizens for Judicial Fairness, formerly known as Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware, has been advocating for transparency, accountability, and diversity in the Chancery Court since the unprecedented forced sale of TransPerfect Global, a profitable translation and language services company, by Chancery Court Chancellor Andre Bouchard. The sale resulted in a disastrous court-appointed custodianship by Skadden Arps’ Robert Pincus, who bilked TransPerfect for tens of millions of dollars without saying why or what for. Sharpton, CJF, and activists have been vocal about their demands for justice systems that work for diverse everyday employees rather than legal and corporate elites.
Said Citizens for Judicial Fairness Campaign Manager Chris Coffey, “Vice Chancellor Slights’ retirement from the Chancery Court is a golden opportunity for Governor Carney to follow through on his alleged commitment to equity and diversity. We call on Elon Musk, a notable influencer in business and culture, to stand with us as we protect citizens from corrupt and non-representative institutions. Reverend Sharpton knows the influence Musk has over the lives of the American people and the economy, and we hope that Mr. Musk heeds his call and joins our fight.”OPINIONI am Outraged About the Increase in Crime, The Crap About Guns, and the Criminal JUSTICE System Being Denigrated by Democrats! – Even in Florida
Dear friends,
After hearing Biden’s diatribe about guns, supported by many members of the press, in the aftermath of the insane, terrible, shootings in Buffalo, NY and in Uvalde, Texas, where so many innocent people (including 17 children) were coldly executed by two misguided teenagers, I became extremely angry at the lack of logic and the absurd accusations President Biden made, especially since he is the most corrupt and incompetent President in U.S. history. Biden just signed a bill that will prevent police departments nationally from receiving surplus military equipment, like shields, armored vehicles, drones, etc. All part of the left wing program designed to defund police and make them less effective. During an active shooter situation (like in a school), cops need all the equipment they can get, especially any positive tool that prevents them from getting shot.
Folks, guns don’t kill people, people kill people. A person has to pull the trigger. The gun does not shoot itself. The 2nd amendment to the Constitution guarantees our right to bear arms. We have the right to protect ourselves and also to be armed to fight against invasion of our homeland or even against domestic tyranny. In the Uvalde school massacre, a stupid teacher left the door open so the perpetrator was able to simply walk in. The cops waited outside in the hallway for 45 minutes because they didn’t have shields, while the killer continued to shoot the children and while the kids bled out. No doubt this was a cluster of poor planning, absurd mistakes, and grotesque poor judgement. THE TYPE OF WEAPON USED HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH IT ! Folks, the killer could have done the same amount of damage with one handgun. Outlawing high powered weapons is ridiculous and will make no difference. If that is done, only the criminals will have assault weapons and crime will increase further.
The city of Chicago has the strictest gun laws in the world. Over Memorial Day weekend, 40 people were shot there. Murder and brutal crime is a way of life in Chicago, New York and all the Democrat cities run by Democrat Mayors. Crime and murder is increasing daily and we are no longer safe. The reasons and the solutions are very simple. There is no cash bail in most American cities which allows the crooks to operate with impunity. Person commits a crime, he is out the next day to repeat his malicious activities. The police budgets have been severely diminished in many places and their response times are now much slower. Folks, I am not a gun nut, but I have a concealed carry license here in Florida. Even in wealthy Palm Beach and in a free, well run state, with a great Governor, we are in terrible danger and need to have personal protection from insidious perpetrators.
That’s the way I see it folks. As always, your feedback is welcome and appreciated. Please let me know how you feel about guns and the crime issue which is out of control, as is most of Biden’s America.
Respectfully Submitted,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal Network
Chancellor McCormick Keeps Paying Them Off?
Dear Friends,
Folks, sources have told me the Delaware Courts are threatening all the news sources in town with lack of future access in order to kill this story?! Your tax dollars are hard at work here, paying the Chancery to kill Free Speech and continue to be an unfair Star Chamber Court as I see it.
Skadden is making motions to silence TransPerfect’s right to Oral Arguments, and billing TransPerfect in order to do so. This is Unethical, Unconstitutional and Un-American! So much so, I am offended to my core that the Chancery continues this thievery!
But read the public filing and make your own conclusions… since the Chancery has killed all other stories on this. I only ask you to share your thoughts with the Coastal Network.
Forever Delaware,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkTRANSPERFECT’S REPLY TO SKADDEN’S JENNIFER VOSS ATTEMPTING TO SILENCE ORAL ARGUMENTExcerpts below, Full motion PDF attached
[Skadden and Pincus’s] Opposition is emblematic of the issues in this appeal. It attempts to prevent public discussion of its actions without substantive justification, while billing Appellants to increase Skadden’s own bottom line…As set out below, Skadden’s recidivism is relevant to the presumption of validity of accorded its actions in the underlying case. No other law firm, big or small, has a sordid history that compares to Skadden’s actions during the time of this case.
The issues raised in the appeal align perfectly with Skadden’s documented history of inappropriate billing practices (termed “Skaddenomics” since at least 1991, when the now infamous article coining that phrase first appeared in The American Lawyer. See Beck, Susan & Michael Orey, Skaddenomics, AM. J. LAW, Sept. 1991, attached hereto as Exhibit A). It is also not surprising that Appellee would want to prevent having to appear at oral argument considering Skadden’s documented history of intentional misrepresentations directly to the judiciary, as well government investigations, for the sole purpose of lining its own pockets, during the very same period Appellee was acting as the Court appointed custodian.
This Court should be aware that, in 2015, the U.S. Department of Justice (“USDOJ”) filed a Complaint in the United States of America v. Mazzo, detailing intentional lies told by Skadden partners to the judiciary, under oath, for the purpose of increasing its revenue. See USDOJ Complaint dated June 15, 2015, attached as Exhibit B. In the Mazzo case, just as in this case, despite their self-serving nature, Skadden’s serial misrepresentations to the court were relied upon by the judge without further investigation, thwarting the DOJ’s attempts to provide evidence of Skadden’s intentional wrongdoing. Ultimately, Skadden’s false statements to the court were only proven through a parallel civil proceeding. It is no surprise, therefore, that Pincus and Skadden amassed millions of dollars in fees in this case while spending untold hours lobbying the Court of Chancery (successfully, and on Respondents’ dime) to keep their practices hidden from scrutiny. However, as the Court of Chancery noted, “There is also no injustice in the public having access to information in judicial filings and potentially using the information to identify and pursue potential wrongdoing. As Justice Brandeis famously observed, ‘Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman.’” In re Columbia Pipeline Grp., Inc., 2018 WL
4182207, at *3 (Del. Ch. Aug. 30, 2018) (quoting Louis D. Brandeis, What
Publicity Can Do, Harper’s Weekly (New York), Dec. 20, 1913, at 10).
In January 2019, Skadden entered into a Consent Agreement with the USDOJ, in which it paid a fine of over $4.5 million, confirming that during a USDOJ investigation, Skadden partners made “false and misleading oral and written statements regarding the nature of [Skadden’s] activities” with respect to their Ukraine dealings. See Consent Agreement dated January 15, 2019, (Exhibit C) and New York Times Article (Exhibit D). The Consent Agreement details a series of misrepresentations Skadden partners made to the USDOJ, and other Skadden partners, inducing further false statements. Id. p.30. Skadden profited (by being paid $5.2 million by their client, but only fined $4.5 million), after being caught lying to the government. It was therefore naïve for the Court of Chancery to deny any possibility that Appellee and his firm acted only for their own interest when the punishment for being caught behaving improperly was a $700,000 profit. See Exhibit D.
In May of 2020, Skadden paid an additional $11 million to former Ukrainian Prime Minister [candidate] Yulia Tymoshenko to avoid a lawsuit accusing Skadden’s lawyers of “whitewashing Yanukovych and his government” in exchange for money in “a dirty, dirty, dirty contract.” See Exhibit E.
More recently, in April 2021, Skadden agreed with federal authorities to a $1 million dollar disgorgement of fees earned in a bankruptcy case for conflict of interest “disclosure violations” that the US Trustee found “particularly concerning.” See, article attached as Exhibit F.Dear Friends,
The great American experiment with our amazing constitution, our guarantees of freedom, and our goals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness have been wonderfully successful for over 200 years. Even with our dark history of slavery, the country corrected that inequity with a Civil War. Even with a depression in 1929, our country overcame terrible economic times, fought two world wars victoriously, and created a prosperous society.
When we combine the American natural resources with our freedom-based society revolving around capitalism, there should never be a reason for Americans to suffer economic desperation. Our huge assets of minerals, oil, and a country filled with many innovative citizens have always created limitless opportunities for our people.
Unfortunately, leadership that becomes self-serving, usually supported by incompetent malcontents, can and will destroy a society, creating a world of unhappiness, desperation, and acute suffering.
The election of Joe Biden, in my view, the worst President in United States history, has put our great nation in danger of losing its essence and its soul. This man who has lined his pockets, through despicable influence peddling, with the help of his son Hunter, has, as a result, compromised our natural security and economic stability.
Folks, Biden has intentionally destroyed our oil industry, taking us from energy independence to depending on foreign oil. Biden has opened our Southern border, illegally allowing millions of undocumented, un-vetted people from all over the world to invade our society. Criminals, terrorists, drugs, and sex trafficking are out of control. Over 100,000 Americans have died of drug overdoses as a result of Biden’s policies.
The debacle (created by Biden) of the disgraceful, military withdrawal from Afghanistan, making the Taliban the best-equipped terrorist organization in the world, is the reason Putin felt comfortable invading Ukraine. The corruption and weakness of Joe Biden and his insipid followers are clearly apparent and as a result, we as a nation are going to suffer terribly.
Inflation in every aspect of our economic operation is just beginning and a recession of paramount proportions is inevitable. It is the sole responsibility of President Joe Biden who is intentionally disrupting everything good about America and creating a socialistic society of control, mediocrity, and desperation.
Folks, this cannot be allowed to continue. In November, we must remove this evil operation by taking back the House and Senate, then electing a Republican President in 2024. Biden and his vicious sycophants are the most dangerous people on the planet and the possibilities of their actions are frightening.
That is the way I see it. As always your feedback is welcome and appreciated.
Sincerely yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
Hunter Biden and Andre Bouchard make for odd bedfellows and it has sparked quite the feedback frenzy from you, my readers. Here’s the top dozen feedbacks – from both sides of the political aisle – from the past couple of columns on our dethroned Chancellor and the man who is about to help his father get dethroned.
Read on and keep ’em coming, folks!
“What kind of judge, past or present, uses a secret email account?
What the hell is he up to? This can’t be investigated?”
-Franklin
“I don’t think the attorney general is going to do anything.”
-Tony
“Bouchard is shady, as you’ve said. Thank God he’s out of office!”
-Karen
“That you were able to find this out is impressive, Judson.
Keep up the good reporting.”
-Joanie
“Terrorists, drug dealers and Delaware judges?
How is this allowed to happen?”
-Danny
“I hope he gets arrested someday.
No one will be surprised.”
-Tim
“I’m sure you’d feel differently if Biden were a Republican.”
-Thomas
“With friends like these, who needs enemies? You know the drill.
Delaware has many issues. These two are case one and case two.”
-Sandra
“The timing of Hunter’s emails and Bouchard’s time in court…
Let’s hear more on that, Judson.”
-Sam
“Biden and Bouchard deserve each other.
They are two crooks.”
-Harry
“I think this is a whole lot of nothing here. Your politics is clouding your vision.”
-Felix
“Delaware is much better off without Bouchard. Period.”
-David
Thanks again, folks. Your thoughts are always appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
JUDSON Bennett, Coastal NetworkHunter Biden Says He’s Personal Friends with Ex-Chancellor Andre Bouchard. You Judge a Judge by his Friends.OPINION
Dear Friends,
During negotiations, Hunter Biden threatened business associates with his ability to control outcomes in Delaware Chancery Court. At the time of his email, he says he is personal friends with all the Chancellors, and that he can automatically win there because of who he knows. Of course, the timing of Hunter’s emails which are under scrutiny tracks precisely with Bouchard’s tenure as Chief Chancellor. Coincidence? Seems unlikely.
Also seems like further confirmation of what I’ve been saying about what I’ve been saying all along… Chancery is a feudal, unfair, and archaic system that is desperately in need of reform.
Please check out this NBC News article. As always, your feedback is appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
JUDSON Bennett, Costal Network
The hard drive and documents from Senate Republicans indicate few of Biden’s deals ever came to fruition and shed light on how fast he was spending his money.
From 2013 through 2018 Hunter Biden and his company brought in about $11 million via his roles as an attorney and a board member with a Ukrainian firm accused of bribery and his work with a Chinese businessman now accused of fraud, according to an NBC News analysis of a copy of Biden’s hard drive and iCloud account and documents released by Republicans on two Senate committees.
The documents and the analysis, which don’t show what he did to earn millions from his Chinese partners, raise questions about national security, business ethics and potential legal exposure. In December 2020, Biden acknowledged in a statement that he was the subject of a federal investigation into his taxes. NBC News was first to report that an ex-business partner had warned Biden he should amend his tax returns to disclose $400,000 in income from the Ukrainian firm, Burisma. GOP congressional sources also say that if Republicans take back the House this fall, they’ll demand more documents and probe whether any of Biden’s income went to his father, President Joe Biden.
“No government ethics rules apply to him,” said Walter Shaub, a former director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics who is now an ethics expert with the Project on Government Oversight. Shaub added, however, that “it’s imperative that no one at DOJ and no one at the White House interfere with the criminal investigation in Delaware.” Shaub had previously raised questions about Hunter Biden’s new line of work, selling his own paintings, which created the potential to purchase a painting to buy perceived influence, and also because the White House became involved in the transactions, arranging that none of the buyers’ names be known to Biden, the White House or the public.
Frank Figliuzzi, the FBI’s former assistant director for counterintelligence, said there is a national security risk when foreign powers like China see an opportunity to get close to someone like Biden. “It’s all about access and influence, and if you can compromise someone with both access and influence, that’s even better,” said Figliuzzi, now an NBC News contributor. “Better still if that target has already compromised himself.”
The documents and the analysis indicate that few of Biden’s deals ever came to fruition and shed light on how fast he was spending his money. Expenditures compiled on his hard drive show he spent more than $200,000 per month from October 2017 through February 2018 on luxury hotel rooms, Porsche payments, dental work and cash withdrawals.
Biden has admitted to burning through cash to pay for drugs and partying with strangers who routinely stole from him, and he struggled to pay multiple mortgages or keep up with alimony and child support payments to his ex-wife. In his autobiography, “Beautiful Things,” he says the money from Burisma “turned into a major enabler during my steepest skid into addiction” and “hounded me to spend recklessly, dangerously, destructively. Humiliatingly. So I did.”
In a February 2017 divorce filing, an attorney for Biden’s ex-wife said the couple’s outstanding debts were “shocking and overwhelming” and that they owed $313,000 in back taxes. According to the filing, they had bounced checks to their housekeeper and owed money to doctors and therapists. The filing alleged that Hunter Biden had spent copiously on drugs, strip clubs, prostitutes and girlfriends “while leaving the family with no money to pay legitimate bills.”
A representative for Biden says all of his tax responsibilities to the IRS are now satisfied. Two sources familiar with the matter have confirmed to NBC News that Hollywood attorney Kevin Morris began advising Biden in 2020 and arranged to pay off the approximately $2 million Biden owed the IRS.
Legal experts say, however, that paying the bill won’t relieve Biden of criminal liability or necessarily erase his debts.
NBC News analyst Chuck Rosenberg, a former Justice Department official, said that Biden’s paying what he owes could even be seen as an admission of criminal violations. Not paying taxes for many years, rather than one or two, Rosenberg said, helps establish intent, which can otherwise be a struggle for prosecutors in white-collar cases.
Paying the bill, Rosenberg said, might help Biden if he faced sentencing and “mitigate some of the damage, but it doesn’t undo the crime. That would be like returning money to a bank that you robbed. You still robbed the bank.”
Biden is represented by former federal prosecutor Christopher Clark in the ongoing criminal investigation in Delaware. Clark declined to comment on the record. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Delaware declined to comment.
NBC News obtained a copy of Biden’s laptop hard drive from a representative of Rudy Giuliani and examined Biden’s business dealings from 2013 to 2018 based on the information available on the hard drive and the scope of the documents released by the Senate.
The Republicans on the Senate Finance and Homeland Security committees, then chaired by Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, respectively, issued their first report on Biden’s business dealings in September 2020. The 87-page report said Biden had “cashed in” on his name, but Johnson said in an interview before its release that the report included “no massive smoking guns.”
Now in the minority, the Republicans from the two committees are still reviewing and analyzing several hundred pages of financial and business documents tied to Biden and his business associates, according to a person familiar with the committee’s work.
Biden has denied any illegal activity, and he told CBS News in an interview that he is “cooperating completely” with the federal investigation in Delaware. “And I’m absolutely certain, 100 percent certain,” he said, “that at the end of the investigation, I will be cleared of any wrongdoing.”
Biden and China
Biden made $5.8 million, more than half his total earnings from 2013 to 2018, from two deals with Chinese business interests.
Biden’s most lucrative business relationship was acting as a consultant in a project with a company that belongs to a once-powerful Chinese businessman who is now thought to be detained in his homeland.
According to business records referred to in the Senate report, Hudson West III, a venture funded by the Chinese oil and natural gas company CEFC and its chairman, Ye Jianming, paid $4,790,375.25 to Owasco P.C. over about one year.
President Joe Biden talks with his son Hunter Biden, who is holding the president’s grandson Beau Biden, as they walk to board Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., on March 26, 2021.Patrick Semansky / AP fileFilings with the Washington, D.C., government show Owasco P.C. is controlled by Hunter Biden.
A review of the personal and corporate emails on Biden’s hard drive yield little information about any business he conducted on behalf of Hudson West III, and his autobiography doesn’t discuss his Chinese business dealings in any detail.
One of the few potential business opportunities discussed appears in a series of email exchanges among Biden, several U.S. partners and Chinese individuals associated with Hudson West III.
They talked about a potential gas deal on Monkey Island in Louisiana in 2017, but it appears no deal was made, and no publicly available documents indicate any sort of purchase, sale or agreement.
SPANISH NEWSPAPER EXPOSE
Protonmail – A Swiss Untraceable Email Featured is “Mr. Robot” is the Perfect Communication Systems for Drug Dealers, Russian Hackers, Terrorists. And can you guess who else is a customer… Chancellor Andre BouchardA Spanish Newspaper has confirmed that Andre Bouchard Conducted State Business on the Infamous Swiss Email System, ProtonmailOPINION
Dear Friends,
Terrorists, drug deals, and hackers have Swiss-based Protonmail accounts to evade law enforcement. Perhaps crooked judges too?
Who else conducted Delaware State Business on a Protonmail account? You guessed it… Former Kingpin Chancellor Andre Bouchard.
Nothing else I have sleuthed and written about deserves more scrutiny than this. If it disturbs you that a Delaware judge would conduct state business on a Swiss-based encrypted untracable email system, impossible for U.S. authorities to access, that is frequented by drug dealers, hackers, and terrorists…
I don’t know who to tell you to call. The Delaware Attorney General represents Bouchard, and is therefore a stoolie. The U.S. Attorney General for Delaware? They need to look into what is Bouchard hiding? Is he conducting sketchy business using the service?
Send your feedback or ideas on this one, folks. Agree or disagree, it’s always welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal Network
https://www.sueldospublicos.com/texto-diario/mostrar/3693305/protonmail-imaginas-servidor-correo-electronico-solo-puede-fiscalizar-suiza
ProtonMail: Can you imagine that an email server can only be audited in Switzerland?
Delaware is still installed in the field of opacity and cronyism
A few weeks ago, we told how two businessmen had obtained a millionaire commission with the sale of medical supplies to the Madrid City Council during the worst months of the Covid-19 pandemic. And all thanks to the fact that a contact provided them with an email address of a managerial position, at the same time an official, of the consistory itself to initiate the negotiations. The matter is already in the hands of justice and those involved are being investigated and have already testified in court.
Imagine for a moment that this email service could not be supervised in Spain and there was no way to prosecute the crime and compensate the damage to the treasury. A similar thing, but with another context, is happening in Delaware, the famous state on the east coast of the United States that is still installed in the field of opacity and cronyism.
And it is that using a specific email service to send messages in the Public Administration of the United States, but that only responds to the Swiss justice is not ideal when assessing the level of transparency of an entity. More if there is a former judge, a law firm, leaks and favoritism involved.
All this has happened in Delaware, one of the most attractive states to create and register businesses, with a beneficial and flexible legal framework, with less than a million inhabitants, but with more companies than registered neighbors and a history of corruption and opacity that still doesn’t disappear. It so happens that for 36 years, the current president of the United States, Joe Biden , was a senator from this state, his usual place of residence before accessing the White House.
The ProtonMail case
Over time, episodes continue to be revealed that explain the opacity of the Delaware judicial system. The last one, the use of the ProtonMail email service, erecting another wall in the obstacle of the transparency of the processes of the Supreme Court of the United States. A web server that can be used all over the world – it has more than 25 million users – but that only responds to the Swiss justice system, so that no American investigation can access the information in the mail, guaranteeing that scams and favoritism of former judge André Bouchard and his friends at elite law firms like the Skadden law firm do not leak out in the form of email.
This information is added to the evidence that shows failures in the Delaware judicial system: absence of security cameras in courtrooms, refusal to reveal the public salaries of judges, not having traceability of administrative documents or the null restrictions that they appear before the incorporation of judges who come from the private sector.
The citizen association Citizens for a Pro Business which has championed the citizen struggle to return Delaware to the field of transparency and competitiveness, has shown its rejection through its spokesperson, the words of its Chris Coffey: “When figures like André Bouchard continually position themselves on behalf of their friends and former colleagues at elite law firms at the expense of the people and use the notorious ProtonMail encrypted web service to conduct their business, it makes clear why Delaware’s bad reputation for corruption and favoritism continues to smolder.”
Billions, corruption in a television series
Showtime’s acclaimed series “Billions” shows in the chapter “Implosion” of its fifth season the corruption and secret deals that abound in the Delaware courts with an example from a book: Mike Prince, who was former vice president with Donald Trump, is one of the characters in the series and Axelrod’s billionaire rival with billions invested in corporations in the state, visits the Delaware attorney general and threatens to move his companies elsewhere, leaving the prosecutor to explain the thousands of vanished jobs. He quickly agrees to Prince’s requests and offers to appoint a trusted member for Axelrod’s bank board that will be able to do damage from within. The series, clearly, explains the operation of the corrupt practices and the favorable treatment that is frequent in the Supreme Court of Delaware.
What’s more, Biden’s son Hunter Biden wrote in March 2018, when he had unfinished business, that he would file “the lawsuit in the Chancery Court of Delaware – which as you know is my home state, and I am privileged to have worked and meet all the judges of the chancery court”, as collected by the Washington Post .
One of the best known cases of lack of transparency and accountability in Delaware was the one that occurred at the TransPerfect company . In an article published by this website in March of last year, we explained that the judge of the Delaware Supreme Court, André Bouchard , ordered the forced sale of this private company in the translation sector that generated profits and employed 4,000 people. His second largest delegation is in Spain. Fortunately, the forced sale of the firm was resolved with the purchase of the majority shareholder who decided to implement improvements in the company.OPINION
Dear Friends,
Sir Richard Branson recently gave an inspiring live, in-person keynote address to over 1,000 members of TransPerfect’s global workforce. My contacts at the company confirm his enthusiasm and warm reception.
His appearance at the company has me reflecting on our sad Chancery Court, which tore down the diverse employees, not raising it up, as Sir Richard did. Bravo.
Chancery, in its original concept, is British, yet England’s court was never marred by the corruption and scandal that currently stains the Delaware Chancery Court.
I see Sir Richard’s speech as an interesting development. I wish I could have heard it. I wonder if it was similar to Winston Churchill’s famous parliament that motivated England to prevail over Germany?
Perhaps in some metaphorical way, it takes a true knight to slay dragons. A metaphor I’m contemplating on this day thanks to Sir Richard.
Your thoughts?
God Save Delaware,
JUDSON Bennett–Coastal Network
Sir Richard Branson Delivers Keynote Address at TransPerfect’s 30th Anniversary ELEVATE Conference
TransPerfect President and CEO Phil Shawe speaks at the company’s ELEVATE conference in Amsterdam
NEW YORK and AMSTERDAM, May 12, 2022 – TransPerfect, the world’s largest provider of language and technology solutions for global business, celebrated its 30th anniversary at the company’s ELEVATE global conference held in Amsterdam this past week. The four-day event was capped by an engaging and interactive session with Sir Richard Branson. Additional program keynotes featured Liz Wiseman, author of Impact Players and Multipliers, as well as Natalie Reynolds, author of We Have a Deal.
ELEVATE was TransPerfect’s largest-ever internal event and the most ambitious professional development initiative in the company’s history, with more than 330 sessions led by a combination of internal and external speakers. TransPerfect’s Chief Technology Officer, Mark Hagerty, was honored by the company with a lifetime achievement award.
“At ELEVATE, our goal was to bring all divisions of TransPerfect together to highlight the importance of teamwork and innovation,” commented Kevin Obarski, Chief Revenue Officer for TransPerfect. “It’s essential that we continuously learn and raise our ability to deliver transformative solutions for our clients.”
TransPerfect President and CEO Phil Shawe stated, “ELEVATE was a rare opportunity for us to come together, train, and collaborate on new ideas that will better support our customers. Special thanks to the TransPerfect team members who led sessions, sharing their knowledge and experience with colleagues.”
OPINION
Dear Friends,
My recent column illustrated how Donald Trump’s federal court fine pales in comparison to our Corrupt Chancery Court, which makes its own rules as if no one is watching. Trump, worth $3 billion, got slapped with a $10,000-a-day fine, while Delaware’s Chancery Court issued an outrageous $30,000-a-day fine for TransPerfect, in a corrupt move, getting allegedly fraudulent legal bills paid to cronies.
While a federal judge halted Trump’s fine, our Bouchard and McCorrupt Chancery Court did as they wished, as Good Old Boys have their own rule of law in America’s First State.
Your feedback was fast and furious as this comparison made the crimes easy to see for so many of you.
Please see your feedback below:
“Damn Jud, you make a stark point here.
Bouchard is as crooked as they come.”
-Carl
“Trump is getting off easy here. He’ll never pay a dime.”
-Benjamin
“How can the court issue $30,000 in Delaware when the federal court is issuing $10,000?
It’s a scam how they run things here.”
-Larry
“How is the Chancery Court able to get away with this?”
-Marie
“I want to hear more on this one, Jud. It won’t stick.”
-Paul
“Shawe got screwed here. Trump appealing.
We all know the Good Old Boys are running the show.
Keep firing shots from your perch, Judson.”
-Eric
Keep ’em coming, Jud. Raise some hell.
-Frank
Time will show that you had this nailed long before anyone else in the press.
-Jeff
Thank you for your feedback. Keep it coming, as it is always appreciated.
Maybe I’ll feature your feedback next!
Forever Delaware,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal Network
Emails From Hunter Biden’s Laptop Confirmed Delaware Chancery Court Decision Could be Bought and Paid For. Is Chancellor Kathleen McCormick Maintaining Bouchard’s Suspicious Activity or Providing More of it? Reporters Are Starting to Ask.
OPINION
Dear Friends,
Mainstream publications are now catching on to the overt corruption exhibited by Chancellors in their nonsensical rulings, which somehow always favor their cronies, friends, past employers, and political allies.
The well-respected legal magazine Legal Reader has just published an expose on Chancery Corruption.
Chancellors Andy Bouchard and Kathaleen McCormick have so much blood on their hands, it’s clear to me, they couldn’t atone for their sins with 1,000 confessions.
Please read this mainstream reporter’s take, and share your thoughts. As always, your feedback is always welcome.
Forever Delaware,
JUDSON Bennett–Coastal Network
https://www.legalreader.com/is-something-rotten-in-delaware/
Is Something Rotten in Delaware?
JAY W. BELLE ISLE — May 2, 2022
Whether there is an unstated agreement among Delaware’s legal and business consultants and operators and the judges of the Chancery and other courts to find creative ways to continue tapping companies embroiled in the court system would take a longer and more comprehensive investigation.
Justice is a question that is often raised when dealing with courts, lawyers and the clients they serve. There’s the constitution and then legislative initiatives that seek to clarify, enforce, amend, or enhance the laws to which lawyers and judges must adhere. There are also the separate set of rules that businesses and corporations must follow when they are governed by certain states, and in this case, the Delaware Court of Chancery and Delaware General Corporation Law (DGCL), which claim to be about equity rather than law, so to speak. These cases involve remedies other than monetary damages, such as injunctions, writs, or specific performance. This isn’t to claim that a court of equity isn’t about following the law, and the distinction between these has become opaque ever since the United States adopted the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure in 1938, giving most courts a combined jurisdiction over matters of law and equity. Delaware remains one of the holdouts of separation.
There is a long and drawn-out case in Delaware that began in 2014 over the corporate breakup of a private company’s two founders, and this issue of equity versus law was prevalent. The company in question, TransPerfect Global, a worldwide privately held translation and legal services company was forced into what some argue was a misguided or even unlawful public auction/forced sale by the Chancery Court. The Delaware Chancellor argued the company’s shareholders were hopelessly deadlocked and that the business was in danger of falling into various forms of financial ruin and default. Based on the eventual sale price of $770 million and based on the facts that the company at that point – even through the very public and distracting legal battle – had never had a down quarter, or down month for that matter, the court’s decision has been heavily scrutinized.
The company’s founder and now sole owner, Phil Shawe, sought out the constitutional attorney Professor Alan Dershowitz to argue that it was an “illegal taking” based on the Fifth Amendment, but the Delaware Supreme Court upheld the ruling and the sale process proceeded.
Anyone can look up the details of this case and see where it has gone, and it is certainly not over yet. Following the successful public auction in 2017, in which Shawe effectively won the company he co-founded and manages as CEO, he and the firm have been tied up in litigation in Delaware over what they argue is unfair treatment by a system established by insiders to keep the business of incorporations in Delaware in business.
The victory cost Shawe not only the hundreds of millions of dollars in the purchase price, which he was prepared for and even offered prior to the commencement of the lawsuits, but an additional $125 million in legal fees and expenses. Yet, perhaps more importantly, he claims he has been subject to fee gouging by the law firms involved, and complicity by the former Chancellor of the Delaware Chancery Court who just “rubber stamped” the fee requests, mainly by mega-law firm Skadden Arps.
When the company was put up on the auction block, the Chancellor, Andre Bouchard, who has since resigned from the court to go back into private practice, assigned his friend and former colleague Robert Pincus, a partner at Skadden, as custodian to manage the company and prepare it for sale. Pincus, as a Bloomberg article suggested, had “unbridled authority over the entire sale,” and had “carte blanche to hire consultants, approved non-itemized billing of exorbitant fees, and, finally, would not grant Shawe, who was ordered to pay the Custodian, permission to review Shawe’s own bills!”
Skadden, a firm where Bouchard had also previously worked, refused allow Shawe or TransPerfect to inspect or see the more than $15 million in legal bills, and Chancellor Bouchard required the company to pay them sight unseen. Shawe believes that The Chancellor appointed his former colleague and good friend Pincus, who in turn, effectively billed TransPerfect close $50 million for his services over the entire period, and they submitted the invoices under seal – sealed from the client’s eyes – and the Chancellor approved and ordered the payments to Skadden.
After legal wrangling, Shawe was finally able to view some of the invoices. One invoice, when the Chancellor was indeed finally compelled to review and not merely approve the invoices, showed that Skadden invoiced $200,000 for generating an invoice, of which even the Chancellor asked, “Is it typical? I’m not aware of it happening… I’m talking about [billing for] the actual generation of an invoice…?”
In considering this question, one of Bouchard’s final decisions before stepping down in April 2021 was to disallow 15% ($625,000) in fees charged to TransPerfect by Skadden. TransPerfect had hired a third-party legal fee expert who concluded that $1.7 million of the $3.5 million charged by Skadden in one set of invoices was unjustified over-billing.
Bouchard had also suggested that going forward, Skadden should at least provide billing details, time spent, and the billing rates of Skadden Arps’ attorneys. This disallowance decision may have stemmed from the ruling of U.S. District Court Judge Mark A. Kearney of the Federal District Court of Pennsylvania in early April 2021 that Bouchard had “ordered TransPerfect to pay $44.5 million in undocumented fees and costs.”
The legal maneuvers are current, and Skadden is still not detached from TransPerfect. More than four years after the court ordered sale has concluded, the language company is still being billed regularly by Skadden for issues it claims are remaining from the sale process. This opened the door for more scrutiny about the business of doing business in Delaware. In fact, in the melee over Delaware’s own President Joe Biden’s son Hunter and his now infamous laptop, the Washington Post ran a story quoting the younger Biden writing to a business associate with whom he was challenging over some fee, “I will bring suit in the Chancery Court in Delaware — which as you know is my home state and I am privileged to have worked with and know every judge in the chancery courShawe has maintained that the First State’s courts, judges, and the lawyers are all somehow connected, and each helps the other feed off the various legal opportunities. In a similar matter, Skadden Partner Pincus was appointed as a special master by U.S. District (for Delaware) Judge Leonard P. Stark to oversee the sale of the petroleum company Citgo to enforce a $1.2 billion arbitral award against Venezuela. All of the parties, Pincus included, agreed to a legal fee cap, but then Pincus exceeded that cap in his billings, and the judge enforced the payment under challenge from Citgo. Pincus, in this case, reduced his fees with the caveat that he “hesitate[d]” to offer the concession for fear of making it appear that the reduction was warranted or of establishing a pattern for every time a party objects to his fees.
Whether there is an unstated agreement among Delaware’s legal and business consultants and operators and the judges of the Chancery and other courts weighing in on the business climate, to find creative ways to continue tapping companies that find themselves embroiled in the court system, would take a longer and more comprehensive investigation. That the case of TransPerfect leaves many unanswered questions is certain.
For its part, the company that was declared to be “hopelessly deadlocked” in 2015, has still not had a down sales month, and during the period of Covid-19 shutdowns, it saw growth that helped it top $1B in revenues. In April 2022, TransPerfect saw its first quarter revenues grow by 20% over the same period last year and is now celebrating its 30th anniversary. Maybe these figures should be factored into any equation on how the company was being run then and if some of the decisions made, and still are being made, might have been for other than altruistic DGBL reasons.”
Inequitable Actions and Conflicts of Interest in TransPerfect Case – Question is Why?
Dear Friends,
After observing former Delaware Chancellor Andre Bouchard’s operation for several years and, in my opinion, seeing innumerable appearances of impropriety, obvious bias, and unprecedented rulings in the Chancery Court, where the TransPerfect coffers were seemingly raided with rulings that allowed Skadden Arps and former Custodian Robert Pincus to invoice Shawe and TransPerfect without explanation or itemization, causing consternation, fear and uncertainty for their employees.
Finally, Bouchard fled his post five years before his term was up. Millions of dollars were – in the view of company executives and yours truly – illegitimately billed for work not done, and bills were even submitted for preparing invoices. Unbelievable and yet somehow allowed?!
There was much hope in company ranks and the Delaware legal community that the new Chancellor, a woman, Kathaleen McCormick, would bring a fresh, open, honest, and reasonable perspective to the Chancery Court and maybe even stop the fleecing of the world’s number one translation company.
Unfortunately, that was not the case. Conflicts of interest, having worked for TransPerfect’s number one competitor, require a recusal, and on top of that, McCormick has maintained the apparent and wrongful fleecing of the TransPerfect funds. The big question is why?
In my view, the “Delaware Way”, the Good Old Boys winking and nodding, and their incestuous cronyism has Chancery Court operators getting special consideration. It appears McCormick would prefer to maintain an elite, omnipotent situation that has infested the Delaware legal system for years, instead of bringing a fresh perspective of clear fairness and equity.
Folks, there should never be the slightest doubt. All conflicts of interest should be eliminated and decisions should be based on formerly decided matters, known as “stare decisis”, which is the legal principle of determining points in litigation according to precedent.
There should be no doubt as to the impeccable integrity of Delaware’s once esteemed Court of Chancery. Unfortunately, it seems this is not the case. That is the way I see it.
Let me know what you think. As always, your feedback is welcome and appreciated.
Yours Truly,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal Network
Unless You Account for Not Paying Good Old Boy Cronies Fast Enough
Dear Friends,
I’m motivated to share with you, folks, when I run across something that is black and white, showing financial abuse. Financial crimes that I’ve written about by Delaware’s Chancery Court benefitting the seedy law firm Skadden Arps are typically quite complicated. In this case, it’s plain for all to see.
Former President and one of my idols, Donald J. Trump, is worth $3 billion. Trump, as a billionaire, got a $10,000 a day fine in Federal Court. Yet, Delaware’s Chancery Court issues $30,000 per day fines for TransPerfect CEO Philip Shawe, just to get questionable legal bills paid to cronies.
Here’s a federal judge giving a $3 billion net worth person a $10K a day fine, while a hard-working company that built itself up from a dorm room that sold for one-fourth that amount at auction has been fined 3-times that amount – a $30K a day fine, whenever they can. What are these fines for? Not paying their Good Old Boy cronies fast enough for false, fraudulent bills, as I clearly see it, folks!
See the Reuters story below for the net worth of our esteemed former Executive-in-Chief Donlald J. Trump.
Please share your feedback, folks. It is always welcome and appreciated.
Forever Delaware,
Judson Bennett–Coastal Network
April 25 (Reuters) – A New York judge on Monday held former President Donald Trump in contempt of court for not producing documents subpoenaed in the state attorney general’s civil probe of his business practices, and ordered Trump to be fined $10,000 per day until he complies.
Trump lost a bid to quash a subpoena from state Attorney General Letitia James, and then failed to produce all the documents by a court-ordered March 3 deadline, later extended to March 31 at his lawyers’ request.
Justice Arthur Engoron ruled that a contempt finding was appropriate because of what the judge called “repeated failures” to hand over materials and because it was not clear Trump had conducted a complete search for responsive documents.
“Mr. Trump … I know you take your business seriously, and I take mine seriously. I hereby hold you in civil contempt,” the judge said, although Trump himself was not in the courtroom.
Trump intends to appeal the contempt ruling, said his attorney Alina Habba. “We respectfully disagree with the court’s decision,” Habba said in a statement.
Should Trump fail to pay the fine, he could be jailed, according to Sarah Krissoff, a New York lawyer not involved in the case, though she said such a scenario was unlikely and the judge could opt for other remedies such as increasing the amount of the fine.
James is investigating whether the Trump Organization, the former president’s New York City-based family company, misstated the values of its real estate properties to obtain favorable loans and tax deductions.
She has said the more than three-year-old probe found “significant evidence” that the company included misleading asset valuations in its financial statements for more than a decade.
“Today’s ruling makes clear: No one is above the law,” James said in a statement on Monday.
Trump, a Republican, denies wrongdoing and has called the investigation politically motivated. James is a Democrat.
The attorney general has questioned how the Trump Organization valued the Trump brand, as well as properties including golf clubs in New York and Scotland and Trump’s own penthouse apartment in Midtown Manhattan’s Trump Tower.
Also on Monday, Engoron granted a motion by James’ office to compel real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield to comply with certain subpoenas. Cushman conducted appraisals for several Trump Organization properties.
Trump and two of his adult children, Ivanka and Donald Jr., also were subpoenaed and ordered to provide testimony to the attorney general. An appeal is pending for the testimony.
Andrew Amer, special litigation counsel with the attorney general’s office, said during the hearing that the $10,000-a-day fine was meant to coerce Trump into complying with the subpoena, not punish him.
Habba told the judge that Trump did indeed comply with the subpoena, but that he did not have any documents responsive to James’ request. Engoron said she would have to submit a detailed affidavit about her search of Trump’s records in order to be in compliance with the subpoena.
Such an affidavit would need to show that Trump’s team had conducted a diligent search for documents, said Halim Dhanidina, a former California judge now practicing as a lawyer.
“The court’s not going to just take someone’s word for it,” Dhanidina said.
The Trump Organization’s property valuations are also the subject of a criminal probe in Manhattan, which last year led to the indictment of the company’s chief financial officer.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said this month that probe is ongoing despite the departure of its two top lawyers.
Reporting by Luc Cohen and Karen Freifeld; editing by Jonathan Oatis, Noeleen Walder and Howard GollerOPINION
Dear Friends,
What’s crazier than Elon Musk buying Twitter just 10 days after he said he’d do it? The Biden administration creating a “Disinformation Governance Board”?! It’s a dark day for free speech. As I watch this drama in Washington D.C., I think of my beloved Delaware, where free speech is gagged, in our Chancery Court and our newspaper of record.
Free speech doesn’t exist in Joe Biden’s home state, as I clearly see, folks, where the Delaware News Journal refuses to cover our Chancery Court’s robbing of TransPerfect, nor the Hunter Biden laptop scandal. Both are front-page stories in America’s First State.
Instead, we get deafening silence.
Florida Republican congressional candidate Dr. Willie J. Montague calls the federal government’s Disinformation Governance Board “dystopian” and “Orwellian.” Missouri Senator Josh Hawley calls it a “disgrace”.
Dystopian, Orwellian and disgrace are exactly what I see as the state of our media in Delaware, where you have Good Old Boys Club influence over what you read in the News Journal about Biden’s criminal laptop and the disgraceful Chancery Court of Bouchard and McCormick.
See the Fox News story about this 1984-like government board. I hope you see the similarities here folks, as I do. Either way, please share your feedback, folks. It is always welcome and appreciated.
Forever Delaware,
Judson Bennett–Coastal Network
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/critics-slam-timing-bidens-ministry-of-truth-police-internet-disinformation.amp
Conservatives referred to the move as ‘Orwellian’
By Andrew Mark Miller | Fox News
Conservatives on social media slammed the Biden administration after it was announced that a “Disinformation Governance Board” is being established to combat “disinformation” in the 2022 midterms.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testified Wednesday that a Disinformation Governance Board had recently been created, days after Tesla CEO Elon Musk purchased Twitter, to combat online disinformation and will be led by Undersecretary for Policy Rob Silvers and principal deputy general counsel Jennifer Gaskill.
“The goal is to bring the resources of (DHS) together to address this threat,” Mayorkas said, adding that the department is focused on the spread of disinformation in minority communities.
Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley referred to the board as a “disgrace” and wrote a letter to Mayorkas demanding answers as to how the board will operate.
“Is there anything more dystopian than a Disinformation Governance Board run by the federal government?” Florida Republican congressional candidate Dr. Willie J. Montague tweeted, adding in a later tweet that the board is “Orwellian.”
“They didn’t need a ‘Disinformation Governance Board’ until @elonmusk threatened their control over the narrative,” Texas Republican Congressman Troy Nehls tweeted.
Politico reported that Nina Jankowicz, who previously served as a disinformation fellow at the Wilson Center, will head the board as executive director.
Jankowicz suggested during the 2020 presidential election that Hunter Biden’s laptop, which has been verified by multiple media outlets, was a “Russian influence op.””The libs spent the last weeks planting the seeds for the back-up plan in case the Twitter deal actually happened,” Republican Congresswoman Lauren Boebert tweeted. “Today’s news of a Biden backed ‘Disinformation Governance Board’ is dystopian. They can’t afford to let the truth be anything but what they say.”
“Biden’s ‘Disinformation Governance Board’ is a real-world Ministry of Truth,” Daily Wire reporter Megan Basham tweeted. “A conservative movement that doesn’t fight this with everything it has isn’t worthy of the name. Or the name American.”
Jankowicz retweeted her comment on Wednesday, claiming that she was simply live tweeting the presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News.
Fox News’ Bradford Betz contributed to this reportOPINION
Dear Friends,
I’ve written recently about Hunter Biden. The man seems to be intent on destroying his father’s presidency. Last month, I uncovered that he threatened to wield the Delaware Chancery Court as a weapon, which was under his full control. This is a man of many frauds. His laptop scandal continues to unveil shocking details. His words on corrupt Chancery Court judges are damning.
Here are his words, directly from the Washington Post story, “I will bring suit in the Chancery Court in Delaware — which as you know is my home state and I am privileged to have worked with and know every judge in the chancery court,” he wrote on March 14, 2018.
I’m sharing more of your comments below from my recent columns on his laptop, frauds, threat to Democracy and Delaware’s Chancery Court.
Here is more of your feedback –
“It’s good that we’ve gotten rid of some of these unethical state actors, as you call them Jud.
Now, let’s have our leaders get rid of the rest.”
-Eric
“This corruption has got to take down Biden, after ruining his home state.”
-Lucy
“This guy is a flat-out crook!”
-Amey
“If only we had done something. Is it too late? The lack of ethics is disgusting.”
-Tom
“Maybe Hunter is connected with the Good Old Boys.
Would any of us be surprised?”
-Dean
“That arrogant, drug addicted bastard needs to be locked up.
Delaware is so corrupt and the Bidens are right in the middle of it.
Shocking article. Great work.”
-Al
“This laptop scandal has grown and grown. No one reported on it, except Conservative outlets.
Now look at this. It is growing too large for the Bidens to contain.”
-Frank
“China, Russia, Ukraine. How sinister is this guy? How much does his father know?
Can this take down our President! Keep reporting on this, Judson.”
-Susan
“Americans are paying the price for this arrogant criminal family.
They need to be arrested. All of them. Child porn is the worst of it.”
-Stanley
“God will bless America in our next election.
You can count on it, Jud!”
-Eric
Thank you as always for your comments and keep them coming.
It energizes me when your comments come in. Whether you agree or disagree with me, they are always welcome.
Sincerely Yours,
Judson Bennett–Coastal NetworkOPINION
Bouchard Thought He Was Above The Law and The Constitution andHe Paid the Ultimate Price By Being Forced to Resign Over the TransPerfect Scandal
Dear Friends,
In my view folks, it wasn’t enough. He should be behind bars.
“The Fifth Amendment protects the life, liberty and property of all persons from destruction or aggression by the government without due process of law. Due process requires a jury trial at which the government must prove fault.
Thus, property cannot be seized temporarily or taken permanently without either a search warrant or a jury trial.”
After illegally seizing private property stock to enrich his cronies—how is Bouchard still walking free? Paid by the very same law firm he enriched by over $1.7 million!
Unlike Bouchard and Skadden Arps, my view is that property rights are essential to democracy. What’s your view? See the story below.
Please share your feedback, folks. It is always welcome and appreciated.
Forever Delaware,
Judson Bennett–Coastal Network
By Andrew P. Napolitano
April 21, 2022
Most judges and lawyers agree that the war on drugs in the past 50 years has seriously diminished the right to privacy guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment.
Now a small group of legal academics is arguing that the war in Ukraine should be used to diminish property rights guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment.
Here is the backstory.
The Fourth Amendment was written to guarantee that the government may only search and seize persons, houses, papers and effects pursuant to a search warrant issued by a judge after the presentation under oath of evidence demonstrating that the place to be searched more likely than not contains evidence of crime. And the warrant itself must specifically describe the place to be searched and the person or thing to be seized.
These requirements — the work of James Madison, who was the scrivener of the Constitution in 1787 and the author of the Bill of Rights in 1791 — were intended to have two effects.
The first effect was to uphold the quintessentially American right to be left alone. The second was to compel the government to focus its law enforcement personnel and assets on crimes for which there is probable cause, not fishing expeditions or hunches.
Madison’s language prohibited absolutely the use of general warrants, a favorite tool of the British government against the colonists. General warrants were based on whatever the government wanted or claimed it needed.
The colonists were tormented by, and driven to revolution over, general warrants, as they authorized British agents to search wherever they wished and seize whatever they found. Surely, the dreadful colonial experience with general warrants was a driving force behind the wording and ratification of the Fourth Amendment.
Sadly, during the war on drugs, prosecutors and police persuaded judges to craft “emergency” exceptions to the Fourth Amendment. These included allowing police to look for whatever they wanted in cars and homes, and using the CIA for warrantless surveillance, lest the drugs supposedly being sought be destroyed before capture.
The effect of this was to destroy a fundamental liberty in deference to easing police work; that’s the definition of a police state. The courts effectively ruled that somehow the Constitution prefers liberty — rather than evidence of crimes — to be destroyed.
The Fifth Amendment protects the life, liberty and property of all persons from destruction or aggression by the government without due process of law. Due process requires a jury trial at which the government must prove fault.
Thus, property cannot be seized temporarily or taken permanently without either a search warrant or a jury trial.
Now back to the war in Ukraine.
I have argued in this column and elsewhere that the Biden administration sanctions imposed on Russian and American persons and businesses are profoundly unconstitutional because they are imposed by executive fiat rather than by legislation and because the sanctions constitute either the seizure of property without a warrant or the taking of property without due process.
When the feds seize a yacht from a person whom they claim may have financed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rise to power, they are doing so in direct violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment.
Similarly, when they freeze Russian assets in American banks, they engage in a seizure, and seizures can only constitutionally be done with a search warrant based on probable cause of crime.
As well, when the feds interfere with contract rights by prohibiting compliance with lawful contracts, that, too, implicates due process and can only be done constitutionally after a jury verdict in the government’s favor, at a trial at which the feds have proved fault.
As if to anticipate these constitutional roadblocks to its interference with free commercial choices, Congress enacted the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 and the Magnitsky Act of 2016. These constitutional monstrosities purport to give the president the power to declare persons and entities to be violators of human rights and, by that mere executive declaration alone, to punish them without trial.
These laws turn the Fourth and Fifth Amendments on their heads by punishing first and engaging in a perverse variant of due process later. How perverse? These laws require that if you want your seized property back, you must prove that you are not a human rights violator.
As if to run even further away from constitutional norms, a group of legal academics began arguing last week that the property seized from Russians is not really owned by human beings, but by the Russian government. And, this crazy argument goes, since the Russian government is not a person, there is no warrant or due process requirement; therefore, the feds can convert the assets they have seized and frozen to their own use.
To these academics — who reject property ownership as a moral right and exalt government aggression as a moral good — the argument devolves around the meaning of the word “person.” The Fourth and Fifth Amendments protect every “person” and all “people,” not just Americans.
And in American jurisprudence, “person” means both human beings and artificial persons — corporations and governments capable of owning property. Property ownership is defined by the right to use, alienate and exclude. Only persons can exercise those rights.
Madison and his colleagues clearly sought to protect property rights from government aggression, no matter the legal status of the owner. We know this from the judicial opinions involving foreign property that preceded and followed the ratification of the Fifth Amendment. If this were not so, then nothing could prevent the feds from seizing and converting the property of states or local governments or international religious institutions to federal use.
War is the health of the state and the graveyard of liberty. The drug war was a disaster for freedom. The war in Ukraine will be so as well, only if we permit it.
Reprinted with the author’s permission.Robert Pincus Betrayed His Fiduciary Duties to TransPerfect to Enrich Himself – What does Chief Chancellor Kathaleen McCorrupt Continue To Do? Order This Warped “Civil Servant” to be Paid Enough Money Afford a Second Home – An Extravagant Mansion in the Sky in Georgetown, Washington D.C.– Former Home of European Soccer Star – Nothing Pays Like Chancery Court Corruption
OPINION
Dear Friends,
Outrageously, folks, Robert Pincus continues to live lavishly on money that our Chief Chancellor takes from TransPerfect employees – it’s tantamount to grand larceny by the Chancellor – and it continues to this day!
Pincus’s second home was Wayne Rooney‘s $3 million rockstar crashpad pad – a lavish lifestyle supported by Pincus’ best friend Chancellor Bouchard – all masked in illegal mumbo jumbo known as “Fees-on-Fees” in the legal community and all financed off the backs of hard-working employees.
Pincus worked with former Chancellor Andre Bouchard at the infamous law firm Skadden Arps. He parlayed that into Bouchard appointing him court-ordered Custodian during the TransPerfect sale and received a windfall of millions that robs from company employee compensation to this day. How does Pincus have a Rockstar Pad? How does Bouchard have a Bentley? Why is no one asking the hard questions? Bouchard has never denied multiple allegations of financial corruption.
Chancery continues to funnel filthy millions and Bob Pincus and Skadden Arps benefit. If there was any justice, Delaware would have an Inspector General looking into the finances of Judges and appointees in Delaware. Where there’s enough smoke, there’s surely fire!
With Skadden ignoring the rules and still working for Russian Oligarchs, perhaps they should seize Pincus’s ultra luxury pad. See below.
Please send along any feedback you have.
Respectfully Yours,
Judson Bennett-Coastal Network
Residential Real Estate
Wayne Rooney’s former crash pad at The Wharf just sold. We have the details.
By Andy Medici – Senior Staff Reporter, Washington Business Journal
Nov 21, 2019, 3:02pm EST
Jason Levien, the lead owner, co-chairman and CEO of D.C. United, has sold his luxury condo at The Wharf to attorney Robert B. Pincus for $2.85 million.
Levien never lived in the seventh-floor condo at the Vio building at 45 Sutton Square SW, instead using the furnished unit as temporary lodging for clients, colleagues — and former D.C. United forward Wayne Rooney, according to Jordan Stuart, an agent at Keller Williams Capital Properties and team lead at Next Move, a network of licensed real estate professionals.
“He did buy this for the purpose of essentially having a nice, furnished, beautiful condo for his corporate partners, ownership and also to have a place for Wayne when he needed it. And Wayne used it during the season,” said Stuart, who represented Levien in the sale. “Once Wayne left, he felt it was a little bit much.”
Rooney, the British superstar who signed with D.C. United in June 2018, played for the 2019 season and subsequently struck a deal to return to the U.K. and become a player-coach for Derby County FC in the English Championship.
Levien, who has other properties around the city, decided to sell the property once he could break even and get the price he wanted, Stuart said. The condo boasts floor-to-ceiling views of Washington Channel, has three bedrooms, two-and-half bathrooms and totals nearly 2,000 square feet. It was sold to Pincus, a retired partner from Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, who is currently an adjunct assistant professor at American University’s Washington College of Law and a corporate dispute mediator, according to his LinkedIn profile.
The sale comes less than a year after Levien purchased the condo from chef Mike Isabella for $2.575 million. Isabella himself purchased it in March 2018 for $2.19 million, shortly before Isabella was sued for sexual harassment by former Mike Isabella Concepts General Manager Chloe Caras. He settled the suit for undisclosed terms in May 2018.
Stuart said the successive price increases over a short time showed the demand for condos at The Wharf, especially those with expansive views, of which there are only so many, he said.
“People want to be on The Wharf and there is a lot of leasing options, but there is not too much supply. It’s really just kind of the Vio in phase one [of The Wharf development]. And if you want one of the nicest pre-owned units, this is basically it,” Stuart said. “It was in demand when I sold it the first time. It was in demand this time.”
Levien, who is also co-owner of Welsh soccer club Swansea City AFC, leads the investment group that owns a majority D.C. United after it bought out the previous partner Erick Thohir in August 2018. The Wharf made sense as a spot for guests (and Rooney) as it sits just blocks from Audi Field, D.C. United’s stadium at Buzzard Point.OPINION
Dear Friends,
Finally, the news media, the legislature, and the Department of Justice are homing in on the Biden Crime family, and especially on Hunter Biden, whose criminal activity and the fact he has been getting away with it for so long, has become more and more significant. The arrogance and audacity of the entire Biden family is amazing, especially in Delaware.
Recently, I wrote an article about how Hunter once said he could always win in Delaware’s Chancery Court, because he was so extremely connected with the Judges. The most disconcerting factor of the whole scenario is that it appears that Hunter’s father, Joe Biden, the former Vice President, now President of the United States could be guilty of influence peddling, mail fraud, bank fraud, collusion, treason, and many other high crimes and misdemeanors. The evidence gleaned from Hunter’s own laptop, which he left in a Wilmington, Delaware computer repair shop, indicates he was not only using illegal drugs, was participating in child porn, sex with underage girls, collusion and conspiracy, tax-evasion, influence peddling, and a clear criminal connection and involvement with the President of the United States, his father, Joe Biden.
Millions of dollars from Ukraine, Romania, Russia, and China were paid to Hunter Biden for the sole purpose of selling his father’s influence. The laptop, now in FBI possession, indicates that father Joe Biden (“the Big Guy”) received 10% of the booty. Hunter and Joe even had joint checking accounts, and Hunter paid many of Joe’s bills. This outrageous and heinous fact was further evidenced by testimony from Tony Bobilinski, a former decorated Naval officer who was Hunter’s business partner. This gentleman actually met with President Biden in a back room of a Delaware restaurant where the conspiracy was discussed. Joe Biden was totally involved, knew all about Hunter’s business and is guilty as hell. Bobilinski also testified that in a conversation with Joe Biden’s brother, Jim Biden (another participant in the whole Biden operation), when he asked him, “How do you Biden’s get away with this stuff?” Jim Biden’s answer was, “Probable deniability”. The evidence is overwhelming and it was clearly known and exposed by the New York Post. These grotesque crimes were covered up by the press, the Democrats, the Justice Department, and social media to prevent Donald Trump from being re-elected, thus thrusting Joe Biden, a blatant criminal into the White House.
Folks, these accusations based on the evidence that is now public knowledge, what is now being exposed on Fox News, and in the best seller, “The Laptop from Hell”, by famous New York Post reporter Miranda Divine, should tell the American people we have a veritable monster in the White House, backed up by a Socialist group of fanatics that want to ruin this country, as I see it.
The most frightening thing for this columnist is that Joe Biden appears to be compromised by Communist Red China and Russia, making his decisions, actions or non-actions, that affect the lives of every American citizen, seem to benefit our enemies rather than helping our own people. We must remove this treasonous operation from our government or we will be doomed from remaining a viable, prosperous, free nation.
That is the way I see it folks. My opinions are based on my extensive research, and my personal, political, inside connections, gleaned from years of investigative experience. As always, your feedback is welcome and appreciated. God, please bless America! With the dangerous and incompetent leaders in power in our country, we certainly need it now more than ever.
Would love to hear your feedback on this, folks!
Respectfully submitted,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
I have been sounding the alarm about Leo Strine and Andre Bouchard-Era corruption in Delaware for years, and it’s finally coming home to roost and threatening the Presidency. As I see it, folks, I had high hopes that Kathaleen McCormick would bring a new le\vel of fairness to our warped, archaic, and broken Chancery Court, but Kathaleen McCorrupt has already shown me her true colors with her latest TransPerfect decisions – she intends to double-down on the filthy rulings of her predecessors – and keep enriching Skadden Arps and other Delaware elites – at the expense of normal citizens and TransPerfect’s 7000 families – who have been tortured and robbed by our “Old Boys Club” for nearly a decade!!
When will we, as the people of Delaware, stand up and vote for leaders who will weed out these “Old Boy” cronies? The corruption I’ve been shouting about from the rooftops could not do Delaware and Delawareans a bigger disservice than threatening the Presidency of the United States. Yet, that is exactly what is happening with the Hunter and Joe Biden laptop scandal – a Grand Jury has been convened.
If we had done something about Chancery’s corruption and taken a serious stand against unethical state actors, I can’t help but think that Delaware may have been spared these tragic but true events. Instead, Delaware’s corruption has been put on the front page of every national newspaper (except those in Delaware) as Hunter Biden’s laptop reveals what the New York Post calls “The Biden Family Scheme Unraveling.”
See the story below and let me know your thoughts on this. Knowing the powers of these thugs in robes, I will probably be censored off Twitter by the radical left for even sharing this news with you, but I’m sharing it anyway.
Please send me your comments. They are always welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
Judson Bennett–Coastal Network
If the grand jury in Delaware investigating Hunter Biden’s business ventures does its job properly, it will be pulling on the threads that lead to the president, and already there are signs that is happening.
Regardless of the extraordinary statement last week by White House chief of staff Ron Klain, that the president is confident his son has done nothing wrong, and that the inquiry has nothing to do with Joe Biden or anyone else in the White House, publicly available evidence says otherwise.
There is also the six-hour interview Hunter’s former business partner Tony Bobulinski gave to the FBI last year, along with a trove of documents, emails and encrypted messages.
Bobulinski has publicly named Joe Biden as the “Big Guy,” referenced in emails, whose 10% equity in a joint venture with Chinese energy company CEFC was held for him by Hunter.
Now the identity of the Big Guy has become a topic for the Delaware probe.
At least one of the witnesses before the grand jury has been asked: Who is the Big Guy?
Sources familiar with the investigation say Bobulinski has yet to appear, but if he does not testify before the grand jury, something is very wrong.
Perhaps US Attorney David Weiss is saving the best for last.
The pressure on Weiss is immense, as the four-year investigation into the president’s son and his business partners, including his uncle James Biden, Joe’s younger brother, threatens to become an election issue in November.
Alarm bells are starting to ring in Democratic circles as the White House stonewalls in the face of increasing media inquiries. In two absurd statements in recent days, White House spokespeople said the president stands by his pre-election statement that Hunter never received any money from China, and he continues to deny that he knew anything about his son’s overseas business dealings.
The White House position is unsustainable.
First, there are the Treasury Department documents presented by Republican Sens. Ron Johnson and Chuck Grassley, along with bank statements on Hunter’s laptop showing millions of dollars paid by CEFC to Hunter and his business partners.
Then there is evidence, from Bobulinski and from the laptop, that Joe met Hunter’s foreign business partners on multiple occasions while he was vice president.
In addition, there is evidence on the laptop that Hunter and his father had commingled finances and shared bank accounts, and also that Hunter paid some of Joe’s household bills, including a monthly phone bill and maintenance and renovations on one of his Delaware properties.
China connection
What is not properly understood, especially by the catch-up merchants and Biden apologists of the left-wing media, is that the millions of dollars wired by CEFC to Hunter and Jim Biden and partners was payment for work done in the last two years of Joe’s vice presidency, using the Biden name to advance the interests of Communist China in Oman, Luxembourg, Romania, the Middle East and Asia.
This included $6 million paid in two wires in February and March 2017 to Rob Walker, a trusted Biden family friend and a former Clinton administration official, whose wife, Betsy Massey Walker, had been Jill Biden’s assistant when she was second lady.
CEFC was the capitalist arm of China’s Belt and Road initiative, President Xi Jinping’s imperialist program to compromise smaller countries, bribe their officials, buy up their energy resources and infrastructure and ensnare them in debt traps, in a bid to overtake the United States as the world’s economic superpower.
‘Blowout’ ahead?
The Biden partnership was crucial to open doors and give CEFC a veneer of respectability.
Walker would be a useful witness for the Delaware grand jury, as would another of Hunter’s business partners, Eric Schwerin, president of his firm Rosemont Seneca and general factotum.
We know that Delaware investigators issued as subpoena in 2019 to JPMorgan Chase bank for international financial transactions involving Hunter and James Biden, Schwerin and another former business partner, Devon Archer.
Schwerin has extensive knowledge of Biden family finances and appeared to have signature privileges over Joe Biden’s money, as shown by emails on the laptop.
“Your Dad’s Delaware tax refund check came today,” he emailed Hunter on June 10, 2010. “I am depositing it in his account and writing a check in that amount back to you since he owes it to you. Don’t think I need to run it by him, but if you want to go ahead. If not, I will deposit tomorrow.”
As public awareness of this scandal grows, Democratic political consultant Doug Schoen, in a careful article in The Hill over the weekend, expressed his party’s concerns.
If Joe Biden is found to have profited from Hunter’s business deals or used his position as vice president to benefit his family, Schoen wrote, “what is now likely a red wave election could turn into a massive blowout that is more substantial than anything seen in recent history.”
He’s not kidding.
Government turns blind eye to immigrant night flights
Another suspected migrant charter plane flew into Westchester County Airport on Saturday night, indicating an acceleration in tempo over recent weeks. This time, Rob Astorino, former Westchester County executive, aspiring Republican governor, and dogged critic of the Biden administration’s secret operation to fly illegal migrants from the southern border to New York, watched the iAero plane land at 9:43 p.m.
The Boeing 737 remained hidden from view on the tarmac next to Ross Aviation East for more than an hour while unloading its passengers onto three charter buses.
When the buses emerged from the airport, just after 11 p.m., two headed south on I-684. Astorino followed the third, which he estimated contained 25 to 30 teens. That vehicle drove north 20 miles to Somers, and vanished into the grounds of a school around midnight.
“The Biden administration must have such contempt for Americans to blatantly wave illegal immigrants across the border, fly them into our communities and then tell us we have no right to ask questions,” said Astorino. “Gov. [Kathy] Hochul must agree, since she hands out our tax money by the billions for them to come here.”
Thankfully, this time, the charter bus traveled at a sedate pace. Last week, with The Post in hot pursuit, one J&F coach reached speeds approaching 80 mph in the pouring rain.
When I called the company to ask why the hurry, the person who answered hung up the phone. Other buses we followed last fall also hit breakneck speeds, suggesting the safety of their human cargo is not a top priority for the Biden administration.
But secrecy sure is.
Person the gates!
Heading to Broadway in September is the latest incarnation of “1776,” the musical about the signing of the Declaration of Independence, with a new cast described by Deadline Hollywood as entirely “female, non-binary and trans.”
No doubt a few penises will be floating about on stage, but not one — ahem — man, in the original sense of the word.
Who knows how this epicene ensemble will deal with George Washington’s desire for a “manly, virtuous and happy people,” or James Madison’s ode to the “great, manly, and warlike virtues.”
Next they’ll be calling the Founding Fathers the “Founding Co-Parents.”
It’s a fitting portent that on his 100th day in office, Eric Adams was struck with COVID. Sunday marked 100 days of our new mayor not getting much done, despite a blizzard of fine words. With major crime up 44 percent this year, and a summer of violence looming, he’s going to have to do more than talk. Maybe he can use his COVID isolation this week to come up with fresh ideas. Better yet, give Rudy Giuliani a call.
OPINION
Dear Friends,
I’ve written columns about Hunter Biden this month and his words about our less-than-stellar Chancery Court, threatening to wield the court as a weapon if he needed to.
Here are Hunter Biden’s words, directly from the Washington Post story, “I will bring suit in the Chancery Court in Delaware — which as you know is my home state and I am privileged to have worked with and know every judge in the chancery court,” he wrote on March 14, 2018.
As I see it, and so many of you too, as I’m sharing in your comments below, this shows that the President’s son acknowledges that in Delaware’s Chancery Court, cases aren’t determined by the facts, evidence, or merits. It’s all about who you know and owe favors to. It’s the Good Old Boys Club calling the shots in Delaware’s Chancery Court. Not the rule of law expected to be upheld in Delaware.
Enough of my words, folks, now to yours! –
“This is sad, Judson. Sad but horribly true.
This club has been in power too long. Hunter Biden called it.”
-Joan
“Imagine you have a court of judges in your hip pocket.
Now imagine being dumb enough to tell the world.
Keep writing about this. I hope something can finally be done.”
-Parker
“Hunter is a moron. He just exposed the Chancery Court for what you’ve been saying it is all along.
It’s corrupt as the day is long. I hope the governor is reading this. Keep it up, Jud.”
-Jack
“You’ve been saying this for years now.
Why don’t they just shut this court down! It’ a sham!
I can’t believe what I’m reading here.”
-Priscilla
“Bouchard, Strine, McCormick. The list goes on
and no one is powerful enough to stop what is obvious to all of us
It’s a shame and it mocks our wonderful state. Thank you for writing about this.”
-Bill
“So now you conveniently decide to believe Hunter Biden???????
Really???? You don’t think he may have been puffing or exaggerating?????
I guess now you’ll start believing everything he says.”
-Rich
“Good job! The Bidens are criminals and the Chancery Court is jaded and corrupt.
Should be a political issue in the November elections.
Thanks for what you do.”
-Susan
“Superb article, Judson and great reporting.
The Chancery Court corruption must be addressed.
The arrogance of Hunter Biden and his father are reprehensible.”
-Mary
“That arrogant, drug addicted bastard needs to be locked up.
Delaware is so corrupt and the Bidens are right in the middle of it.
Shocking article. Great work.”
-Al
“Judson. Can this guy be any more arrogant? He needs to be taken down.
The nerve. What an outright jerk!”
-Susan
“Hunter Biden is going to be the reason Biden’s presidency is a failure.
Bring it on. It can’t happen soon enough. Remember Billy Carter?
These Democrats have a history of family bringing them down.”
-Sean
“I hate this guy.”
-Frank
“What an arrogant son he is. He should go down for this.”
-Mark
Thank you for all of your comments and keep them coming. I enjoy being your tenacious columnist out here in the field. It gives me energy when I see your comments coming in, whether you agree with me or not. They are always welcome.
Sincerely Yours,
Judson Bennett–Coastal Network OPINION
Dear Friends,
There’s a total blackout happening in our local news media, folks. I’ve been one of the only ones covering the TransPerfect case and Chancery Court Chancellor Bouchard and McCormick corruption and now I’m the only one covering this Hunter Biden story where he indicates he has the Chancery Court in his hip pocket if he needs to sue someone, which both the New York Times and Washington Post have covered.
Where’s the Delaware News Journal on this news? Do the editors get their checks where the Chancellors do?
The Good Old Boys Club obviously dictates what you can read in the paper in America’s First State. It’s un-American that you are only allowed to read news in Delaware that one of these Good Old Boys Club members approves as news. It’s like we’re a third-world country. Your news is being censored, folks. It’s outrageous!
Understand that if you’re reading the local Delaware news, your news may be manipulated and censored. These Latte Liberal elites stealing money from TransPerfect are the same unethical people censoring your news.
Honestly, leaving the politics out of it, the liberal media is actually covering this, but you know who gives it zero air time? Delaware’s mainstream media. The Delaware News Journal, the newspaper of record in our state, hasn’t covered this at all. I challenge you to let me know if it has been covered by Delaware State News? How about any of the local news radio stations?
We should sound the alarm that the Delaware News Journal should not be limiting or censoring your news. The Good Old Boys Club dictates what you can read in the newspaper as if we were in Russia. They circle the wagons pretty tight here in Delaware, don’t they folks?
Send your feedback on this. I would love to hear your thoughts. All of your opinions are welcome. We don’t censor at the Coastal Network. See the story below for more on this.
Respectfully Yours,
Judson Bennett, Coastal Network
A federal investigation into the business affairs of Hunter Biden is continuing in Delaware, The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal reported.
The investigation included the convening of a grand jury, according to a mid-March Times story, which did report that the son of the president has satisfied tax claims. The payments do not end his legal liability but reduce his chances of facing charges.
On Monday, the Wall Street Journal (subscription) followed up with its own story that reported a widening of the investigation including the use of a federal grand jury.
As is customary in such cases, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Delaware declined to comment.
The investigation is being conducted by the office of Delaware U.S. District Attorney David Weiss. Weiss was exempted from the customary request for the resignations of U.S. Attorneys when Biden took office, due to the ongoing investigation.
According to the Times, a federal grand jury heard testimony in Wilmington from two witnesses, one of whom formerly worked for Hunter Biden, whose lawyer was subpoenaed for financial records that reflected money Hunter received from a Ukrainian energy company.
The Times story said proving that Hunter Biden violated federal law in his dealings would prove difficult.
The Wall Street Journal story offered more details on Hunter Biden’s relationships that included Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma and a Chinese investor.
President Biden’s son became a campaign issue that made its way to Wilmington when the former owner of a computer repair business in Trolley Square claimed an individual dropped off a laptop computer tied to Hunter Biden.
The shop owner John Paul Mac Isaac said no one returned to pick up the computer, with the hard drive and/or laptop ending up in the possession of President Trump’s lawyer and former New York City Rudy Guliani.
The New York Post published images supposedly linked to the computer/hard drive.
According to press accounts, a representative of Guliani dropped off the laptop/hard drive to Delaware authorities who gave it U.S. Attorney Weiss’ office.
Mac Isaac, who held a press conference regarding the computer, closed his shop claiming harassment. He recently was the subject of an interview with the New York Post and claimed the harassment is continuing but did not directly tie the actions to the Biden family.
The Post said the Times story validated its long-running coverage of Hunter Biden. Critics had claimed the laptop case seemed to fit a pattern of Russian disinformation efforts.
A Washington Post columnist this week sided with critics who said the laptop story deserved coverage and noted that some media outlets had gone after the Trump administration by publishing equally sketchy stories.;
Trump, who as the president sought Ukraine’s intervention in getting more details on Hunter Biden’s activities and ended up being impeached but not removed from office, recently called for Russian President Putin to “release dirt” on the younger Biden, Politico reported late this month.
This weekend, Russia, as part of its effort to justify its invasion of Ukraine, accused Hunter Biden of funding biological weapons labs in that nation. The claim that has no basis in fact has been repeated by Fox News talk show host Tucker Carlson.
The Trump campaign worked to make Hunter Biden into an issue in the latter stages of the campaign.
However as noted above, mainstream media outlets include the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. passed on the story, citing questions about the legitimacy of emails and other documents that some said resembled the work of Russian disinformation efforts.
Hunter Biden and his father have spoken about a struggle with drug abuse, with the president saying that his son should not have been involved in overseas business matters while he was serving as vice president.
Hunter Biden’s Arrogance Confirms the Elephant in the Room:Backroom Deals by Delaware’s “Old Boys’ Club” Drive Chancery Court Decisions
Our New Chancellor, Kathaleen McCorruption, Has Not Shown Herself to be a Savior from Bouchard’s Unethical Regime.
Dear Friends,
Hunter Biden is being honest when he threatens his business partners with his ability to manipulate decisions in Delaware Chancery Court. Now his own people will say he’s an incompetent drug abuser to dismiss these comments and create distance from Joe Biden—but please read them for yourself.
This personifies and validates exactly what I have been begging our elected officials to address for years.
Bouchard and Strine’s corruption, which prompted their unprecedented dual mid-term resignations—is not even in question any more—and neither has even denied any of the charges against them. Why? My view is because they cannot.
I had high hopes Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick would put our filth-ridden recent past behind us, and begin to repair Delaware’s tarnished image. No such luck. She calls the former kingpin “Bouchard the Merciful” — I call her “Kathaleen McCorruption.”
Tell me if you’re disturbed, and what your ideas are for the People of Delaware to reform this feudal, archaic Court. It’s ripe for abuse—and, as Biden’s comments confirm, Delaware elites are abusing it.
Anyone have ideas on how to end corruption in Chancery? If so, please share.
Respectfully Yours,
Judson Bennett-Coastal Network
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220404005674/en/Citizens-for-a-Pro-Business-Delaware-%E2%80%9CWashington-Post-Reporting-on-Hunter-Biden-Exposes-Depths-of-Chancery-Court-Dysfunction%E2%80%9D
Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware: “Washington Post Reporting on Hunter Biden Exposes Depths of Chancery Court Dysfunction”
Per the Washington Post’s reporting, Hunter Biden indicated that Chancery Court judgments are based on connections rather than substantive facts
WILMINGTON, Del.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Today, following reporting from the Washington Post that Hunter Biden threatened to bring suit against a former business partner in the Chancery Court, where he claimed to “have worked with and know every judge in the chancery court,” grassroots advocacy organization Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware released the following statement
“This report just confirms what we’ve known for years: the Chancery Court is an old boys’ club where who you play golf with matters far more than the case you make. Even Hunter Biden agrees that the Chancery’s dysfunction makes it more akin to a kangaroo court than the illustrious business court it claims to be. When powerful Delawareans know that their personal connections to judges will influence the decisions of the court, it’s clear that the entire system must be transformed.
“This report just confirms what we’ve known for years: the Chancery Court is an old boys’ club where who you play golf with matters far more than the case you make. Even Hunter Biden agrees that the Chancery’s dysfunction makes it more akin to a kangaroo court than the illustrious business court it claims to be. When powerful Delawareans know that their personal connections to judges will influence the decisions of the court, it’s clear that the entire system must be transformed.Dear Friends,
I’ve been preaching about Chancery Court corruption for years, and now we have the son of the President of the United States bragging about how he would bring a lawsuit in Delaware’s Chancery Court and win, based on his personal relationship with judges. He confirms years of my investigative journalism in one paragraph.
Here are Hunter Biden’s words, directly from the Washington Post story, which is posted below:
“I will bring suit in the Chancery Court in Delaware — which as you know is my home state and I am privileged to have worked with and know every judge in the chancery court,” he wrote on March 14, 2018.
This is clear evidence that even a Biden acknowledges that in Delaware’s Chancery Court, cases aren’t determined by the facts, evidence, or merits. It’s all about who you know and owe favors to, and it’s illegal and unpredictable to businesses — who expect the rule of law to be upheld when incorporating in Delaware.
By his public statements, the President’s son now agrees with my long-held view that the Chancery Court is corrupt, shameful to our state, and vastly in need of reform.
Please send your feedback on this, folks. It’s always welcome and appreciated. I’m dying to read it!
Respectfully Yours,
Judson Bennett–Coastal Network
Washington Post Article about Hunter Biden’s Laptop
The pertinent part of the WaPo article:
Hunter Biden threatened to sue both Yan and Dong for balking at paying, claiming they had no right to question his expenses — and explaining that the House of Sweden was his D.C.-based office.
“I will bring suit in the Chancery Court in Delaware — which as you know is my home state and I am privileged to have worked with and know every judge in the chancery court,” he wrote on March 14, 2018.
Read the full article by clicking on the title below:
Inside Hunter Biden’s multimillion-dollar deals with a Chinese energy company
A Washington Post review confirms key details and offers new documentation of Biden family interactions with Chinese executives
By Matt Viser, Tom Hamburger and Craig Timberg
March 30, 2022 at 11:04 a.m. EDT
OPINIONThe Amazing story of Former Sussex County Delaware Councilman Vance Phillips in his extremely difficult, but successful enterprise in getting his Ukrainian wife into the United States!
Dear Friends,
Folks, I am going to tell you an amazing story of courage, fortitude, and determination that is quite remarkable. With the terrible and disconcerting Russian invasion, ordered by heinous, dictator Valadimir Putin, as thousands of Ukrainian citizens are fleeing the country, a local Delaware man and personal friend of mine (former Sussex County, Delaware Councilman Vance Phillips), went through hell to get his Ukrainian wife, Vika Lemeshivcka, out of Ukraine and eventually into the United States.
A brief history of Vance Phillips to help explain the situation: Vance is an affluent land owner and entrepreneur who owns a large watermelon farm near Laurel, Delaware and who served for many years as a Sussex County Councilman. An active Republican, who was once Vice Chairman of the Delaware Republican Party, Phillips actually ran against Joe Biden for U.S. Senate early in Biden’s career.
Vance is a common sense individual, a devout Christian, and a realistic Conservative leader who was extremely well-known in Delaware, especially in Sussex County. Unfortunately, Vance had a devastating, engine-propelled, hang-glider accident in which he broke his back, leaving him paralized on his left side, while being extremely compromised and in constant, significant pain.
Determined to not let this horrible injury ruin his life, Vance traveled the world taking his wheelchair and handicapped scooter with him. Spending a considerable amount of time in the Ukraine he met Vika Lemeshivcka, who he married in a Ukrainian wedding and they have now been together for 5 years. Despite being married and traveling throughout the world with her, Vance could not get an American visa for his wife. Periodically, Vance would return home to Delaware, leaving his wife in the Ukraine.
Then the Russian invasion occurred. With bombs and bullets flying all around, Vance arranged for his bride to take a bus to Poland, then flew her to Madrid, Spain, from there to Cancun, Mexico where he met her. After resting up for a few days, they flew to Monterey, Mexico where Vance rented a car and they drove directly to the Texas border. Upon arriving there, once the border patrol saw her Ukrainian passport, all attention was directed toward them. The first words out of Vika’s mouth were, “I am a Ukrainian citizen and I am seeking political asylum”.
She was immediately taken into custody and put in a detention center, her cellphone and personal items removed and she began a grueling vetting process. She was treated fairly well and being the only English speaking Ukrainian there, helped translate for other Ukranians who the authorities also had in custody. In the facility were also criminals who sometimes got out of hand and she was often intimidated. Some of them told her she would be deported back to the Ukraine which upset her terribly. She was held in custody for 14 days.
After learning his wife would be in U.S. custody, Vance drove the rented car back to Mexico, then on his handicapped scooter, drove the 15 miles back to the border. He then checked into a Marriott hotel, about one mile from the detention center. Exhausted, in terrible pain, Vance upon my recommendation, hired a very expensive Texas immigration lawyer, who filed innumerable, official documents with the authorities, which apparently helped and clarified the marriage situation and plea for asylum.
Afterwards, sick and out of needed medication, Vance flew back to Delaware where he took care of his personal business and saw his doctor. Two days later he attempted to fly back to Texas. Changing planes in Orlando, Florida, Vance learned his flight to Texas had been canceled and he had to spend the night sitting in a wheelchair in horrible pain, waiting for the next flight to Laredo.
Finally, Vance was able to get back to Texas where his bride was released into his custody on what was designated as parole and temporary asylum. They had a brief scare, as all of Vika’s important documents were missing, and had apparently been left at the detention center. Fortunately, they were able to retrieve them and now they are both resting up and recovering from an extremely trying, tense, and difficult situation, but truly a successful one which was definitely achieved by Vance Phillips’ true grit and determination. What an amazing story!
Folks, the rub for me is the acute hypocrisy and absurd method of operation by the Biden administration in regard to the open Southern border where millions of unvetted illegals from all over the world, many who are terrorists, some carrying death causing Fentenal that has killed over 150,000 Americans, are dropped all over the United States, while a Ukranian woman, seeking political asylum, married to an American is forced into a detention center for 14 days before being given the needed and justified asylum she deserves. Folks, Biden is an incompetent, malicious fool who should not be President.
Regardless, My friend Vance Philips is now my hero who went through hell to save his wife from probable death at the hands of Putin and his war crimes against Ukrainian people. They soon will be returning to Delaware, where Vance plans on an American wedding, as well, to solidify his wife’s eventual citizenship. God bless him and his beautiful wife Vika. I wish them the best!
I’d love to hear your feedback on this, folks. What a story and eventual happy ending!
Respectfully Submitted,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkDear Friends,
Citizens for Pro-Business Delaware and the entire TransPerfect senior management team have called publicly for an end to corruption and continued raping of the company by Robert Pincus and Bouchard’s other cronies, such as Skadden Arps. How? By getting to one of the root causes, those high in power, who do nothing to stop the corruption, while their friends get rich.
Delaware Supreme CourtChief Justice Collins J. Seitz was officially asked to recuse himself from further involvement in the case by TransPerfect managers, speaking for thousands of employees. This kind of unity against evil reminds me of the U.S. and Europe pulling together to stop Russian aggression in Ukraine.
The open letter in the Delaware News Journal correctly notes that Seitz already disqualified himself – twice! – from TransPerfect-related litigation because of a conflict of interest.
The buck must stop with someone. Judge Seitz as Delaware’s highest judicial officer – the employees all say that’s you.
Are you going to continue to let the “Good Old Boy” network steal money for raises from 7,000 TransPerfect workers? Or will you say “enough is enough!” to the shady elite actors in Delaware that use their judicial positions and relationships to enrich themselves??
Please send your feedback, which is always welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
Judson Bennett–Coastal Network
Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware Sponsors Print Ad from TransPerfect Senior Employees Urging Chief Justice Collins Seitz Jr. To Recuse Himself from Litigation Related to TransPerfect
WILMINGTON, Del., March 21, 2022–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Today, Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware announced a new print ad in the Delaware News Journal featuring an open letter from 10 senior TransPerfect employees urging Delaware Supreme Court Chief Justice Collins J. Seitz Jr. to recuse himself from all ongoing litigation related to the company.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220321005576/en/
The letter highlights that Seitz twice disqualified himself from adjudicating litigation related to TransPerfect due to a disabling conflict of interest, yet later decided to uphold the Chancery Court’s unprecedented decision to force the sale of TransPerfect despite its growth and profitability…
Who Can the Public Count on to Take Bouchard’s Court and Giant Law Firms Like Skadden Arps to Task?
Dear Friends,
It’s heartening to know that the concerns I have been voicing all this time about the nature of Delaware Chancery’s court system were shared by THOMAS JEFFERSON!
With “equity” courts somehow meaning the Judges can act unpredictably and favor their friends over the merits, the writer smartly asks: Who can save the public, and take on these large legal behemoths?
Please give a careful read to this one, and send your feedback, folks. It’s welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
Judson Bennett–Coastal Network
Carl Thiese’s LiveJournal Article
As the world battles viruses and despots, and with it, falling economies, ruined businesses and broken families, one thing is sure; lawyers make money.The law has been what protects us all, businesses included, and through the various social and economic storms, law and lawyers have been there to navigate and keep things “honest”, maybe. Often, lawyers are supposed to fill a purpose with the expectation that the need would end. There is a school of thought that suggests that law has become a business unto itself; like initially- noble advocacy groups that continuously move the needle of circumstances just to keep their administrators and staffs employed. Big law has become more profit-driven and, at times, an unethical group driven by profit, and nowhere are these lawyers more at home than such jurisdictions as Delaware, a haven once shaped around prioritizing the needs of businesses and corporations. In the First State, law firms that charge exorbitant fees have unchecked discretion, a lack of accountability from the public and public interests. This is due largely to Delaware’s Chancery Court, one of the few legal spaces in the world where neither precedent nor constitutional law determines outcome. Instead, a small circle of subjective, and sometimes, biased judges control outcomes. The Chancery Court caused such a stir that Thomas Jefferson commented on its presence as a court of inequality. It’s not just the poor, the lost, the left behind that get wounded though: even the connected elite, the rich and powerful amongst us do, and that should scare us…
“Relieve the judges from the rigor [sic] of text law, and permit them, with pretorian discretion, to wander into its equity, and the whole system becomes uncertain,”
Thomas Jefferson – lawyer, statesman, and the third President of the United States.
The New Chancellor Has Shown Her True Colors; Kathaleen McCormick Will Support Chancellor Bouchard’s ‘Old Boy’ Network of Cronies No Matter How Corrupt
– Bouchard Has Never Denied Helping His Cronies Abscond with Millions from TransPerfect
– Bouchard Has Never Denied Financially Benefiting Himself From His Own Rulings
– McCormick’s Ruling Has Shown Herself to be a Lackey, Not an Agent of Change
Dear Friends,
In taking a position that reminds me of Joaquin Phoenix’s character in the movie Gladiator, Kathaleen McCormick dubs Chancellor Bouchard, “Bouchard the Merciful.” As I see it folks, this is yet another batshit-crazy decision from the Chancery, that ignores both the Fact and the Law. By the logic in this decision, a court-appointed Custodian could steal millions and never face a jury trial.
Folks, ex-Chancellor Bouchard stands accused of being the most corrupt man to wear a robe in Delaware history, in my view, and the new Chancellor is contorting the Law to protect him and his cronies at Skadden and Ross Aronstam. He has never denied financially benefiting from the case, nor can he even attempt to deny ordering $1.7 million to be paid directly to Paul Weiss, and then starting a job there. Talk about feathering your own nest?? It’s beyond corrupt, it’s filthy and blasphemous!
Chancellor McCormick, with her undisclosed representation of TransPerfect’s chief competitor, H.I.G./Lionbridge, in this new ruling, has now clearly shown herself to be not only conflicted, but also a lackey of Bouchard’s cronies. I was hopeful for Delaware’s future–and putting the image of a Chancery Court overrun with corruption behind us–but this lioness appears to have finally shown us her true colors.
See the Law360 story below. Are you as annoyed and concerned about this as I am?!? Please send your feedback, which is always welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully yours,
JUDSON Bennett- Coastal Network
Chancery Tosses TransPerfect Claims Against Ross Aronstam
By Jeff Montgomery
Law360 (March 17, 2022, 8:16 PM EDT) — Delaware’s chancellor dismissed on Thursday a TransPerfect Global breach of duty suit against Ross Aronstam & Moritz LLP, a firm that represented the company at a court-appointed custodian’s direction during some chapters of a still-unfolding, often bitter, years-old corporate control saga.
In the decision, Chancellor Kathaleen S. McCormick rejected initial claims by TransPerfect’s co-founder that RAM and name partner Garrett B. Moritz breached professional duties by failing to disclose that, in opposing a shareholder demand for records on fee payments to the custodian and law firm, it was taking direction from a purportedly conflicted custodian whose fees were ultimately paid by TransPerfect.
RAM and the custodian, the court found, had court-assigned obligations to complete a sale of the business and head off any threats to the process, in a transaction upheld by Delaware’s Supreme Court in May 2018.
“Defendants had one client: TransPerfect,” the chancellor wrote. “The sale order made the custodian TransPerfect’s exclusive authorized agent empowered to direct counsel retained in connection with the sale process. Defendants thus acted appropriately in following the instructions of the custodian.”
The dismissed suit focused on events that followed a court-ordered sale of the global translation services company, supervised by the same custodian — retired Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP partner Robert B. Pincus — following a battle dating to 2014 between TransPerfect’s two-founders, Elizabeth Elting and Philip R. Shawe.
Shawe won custodian-supervised bidding for the company, paid $385 million for Elting’s 50% share, then filed a legal malpractice suit against Ross Aronstam in New York state court in 2020. That move prompted RAM to seek a contempt ruling against TransPerfect for violation of Chancery Court’s exclusive jurisdiction over the issues.
Chancellor McCormick said the decision on Thursday resolved a twist of “Shyamalan-ian proportions,” since TransPerfect had sought dismissal of the complaint decided on Thursday for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, aiming to avoid potential harm to its still-active New York case.
RAM likewise sought dismissal based on the absence of any identifiable breach of its duty in representing Pincus and the company.
“Because the sale order both empowered the custodian to hire counsel for TransPerfect and required that the custodian be paid fees, it is not reasonably conceivable that payment of the custodian’s fees gave rise to a ‘concurrent conflict of interest’ preventing the custodian from retaining defendants to represent TransPerfect,” Chancellor McCormick wrote.
The decision on Thursday also held that Chancery Court has jurisdiction over the issue, and that TransPerfect, now only under Shawe’s control, failed to make a sufficient claim that RAM neglected its professional obligations.
Pincus took control of TransPerfect under a court sale order issued to resolve a deadlock between Elting, who owned 50% of the business, and Shawe, who owned 49%; his mother owned 1%. Then-Chancellor Andre G. Bouchard directed the sale, in a decision upheld by the state Supreme Court
Elting and Shawe had been battling over control of the company they co-founded since at least 2014, with Chancellor Bouchard concluding that the governance stalemate was irreconcilable and damaging to the business.
RAM was retained by Pincus in 2017 to represent the company on some issues, with Shawe-controlled TransPerfect accusing the firm after the sale of doing Pincus’ bidding in disputes over millions in custodian and legal fees.
Shawe and TransPerfect argued that RAM should have considered whether the company or its stockholders disagreed with the custodian.
“But defendants had no ethical obligation to undertake this action. Generally speaking, ‘Where an attorney is hired by a corporation, that attorney owes a duty to the corporate entity, not to the individual directors,'” the chancellor wrote.
Delaware Lawyers’ Rules of Professional Conduct, the chancellor added, state that “when constituents of the organization make decisions for it, the decisions ordinarily must be accepted by the lawyer even if their utility or prudence is doubtful.”
Pincus likewise had sole discretion over custodial actions, the chancellor said, noting that the order establishing the position provided that the custodian was not “subject to the direction or control of any corporate constituency and shall not be required to take any course of action that any corporate constituency may favor or disfavor.”
In a statement, Shawe described the decision as “a way to control, circle the wagons and protect the establishment. We really didn’t expect anything different, and we’re hoping to get some justice in the appellate court.”
Shawe said the dispute involved $1 million to $2 million monthly in custodian bills, with the attorneys involved on the custodian side taking the position in court that “it wasn’t in TransPerfect’s best interest to see its own bills, so we didn’t have an opportunity to challenge them.”
Ross Aronstam & Moritz declined to comment.
TransPerfect Global Inc. is represented by Frank E. Noyes III of Offit Kurman PA and Douglas Capuder of Capuder Fazio Giacoia LLP.
Ross Aronstam & Moritz and Garrett B. Moritz are represented by David E. Ross, Bradley R. Aronstam, Eric D. Selden, S. Michael Sirkin, Adam D. Gold and Benjamin Z. Grossberg of Ross Aronstam & Moritz LLP.
The case is TransPerfect Global Inc. v. Ross Aronstam & Moritz LLP and Garrett B. Moritz, case number 2021-0065, in the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware.
–Editing by Robert RudingerOPINION
Dear Friends,
Yet another scandal for Skadden Arps, which is supported by the Delaware government. It appears they are supported by the Russians?!
Folks, I’ve been writing quite a bit about the debacle going on in Russia for the last few weeks on the Coastal Network. Now it’s time for Delaware’s “courts and government to cease doing business with Skadden immediately,” as suggested in the story below. In my view, this law firm deserves no more money or support from our elected Delaware leaders.
Let’s connect with our elected leaders and help make this happen!
What do you think, my friends? Please send your feedback, which is always welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
Judson Bennett–Coastal Network
Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware Doubles Down on Demand for Delaware to Stop Doing Business with Skadden Until It Severs All Ties to Russian Oligarchs
March 11, 2022 09:57 AM Eastern Standard Time
WILMINGTON, Del.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Following pressure from Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware, other good government advocates, and intense media scrutiny, Skadden Arps has dropped a lawsuit on behalf of Alfa Bank, owned by billionaire Russian oligarch Mikhail Fridman, and pledged to relocate its Russia-based lawyers while maintaining its Moscow office.
In response, Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware Campaign Manager Chris Coffey released the following statement:
“We’re glad that our pressure, along with that of other good government groups, has forced Skadden to reconsider its long-held ties to Russian oligarchs, especially in light of Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. But these latest steps by Skadden seem cynically calculated to minimize losses to the firm’s bottom line while publicly saving face as much as possible. We don’t buy it.”
“For years, Skadden has done the bidding of Putin-aligned oligarchs without a shred of concern for his regime’s human rights abuses, helping facilitate more than $90 billion worth of Russian corporate deals just since 2012. While dropping the oligarch-backed Alfa Bank lawsuit is one small step towards justice, Skadden must do much more – including closing its Russia office, disclosing its Russian client list, and contributing to Ukraine relief efforts – to right its wrongs in Russia.
“Until Skadden does so, we are doubling down on our demand that Delaware’s courts and government cease doing business with Skadden immediately. The same firm taking Russian ‘blood money’ does not deserve to receive a cent from the state of Delaware.”Opinion
Dear Friends,
Today, Wednesday, March 16th, Senate Bill 149 is scheduled to be voted on by the Delaware Legislature. Basically what this bill does is allow public scrutiny of Delaware police officer personnel files, allowing the public to view any and all complaints filed against a particular officer.
As it stands now, those files are secret and only available to internal police agencies. The apparent reason for the bill is to weed out bad cops and also provide defense attorney’s access to this information.
Folks, on its surface, this bill appears to be harmless and reasonable. However, after researching it in its entirety and talking to several working cops and retired cops, the bill is in my view – and that of most police officers – not a good bill. What the bill will do is eventually get rid of good cops and replace them with inferior law enforcement people.
Folks, the people who file complaints against cops are mostly malcontents or people who resisted arrest. Most cops are good cops and most of the complaints are false or over-exaggerated. Regardless, the filed complaint goes on the police officer’s record. If presented for public view, this can hurt advancement and promotion or other jobs later on in life. It is a bad bill folks and it should be voted down.
In this era of defunding the police and the horrible increase in crime throughout America, this is another shot at law enforcement that in my view is not appropriate.
I urge the Delaware Legislators to deny this bill’s passage!
As always, your comments are welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully yours,
Judson Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
I was reflecting on how things were, a little over a year ago, and even before, and how prosperous we were, indeed we were energy independent, unemployment was at record lows! This was due to Donald Trump, who was grotesquely sabotaged from the very beginning by Hillary Clinton, a dishonest Democrat Legislature, and a corrupt Justice Department including the FBI.
Even the quick creation of vaccines during the worst of the Covid pandemic, which saved millions of lives, was due to Donald Trump’s forceful innovation. If he had been re-elected, none of what you see today would be happening. The American people made the biggest mistake in U.S. history by electing Joe Biden as President.
What Biden has done to our country is an obscenity. The intentional destruction of the U.S. petroleum and natural gas industry, by stopping the Keystone Pipeline, preventing oil drilling and fracking on federal lands and drilling in the gulf, shutting down our refineries, stopping oil drilling and exploration in Alaska, are some of the reasons. Joe Biden took us from being energy independent and being the number one exporter of domestic oil and natural gas, to now depending on foreign oil and natural gas. This has driven up the cost of gasoline to outrageous prices which could get as high as $6 a gallon, or even more! Folks, everything you buy is affected by the cost of energy. The inflation that we are experiencing where prices are beyond belief, are all due to the policies of President Joe Biden and his handlers.
What about Afghanistan? One of the worst military disasters in our history leaving billions of dollars of military equipment behind, making the Taliban the best equipped terrorist organization in the world. This show of incompetence and weakness, emboldened Putin to attack Ukraine. The equipment left behind could have been a great asset for the embattled Ukrainians.
Folks, if Trump had been the President, Putin would have never invaded Ukraine – creating a dangerous worldwide crisis!
Biden is hell-bent on destroying our country through his incompetence, his ridiculous green new deal operation, and his socialist agenda. Folks much more of this idiot, and we won’t have a country any of us will recognize. November elections are the beginning, where we can take back our country, and impeach Biden and Harris who are the worst President and Vice President in U.S. history, install the new Republican Speaker as temporary President, and elect Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in 2024.
Your comments are inspiring, important, and always welcome, so please let me know how you feel, pro or con.
Sincerely yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal Network
Chancery Court Ties Looking Dubious At Best, Criminal At Worst?
Bouchard, Skadden, Credit Suisse Looking Like Filthy State Actors I Always Said They Were in the TransPerfect Case?!
Dear Friends,
The Chancery Court ordered a commission of over $12 million to Credit Suisse for selling the company back to its own Founder. Of course Andre Bouchard and Robert Pincus deputized Credit Suisse with government powers, perhaps based on their having similar resumes?
“Credit Suisse, the second-biggest bank in Switzerland, has been rocked by a series of scandals over the past year. In March, the bank was rocked by the collapse of the Greensill financial company, in which some $10 billion had been committed through four funds, and then by the implosion of the American fund Archegos, which cost the bank some $5 billion.
In October, it was also hit with $475 million in penalties by U.S. and U.K. authorities for its loans to state-owned companies in Mozambique, which were at the centre of a corruption scandal.”
This evidence supports so much of what I’ve written. I have been ridiculed and my sanity questioned for calling them out, but history will prove me correct. Credit Suisse’s “friendliness to Russian agents” is discussed in the story below.
What do you think, folks? Please send your feedback on this. It’s always welcome and appreciated.
Citizens for Pro-Business Delaware Calls on Delaware to Stop Doing Business with Skadden Arps until Firm Cuts Ties with Russian Oligarchs and Closes Moscow Office
Skadden has profited off relationships with Russian oligarchs and government agents for decades yet has refused to comment on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
March 08, 2022 09:25 AM Eastern Standard Time
WILMINGTON, Del.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Today, Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware called on Delaware’s government and courts to cease conducting business with Skadden Arps until the firm renounces all ties to Russian oligarchs and commits to closing its office in Moscow following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Since 1992, Skadden has operated an office in Moscow and has developed close ties with Russian oligarchs including Mikhail Fridman and Roman Abramovich. Since 2012, Skadden has been involved with more than $90 billion worth of Russian corporate deals.
The firm’s friendliness to Russian agents burst into public view in the wake of the 2019 Mueller report, which revealed that Skadden had authored a report for Ukraine’s Moscow-backed government of Viktor Yanukovych that claimed the government did not have political motivations for imprisoning Yanukovych’s top political adversary, Yulia Tymoshenko. The report’s findings contradicted the positions of both the US and EU governments, which understood the imprisonment to be politically motivated. Skadden eventually paid $11 million to Tymoshenko to avoid a lawsuit over the report.
Since Russia’s invasion began, tech, oil, auto and banking industry giants have abandoned Russian businesses or suppliers as the world unites against Russian military aggression, and leading international law firms are doing the same. London-founded Linklaters law firm announced last week that it will wind down its operations in Russia and close its Moscow office. The law firm has over 70 employees in their Moscow office.
Linklaters is the largest firm to confirm its Moscow exit and many international law firms are critically assessing their future in Russia, yet Skadden Arps has refused to comment on its ties to Russian oligarchs and state agents. At the same time, Skadden has been awarded millions of dollars in contracts and no-bid legal fees from Delaware’s Government and Court of Chancery to act on behalf of the state in adjudicating legal disputes.
SaidChris Coffey, Campaign Manager for Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware, “Skadden Arps has shown a stunning lack of moral fiber when it comes to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. While other firms with connections to Russia are risking great financial loss to cut ties and demonstrate opposition to the invasion, Skadden continues to ignore what is right so they can keep lining their pockets.
“While Skadden’s greed in zealously overbilling clients here in Delaware is bad enough, now they are standing idly by while Russia invades Ukraine so they can keep representing oligarchs and foreign agents to pad their bottom line. As long as Skadden puts profits above all else, Delaware’s leaders must take a stand and guarantee that the same firm profiting from Russian aggression does not profit from the state of Delaware. We urge Skadden to immediately cut ties with Russia and Delaware’s government and courts to immediately cut ties with Skadden – this moral failure must not be tolerated.”
Dear Friends,
I clearly remember as a child in grade school, significant air-raid drills – concerned about a nuclear attack from Russia, we would line up and move into the cafeteria, kneel down, and cover our heads. Absurdity? Absolutely! As if those acts of caution would have saved our lives if indeed Russian nuclear bombs had ever arrived? I also remember, as I grew up, those insipid, cowardly individuals in our country and all over Europe who espoused the weak slogan, “Better Red than Dead!” In other words, give into tyrannical, Socialism/Communism with a life of mediocrity under totalitarian control or be killed by nuclear weapons.
Folks, every time Putin threatens to use nuclear weapons, do we cower in fright and tip-toe around him? Putin intends to re-establish the old Soviet Union and he is emboldened to do so because he knows after observing the worst President in United States history in Joe Biden, who is nothing more than a corrupt, weak sister, operates with clear collusion, as he gives away our oil industry in favor of Putin’s Russia! Considering Biden’s influence-peddling, his open-border policies, his Afghanistan debacle, and his destruction of America’s oil industry, how could any reasonable citizen trust Joe Biden not to continue to sell us out?
Folks, most of us certainly do not want to die. I don’t. It is instinctive to want to survive. That being said, if you constantly have your life threatened, if you don’t do certain things and allow a bully to consistently compromise your happiness, is that any kind of life? Not for me! Bring it on! I will fight you to the death.
How about you folks? “Better Red than Dead?” Or Better Dead than Red? I say “NATO should stand up to Putin”, call his bluff, and be willing to die, stop his invasion of the Ukraine and more of Eastern Europe, otherwise with the help of Joe Biden, your freedom, your prosperity, and your happiness will be terminated because of the threats and fear propagated by an evil dictator. That is the way I see it.
As always, your comments are welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal Network
www.CoastalNetwork.comOPINIONTwice Proclaiming Himself Conflicted, Chief Justice C.J. Seitz Faces Decision in TransPerfect CaseAfter 3 Judges Split on Alleged Skadden Arps Fee Gouging, the Delaware Supreme Court Plans to Go to All 5 Judges for a DecisionWill C.J. Seitz Again Sit on the TransPerfect Appeal Panel After Admitting Under Oath That He Was Conflicted?
Dear Friends,
Latest Delaware Supreme Court News, as I wrote this week: C.J. Seitz – who has twice said he is conflicted in the now famous TransPerfect case – may again sit on the TransPerfect appeal panel of 5 judges. This comes after, as I understand it from court sources, 3 Delaware Supreme Court judges were split on alleged fee gouging by Robert Pincus, of law firm Skadden Arps.
Pincus, as you’ve undoubtedly read here many times, has in my estimation, gouged the hell out of the growing company, billing and bilking it for millions upon millions, for work that employees say was never done.
The looming question remains, folks: Can Seitz, who already declared himself indeed conflicted twice, sit on this panel of judges?
This is important, as justice mysteriously remains an elusive concept in Delaware, except for those with a Juris Doctor degree and a mansion in Greenville.
Please see the Slator story below from 2020. It’s about a letter co-signed by more than 1,000 TransPerfect employees, who demanded an inquiry into the mutually-beneficial relationship between Delaware’s beleaguered Chancery Court and the law firm of Skadden Arps. This nonsense with the Chancery Court living by its own rules has been going on for far too long.
Please send your feedback on this. It’s always welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
Judson Bennett-Coastal Network
https://slator.com/press-releases/1000-transperfect-employees-demand-inquiry-into-chancery-court-skadden-arps-relationship/
Press Releases · By TransPerfect On April 14, 2020
Wilmington, DE – Today, a letter co-signed by more than 1,000 TransPerfect Global, Inc. employees was sent to Delaware Governor John Carney, demanding an inquiry into the close, mutually-beneficial relationship between Delaware’s beleaguered Court of Chancery and the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP.
The letter comes following several recent motions filed by TransPerfect in the Delaware Court of Chancery alleging that the law firm of Skadden Arps has billed the translation services company for upwards of $14 million in undisclosed legal fees since being appointed the company’s custodian, causing significant financial harm to the company’s employees.
According to recent court documents, in the over two years since the TransPerfect sale process was complete, the company’s Chancery Court-Appointed custodian, Skadden Partner Robert Pincus, has continued to bill the company every month for undisclosed services, including his own $1,475 an hour fee. According to one recent motion by TransPerfect, Pincus’ responsibilities remain unclear, and any efforts to ascertain the substance of his work on behalf of TransPerfect have been met with silence. The Chancery Court has kept all invoices and description of services under seal – allegedly to protect the sale process, which ended over two years ago.
In their call to action for Delaware Governor John Carney, the employees wrote, the “actions of Robert Pincus and his Skadden partner, Jennifer Voss, have hurt TransPerfect. For the first time ever, this spring we will not receive raises. Even worse, many of us who work hourly have had our hours reduced or been furloughed entirely. We are asking for your office to open an inquiry to scrutinize both the cozy relationship between Chancellor Bouchard and his former firm, as well as the Chancery Courts complete lack of transparency and Skadden’s questionable billing practices. These actions and to end this Court-sanctioned looting of TransPerfect. It’s hurting us in irreparable ways. Enough is enough, we need you to step up and investigate this matter immediately.”
Said Chris Coffey, Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware’s Campaign Manager, “From day one of being appointed TransPerfect’s custodian, Robert Pincus and Skadden Arps have been taking advantage of the company and its thousands of employees by billing them millions of dollars without saying why or what for. These Skaddenomics are so shady, it’s become increasingly clear that Governor Carney needs to step in and scrutinize Chancellor Bouchard, who has been violating his own court’s rules and effectively funneling over $14 million dollars to friends at his old law firm. We’ve called on the Court to put an end to the secrecy, and we’ve called on the state legislature to advance the bill before them that would create a fairer and more transparent Chancery Court by requiring all custodian’s fees to be disclosed. Now we’re calling on the governor to open an inquiry. These thousand employees and our members deserve to have their voices heard. Enough is enough.”Opinion
Dear Friends,
Quick update, folks, on the case that made our Chancery Court known for its corruption worldwide.
You’ll see in the story below that TransPerfect is declaring victory. The truth is, I see this more as a tie.
As TransPerfect and its CEO Philip Shawe are the victims of the world’s largest Court scam in history, as i see it, I can see why the company might feel like this is a victory over Skadden Arps and over Delaware Court Corruption – but I view this result more like a tie. A tie that kicks the can down the road. And anything that kicks the can, in my view, allows Skadden and Bouchard’s cronies to keep stealing, using the Delaware flag as their stick-up gun.
I do know that Delaware Supreme Court Chief Justice C.J. Seitz, who twice declared himself conflicted under oath, now has a huge decision to make. To recuse? Or to circle the wagons? …and protect Delaware’s Old Boys Club Oligarchs.
What do you think, folks? As always, your comments are welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal Network
March 03, 2022 05:30 PM Eastern Standard Time
NEW YORK & WILMINGTON, Del.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–TransPerfect, the world’s largest provider of language and technology solutions for global business, today announced that the Supreme Court of Delaware issued an order moving the matter TransPerfect Global Inc. v. Pincus from a three-justice appellate panel to the full Court to be considered en banc.
The order confirms that at least one of the Justices of the Delaware Supreme Court has recognized the merit of TransPerfect’s argument that the former custodian Robert Pincus and his law firm Skadden Arps took advantage of the Chancery Court’s lack of oversight and overbilled the company many millions of dollars.
TransPerfect argued, among other things, that retired Chancellor Bouchard erred by awarding vast fees to his former employer Skadden for work performed in making many unnecessary and losing motions (including three unsuccessful contempt motions against the company). It also objected to Bouchard’s award of what amounted to “fees on fees” being charged by Pincus and Skadden despite his fiduciary duty to the company.
Unrelated to alleged billing fraud, TransPerfect also argues that Skadden alum Chancellor Bouchard issued an overly broad Discharge Order that unconstitutionally expanded the Securities Purchase Agreement drafted by Pincus and Skadden to create far more benefits for them than they negotiated. Bouchard’s overreaching (which was encouraged and drafted by his former employer, Skadden) even went so far as to impose obligations and restrictions on non-parties for the benefit of Pincus and Skadden.
“TransPerfect has done nothing but succeed for our clients, and create thousands of jobs—and for this, we’ve endured nearly 10 years and $50 million of pillaging at the hands of the Delaware Chancery Court and its appointees. It’s time for the Delaware Supreme Court to step in, stop what we consider to be fraudulent billing practices by Robert Pincus and Skadden Arps, limit the Chancery’s power to unconstitutionally rewrite contracts, and put this matter to rest,” stated Phil Shawe, TransPerfect President and CEO.
Under the rules of the Delaware Supreme Court, the case will be presented to the full five-member panel en banc because the original three-member panel could not reach a unanimous decision. While the split decision itself was a significant victory for TransPerfect, concerns exist about whether a fair appeal can be heard in front of the five-panel bench because Chief Justice CJ Seitz has twice disqualified himself on appeals involving the company. His conflict of interest now seems more acute because this appeal will likely affect the viability of a pending case between TransPerfect and Chief Justice Seitz’s former law firm Ross, Aronstam & Moritz. Ross Aronstam was sued for malpractice based on a claim that the firm failed to adequately represent TransPerfect (as its appointed attorney) and instead took instruction from Pincus to assert in Chancery Court that it was NOT in TransPerfect’s best interest to see the bills it was being court ordered to pay to Skadden Arps.
See the Breaking News
OPINION
Dear Friends,
I have spent many years studying history and politics. I have the education and political experience for my opinions to deserve some credibility. Folks, in my entire life, I have never seen an American President (in my educated view), so absolutely evil, incompetent, stupid, crooked, and despicable as President Joe Biden. As a patriot and a caring citizen of the United States, I never would have considered in the past ever to say the things that I think about Joe Biden at this very moment. The man does not deserve my respect or anybody’s for that matter. I consider him an abomination that has put our country in terrible danger—compromising our economic stability and our personal freedoms.
Folks, Biden sold out this country through his son Hunter, 1.5 billion from China, 3.5 million from Russia, millions from the Ukraine, and millions from other countries. Biden took this country from being completely energy independent to depending now on foreign oil and most of it coming from Russia. Biden clearly appears to have been paid off to allow Russia to supply the world with oil and natural gas, to be able to hold Europe hostage, while Putin attacks with impunity the Ukraine in the most unprecedented takeover of a sovereign country since World War II.
The Ukraine situation has occurred because Putin clearly knows that Biden is going to do nothing and after observing Biden’s grotesque handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal, this American President’s incompetence and weakness are clearly paramount.
The ridiculous sanctions that Biden is proposing are a little too late and the obvious corruption in allowing Putin to prosper, while America suffers economically, is outrageous. I have a Ukrainian friend who is married to an American Delawarean, who is stranded in the Ukraine, and attempting to escape to Poland, however the danger she will face is deeply concerning. The Russians have already killed many Ukrainians and the situation is getting worse by the minute.
Former great President, Teddy Roosevelt, once said, “America should walk softly, and carry a big stick.” We have done so for years, but now insipid traitor Joe Biden, in my view, carries only a toothpick, as he and his intrinsically evil conspirators intend to control your lives with a socialist, despotic agenda that denigrates our freedom and potential prosperity.
As always, your comments are welcome and appreciated. As I see it, folks, these are crazy, disconcerting times and Biden is responsible.
Sincerely yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal Network
www.CoastalNetwork.comOPINIONLeo Strine #MeToo’d at Bourbon Street Bar?
Former Chancellor Bouchard’s Rumored “relationship” with Tulane Law Professor?
Kevin Shannon Co-Paneling with Judges to Steer Case Outcomes?
… It’s One Dark Rumor After Another but rooted in circumstantial happenstance.
… It all stems from Taxpayer Dollars being wasted In The Chancery’s Annual New Orleans, incestuous, back-scratching, road trip!
Will Delawareans Continue to Allow Taxpayer Dollars to Finance Chancery March Madness in New Orleans?
Dear Friends,
Rumors are just rumors, but when there is enough smoke, one must consider the possibility of fire…
This Tulane boondoggle is a virtual symbol of Chancery Court corruption, and it’s high time we shut the Good Ole Boys Club down in it, or at least stop Delawareans paying for it! I have heard more stories from more credible sources than I can remember about debaucherous behavior from these Delaware Law Supervillains in the Big Easy. It’s time to reign in this event!
As I have said, Delaware’s Chancery Court and its parasitic cronies are the Purdue Pharma of the legal world, and this boondoggle party throwing is precisely analogous to the predatory tactics of the Purdue Pharma sales reps.
Yes, Bouchard and Strine both resigned in disgrace—but before they were brought to justice for their corruption in the TransPerfect case. So, you might say, why do I care? Because history tends to repeat itself.
Don’t defund the police. Send these racist corrupt cronies of Chancery a message, and… Defund the Chancery Court New Orleans Boondoggle!!!
Call your elected representatives and defund Chancery’s Bourbon Street Debauchery.
A link to the event:
Please send your feedback on this, folks. It’s always appreciated and welcome.
Respectfully Yours,
Judson Bennett – Coastal Network
P.S. For background on Bouchard-Era Corruption, and why it is so important to end it,
please see my own article from 5 years ago calling out government corruption:
I’m a grumpy old white guy who thinks the best person for the job should get the job. Period. That said, my readers need to understand the level of corruption and hypocrisy that’s about to bite Delaware in the ass.Now Martin Luther King III, the oldest son and oldest living child of civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, has his eye on Delaware’s politically-connected cronies. As I have done for years, he specifically out calls Skadden Arps, and its revolving door of judges in the Old Boy’s Club.
Check out this piece in The Hill below and let me know what you think. Your feedback is always welcome and appreciated.
(Under no circumstances do I agree with the article below, which is insulting to any clear thinking American, however the hypocrisy and internal corruption in Delaware’s judicial operation in my view is paramount and needs to be addressed.)
Biden has been revolutionary on judicial diversity — states should learn from him
BY REV. AL SHARPTON AND MARTIN LUTHER KING III, OPINION CONTRIBUTORS — 02/20/22 12:01 PM EST
THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY CONTRIBUTORS ARE THEIR OWN AND NOT THE VIEW OF THE HILL
Throughout the 2020 election, President Joe Biden made the nomination of the nation’s first Black woman to the Supreme Court a central pillar of his campaign’s agenda — a pledge that if fulfilled, would cement his legacy as the most prolific judicial activist to occupy the White House in a century.
As Justice Stephen Breyer is set to retire, we are hopeful, indeed we are confident, that President Biden will keep his promise to the American people to add balance and more fair representation to the nation’s highest court — the same court that upheld “separate but equal” treatment of Americans based on race until the 1950s, and that currently has just one Black and one Hispanic jurist.
Although our optimism is cautious, the Biden administration’s record in filling vacancies on the nation’s most critical courts with diverse candidates who are qualified beyond dispute is undeniable.
Already in his first year in the Oval Office, President Biden has appointed more Senate-confirmed judges to the federal bench in a single year than any other president since Ronald Regan, including 24 percent of the total Black women across the entire federal court system. Moreover, nearly 70 percent of the president’s Circuit Court nominees have been people of color, while over 78 percent have been women and over 40 percent have been Black women.
Of the 42 Biden appointees already confirmed by the Senate, over half were women of color. Those appointees include 2nd Circuit Judge Beth Robinson, the first openly LGBTQ woman to serve on the Federal Court of Appeals, and Judge Tiffany Cunningham, the first Black judge on the Federal Circuit.
In total so far, the Biden White House has appointed 84 nominees to the federal bench — each and every one of them as qualified as any of their peers. In fact, a recent analysis showed that nearly 60 percent of this administration’s nominees attended a top-14 law school, while over 82 percent of the Black women nominated by the president received the highest possible rating for federal judicial nominees by the American Bar Association, proving definitively that diversity does not come at the expense of quality and experience.
Despite the hypocritical and empty words of some critics thinly masking their biases behind cries of political gamesmanship, Biden’s judicial diversification efforts are not radical, but a necessary course correction following centuries of inequitable treatment under the law for minorities.
From law schools to elite “white shoe” law firms like Skadden Arps, from courthouses to parole boards, for too long the cornerstones of our justice system are disproportionately white, and therefore not representative of the American people. Lacking representation is a foundational flaw that exists in every pillar of our nation’s legal structures — a flaw so deep that it has sown seeds of distrust in minority communities for decades. As a result of the unending body of evidence that people of color receive unequal treatment under the law, 87 percent of Black Americans believe they are treated less fairly than their white neighbors.
To that end, the precedent set by Biden over the last year must be studied and replicated by every governor in every statehouse across the country. As 83 percent of state-level high court judges are white, the Supreme Court is just the tip of the iceberg.
Take the president’s home state of Delaware as an example. The overwhelmingly Democratic and supposedly liberal ‘First State’ faces staggering and unacceptably low levels of diversity in its judicial ranks. Our analysis of Delaware’s highest courts showed fewer than 15 percent of the justices are Black, despite Black people making up a disproportionate percentage of the state’s prison population. As a matter of fact, right now, Delaware Gov. John Carney (D) has an opportunity to turn his record on judicial appointments around by nominating a Black justice to the Court of Chancery.
To make sure Carney lives up to President Biden’s footsteps, we are now working side by side with local activists and judicial advocacy groups to fight for diversified courts in Delaware, because we know that leadership at the top does not just filter down naturally. The transcendent change we wish to realize will take an extraordinary effort to accomplish, an effort that every American should fight to make, from city halls to statehouses to the Supreme Court.
OPINION
Dear Friends,
The Democrat Party stinks to high heaven! All we heard on MSNBC, CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS and others from corrupt and incompetent news people, was how President Donald Trump was colluding with Russia. The likes of creepy little jerk, Adam Schiff, phony hypocrite Chuck Schumer, and elitist Nancy Pelosi, was how terrible Donald Trump was. Well guess what folks? The diatribe against Trump was nothing but lies propagated and completely financed by Hillary Clinton. She paid people to hack Trump’s servers and input false and negative information about him. This is the most heinous political crime in U.S. history (much bigger than Watergate) and Hillary Clinton should go to prison. Special Prosecutor Durham has come forth with a bombshell report that has got the drive by media and Democrat sycophants running for cover.
When you combine this grotesque, criminal, Clinton operation with the influence peddling by Joe Biden for millions of dollars, denigrating our national security, you clearly have a corrupt political party led by insipid, dishonest people. Folks, that is the government of the United States. A government that is incompetent, dishonest, and totalitarean.
Folks, these people are dedicated to feathering their own nests, while controlling every aspect of your lives. This cannot and will not be tolerated by we the people. I demand equity and honesty in my government and a government that provides opportunity for prosperity and freedom.
The Democrat party has become an abomination of corruption, despotism, and criminal activity. Folks, throw the bums out, put them in jail, and never let this crime wave of Democrat dishonesty ever raise its ugly head again. In November, we have a peaceful opportunity to stop the movement of Socialism/Communism from gaining any more momentum. Locking up Clinton and Biden would be a good start.
As always, your comments are welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
The day before yesterday, I stepped off the pavement coming out of my condo and fell flat on my face, broke my nose, lacerated my knee and fractured my knee cap. I feel like hell, look like someone beat me up, and am limping around very slowly. Considering it could have been much worse, I consider myself lucky. Folks, I live in paradise, my condo overlooks the intercoastal, and palm trees are everywhere. Unable to move much, I spent the day yesterday sitting in my “lazy boy” watching television and reflecting on a few things.
I had a few thoughts about my life in Lewes, Delaware where I was born and raised. We lived right on the beach front. As a child, I crabbed, fished, swam and played in the marvelous sand dunes. I remember my first romance with Josephine Linder Dupont Bayard. I remember my father and mother – Walt and Alma Bennett. I remember my life as a Delaware River Pilot, guiding ships of all kinds and all nationalities in and out of the Delaware River to and from the Ports of Philadelphia. I remember the birth of my wonderful son, Walter on May 2, 1969.
Always involved in politics. I served as the Republican Chairman for several years of both the 14th and 37th Districts in Sussex County, was a delegate to the Republican Convention, and was a lobbyist in the state legislature. I had the honor of being the Sussex County campaign manager for John Burris’ gubernatorial campaign and the Sussex County campaign manager for Ray Clatworthy’s campaign for U.S. Senator against Joe Biden. What a fine man Ray Clatworthy was. He should have won, if character, honor, honesty, education, and patriotism had been the issues. Unfortunately, my friend Ray Clatworthy has passed away, and Biden, who in my view is the most dishonest and insipid man in U.S. history, is now President of the United States.
Folks, did you know that I was once voted the Conservative Man of the year by the Conservative Caucus of Delaware?? (LOL!) I suppose I deviated slightly from my conservatism when I ran for County Council against Democrat Lynn Rogers on a managed growth platform, losing to him by only 3 votes. Actually Lynn is a fine man who is probably more conservative than I am these days. I respect him immensely. It was all interesting and I learned so much.
I have met Donald Trump several times, now there is a piece of work. I wonder if he will run again. I like Governor Ron DeSantis who is the best Governor in the United States.
Enough reflection, something different to write about, as I ponder it all. Got some time to do a lot of thinking while I heal.
Best regards to everybody. Many blessings.
Sincerely yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal Network
It Took Delaware 15 Years to Dissolve Opioid Maker Purdue Pharma, After it Knew that their Oxy product Was Killing People. Yet It Took Chancellor Bouchard Only 13 Months to Move to Dissolve Industry Leader TransPerfect, Whose Product Hurt No One
Corruption? Is There Even Another Thought?
Shocker: Chancery Feeder System for Judges Skadden Arps Represented Purdue and Made Millions on the Opioid Crisis.
Dear Friends,
After Delaware knew that Perdue Pharma was killing people, it took them 15 years to dissolve the company. Meanwhile, TransPerfect – whose product helps customers go global and never hurt anyone – was ordered to resolve by our Chancery Court in 13 months. You see the contrast, folks?! It’s a sad joke! That’s Delaware’s Chancery Court.
A decade-and-a-half after our Chancery Court knew the use of opioids – and that OxyContin was addictive and killing people – the court finally took action. But when it turns out attorney Kevin Shannon and the attorneys at Skadden Arps can make a king’s ransom, they force an industry leader – who hurt no one – to dissolve in 13 months. The sheer imbalance leaves me with no other explanation than corruption in Chancery.
See the story below. I congratulate TransPerfect on exceeding $1 Billion in annual revenues— and I again demand an investigation by elected officials into the TransPerfect case.
I had high hopes for McCormick, but she has not shown herself to be an impartial fact-finder, and has not disclosed her conflict in having represented HIG, the 100% owner of TransPerfect’s main competitor. Perhaps worst of all, she appears content to allow $2,000-per-hour friends at Skadden Arps to continue their endless cycle of billing for nothing, to the detriment of thousands of working-class TransPerfect employees and their families.
Please send your feedback on this, folks. It’s always welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
Judson Bennett – Coastal NetworkTransPerfect Clears Billion-Dollar Mark in 2021 Revenues
By Esther Bond
On January 31, 2022
The results are in for TransPerfect and 2021 was a milestone year. The Super Agency has just become the first language service provider (LSP) ever to record annual revenues of USD 1bn or more.
As a privately-owned company headquartered in the US, TransPerfect is not required to disclose revenues publicly but has chosen to do so on a regular basis.
TransPerfect not only crossed the billion-dollar mark to hit revenues in excess of USD 1.1bn in 2021 but also successfully retained its spot as the world’s largest LSP by revenue — despite a head-to-head challenge from UK rival RWS following its transformative acquisition of SDL in late 2020.
The figure represents a 31% increase from TransPerfect’s 2020 revenues of USD 852m. Put differently, TransPerfect added roughly USD 260m to its top line in the space of 12 months. In the final three months of 2021 (Q4), revenues grew 33% (+USD 83m) from the same quarter the previous year.
+80% Organic
Although a portion of TransPerfect’s growth came from M&A transactions completed in 2021, such as the acquisition of Semantix in late July, the majority of growth in 2020 (more than 80%, in fact) was organic — this according to TransPerfect President and CEO, Phil Shawe.
Shawe also confirmed that the USD 1.1bn revenue figure includes contributions from companies TransPerfect acquired from the date the transaction closed. This means the top-line figure includes around five months of contributions from Nordic translation and interpreting provider Semantix, which was the most sizable of TransPerfect’s 2021 acquisitions at around USD 87m in annual revenues.
Discussing TransPerfect’s increased presence in the Nordics, Shawe said, “Coming into the merger, the Semantix team had a very clear vision of how the combined companies can collectively support their customers’ needs as a local provider in the Nordics while also leveraging TransPerfect’s global footprint and GlobalLink technology.”
Among TransPerfect’s 2021 acquisitions are UK-based web marketing company Webcertain, Spain-based Polford Studios, and Skilltelligence, a data services provider based in Poland, in addition to a clinical research services company and a language training firm.
Broad-based Growth and Outperformers
Shawe described TransPerfect’s organic growth in 2021 as “spread fairly evenly across geographic regions and business sectors.” The company’s GlobalLink technology division, which includes an enterprise translation management system (TMS) solution, and DataForce, its data collection and annotation services, outperformed on growth.
Meanwhile, revenues from TransPerfect’s machine translation solutions increased 38% from 2020. The biggest growth in demand for its AI solutions came from customers in the life sciences, legal, financial, and manufacturing sectors.
Shawe said the company now invests more than USD 40m in technology R&D annually. Key items on the technology roadmap include upgrading the common elements of the GlobalLink platform, streamlining the UX, and integrating various GlobalLink modules.
He added, “This includes releasing new non-translation technology focused on functionality ranging from file sharing to video content management. Other major releases planned for 2022 include new versions of our online translation and review editors, enhancements to our PDF workflows, and a host of new features for DataForce.”
Broad-based sector growth is set to continue in 2022, with Shawe expecting GlobalLink technology sales to display “continued strength.” He also pointed out that demand from TransPerfect’s gaming customers has been increasing for some time and continues to do so.
Commenting on trends directly linked to the lifting of pandemic-related restrictions, Shawe said the travel and hospitality sector is continuing its recovery and is also expected to “outperform others” in 2022. Meanwhile, “interpretation and live captioning will likely increase proportionately with the return of live events.”OPINION
Dear Friends,
I wrote last month about the sad day for Delaware’s Chancery Court, as Vice Chancellor Joseph Slights announced his retirement. He served as a voice of reason among unjust judges including Andre Boucahrd and Leo Strine. The Good Ole Boys” cronyism and corruption in our Chancery Court, in my view, reared its head in the ugliest of ways during the TransPerfect case. I reached out to folks at the company to hear their thoughts on what Slights did for the company in recent years.
Here’s their response from a minority senior executive, who spoke to me under the condition of anonymity:
“TransPerfect and its employees thanks Justice Slights for his public service, and the work he did when employed by TransPerfect founders, in trying to prevent Chancellor Bouchard’s illegal takeover of the company. After the takeover, the company feels it was a victim of severe racism by Bouchard, the Chancery Court and its agents, like (Robert) Pincus and Skadden Arps – and we encourage Governor John Carney to change the all-white court by appointing a person of color to fill the vacancy created by the departure of VC Slights. Delaware should know, TransPerfect will never stop fighting for Justice, and to clear its name from Bouchard’s farcical and corrupt lies.”
I’m for fair, equal treatment for all. Going forward, the court needs a person with integrity like Slights, otherwise Delaware is worse off.
Please send your feedback on what this means for Delaware, folks. It’s always welcome.
Respectfully Yours,
Judson Bennett–Coastal NetworkDear Friends,
I write this brief dissertation with acute anger, frustration, anxiety, and determination. I could go on and on about the horrible and disconcerting operation of the Biden administration and the absurd and grotesque positions and actions of the Democrat Party, including the hypocrisy involving Covid mandates, the outrageous southern border situation, the Afghanistan debacle, the constant attempt to reduce our freedoms, and the teaching of Critical Race Theory in our schools.
I wanted to simply mention a few of the innumerable inequities among many created by this vicious Democrat agenda that is hell-bent on changing America into something unrecognizable. The constitution is under attack and the freedoms we enjoy are in jeopardy. I frequently write about all of these things, however, the most pressing issue which affects our safety and security is the unbelievable increase in crime in our once-great American Cities!
Folks, This situation has been created by incompetent leadership. When a Mayor and Council in cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, New York, and many others have eliminated cash bail and have significantly defunded their police departments, how could any reasonable or logical person expect any other outcome?
When a person is arrested for a crime, a judge used to set a significant cash bail and if the perpetrator couldn’t come up with the money, he went to jail until his trial. In most cases, violent criminals ended up in jail, unable to repeat their offenses. Now, these dangerous individuals are emboldened–permitted to rob, intimidate, and murder with impunity. Imagine your wife or your daughter being punched in the face for no reason, or car-jacked, or pushed off a subway platform to a horrible death, and the criminals are released the next day because no bail was required? How would you like to own a business that involved your life savings and work to have it broken into by roving gangs that steal all your inventory and put you out of business? Folks, these dangerous felons are permitted to do these terrible things because there are seemingly no consequences.
I say to myself, why would any reasonable and intelligent leader do away with the requirement for bail, to allow criminals to continuously repeat their heinous crimes? There is only one logical conclusion. The Mayors of these cities feel that it is justified to allow these people to commit crimes without punishment. No person, no business, not your wife, not your child, not your mother or grandmother. Nobody is safe on our streets and it is the fault of the leadership! I am sure some of you liberal sycophants will say that this is outrageous. Absolutely not, it is simply a statement of fact and it is accurate, whether you like it or not.
What is the solution? It is very simple. Bring back bail for criminals and increase the funding for police. However these liberal and corrupt Mayors will never do that. The only way things will change and crime properly controlled is to elect Republicans who will not tolerate this crazy and corrupt situation which is clearly intentional and for the purpose of disrupting our society and eventually turning it into a tyrannical, socialistic operation with no freedom to be safe and secure. This can no longer be tolerated and we the people must take back our country or we won’t have a country.
As always, your comments are welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal Network
Dear Friends,
It’s a sad day for Delaware and our Chancery Court system, as a good guy, Vice Chancellor Joseph Slights, announced his retirement after years of service to America’s First State. He was a voice of reason and guidance among unreasonable, unjust judges including Andre Boucahrd and Leo Strine. Their “Good Ole Boys” back-scratching, favoritism and cronyism has ruled a corrupt Chancery Court, in my view. The court is worse off with Slights stepping down.
My knock against him was he didn’t stand up for TransPerfect when he was on the Chancery Court bench. Slights was the man who, as a Morris James attorney, fought for TransPerfect Chief Executive Philip Shawe, saying the company was not dysfunctional and fought for no sanctions.
Slights knew it was all bullshit and fought Bouchard’s corruption hard, as Shawe’s attorney in private practice. He argued that the company shouldn’t be dissolved in a no-witness case, and justice should prevail—for Shawe, TransPerfect, and thousands of company workers. However, while his good work for Shawe helped Slights get promoted—it’s worth repeating that he never spoke up when he was on the bench. That speaks to the deep dysfunction and “Good Ole Boy” pressure for honest judges to bend to the corrupt will of the Chancellor, in a Bouchard-Era Chancery Court.
Going forward, the court needs a person like Slights to replace him, otherwise Delaware is worse off. See the Delaware Business Now story below on his retirement. Please send your feedback on this sad day for Delaware, folks. It’s always welcome.
Vice chancellor Slights retiring from Chancery Court – Delaware Business Now
By Delaware Business Now – January 13, 2022
Vice-Chancellor Joseph Slights III has announced his retirement.
Joseph Slights III
Slights’ departure is national and even international news because Chancery has remained the leading court in dealing with complex corporate disputes.
The court also handles selected civil areas such as guardianships.
“Vice Chancellor Slights has been a tremendous asset to our court and, indeed, our state; he will be sorely missed,” stated Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick. “He has done us the courtesy of announcing his retirement well in advance of his anticipated end date so that we can ensure an orderly transition. Per the usual process, the timeline for posting his position and selecting and confirming his replacement will be established by Judicial Nominating Commission, the Office of the Governor, and the Senate Assembly.”
Slights III was sworn in as a Vice Chancellor in 2016.
Before his appointment, Vice Chancellor Slights was a partner in the Delaware law firm Morris James LLP where his practice included corporate and business litigation.
Before that, he served a 12-year term as a Judge on the Superior Court of Delaware where, among other assignments, he was instrumental in forming the Court’s Complex Commercial Litigation Division.
Longtime Chancery Court critic Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware again demanded that Gov. John Carney appoint a Black Vice-Chancellor.
In recent years, the group has criticized the state’s court system and Chancery in particular for being all white, after the departure of Black vice-chancellor Tamikia Montgomery-Reeves who now serves as a Supreme Court justice. She was succeeded by
“The days of an all-white Chancery Court are over. It’s time for Governor Carney to appoint a person of color immediately,” a spokesman for the group stated.
Citizens was formed during a dispute over TransPerfect’s sale after its 50-50 partners could not agree on a buyout. The legal wrangling has continued with TransPerfect disputing fees paid to a custodian appointed by Chancery Court to oversee the sale.
The group has also criticized retired members of the court for moving to posts at corporate law firms.
OPINION
Dear Friends,
It’s a sad day for Delaware and our Chancery Court system, as a good guy, Vice Chancellor Joseph Slights, announced his retirement after years of service to America’s First State. He was a voice of reason and guidance among unreasonable, unjust judges including Andre Boucahrd and Leo Strine. Their “Good Ole Boys” back-scratching, favoritism and cronyism has ruled a corrupt Chancery Court, in my view. The court is worse off with Slights stepping down.
My knock against him was he didn’t stand up for TransPerfect when he was on the Chancery Court bench. Slights was the man who, as a Morris James attorney, fought for TransPerfect Chief Executive Philip Shawe, saying the company was not dysfunctional and fought for no sanctions.
Slights knew it was all bullshit and fought Bouchard’s corruption hard, as Shawe’s attorney in private practice. He argued that the company shouldn’t be dissolved in a no-witness case, and justice should prevail—for Shawe, TransPerfect, and thousands of company workers. However, while his good work for Shawe helped Slights get promoted—it’s worth repeating that he never spoke up when he was on the bench. That speaks to the deep dysfunction and “Good Ole Boy” pressure for honest judges to bend to the corrupt will of the Chancellor, in a Bouchard-Era Chancery Court.
Going forward, the court needs a person like Slights to replace him, otherwise Delaware is worse off. See the Delaware Business Now story below on his retirement. Please send your feedback on this sad day for Delaware, folks. It’s always welcome.
Respectfully Yours,
Judson Bennett–Coastal Network
By Delaware Business Now – January 13, 2022
Vice-Chancellor Joseph Slights III has announced his retirement.
Slights’ departure is national and even international news because Chancery has remained the leading court in dealing with complex corporate disputes.
The court also handles selected civil areas such as guardianships.
“Vice Chancellor Slights has been a tremendous asset to our court and, indeed, our state; he will be sorely missed,” stated Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick. “He has done us the courtesy of announcing his retirement well in advance of his anticipated end date so that we can ensure an orderly transition. Per the usual process, the timeline for posting his position and selecting and confirming his replacement will be established by Judicial Nominating Commission, the Office of the Governor, and the Senate Assembly.”
Slights III was sworn in as a Vice Chancellor in 2016.
Before his appointment, Vice Chancellor Slights was a partner in the Delaware law firm Morris James LLP where his practice included corporate and business litigation.
Before that, he served a 12-year term as a Judge on the Superior Court of Delaware where, among other assignments, he was instrumental in forming the Court’s Complex Commercial Litigation Division.
Longtime Chancery Court critic Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware again demanded that Gov. John Carney appoint a Black Vice-Chancellor.
In recent years, the group has criticized the state’s court system and Chancery in particular for being all white, after the departure of Black vice-chancellor Tamikia Montgomery-Reeves who now serves as a Supreme Court justice. She was succeeded by
“The days of an all-white Chancery Court are over. It’s time for Governor Carney to appoint a person of color immediately,” a spokesman for the group stated.
Citizens was formed during a dispute over TransPerfect’s sale after its 50-50 partners could not agree on a buyout. The legal wrangling has continued with TransPerfect disputing fees paid to a custodian appointed by Chancery Court to oversee the sale.
The group has also criticized retired members of the court for moving to posts at corporate law firms.OPINION
Dear friends,
There is no doubt in my mind that the Republicans are going to take back both Houses of Congress in this year’s November 2022 midterm elections. The entire Democrat agenda has turned off the American people with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris sinking to a remarkable, low, job approval rating of only 33%. Joe Biden, when you consider his unbelievable incompetency, which many are realizing – especially of his disgraceful Afghanistan withdrawal – makes him unlikely to be reelected and VP Harris has less of a chance.
If Donald Trump wants the Republican nomination for President in 2024, it is his. I believe he could win over Biden, Harris, or even Hilary Clinton (if the Dems dump Biden in favor of her). However, I am enamored with Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis, who is the best Governor in the United States. He has provided freedom for Florida’s residents vs. the totalitarian regimes of so many despotic Governors in America’s blue states. DeSantis would be a great President and is also very electable.
The only slight doubt I have about Trump was his stance on January 6, 2021 when he suggested the crazy idea that VP Mike Pence could thwart the election results during the administration of the validation process. Nothing in the Constitution allows that and this issue will come up if Trump runs again. Regardless, Trump’s platform, his entire operation was magnificent and our economy was sizzling, which is why when you compare Biden’s dismal performance to Trump’s efficient operation, it makes Trump’s possibilities very positive. On the other hand, DeSantis with less baggage, would in my view be an absolute shoe-in! It should be interesting to see who will emerge as the Republican Candidate for President of the United States.
If the election is fair and without fraud, I am certain, regardless of who the GOP will put forward, we will see a Republican President again. What do you folks think? Trump again or DeSantis? Perhaps someone else? Let me know your thoughts. Your feedback is welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
The Chancery Court drama never ends. The injustice, cronyism and favoritism runs as deep as ever, folks. A sham, you’ll see from the story below, where attorney Kevin Shannon won an argument in Delaware’s Chancery Court that a judge shouldn’t get involved in, because it was an unworkable solution. In my opinion, he swiped millions in the infamous TransPerfect deal for he and his friends, where former Chancery Court Chancellor Andre Bouchard got way involved!
How corrupt and ridiculous is this, folks? This guy – one of the filthiest attorneys for a decade now as I see it – engineered stealing millions from employees at TransPerfect. NOW he’s able to get away with saying a judge shouldn’t get involved, after a case where he was more than happy for the judge to get involved because it made millions for his friends?!
Vice Chancellor Sam Glasscock wrote, “The complexity of the business judgments involved… would involve the court in the seller’s business far beyond the boundaries of equity.” How does our government grant one side’s motion that Shannon argued would enmesh the courts too much in the other side’s business, when it’s the OPPOSITE of what happened in the TransPerfect case?!
Outrageous! Such hypocrisy and cronyism grows like weeds in Delware’s Chancery Court. This stinks to high-heaven, folks.
Please send your feedback! It’s always welcome and appreciated.
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Law360 (September 8, 2021, 3:48 PM EDT) — AbbVie Endocrine Inc. has lost a bid for a Delaware Chancery Court injunction that would bind Japan’s Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. to North American delivery targets for a globally important drug as part of an eventual contract breach award, despite AbbVie’s claims of irreparable harm risks.
Vice Chancellor Sam Glasscock III found in a 24-page post-trial opinion Tuesday that approval and enforcement of AbbVie’s injunction request and oversight of Takeda’s production and distribution mandates for the drug Lupron would be unworkable regardless of the court’s corporate and commercial law clout.
“The complexity of the business judgments involved, and the involvement of the court required to differentiate contemptuous from non-contemptuous failures to comply, would involve the court in the seller’s business far beyond the boundaries of equity,” the vice chancellor wrote.
Moved toward trial by the opinion are AbbVie claims for damages arising from alleged breaches of Takeda agreements to supply Lupron, a drug used to treat prostate cancer, endometriosis and other conditions. AbbVie distributes Lupron — generically known as leuprorelin and listed as a World Health Organization essential drug — in the United States and Canada.
Triggering the dispute was a U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspection of Takeda’s Lupron manufacturing facility in Japan in November 2019 that found “significant violations of current good manufacturing practice.” The agency called for corrective actions that initially curtailed production and then increased required manufacturing time and costs.
Takeda reported that it immediately put into place a comprehensive response and correction program. But AbbVie accused the producer of favoring its own direct sale customers and allocating supplies to users in other nations while failing to meet its AbbVie obligations.
Worldwide shortages of Lupron developed along the way, with AbbVie reporting continuing supply problems despite its contract rights. Full compensation, the vice chancellor wrote, could prove elusive.
“For the purposes of this memorandum opinion, I will assume that the loss of customers, including doctors, loss of reputation and loss of market share experienced by AbbVie led to an injury not wholly repairable by damages,” the vice chancellor wrote.
Takeda estimated that it spent about $30 million on remediation efforts last year, the vice chancellor wrote, adding: “Still, production of Lupron lags.”
During arguments on Aug. 3, following a four-day trial on the injunction motion in April, the vice chancellor said “I have some doubts about my ability to direct Takeda to do something that it presumably would already be doing if it could reasonably do it.”
AbbVie, however, disputed Takeda’s statements and commitments, accusing the company of lying about its sales in China in particular. Takeda allegedly invested $130 million in a factory equipped to make the drug in Osaka, Japan, to provide capacity for sales into markets in China, despite the availability of generic versions of Lupron in that country.
The vice chancellor said he would issue an opinion on AbbVie’s claim that Takeda breached its contract “in due course,” noting that there was no further need to expedite the case “in light of the fact that any relief here will be limited to damages.”
Transcripts of the trial and post-trial argument include scant detail on potential damages, although Takeda, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, noted at one point that AbbVie, while showing losses of customers and sales, had not yet shown detailed lost profits.
Takeda argued during the trial that a ruling in AbbVie’s favor could harm the public interest by setting a precedent that would act as a deterrent for pharmaceutical companies by limiting of flexibility for production complexities, including those caused by FDA investigations.
Asked to comment on the ruling, Takeda spokesperson Christina Beckerman told Law360 late Wednesday that the two companies have a long history of working together. She added: “While supply issues are difficult, our global alliance team has worked tirelessly to ensure transparency and collaboration between the two organizations. We look forward to continuing to partner with AbbVie to support patients.”
AbbVie did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
AbbVie Endocrine Inc. is represented by A. Thompson Bayliss and Joseph A. Sparco of Abrams & Bayliss LLP, and Paul J. Loh, Jason H. Wilson, Peter Shimamoto, Ashley L. Kirk, Lika C. Miyake, Amelia L.B. Sargent and Kenneth M. Trujillo-Jamison of Willenken LLP.
Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. is represented by Kevin R. Shannon, Christopher N. Kelly and Daniel M. Rusk IV of Potter Anderson & Corroon LLP, and Fred A. Kelly Jr., Joshua S. Barlow, Tiffany Jang, David A. Zwally, Mark Basanta and Christopher Gosselin of Haug Partners LLP.
Dear Friends,
As a child and young adult, my parents, who were sophisticated and extremely well educated, exposed me to many things, including New York City. Every year my mother and father would spend a couple of weeks in the “Big Apple” and they took me with them (we stayed at the Plaza Hotel), eating in fabulous restaurants, seeing Broadway Shows, and attending sporting events. The eclectic atmosphere with many different cultures was fascinating. The City was alive with its own fabulous electricity and special soul. My mother and father took me to the Empire State Building, The Statue of Liberty, Madison Square Garden (where I saw Barnum & Bailey’s, Ringling Brothers Circus (The Greatest Show on Earth). I saw innumerable Broadway Shows, and even ate at the fabulous Sardi’s Restaurant where the critics would evaluate opening night performances. Later in life, my wife and I would spend several weeks in New York, doing the same things my parents exposed me to as a kid. We loved it and felt safe in the City.
After the folks in New York City experienced Democrat Mayor DeBlasio, the worst Mayor in United States history, who defunded the police, limited their abilities to do their jobs, increased taxes, and instituted draconian restrictions on businesses, combined with Governor Cuomo’s elimination of cash bail, New York City became an open sewer of crime. Interestingly, many of my friends who actually live there – especially those in the high end areas of Manhattan (I used to call it the “Silk Stocking Area”) – still defend the City as a great place to live. They haven’t been assaulted, raped, robbed, or murdered yet, but give it time!
Folks, with the end of DeBlasio’s absurd term as New York’s crazy Mayor, there was/is hope of a revitalization of sorts, a reduction of crime, especially with the election of Democrat Eric Adams, who served the people of New York City as an NYPD officer, State Senator, Brooklyn Borough President. He’s now the 110th Mayor of the City of New York and its 2nd Black mayor. Well folks, make no mistake, this guy is a liberal wolf in sheep’s clothing who from my research, will talk the talk, but never walks the walk. I was absolutely appalled when he said he is willing to allow the 800,000 illegal aliens and non-citizens to vote in New York City elections.
When you combine this anti-American activity with the election of New York’s new prosecutor Alvin Bragg who has
clearly stated, as I understand it, that he has no intention of prosecuting any crimes with the exception of rape and murder, New York City will denigrate into the most dangerous and uninhabitable municipality in America. Indeed, another, in my view, outrageous, beyond liberal, Black DA, who is quoted as saying – “These cases do not belong in criminal court. The punishments are disproportionately harsh, and fall disproportionately on the backs of people of color. … This is why I will not prosecute most petty offenses through the traditional criminal court system.”
New York City and its people have no idea how bad it is going to get. If I was a criminal who wanted to mug, rob, and hurt people, I would head for New York City where I could operate with absolute impunity. This idiot, Alvin Bragg, has even said he won’t prosecute an armed robber, as long as he doesn’t shoot?!
Folks, New York City is no longer the Big Apple, it has become the Rotten Apple, and you could not pay me to go there for any reason. No matter where you live, you are in danger and very soon the residents there will realize how bad it really is and how bad it is going to get with its new hypocritical mayor, no cash bail, and an absolutely crazy prosecutor. I predict veritable, criminal anarchy in this once great city, which will eventually be controlled by liberal despots and non-Americans who no longer believe in apple pie and motherhood. As long as this absurd philosophy and liberal agenda continues in our major cities, controlled by incompetent, power hungry Democrats, the country our forefathers created for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness will no longer exist.
That is the way I see it, and I believe we the people must rid ourselves of these dangerous leaders or our freedom will be gone. The 2022 election is coming in November and we must change things. As always your feedback is welcome and appreciated,
Respectfully yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
I told you about the TransPerfect Music City Bowl game last week and what a game it was. I had no idea it would be so competitive and full of drama. I watched quite a few bowl games in the past few weeks, and this one took the prize. And I got lots of feedback from you, folks, so I wanted to let you know how well the game was received.
The game served as a victory for TransPerfect, which sponsored the bowl for the first time. I have written much about how I saw this company abused, mistreated, robbed, and nearly run out of business, in my opinion, by the corruption in Andre Bouchard’s Chancery Court—thankfully this case led to Bouchard resigning in disgrace with over 5 years remaining on his term.
You’ll see in the story below that the game had fantastic TV ratings and was the most-watched Music City Bowl in a decade. A sweet victory for the company that deserves much good luck coming its way, after the Chancery Court did nothing but take from it and its employees.
Glad to see good things happening where it is deserved. Thanks again for your feedback on this one, folks!
Please see the story below for the details.
Respectfully Yours,
Judson Bennett – Coastal Network
Attendance for the TransPerfect Music City Bowl was the third-largest of all bowls this season.
The game between Tennessee and Purdue on Dec. 30 had a record attendance of 69,489 at Nissan Stadium. Purdue defeated Tennessee 48-45 in overtime.
The only bowl games ahead of that was the Rose Bowl between Ohio State and Utah (87,842) and the Cotton between Alabama and Cincinnati (76,313).
Utah (87,842) and the Cotton between Alabama and Cincinnati (76,313).
The Orange Bowl between Georgia and Michigan also was sold out but capacity (66,839) is smaller than Nissan Stadium.
The Cotton and Orange bowls served as the semifinals for the College Football Playoff. The championship between Alabama and Georgia will be played Monday.
“It really kind of speaks volumes about the destination that Nashville’s become from not just the bowl but all of our sporting events here,” Music City Bowl president Scott Ramsey said. “The regionality of the two fan bases and the chance to fill the stadium up really created a great environment for the players.”
The Music City Bowl also recorded 5.6 million national television viewers making it the most-viewed non-New Year’s Six bowl this season and the third-most-viewed non-New Year’s Six bowl game in the past six seasons.
The ESPN broadcast was the most-watched Music City Bowl since 2010 (Tennessee-North Carolina), and the audience peaked with 8.9 million viewers the final 15 minutes.
“It was really just icing on the cake when you get a matchup of that magnitude and that excitement to have that many people view our game continues to allow us to move up in the postseason landscape,” Ramsey said. “It gave us the opportunity to showcase our city, showcase our new title sponsor in TransPerfect and was an overall exciting piece of the results this year.”
Locally the Music City Bowl posted a 14.3 television rating. It means 160,317 Nashville households tuned in. Local ratings for Alabama-Cincinnati were 17.3 and Georgia-Michigan 16.5. OPINION
Dear Friends,
This will be a brief dissertation to explain how dangerous, how disconcerting, how horrible, and how devastating to our freedoms, Biden’s “Build Back Better” legislation would be to the United States of America. What is frightening is there are only one or two votes in the US Senate that are keeping it from happening. Democrat Senator Manchin from West Virginia has decided he can’t support the bill and indeed he could still cave into compliance with the insidious pressure coming from his fellow Democrats.
Folks, this bill will shove America into a socialistic, inflationary society where all the dreams so many of us have worked for all our lives will be destroyed. The trillions of dollars that are proposed to be spent, much to affect controversial climate change and provide 87,000 new IRS agents to enforce compliance of Biden’s dictatorial regulations are and will be an abomination.
Already, under Biden’s despotic administration, with the help of several dictatorial Governors and Mayors, many businesses have gone out of business because of the ridiculous mandates instituted by this absurd government. Everything, our economy, our military, our cost of living, our security, and our personal freedoms are now being compromised directly and indirectly by President Joe Biden.
You have perhaps heard the words about the dangers of an “Orwellian” society. Well folks, a fellow named George Orwell wrote a book many years ago called “1984”. Many of you have not read it, unfortunately. It should be required reading in high school. Basically the novel involves a society where every move the people make is monitored and controlled by the government. “Big Brother is watching you” is a constant theme throughout this provocative and frightening piece of literature.
Well folks, the actual reality of this happening is indeed now apparent and one or two votes in the Senate is the only difference. In the recent past, Germany and Italy during World War II had totalitarian governments, Russia and the entire Soviet Union including its satellites were under dictatorial control where the secret police could and would come for you in the night. China operates that way now, and Biden is in bed with them, having sold his influence for a billion plus dollars through son Hunter.
In the proposed “Build Back Better” bill, the IRS will be allowed to monitor everybody’s accounts where $10,000 is deposited in a year’s time, which is most Americans. Even now, the Internal Revenue Service has unlimited powers that are concerning. Imagine, if these powers are significantly expanded in this grotesque bill. The IRS will become America’s secret police and yes, George Orwell’s novel will become a reality. Already, we have seen examples of Biden weaponizing the FBI to harass parents who are fighting against the teaching of “Critical Race Theory” in our schools.
Folks, the “Build Back Better” legislation is an abomination as are its proponents and creators, President Joe Biden and his Marxist administration. Be aware of the danger to your freedoms. Please speak up, call your legislators, or one day you will wake up into an Orwellian society with “BIG BROTHER WATCHING YOU!”
As always your comments are welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully submitted,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Good Riddance 2021 and Welcome 2022
Dear Friends,
From my personal perspective 2021 was a year from hell. Frankly, as someone who has been around a while, seen many amazing things, had many ups and downs, I have always believed in and supported our great country, the United States of America and its Constitution, which in my life has provided me and most Americans with freedom, security, and unlimited opportunity if we were willing to work and take advantage of what this great country has to offer.
Regardless of the circumstances in which we were born—and indeed some have had advantages over others—this great country has, since its creation in 1776, fought wars to protect our freedoms and over the years, corrected its racial inequities and provided the basic opportunity for everybody to have the right to move about freely, to own property, to have freedom of speech, and to choose our own path towards potential prosperity.
The words “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” have been paramount in my lifetime. Words most of us have taken for granted. Our elected officials, our leaders (especially our President), indeed those we the people, through free and honest elections, have put into office and have trusted to uphold our laws and protect our free enterprise system, have until now, maintained these high standards.
Folks, all this being said, throughout history, there have always been certain human beings, who have hidden agendas, dishonest presentations, authoritarian personalities, who desire the power to control the lives of others, and who through charismatic abilities, when unique circumstances become available, obtain power and operate as they wish. In America, we have supposedly been protected against the likes of Hitler, Mussolini, Tito, Stalin and the development of despotism. Communist countries like Red China and the former Soviet Union and the failed policies of Socialism, Americans, because of our constitution, assumed this could never happen here!
In 2020 and all of 2021 through the horrible Pandemic, Covid-19, which some evidence indicates came from a lab in Wuhan, China and has so far killed 800,000 Americans has given certain authoritarian and fanatical elected officials the apparent ability to take away your freedom, restrict opportunities, and destroy prosperity. President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and many Governors and Mayors who are true despots have used this grotesque man-made disease as a reason to dictate absurd power in an attempt to destroy our way of life. The evidence also indicates that the development of this virus came from the process of “Gain a Function” (the method of manipulating a virus to change it so it can affect humans).
The real rub is the evidence also indicates the process was funded with American Taxpayer dollars and provided to China indirectly by Dr. Anthony Fauci who is the main advisor and proponent of these odious restrictions that have put our way of life in serious danger! He is paid $800,000 a year by the government and has prevented innumerable therapeutic drugs from being made easily available to the US population. Why?
To describe 2021, in my opinion, is to call it the year of death, fear, political dishonesty, leadership incompetency, absurd fanatical logic, racial division, brain washing our children through Critical Race Theory, unbelievable increase in crime, the defunding of police, the destruction of our Southern Border (opening it to the world and severely compromising our national security, and authoritarian and unreasonable lock downs that have ruined the lives of many Americans who worked all their lives to develop successful businesses that have now been destroyed. Folks, for me it was the unhappiest, most disconcerting year of my life and I am glad it is soon to be over.
To briefly recap the significant and upsetting events of 2021, combining my personal opinions with what has actually happened, is indeed something I need to do in this dissertation:
1) January 6th, before Trump left office, after a rally of thousands of people where Trump spoke, indicating the election was stolen, Capitol Hill was invaded by right wing radicals, who created an untenable situation, threatening Democrat legislators during the election validation process and also VP Mike Pence who Trump mistakenly and wrongly criticized. Trump was impeached for the 2nd time and found not guilty by the Senate. What is interesting, Trump clearly stated he wanted a peaceful demonstration. He also had 10,000 National Guard standing by. The FBI was aware of a possible impending problem and did nothing! I believe Trump was innocent, but made a huge mistake in defaming his loyal VP Mike Pence.
2) Biden, as his first order as President, shut down the Keystone Pipeline, stopped all oil drilling, and created and took us from being energy independent to being dependent again on foreign oil—creating an oil shortage, affecting our entire economy.
3) Biden and Harris encouraged, along with many Democrat Mayors and Governors, a defunding of the Police which has created an epidemic of unprecedented crime.
4) Biden arranged through unprecedented financial giveaways and government loans where people had so much free money, they chose not to work. Millions of dollars were illegally stolen by corrupt individuals, because of Biden’s mismanagement. The lockdowns, restrictions, and mandates closed many businesses supported by authoritarian, power hungry Democrat Mayors and Governors. I got no relief checks or loans.
5) Biden opened the Southern Border to the world, stopped the Construction of the effective Border Wall and ordered the Border Patrol to not detain them. Well over 2 million illegals have come into the country we know about and over 500,000 are suspected to have not been caught. Thousands of illegals were put up in hotels, while many homeless veterans live on the streets. Illegals are being flown all over the country and dropped into states without the permission or knowledge of many Governors. Over 150 billion tax payer dollars are being used to support illegal aliens, many who are unvetted, carry Covid, many who are from dangerous Central American gangs, and also terrorists. Biden basically took the best and most effective Border policy in US history and turned it into the worst in US history.
6) Biden removed our Troops from Afghanistan, leaving the Taliban in charge, causing the death of 13 American Service Men and Women from the poor security he caused, leaving billions of dollars’ worth of military hardware behind, including innumerable armored vehicles, black Hawk helicopters, drones, thousands of assault rifles, machine guns, and ammunition. Hundreds of Americans were left behind and thousands of Afghans who helped us have been murdered. This was without a doubt the most significantly, mismanaged, military debacle in recent times and Biden is 100% responsible.
7) In Delaware, I was personally able to expose what I believe is a form of Corruption in the Court of Chancery, especially in the TransPerfect case. I believe my research and publications helped cause Chancellor Andre Bouchard to resign 5 years before his term was up. That was, in my view, one of the few things that were positive in 2021.
In my view, President Joe Biden is systematically trying to destroy our great American Dream. Great way to end up 2021?!
For me personally. Besides being extremely worried about my country, I was isolated, lonely, unhappy, lost friends and girlfriends in 2021. Truly the worst year of my life.
That being said, 2022 is a new beginning.
Alexander Pope in his “An Essay on Man” said those famous words: “Hope Springs Eternal.” I have my friends, in 2022 great hope, that we the people will begin to rid our country of these abominations, by the Republicans taking back the House and the Senate and removing the worst, most dishonest President and Vice president in US history. I am determined to revitalize myself personally, get beyond my sadness and frustration.
Folks, I wish you all a better and prosperous New Year. God bless you all and God bless America. Hope does spring eternal.
Sincerely yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal Network
in Spite of Chancery Court Efforts to Keep the Company Down
Dear friends,
The TransPerfect Music City Bowl is happening today in Nashville at 3 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, as Purdue plays Tennessee in college football. The good news is the game is sponsored by one of the most successful companies in the world, TransPerfect. I have often written about the company, concerning its outrageous abuse by the Delaware Chancery Court, when former Chancellor Andre Bouchard was in charge.
Well, folks, I’m happy to report that TransPerfect has thrived in spite of Bouchard doing his best to throttle it as hundreds of millions have been swiped from the company and its employees by the Chancery Court and funneled to its cronies at big law firm Skadden Arps, among others.
I’ll watch the game on ESPN today and you should too! Let’s celebrate that this company is doing so well in spite of the obvious damage done by our no-longer-elite Chancery Court, which has egg all over its face and should be ashamed of itself for treating this company so badly.
It is interesting to see how justice and righteousness eventually prevail and how terribly wrong and compromised the Delaware Court of Chancery truly is!
Please click on the links below to get all the details. Hooray for TransPerfect and CEO Philip Shawe for persevering!
How to watch the game:
https://sports.yahoo.com/watch-tennessee-vs-purdue-football-120220412.html
Details on the game:
https://www.transperfect.com/about/news/music-city-bowl-lands-new-title-sponsor-2020
Hope you watch the game! Let me know if you do and your thoughts on my column today. Your feedback is appreciated.
Sincerely yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkDear Friends,Merry Christmas and many blessings for the New Year from the Coastal Network. On behalf of myself and my entire staff, we wish you the best.God bless America!Sincerely Yours,JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
There is a monster living among us and that monster is President Joe Biden. Notwithstanding the fact that he is a proven liar, having lied about everything from his grades and degrees in college to defaming Curtis Dunn (the poor man whose truck was hit by Biden’s first wife), to lying about Nelson Mandela, to lying about his marriage and romance with his wife Jill, hiding his adulterous affair, and betraying a friend and political supporter. How in the hell did this guy get elected in the first place??? Folks, the people didn’t know it, because the press covered it up. Biden, having charisma in those days, unlike his demented state now, was remarkably interesting to listen to. He could talk for hours off the cuff, and he was impressive. Unfortunately, the intrinsically evil and dishonest side of this con-man was never produced for public view and he was re-elected over and over again.
Then, he was picked by Obama as his VP, lending his insidious con-game some credibility. During his 8-year period as Vice President, in my opinion, he was able – with the help and talent of his son Hunter – to peddle his influence to Ukraine, China, Russia, Romania, and others for millions of dollars. Hunter, as we know, is supposedly under investigation, however it appears he is being protected by the U.S. Attorney David Weiss?? Then we have the discovery of the HUNTER BIDEN LAPTOP FROM HELL! Folks, the evidence of collusion, corruption, and influence peddling, when combined with the testimony of Hunter’s former business partners, indicates Joe Biden was involved in criminal activity, which now that he is President, possibly compromises our national security??
Now that Joe Biden is President, what has he accomplished so far for the benefit of the American people? Folks, absolutely nothing, as far as I’m concerned, and as a matter of fact he has through his actions, attempted to destroy our American way of life through false, divisive, racial comments – opening the Southern border where millions of un-vetted illegals are coming into the U.S. – drugs that have killed 100,000 Americans so far – terrorists sneaking into the country along with violent Central American gangs. He is hell-bent on destroying the oil industry creating unbelievable inflation and price increases. How about destroying female sports – allowing men who want to be women to now dominate in swimming, track and field. And look at Afghanistan. Biden created and ordered the most incompetent and disgraceful military disaster in our recent history with the absurd withdrawal of our troops.
Folks, as I see it, Biden is the worst, the most dangerous President in United States history. There truly is a monster living among us and the situation is frightening.
I pray for the voters to rise up in 2022 and 2024 and remove this grotesque abomination from our lives. That is how I see it. I believe I speak the truth, and if anything I have understated the danger to our prosperity, freedom, and national security. As always your feedback is welcome and appreciated. How do you feel?
Respectfully Submitted,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
Love this news, folks! Citizens, which have spent millions going after Delaware’s courts with their super-hard-hitting ads – which I know so many of you appreciate, based on your past comments – are spending half-a-million bucks more on advertising. This puts a spotlight on how judges jump to senior jobs at corporate law firms right after the end of their term.
The ad campaign says Delaware’s judges should “no longer move in darkness” from judgeships to fancy corporate firms based on relationships with their cronyistic pals, according to the story below. This corrupt practice needs to end! Citizens plan to spend money until these crooked practices come to an end. They target former Chancery Court Chancellor Andre Bouchard, Vice Chancellor Stephen Lamb, and former Supreme Court Chief Justice Leo Strine Jr. These guys deserve to be hammered!
Let me know what you think, and keep your feedback coming. Write to Governor John Carney and your local Delaware state representatives. Let them know how much this matters! This corruption must stop!
Respectfully Yours,
JB – CN
Business group to keep pounding Del. courts with Thanksgiving ad
NOVEMBER 24, 2021
Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware, which has spent millions hammering Delaware’s courts, is launching another $500,000 advertising campaign criticizing the way judges jump to senior jobs at corporate law firms.
A new TV ad, “Revolving Door,” specifically criticizes former Chancery Court Chancellor Andre Bouchard, Vice Chancellor Stephen Lamb and former Supreme Court Chief Justice Leo Strine Jr.
The first ad will air in Delaware and across the Northeast on Thanksgiving during the NFL game between the Buffalo Bills and New Orleans Saints.
Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware also has a full-page ad in Sunday’s Delaware News Journal and will run radio and digital ads.’
Chris Coffey, campaign manager for the organization, said ads would send the message “Delaware’s judges can no longer move in darkness between powerful judicial posts and well-heeled corporate law firms to cash in on their relationships with former colleagues on the bench.”
Delaware should end the practice and “update its outdated and ineffective anti-corruption laws so that the mutually beneficial musical chairs between top courts and top law firms comes to an end.”
The organization won’t stop its campaign “to expose this corruption until Delawareans know what’s going on behind closed doors,” he said.
Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware rose in the wake of the Transperfect case before the Delaware Chancery Court.
In that case, the Shawe family that owned the language translation company were angry over the court’s order that it must be sold, which it was to owner Phil Shawe.
Since then, members of the Shawe family and the off-shoot Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware have worked against Gov. John Carney’s election and been critical of the Chancery Court.
The organization has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying for changes, including more diversity on the courts, and protesting the $3.9 million in fees that Custodian Robert Pincus’ and Skadden Arps — a vast American international law firm — charged during the court battle.Dear Friends,
Folks, I’ve been writing recently about the appearance of impropriety in the role of the Chancery Court Chancellor. Some of you wrote asking, does this really matter, Judson? Let me explain why it matters to you, me and America’s First State.
There are conflicts with Kathaleen McCormick and the TransPerfect case—perhaps not the spider’s web of conflicts that, thankfully for Delaware, in my view, swept former Chancellor, Andre Bouchard, out the door—but a significant conflict nonetheless. The jury is still out on McCormick—but I would have felt a lot better if she’d openly disclosed representing the 100% owner of TransPerfect’s arch-rival, H.I.G.
There should never be any inkling of doubt or suspicion that a Chancellor deciding a case could possibly be biased or have any possibility of a conflict of interest. There is an expectation for honesty. If or when an important ethical standard is believed to be compromised by a sitting Chancellor or Vice-Chancellor, it must be openly disclosed at a minimum, and sometimes warrants a recusal.
Without my investigative reporting, the Delaware public would NEVER have known Chancellor McCormick represented H.I.G. I issue a friendly challenge to anyone who finds that evidence printed in any article. Another cover up? Too early to know. An impropriety? Yes, beyond question, in my opinion! And the law says “the appearance of an impropriety is as bad as the impropriety itself”—except the law doesn’t seem to apply when Skadden Arps and other Delaware elites, in my educated opinion, continue to pillage TransPerfect’s corporate coffers with the Chancellor’s approval?
With the right law firms making enough money, $3.5 million in 2021 alone, Chancery continues to turn a blind-eye to justice.
Are these unethical standards what we want our Delaware Court of Chancery to use to define our state’s image? To define right and wrong for our children? The people of Delaware deserve better than seeing the TransPerfect owners and workers getting violated and robbed—that’s is the rub from my perspective. What do you think folks?
As always, your comments are welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal Network
www.CoastalNetwork.comMcCormick’s Faced With Decision Of How Much She May Skirt The Law To Protect Chancery Elites
Dear Friends,
The TransPerfect hearing on Monday was a Snooze Fest that featured a ridiculous argument by Supreme Chief Justice C.J. Seitz’s former firm, Ross Aronstam. As a reminder, it was Seitz who saw fit to join Leo Strine and affirm the boondoggle TransPerfect auction discussion, even after he disqualified himself for conflicts of interest – TWICE – because he formerly worked for TransPerfect Chief Executive Philip Shawe.
Sadly, the unjust history of TransPerfect looks primed to continue repeating itself.
Also sadly, I will never get that two hours of my life back. The arguments that the Ross Firm advanced were so infantile that they could only be presented in a Kangaroo Court. In sum, even though TransPerfect was the “client,” the Ross firm said it could take orders that harmed TransPerfect if that’s what Custodian Robert Pincus told them to do. If this logic was correct, Pincus could have wired himself $25 million and the company’s lawyers would have said, “That’s OK, as long as you say it is, because you’re the court.” Crazy!
At stake?? The perverse rulings continue! Like those in which the Chancery gifted Skadden $3.4 million in fees, just in 2021 alone! Of course, this amount is impossible to justify, and folks, I see it as court-assisted highway-robbery!
Of course, these are bullshit arguments that what the firm did was legal because Pincus told them to do it.
“Go shoot Abe Lincoln!”
“Why’d you do it?! Because Pincus told you to do it?!” That’s the Ross position.
Attorneys have a duty to their client – it is the oldest rule in the book. Let’s see if McCormick upholds it or contorts it.
I did my best to explain the issues. Let me know how I did. All Feedback is appreciated. my friends!
Respectfully yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal Network
Scroll Down:
The Law.com story:
In TransPerfect Global’s malpractice case against Ross Aronstam & Moritz, both parties have filed motions to dismiss, but each argued against the other’s during a virtual hearing Monday afternoon.
December 06, 2021 at 04:56 PM
Ellen Bardash
It’s rare that both sides of a case want dismissal without any kind of settlement, and even more so when that commonality results in a hearing over 90 minutes.
But that’s what has transpired in TransPerfect Global’s malpractice case against Ross Aronstam & Moritz. Both parties have filed motions to dismiss, but each argued against the other’s during a virtual hearing Monday afternoon.
TransPerfect in January filed its malpractice complaint “against its will and in violation of its right to select the proper forum in which to have its claims heard.” The New York-based company stayed its case making the same malpractice allegations and filed earlier in New York when Ross Aronstam moved for TransPerfect to be held in contempt for violating a court order.
TransPerfect attorneys say the case should be dismissed because the Court of Chancery doesn’t have subject matter jurisdiction over malpractice claims seeking monetary damages, and dismissal would indicate TransPerfect can pursue its malpractice claims in New York. But Ross Aronstam’s motion to dismiss asks Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick to weigh in on whether TransPerfect has actually made a valid malpractice claim.
It all connects to the long-pending custodianship case, also in the Court of Chancery and before McCormick, through which TransPerfect was sold in 2015. Ross Aronstam was hired by TransPerfect custodian Robert Pincus, formerly an attorney with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. David E. Ross argued Monday Ross Aronstam was bound by court order to report to the custodian, claiming there’s “obvious absurdity” in the points TransPerfect has made.
“Nowhere in the briefing do you see any case from any jurisdiction citing a case where complying with a court order is malpractice,” Ross said while arguing for his motion to dismiss. ”Their quarrel is not with us. Their quarrel is with the regime that is set up by the court order.”
But Douglas Capuder of Capuder Fazio Giacoia argued for TransPerfect that the defense position that Ross Aronstam was bound by court orders is exactly the type of limitation covered by conflict of interest rules, and the firm should have gotten consent to proceed in light of that conflict.
When McCormick asked whether the engagement letters from the time Ross Aronstam was being added into the custodianship case qualified as consent, and Capuder said the cases in question aren’t the type that would be waived with those.
Offit Kurman attorney Frank Noyes, also arguing for TransPerfect, said there’s nothing that would prevent the TransPerfect sale from going forward if the malpractice claims against Ross Aronstam are also being pursued.
“Ross Aronstam is seeking, in our view, to shoehorn its way into the jurisdiction of the Chancery Court,” Noyes said. “These are two separate cases. The cleanup doctrine is being overused to try to bridge that gap … RAM is asking this court to obtain jurisdiction over a purely legal matter.”
In August 2020, TransPerfect filed its case against Ross Aronstam in Manhattan Supreme Court, claiming malpractice and breaches of fiduciary duty based on representation of TransPerfect throughout the sale process in the custodianship case. The firm, TransPerfect argued in that case, was conflicted in representing both the company and, in 2017, Shirley Shawe, TransPerfect CEO Phil Shawe’s mother and a 1% owner of TransPerfect.
By the end of 2020, Ross Aronstam had taken the issue of contempt back before the Delaware court, filing a contempt motion in the custodianship case claiming it was a violation of the release conditions in Bouchard’s earlier order for TransPerfect to file additional cases relating to the custodianship.
Then-Chancellor Andre Bouchard denied the contempt motion in mid-April in a decision stating he was giving TransPerfect the benefit of the doubt for staying its New York case while the motion was under consideration and filing the malpractice suit in Delaware—signals the company was attempting to mitigate noncompliance. Dear Friends,
The Infrastructure Bill that was recently passed and signed into law by Joe Biden is one thing, and although filled with pork that has nothing to do with infrastructure, does at least address fixing up roads, bridges, airports, and so on.
However, the “Build Back Better Bill” that Biden is touting – and is now in the Senate – is a law that will completely break America, creating incessant inflation, beyond any speculation. The amount of money dedicated to the Green New Deal is staggering, basically destroying the U.S. oil production industry, with money for energy programs that only work when the wind blows or the sun shines, driving the cost of fuel and heating oil off the charts.
Folks, Biden has created situations that are dangerous for the future prosperity of all Americans. Shutting down pipelines, opening the Southern Border to millions of illegals, un-vetted, and unregulated. The new bill gives these people citizenship and also pays them. While veterans live on the street, illegal aliens are put up in hotels. The new bill creates an authoritarian situation where 87,000 IRS agents will be hired to investigate, to monitor, and to harass every American who deposits more than $10,000, which is many Americans. Basically, the bill weaponizes a government agency to control every aspect of your life. If this happens, your freedom and privacy will be gone.
Folks, Biden has become a complete Socialist and this horrible bill will seal our fate, putting America under a system that will absolutely destroy our country. If you do not want to be completely controlled and monitored by the government, tell your Senators to vote no on this premeditated, calculated, legislation that is designed to take away your freedom.
As always, your feedback is welcome and appreciated.
Sincerely yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
How about this, folks?! Robert Pincus, who I’ve written about in recent years for his shameless and grotesque billing practices in the TransPerfect case, is being featured on a billboard where he teaches at a Washington, D.C. university. Bouchard’s corruption and Pincus’s greed are the gifts that keep on giving for Delaware.
“Greedy Professor Pincus” says it all, a pattern of Chancery-inspired overbilling allegations by National Hockey League (NHL); Citgo and People of Venezuela; and of course, TransPerfect, which I have been writing about for years.
One must ask themselves, if the auction and sale of TransPerfect ended 3 years ago, why are Bouchard and McCormick permitting Pincus to bill OVER $3.5 MILLION in 2021 alone?!?!? Any other state’s Attorney General or General Assembly would investigate – but what does Delaware do? Those in power circle their wagons and protect the Good Old Boys Club and the Delaware Way, and they seemingly continue to enrich themselves at the expense of everyday working families.
Please see the article below from The Eagle in Washington, D.C., with the picture of the billboard.
Send me your feedback on this outrage. As always, your comments are welcome.
Respectfully Yours,
Judson Bennett–Coastal Network
Signs have been put up around the Washington College of Law campus protesting WCL adjunct professor Robert Pincus for alleged unlawful overbilling practices.
For the past month, a business advocacy group has had a truck with a billboard attached to it, calling him “Greedy Professor Pincus,” parked in various locations near the WCL campus.
Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware, a group that advocates for judicial transparency, is alleging that Pincus used his court-appointed power to overbill companies that were temporarily placed under his control. Currently, there are two companies involved with complaints against Pincus.
The group has focused on the WCL because Pincus currently teaches at the school, and plans to put boards up near George Washington University once they receive confirmation that Pincus still actively lectures at the school, where he works as a professional lecturer. In addition to the signs and billboards, the group is mailing and handing out literature to his neighbors, and volunteers are stopping students and faculty members to explain what Pincus is accused of, according to Chris Coffey, the organization’s campaign manager.
“Instead of his class on ‘deals’ at the American University Washington College of Law, professor Pincus should teach a class on the backroom deals that allow elite corporate lawyers and judges in Delaware to enrich themselves at the expense of hard-working employees across the state and the country – clearly, he’s an expert,” Coffey said in a statement to Business Wire.
In 2016, ongoing personal conflicts between two co-CEOs of TransPerfect, a language translation service company, exploded into a struggle for ownership. Lawsuits were filed and a year later, the Delaware Court of Chancery, which primarily handles corporate-related legal actions, appointed Skadden Arps law firm and corporate attorney Robert Pincus to serve as the custodian of TransPerfect.
According to Delaware corporation law, a custodian has power over the company’s corporate assets, estate, effects, business, and affairs. A custodian can also collect outstanding debts, claims, and property belonging to the corporation, as well as prosecute and defend in the name of the company.
As the custodian, Pincus was ordered to oversee a sale that would keep the company intact and increase its value for the company’s shareholders.
While custodian of TransPerfect, Pincus allegedly raised healthcare costs for employees exponentially, especially for workers of color while cutting benefits and bonuses for workers, according to Coffey. Coffey also alleged that Pincus had added many consultants from his law firm, using money from the company to fund his firm.
“This is money from the company that should not be used in a personal way whatsoever,” Coffey said in an interview with The Eagle.
Skadden Arps, where Pincus worked until retirement, has previously been accused by the National Hockey League for alleged overbilling practices while working a concussion lawsuit that was settled in 2018.
Coffey said Pincus has continued to bill TransPerfect $3.5 million annually but did not specify if he continued to bill them after being removed.
“Even this year, Skadden and former Custodian Pincus have billed $3.6 million, we have no idea what those bills are for,” Coffey said. “They’re sealed.”
Among students at the WCL, the responses to the allegations have been mixed.
Begüm Tiritoglu, a second-year law student studying human rights law at the WCL, was shocked by the accusations made against Pincus.
“I’m hoping this won’t get swept under the rug,” Tiritoglu said. “I want to see forums for open discussions on this to happen; especially if it’s concerning a professor at my college.”
Other students, such as Kelly McGrath, said the information available now is not enough to form an opinion on the issue.
“I just don’t know anything about [the issue], being honest, these are all still accusations so I can’t really say how I feel about the topic,” McGrath said.
When reached for comment, Pincus declined, citing that “as an arm of the Court, I have not commented publicly on any aspects of the proceedings.”
The Washington College of Law also declined to comment on Pincus and the advertising boards.
“We feel like this is someone who has continued to bill over $3.5 million to this company without listening to people’s concerns,” Coffey stated. “The only way he’s going to listen to our concerns is if we bring the concerns to him, and that’s what our plan is.”
The boards were up for three weeks, starting on Oct. 11, and Coffey said the group is reinstating boards near the WCL this week and the weeks following Thanksgiving.OPINION
Dear Friends,
Over my years of coverage, I’ve talked with many TransPerfect employees who think the Chancery’s decision was racist. They point to Custodian and Trustee Robert Pincus holding the pay of the only 2 Corporate-Level Executives who were minorities, and those minority executives having had to sue (successfully) for their pay that Pincus held back.
So I’m no Sharpton fan, but our Delaware leadership letting their Good Old Boys Club of Skadden Arps violate and pillage millions from these workers for years is coming home to roost. We have some very specific bad actors on the Delaware Bench and Bar, and they cloaked in Judicial Robes or Immunity—and they abuse their power and privilege.
Let me know how you think allegations of racism impact the Delaware Courts and their Skadden feeder system, which brought in Leo Strine, Andre Bouchard, Robert Pincus, and Jennifer Voss.
Keep your feedback coming, it’s always appreciated.
Respectfully yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal Network
By TIM BALKNEW YORK DAILY NEWS |
NOV 24, 2021 AT 4:14 PM
The Rev. Al Sharpton laced into an overwhelmingly white Manhattan-based law firm on Wednesday, accusing it of paying lip service to diversity with its fellowship program.
The Brooklyn-born civil rights activist accused the prestigious firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom of “bigotry and bias.”
Sharpton’s criticism marked the latest broadside in a long-running campaign he has waged against the firm. In a statement in 2020, he said Skadden had “appallingly low levels of diversity.”
Skadden, which includes an image of the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial in a slideshow on its website, boasts on the page of making “far-reaching” efforts toward diversity and inclusion.
But Sharpton described his dismay at the persistent lack of Black lawyers in leadership at Skadden. The firm’s New York office has 106 white partners, six Latino or Latina partners, four Asian partners, and one Black partner, according to data compiled in the NALP Directory of Legal Employers.
In a letter earlier this month, Sharpton urged a trio of nonprofits — the American Civil Liberties Union, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU — to reevaluate their relationships with the Skadden Fellowship Foundation, a three-decade-old program.
“If the data is what the data is, they need to correct it,” Sharpton told the Daily News. “Or people need to step away.”
None of the three nonprofits immediately responded to requests for comment for this story.
Kathleen Rubenstein, executive director of the fellowship program, and Eric Friedman, the firm’s executive partner, replied to Sharpton in a letter dated Nov. 9, saying that they were “surprised and disheartened to receive” his letter, adding that it “appears intended to undercut the Foundation’s mission.”
“The Skadden Fellowship community has been — and continues to be — diverse in every sense of the word,” the letter said.
The pair acknowledged in their letter that Skadden has “considerable work” to do to improve its diversity, but added that the firm “has made substantial progress.”
On Wednesday, Sharpton sounded unswayed.
“We don’t need charity,” he said. “We need parity.”OPINION
Dear Friends,
It appears to me from my research that the Chancery’s “Delaware Way” has turned a blind eye to seemingly flawed and conflict-ridden court procedures!
Hold on to your hats, folks: The evidence indicates that current Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick served as an attorney for TransPerfect’s arch-rival – in this case, it was HIG!
I know some of you elected officials, who read my columns, will doubt my research and want proof… Great!
Here is it:
https://casetext.com/case/in-re-allion-healthcare-inchttps://courts.delaware.gov/opinions/download.aspx?ID=152630
Why has McCormick apparently hidden this key fact? “HIG: tried to intervene with McCormick’s old firm, Young and Conaway… Why no disclosure? It’s insane.
Why hasn’t she recused herself?! Of course, in my opinion, she has an ax to grind with TransPerfect, who beat out her client, “HIG” in the auction, over Young, Conaway’s objections!
This raises big questions that need to be answered. The perceived corruption, in my view, in our Chancery Court, is possibly robbing people blind. Please do your job, General Assembly, and clean this up! Once word gets out that the new Chancellor is covering up her previous position, after Bouchard, it will be too much for our corporation-based economy to take.
Please share your feedback. I’m outraged at the fact that McCormick has such an obvious conflict, the fact that she’s apparently covering it up, and the fact that I’m apparently the only one who will tell the public what I personally believe is the truth about it from my research. Check out the links above, see if you see what I see… and tell me what you think. Was she HIG’s attorney or not?
I’m mad as hell that this is shaping up to appear to be more of the same court shenanigans. In this important Delaware equity court, there should never be any perceived impropriety. There should never be any concerns or doubt in the ethical behavior of the Chancellor?
Again, please open the links above and tell me what you think. As always your comments are welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
I need to write briefly about the incredible situation that occurred in Kenosha, Wisconsin, the nationally covered Rittenhouse trial, and what Florida’s great Governor Ron DeSantis is doing about any future attempts by rioters. Folks, the Kyle Rittenhouse “NOT GUILTY” verdict was correct and if there was ever evidence of self-defense, this was it. He was chased down by violent felons, assaulted, struck with a skateboard, kicked in the head, and had a loaded pistol pointed at his head. This was the truth and it was captured on video! The absurd statements by the media and the left that this was a miscarriage of justice is absurd and an absolute lie.
Why were there riots in the first place in Kenosha? Here is what actually happened. The Kenosha police responded to a domestic situation where a black man (a previous felon) resisted arrest and came at them with a knife. They shot him in self-defense, he was not killed, but was left crippled, now in a wheel chair. The press, MSNBC, CNN, practically all the liberal media, clearly and publically stated that the Kenosha police shot an unarmed man. THIS WAS A MALICIOUS AND ORCHESTRATED LIE BY THE PRESS! The lie stimulated the riots by BLM and Antifa who thrive on any excuse to loot, burn, and intimidate. Many businesses were burned out, horrible looting, and many people injured. The weak mayor allowed it to continue, instead of calling in the national guard. The Rittenhouse kid wanted to help the community and went there to guard a friend’s auto dealership. He brought a legal weapon with him for his own protection. We know the rest of the story and how it developed. The point here is it all happened in the first place because the press intentionally lied and clearly misrepresented the situation! They then continued to lie about Kyle Rittenhouse, calling him a vigilante, a white supremacist, and a murderer who went there to kill people. Totally untrue.
On another note, Florida’s great Governor, Ron DeSantis has arranged for a new and powerful law which says, if you riot, you will be arrested, stay in jail until you see a judge, and will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law! Florida, unlike NY, Philadelphia, Chicago, and many other ridiculously run areas (where criminals are out the next day, to repeat their crimes, still has cash bail.) DeSantis, unlike so many liberal mayors and Governors has a very dim view of looters, rioters, and violent felons who wish to disrupt our lives, intimidate us, or destroy our businesses. Try it in Florida and see what happens! God bless this man, a real leader who should and could be President of the United States.
Folks, the problem is those in the press who support lies and misinformation, who are intent on promoting anarchy, lawlessness, and instability, to change America into a Socialist, Orwellian society, a place where the best you can have is mediocrity, which this Patriot and Citizen will never tolerate.
How do feel folks? As always your comments are welcome and appreciated. God bless America!
Sincerely yours,
Judson Bennett-Coastal Network
— Biden’s Banana Republic?
Dear Friends,
In Hitler’s Germany, Mussolini’s Italy, Castro’s Cuba, Communist China, the former Soviet Union, and in innumerable South American countries (Banana Republics), the use of secret police have been used and are used now to spy on, arrest, and prosecute political opponents. Folks lived and now live in terror, afraid to speak out against the government, terrified of being arrested and locked away by the government’s authorities! Folks, this is not supposed to happen in the United States! Our Constitution (the 1st Amendment) guarantees our freedom of speech and (the 5th Amendment) our right to fair trials. Our various law enforcement agencies, especially the FBI, operating under the Justice Department, and the IRS are supposed to be totally unbiased in all their investigations and prosecutions.
When a government administration uses its law enforcement agencies for political purposes to intimidate, to harass, and frighten people into not opposing its questionable policies, prosecuting political opponents, while not prosecuting those of the same party, folks that is authoritarian, dictatorial despotism and it is not allowed in the United States! However, clear evidence indicates that the former Obama administration used the FBI under the direction of the United States Attorney General, Merrick Garland, and the vast, unlimited power of the Justice Department to do just that. Under direct orders from Biden’s White House, from a whistleblower FBI agent, providing damning emails, and through its insipid Attorney General who distributed a written DIRECTIVE to do just that in regard to parents complaining vehemently at school board meetings about the teaching of Critical Race Theory, a grotesque, Marxist philosophy that teaches racial hate and revisionist history, in our schools! From what I understand, the Biden administration supports and promotes this operation. Therefore, the FBI appears that it is now being weaponized for that purpose?!
False Government prosecutions, like General Mike Flynn, which was promoted and suggested by Biden right before Trump won his election, was horrendous in the fact that it actually happened by and through a corrupt FBI! Now look at Bannon, a former Trump aide, being prosecuted for Contempt of Congress. What about Lois Lerner (corrupt IRS Director), so many others were never prosecuted for the same thing. Now Biden may wan to weaponize the IRS to spy on and investigate anybody who moves $10,000 or more through their checking accounts in a year?? Folks, that is most Americans! To this investigative reporter, the idea of the once respected FBI and now the IRS becoming the secret police is terrifying. Once it starts, it becomes like cancer, it spreads, it grows with incessant corruption and pervades our lives — compromising our freedom! Well folks, it is happening already.
Like many despots and dictators in history who are becoming desperate to keep power, it appears that he is now attempting to weaponize the authorities for his own political purposes. It is happening and it must be stopped. Biden has the secret police investigate you for disagreeing with his horrible and dangerous policies?
Folks, I am deeply concerned. We must vote these people out of office in 2022 and 2024 before it is too late. George Orwell in his classic novel 1984 and Aldous Huxley in his novel Brave New World, wrote about how the government-controlled every aspect of your life and the secret police would come and take you away to be reconditioned. It should be mandatory reading in high school, but it is not. True socialism can only be enforced by desperate measures like using the SECRET POLICE! I believe it is already happening.
As always your thoughts and comments are welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Submitted,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkGaming and gambling have become big business online. During the pandemic, the industry exploded with people sitting home and finding these games to pass time and relieve stress. Now, with the bulk of activity, there are a few companies that stand out as having profited the most. In one case, we may now know why. Evolution AB (EVOG.ST) has been in the news for the past few days, but not for anything fun. The Swedish based gaming company lost about $3 billion in market value on Wednesday, after an accusation developed that it was operating in countries such as Iran, in violation of U.S. sanctions. The report said so much more than that, but you can read it for yourself below.
The report was based on months of deep investigating, where researchers found individuals who run the alleged illegal activities, and they went online and played the games in those countries as well.
Evolution’s Online Casino Presence in Illegal Markets
Evolution tried to deflect by claiming, “As a B2B-supplier, Evolution has customer relationships with gaming operators, who in turn own the relationships with the end users. Evolution does not own or control any of the operators or aggregators it works with. We have no direct relationship with the underlying player and no involvement in handling of players’ money,”
They claim, “We sell licensed and certified games to licensed operators and aggregators. It is the operator that decides which markets to market themselves, that handles the KYC process and finally decides what players to accept.”
So, they are using the defense that it’s not them, it’s someone who use them. Let’s see of the government regulators here and in Sweden buy the argument that they are not to be held accountable for the actions of its own contract workers. The report suggests full accountability. You should take a look and see for yourself.
OPINION
Dear Friends,
Interestingly, even though I am a dedicated Republican, an avid conservative and political pundit, I am an environmentalist who actually ran for County Council in Sussex County Delaware on a Managed Growth Platform, losing by 3 votes with 20,000 people voting, to an 8-year incumbent, who by the way, these days I respect and like. Since that time, considering the insipid, ill-conceived, poorly planned “Green New Deal”, and efforts by President Biden to literally destroy the oil industry while potentially destroying the economy of the United States, I have become much more appreciative of property rights, and very critical of certain plans by Joe Biden, who has no ability to plan properly or execute diligently any operation affecting Americans!
Folks, while Biden is closing critical pipelines, driving the cost of fuel and energy up to an unaffordable situation for many Americans, Russia is drilling, polluting, and exporting oil to Germany through a pipeline that Biden promoted. While, Biden has shut down all oil production in the U.S., taking us from being energy independent, and the number one exporter of oil, to now being dependent on foreign oil, Biden actually asked OPEC to produce more oil. What an idiot!
Giving the slightest benefit of the doubt, to the worldwide pollution and global warming problem, unless the participation is 100%, it is an absurdity. Does it make sense to cripple the economy of the United States, creating huge expenditures and hardships on our citizens, while China and Russia continue to pollute at will. By the way, the United States, already, way before Biden, had reduced significantly our concerning, negative emissions, making us better than most places in the world for a clean atmosphere. Slovenia is exceptionally clean on the sunny side of the Alps! Regardless, we will go broke, unable to afford energy, while China and Russia prosper! Makes sense?
Folks, wind mills don’t work when the wind doesn’t blow or when they freeze up and can’t spin. Solar energy doesn’t work when the sun does not shine. These sources of energy should only be used as assets, additions, and enhancements, not the sole source of energy needed for survival. There are ways to produce coal, oil, propane, and natural gas, cleanly and safely. Changing a society’s energy policies should be a gradual and slow process, utilizing innovative practices as technical advances improve. Stupid Biden, just shuts everything down immediately, creating chaos, supply problems and skyrocketing inflation. What good is an absurd plan like the Green New Deal when we can’t afford to buy food or the necessary items we need for survival?
On a humorous note, talk about pollution, have you all seen and heard on Fox News, Joe Biden’s unprecedented excretion of Flatus in front of Prince Charles and Camila while he met with them in London? Biden farted loudly and incessantly, polluting the British atmosphere! Camila is still talking about it.
Folks, Biden is the most incompetent, disgraceful, and dangerous President in U.S. history who has promoted one ill-conceived and poorly planned situation after another! God help us if we can’t change things before it is too late. That is the way I see it!
As always your comments are welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal Network
OPINION
Dear Friends,
I appreciate your feedback and I struck a nerve with my recent piece on, “TransPerfect Wins Legal Victory Over Skadden Arps in Delaware’s Chancery Court, Securing Two Wins in Past Two Months” Two victories against law firm Skadden Arps is a big deal because, as I see it folks, the Chancery Court has historically taken the side of the wealthy and connected Skadden lawyers. Yet the case remains extended while the court continues to force the company to pay for Skadden’s time, at $2,000 an hour from what I understand, to bring losing actions against it and then lose again. I am outraged by this injustice, and I see that you are too.
I appreciate your feedback, which I’ve featured below:
From Mary A.: “It all seems so crazy. No doubt certain connected lawyers get special preference. The Bar association, the Judges, and the legislature all profit, some directly and others indirectly. Disgraceful. Delaware is the most corrupt state in the nation. Biden right there with the corruption, which we all know about. Great reporting, sir.”
From Joe M.: “Amazing corruption that has been going on for years! Good job.”
From Carol I.: “Nothing will change in Delaware. The crowd, “The Good Ole Boys Club” as you like to call them, are too entrenched. Does not matter which party is in control, It is subtle corruption. You have nailed it. Thanks for what you do.”
From Peter P.: “Judson, Things sound more corrupt in Delaware than they do in Florida. Very interesting.”
From Laurie C.: “Great Reporting Jud.”
From John W.: “Wow, “The Delaware Way” seems alive and well ! I enjoy your passionate representations.”
From Georgia P.: “I always enjoy hearing your Delaware Perspective. You are an excellent writer. Keep up the great work!”
From Rick H.: “Judson, Interesting stuff. These boys in Delaware better watch out. They could get disbarred. Keep digging.”
Keep your feedback coming, folks! I appreciate it and it keeps us informed at my Coastal Network!
Sincerely Yours, Judson Bennett–Coastal Network
OPINION
Dear Friends,
Throughout history, despotism and restrictions on people when combined with concerns about their children have created movements that are extremely effective. Critical Race Theory which is Marxist and hate-based that teaches false, revisionist history and racial divisiveness between white and black children has been defeated and soon to be completely eliminated in the great state of Virginia!
Hoorah and best wishes to the spectacular, winning candidate, Republican Glenn Youngkin who has defeated Democrat Governor Terry McAuliffe in a close election which is a clear indication of things to come. When you combine this with the situation in NJ, where the Democrat, Governor Murphy barely won by less than 1% of the entire vote, this is the beginning of the end of Biden’s insipid and failing agenda of economic disaster, higher taxes, and elimination of freedoms!
Folks, the people are sick and tired of rising crime, created by liberal, woke, anti-police idiots, having eliminated cash bail, that are hell-bent on making America a true Socialist country. We the people are going to take back our country in 2022 and you are going to see the defeat of over 40 democrats in the US House of Representatives and over 10 Democrat Senators in the US Senate. Biden, who has committed innumerable high-crimes and misdemeanors, will be impeached, as his incompetence and dishonesty has reached levels that are beyond frightening.
Yes indeed folks, Let us look to Virginia and Governor-Elect Glenn Youngkin, a fantastic election and necessary change that sheds a brilliant ray of hope for the future of our entire nation. As always, your comments are welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
As usual, it’s hard to understand just what’s going on in Delaware’s opaque, corrupt judiciary, and to me, it clearly seems, the elite Good Ole Boys Club doesn’t want normal lay people to understand it.
Fear not, folks, the Coastal Network is here to explain it.
First the good part: As I see it, this new Chancery Court judge seems to not be the out-and-out liar that I believe Chancellor Bouchard was. Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick told attorney Alan Dershowitz she would grant TransPerfect a win in its oral argument and indeed she did, scratching Skadden’s losing motion from the record. That’s a very big deal because the Chancery Court has historically taken the side of wealthy and connected Skadden lawyers.
Now the bad part: McCormick did not fix the basic problem that keeps extending this case, and in my opinion, this non action, robs from TransPerfect workers, only to feather the nest of Jennifer Voss and other Skadden partners?
To make it simple: Law firms hired by former Custodian Bob Pincus (like Skadden) have, to my knowledge, so far brought 3 losing contempt motions which are against all legal rules, common sense, and our U.S. Constitution! The Chancery has continued to force TransPerfect to pay for Skadden’s time at $2,000 an hour, to bring losing actions against TransPerfect and then lose again.
This is so crazy and just perpetuates, in my view, the greedy, unabashed, gaming of the system by Skadden Arps! Outside of Delaware, there are two rules of “who pays” in the world of law: Under British Rule ( the loser) and under the American Rule (each side pays their own).
Only in a corrupt Delaware Chancery Court, when Skadden loses, does the winner (TransPerfect) have to pay the loser’s fees. As a result, the endless “billing carousel” continues which is outrageous and in my opinion should be unacceptable.
The article below states that this year – 2021 – years after the sale of the company, Skadden billed $3.4 million, much of it for taking losing positions against TransPerfect.
I believe this method of operation is insidious, illegal, immoral, unconstitutional and a filthy bastardization of the rule of law and should be prohibited. I hope I have explained the situation accordingly as I see it after years of research on this amazing legal debacle in the country’s second smallest state and the country’s first state.
What is your view? As always, Your feedback is welcome and appreciated folks!
Respectfully Yours,
Judson Bennett–Coastal Network
https://cryptopress.network/transperfect-wins-legal-victory-over-skadden-arps-as-chancellor-strikes-from-the-record-a-third-failed-contempt-bid/
TransPerfect Wins Legal Victory Over Skadden Arps As Chancellor “Strikes From The Record” A Third Failed Contempt Bid
NEW YORK CITY and WILMINGTON, Del., Nov. 3, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — TransPerfect, the world’s biggest supplier of language and innovation services for international organization, extended its string of legal triumphes in Chancery Court the other day when Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick struck another failed contempt movement submitted by Skadden Arps and previous Custodian and fiduciary Robert Pincus from the docket.
After years of TransPerfect asking for an end to the custodianship, the Chancery Court just recently released Pincus as Custodian after being confronted with trustworthy proof of over-billing in his function as a court-appointed fiduciary. As a Custodian acting for the State of Delaware, Pincus continued to costs countless dollars per quarter for over 3 years past the closing date of TransPerfect’s ownership combination. Pincus has actually come under extreme analysis for performing a doubtful public auction with approximated expenses of over $50 million, as he appears to have actually incentivized an individual to stay in the auction procedure by privately accepting compensate that “bidder” by approximately $4 million under specific situations. Other proof recommends that Pincus might have made use of the existence of this bidder to produce the impression of competitors, left out or concealed crucial realities concerning the worth of other quotes, and incorrectly pumped up the auction rate—regardless of his function as state star and court-appointed officer.
Before the auction, Pincus and Skadden were implicated of billing misbehavior individually by a minimum of 3 various C-level officers of TransPerfect. After the auction, Pincus is even more declared to have actually produced the “perverse incentive” to make billing chances spent for by TransPerfect—including today’s losing choice. This pattern follows the protestations of other entities required to make use of Pincus’s services in an unassociated matter for Citgo—where problems about the propriety of his billing have actually been the topic of lawsuits.
TransPerfect competes that the Chancery Court has actually countenanced an illogical scenario where Pincus and Jennifer Voss have actually been provided a blank checkbook to pay themselves for the manufacture of disagreements despite benefit. This reward has actually driven the Custodian and Skadden to take conflicting, losing, meritless, and unimportant positions—and in doing so, incorrectly pump up billable hours charged at rates of roughly $2,000 per hour. By method of example, TransPerfect has actually not gotten any services or other worth from Pincus or Skadden this whole year, however nevertheless has actually been billed over $3.4 million in 2021 alone.
“Three years after their assignment ended, Robert Pincus and Jennifer Voss are still billing TransPerfect—including for losing motions—catapulting the total expenses for the custodianship well over the $50 million mark. Skadden and Pincus’s unwanted ‘help’ is taking vast sums of money from the pockets of TransPerfect’s 7,500 working families, including funds that would otherwise be available for use toward benefits, wages, and other income. I view this as corruption and constitutional violations which TransPerfect can no longer abide,” specified Phil Shawe, President, CEO, and Founder, who was required by the Chancery Court to pay a $9 million commission to redeem the business he established, consisting of a portion charge on the shares he currently owned.
Martin Russo, a lawyer for the business, included that, “The victory on the contempt motion is bittersweet because it only precipitates another legal battle, as Pincus now seeks to charge TransPerfect for work performed on yet another losing motion. It’s a vicious circle because, win or lose, Pincus and Skadden will seek to charge TransPerfect for that activity. With no end in sight, it is clear that Delaware’s Chancery Court system remains archaic and broken, and equity is an elusive concept for those who are not among the elite and powerful Wilmington law firms.”OPINION
Dear Friends,
One of the most important aspects of being an American citizen is the inalienable rights to be able to have “freedom”. The ability and allowance to speak your mind, to run your business without harassment, to protect your children, and to feel safe in your homes and on our streets. During this pandemic, I have watched innumerable Governors and Mayors use their powers to intimidate, to punish, and to exercise tyranny against their own people while protecting criminals. The elimination of cash bail in many of our major cities has created a revolving door of criminal activity and made life for many citizens an absolute hell. I have friends who have lost their businesses in Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and California, because of absurd lockdown rules that don’t work implemented by despotic, power-hungry, authoritarian elected officials who are no better than Nazis. The operations in cities like NY, Philadelphia, LA, San Francisco, and Chicago are grotesque in their entirety because of poor leadership and ridiculous policies.
The firing of medical and hospital workers, police and firefighters because of mandated government policies demanding these critical workers be vaccinated is an absurdity. The loss of life, the damage done by criminals, the looting, and the violation of our basic human rights is rampant throughout America and now it is going to get much worse. Stupidity reigns throughout the United States as the Biden administration is failing on all levels. However, there are a few enclaves and safe states where freedom is prevalent and still a priority, because of the spectacular logic, intelligence, and guts of certain Governors.
One such Governor is Ron DeSantis. Unlike many states influenced and controlled by the insipid Biden administration that has a true Socialist/Marxist agenda to eliminate innovation, creativity, and basic economic freedom, Florida under the direction and leadership of Governor Ron DeSantis is truly a FREE STATE with no state income tax, no business restrictions, and true freedom. FEMALE SPORTS are not compromised by Gender transition with biological males winning contests as they are in other states. Masks are not required, nor are any mandates for anything. The teaching of Critical Race Theory where children are taught revisionist history and racial hate throughout many American schools is absolutely prohibited in Florida educational facilities. We have a stand your ground law here in Florida where people have the right to defend themselves against the criminal perpetrator. Florida does have CASH BAIL and DeSantis does not tolerate crime. Interestingly, as other states are firing police officers, Governor Ron DeSantis is inviting them here to Florida, with a Bonus to help our free state remain free and be a safe place to live.
The controversy over not forcing children to wear masks in Florida schools was a battle DeSantis fought based on the actual science and DeSantis’ caring, logical method of operation to protect Florida children from dirty masks and huge mental problems, yet greedy teachers and some political, controlling school boards prevailed in court despite medical science to the contrary. I believe DeSantis is right and he is the best Governor in the United States and truly cares about his state residents.
People are flocking to the free state of Florida (created by spectacular Governor Ron DeSantis) to pursue the American dream of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, all commodities that are rapidly disappearing throughout this country. I support Ron DeSantis and would be pleased and happy to see him as President of the United States if he chooses to run. So be it.
As always your comments are welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Submitted,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
A CASE AGAINST BIDEN !
Dear friends,
Regardless of your political affiliation, your religion, your race, or whether you are a liberal, a conservative, or even a Libertarian, there are certain facts about President Joe Biden’s performance and his history that are frightening. Even if you hated Donald Trump and are still obsessed about him, Biden’s actions are here and now. Biden owns everything he has done and reality is reality. In addition to obvious signs of senility and dementia, I believe without any doubt Joe Biden is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors and possibly even treason. Folks cameras do not lie, but Joe Biden does every time he opens his mouth. Did anyone see the CNN Town Meeting interview? Biden clenched his fists like he was riding a motor cycle. He was confused and indeed untruthful.
When Biden shut down the Keystone pipeline, he helped destroy thousands of good paying jobs. He also has taken us from being energy independent and the world’s number one exporter of oil to being again dependent on foreign oil. Biden shut down our crucial pipelines, but allows Russia to build a pipeline to Germany and to profit while our gas prices will now go through the ceiling. Millions of Americans have been provided ridiculous government checks, absurd government loans and extended unemployment benefits, and have decided not to go back to work, as long as the government keeps sending the money. Folks this is Socialism and eventually we will find ourselves in abject poverty without freedom and no hope.
I will remark specifically about two issues that should make it logically clear that Biden is breaking the law and his cognitive abilities to make rational decisions are seriously compromised. This situation is real and cannot be denied. First the Southern Border: So far since Biden took office over 2 million illegal aliens have crossed our border. Roughly four hundred thousand have eluded capture. The laws about immigration are clear. When the President orders our Border authorities to not enforce the law, which is a clear violation of his oath of office and among other violations by Biden, is an impeachable offense. Folks, the border is wide open and is wide open because Biden ordered it to be wide open. It is costing American tax payers over Two Hundred Billion dollars a year. Who has the guts to deny that this is happening? If you do, you are delusional, ignorant, or a liar!!!!
Second the outrageous departure from Afghanistan by and through Biden’s direct orders contrary to the advice of the military, allowing the Taliban to completely take over the country is the greatest military debacle in United States history and it is Biden’s responsibility. Thirteen American service people were brutally murdered because of Biden’s incompetence. Over 86 billion dollars of military hardware was left behind including black Hawk helicopters, armored vehicles, drones, aircraft, and thousands of high-tech assault rifles, making the Taliban the best equipped Terrorist organization in the world. Hundreds of Americans and Afghans (who helped us) were left behind, after Biden promised to get them out. This is all Biden and these the facts. We American citizens are now in huge danger of many more terrorist attacks at home and abroad as a result of Biden’s incompetence and acute dishonesty.
I rest my case! These facts cannot be denied. How can any rational human being continue to support this corrupt government? Folks, do you want to live without freedom, without prosperity, and without hope? The Biden administration is well on its way to accomplishing complete control over your lives. We will eventually be like pigs, being thrown some corn once in a while, as the elite politicians and global controllers live in luxury at our expense, while we the people are forced into mediocrity. Over a billion people in the world live on less than a dollar a day and they all want to come here. Biden wants to let them all in and then watch us become a socialist hell hole.
As always, pro or con, if you have an argument, I want to hear from you. Your comments are always welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
At the height of cronyism and corruption, the foul stench from the Delaware Chancery Court smells to high heaven (or hell), folks! As a judge, what do you get when you award a law firm $7.1 million?! … A job, that’s what you get!
Former Chancellor Andre Bouchard — less than 5 months after his Court retirement — gets a high-paying, private-sector job as Partner at big-law firm Paul, Weiss. The firm is where Bouchard himself gave his former law partner Stephen Lamb $7.1 million payday with no witnesses and no evidence. All of this happened while Lamb suspiciously kept his name off the legal paperwork so that Bouchard wouldn’t have to recuse himself from this very large payday for his former partner!
Suspicious? You decide! It’s the highest sanctions award in the history of Delaware. Sure smells like payback to me! Bouchard pulled his former buddy in on a $7.1 million payday to law firm Paul, Weiss, AND, look who now has a plum gig! From where this reporter stands: This smells so rotten because it is so rotten.
So many things are wrong here! All of them highlight what I have been screaming is blatant corruption in Andre Bouchard’s Chancery Court. Bouchard will now be back in that very same courtroom, switching chairs and trading favors with the very people he has been wallowing in filth with for years.
I see this clearly as “payback in exchange for verdicts” and I am spitting mad about it, folks! Maybe that was the deal all along? Dying to hear your feedback on this! Your opinion matters too! Thank you for all of your recent feedback!
Sincerely Yours,
Judson Bennett–Coastal Network
By Xiumei Dong
Bouchard helped shape top business court
That court is a key venue for shareholder disputes
Former chancellor is sixth attorney to join Paul Weiss’ Wilmington office(Reuters) – Andre Bouchard, who retired as chancellor of the Delaware Court of Chancery earlier this year, has joined Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison as a litigation partner in Wilmington, the firm said Monday.
Bouchard retired in April from the Chancery Court – one of the country’s top business courts, especially for shareholder and corporate governance matters – after serving as chancellor since 2014.
As the sixth attorney to join Paul Weiss’ Wilmington office, the firm said Bouchard will focus his practice on special committee and investigative matters, corporate and compliance issues and litigation strategy.
“[Paul Weiss] has a client base that deals with some of the most complex legal and business challenges, including many of the most significant matters that are in Delaware, and I witnessed that first hand,” Bouchard said in an interview.
During his seven-year tenure as the court’s head judge, Bouchard issued a number of rulings that cemented or proposed new interpretations of the state’s corporate law.
He oversaw high-profile cases, such as the merger dispute between Viacom, Inc. and CBS Corporation and the recent restructuring battle involving shared workspace company WeWork.
In 2016, his decision to reject plaintiffs lawyers’ fee award request in a settlement that only resulted in additional disclosures regarding Zillow’s acquisition of Trulia was the final blow to disclosure-only M&A settlements filed in the court. The decision ultimately caused many shareholder attorneys to move their deal challenges to other courts.
Prior to his appointment to the Delaware bench, Bouchard was in private practice for nearly three decades, including 17 years leading a corporate and commercial litigation boutique he founded alongside current Paul Weiss of counsel Stephen Lamb.
Their boutique firm Lamb & Bouchard became Bouchard & Friedlander when Lamb left the firm to become a vice chancellor for the Delaware Court of Chancery in 1997. The firm was renamed Friedlander & Gorris when Bouchard joined the court in 2014.
“Andy adds unparalleled strategic firepower to our thriving Delaware and M&A litigation practices,” Paul Weiss litigation department co-chair Jessica Carey said in a statement.
The firm has had an office in Wilmington since 2009.
OPINION
Dear Friends,
All eyes are still on new Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick’s handling of the TransPerfect case: Will she let the swindling continue? I’m hopeful for change, but one thing is for sure: Time will tell!
Andre Bouchard’s early resignation, with 5 years left on his term, is a clear sign that the public is fed up with corruption, cronyism, conflicts of interest, and giving out Court victories to your country club golf and tennis partners (Yes, Kevin Shannon, this means you). Here’s some feedback from my recent column, “TransPerfect Wins Legal Victories Against Skadden Arps & Bob Pincus and After Three Years Too Long, the “Custodians” Are Finally Discharged.”
Keep it coming!
Beverly C:
We can only hope that McCormick is twice the Chancellor that Bouchard wasn’t.
Keep us updated, Judson.
John P.:
I don’t get how these guys were able to get so much money from this company without any penalty. What the hell is going on in our state?
Joanna U.:
Judson, thank you. Maybe this will help those workers. So much money that should have been theirs. Keep up the good stories.
Franklin B.:
I don’t get this whole thing. I do get that people are being ripped off here!
Garrison M.:
So good to see the wheels of justice moving slowly in the right direction.
Those Skadden guys seem like crooks! Are you afraid they’ll come after you?
William K.:
The whole TransPerfect case has been an insidious debacle that embarrassed Delaware. Hopefully McCormick will bring some equity to the situation and return Delaware’s Court of Chancery to the national status it once enjoyed.
John W.:
Finally, it seems that some justice for TransPerfect is happening. Your expose’ of this entire saga has been impressive. Thanks for what you do.
Laura S.:
In a small state like Delaware, the legal community, especially in the Chancery Court, is intertwined and connected. This Court has been suspect for many years.
Cathy W.:
“Excellent reporting, keep up the good work!”
Sally B.:
Our Delaware incorporation industry depends on the fairness and equity of the Chancery which is the basis of why Delaware has been the leader in incorporating the majority of Fortune 500 companies. The needed Franchise Taxes are important for Delaware’s solvency. Let’s hope McCormick will restore some trust in the Delaware system. Good job Judson.
I appreciate your feedback and loyal participation over the years. They are a valuable tool as they serve as a barometer of your interest and attitude on these topics.
Respectfully Submitted,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkWe may finally see a glimmer of justice in the TransPerfect case in Delaware’s Chancery Court. With Kathaleen McCormick in charge, maybe there’s a chance?
The Bouchard-Era Corruption has to end, folks. The obvious cronyism, conflicts, appearances of impropriety and favoritism that compromised Bouchard’s tenure as Delaware’s Chancellor, especially in his handling of the TransPerfect case, from my perspective, needs to come to an end under McCormick. His resignation 5-years before his term expired clearly shows evidence of wrong-doing that looks to have been covered up by his resigning.
Here’s some of the feedback from my recent column, “TransPerfect Wins Legal Victories Against Skadden Arps & Bob Pincus and After Three Years Too Long, the “Custodians” Are Finally Discharged.” I always appreciate your feedback!
Beverly C:We can only hope that McCormick is twice the Chancellor that Bouchard wasn’t.Keep us updated, Judson.
John P:
I don’t get how these guys were able to get so much money from this company without any penalty. What the hell is going on in our state?Joanna U:
Judson, thank you. Maybe this will help those workers. So much money that should have been theirs. Keep up the good stories.Franklin B:
I don’t get this whole thing. I do get that people are being ripped off here!Garrison M:
So good to see the wheels of justice moving slowly in the right direction. Those Skadden guys seem like crooks! Are you afraid they’ll come after you?William K:
The whole TransPerfect case has been an insidious debacle that embarrassed Delaware. Hopefully McCormick will bring some equity to the situation and return Delaware’s Court of Chancery to the national status it once enjoyed.John W:
Finally, it seems that some justice for TransPerfect is happening. Your expose’ of this entire saga has been impressive. Thanks for what you do.Laura S:
In a small state like Delaware, the legal community, especially in the Chancery Court, is intertwined and connected. This Court has been suspect for many years.Cathy W:
“Excellent reporting, keep up the good work!”Sally B:
Our Delaware incorporation industry depends on the fairness and equity of the Chancery which is the basis of why Delaware has been the leader in incorporating the majority of Fortune 500 companies. The needed Franchise Taxes are important for Delaware’s solvency. Let’s hope McCormick will restore some trust in the Delaware system. Good job Judson.
Folks, thank you for your feedback and loyal participation over the years. Please keep the comments coming. They are a valuable tool as a barometer of your interest and attitude on these topics.
Respectfully Submitted,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
Folks, I’ve become such a fan of Alan Dershowitz, who I listened to during the recent Chancery Court hearing that saw TransPerfect taking on Skadden Arps. The call was run by Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick.
Let me tell you, Dershowitz won the day! His words were poetic. So well said, I have typed them up for you to read here:
“Your Honor, I have to tell you, I’ve been practicing law for 55 years. I have never, in my life — and I taught legal ethics for 25-30 years at Harvard — I have never seen billing like this in my life, in my experience, in everything I’ve ever read. I can tell you, anybody, any lawyer, no matter how wealthy, no matter how rich, if they are given what Mr. Pincus was given: A carte blanche, an empty checkbook, allowing him to charge $20,000 for an email, there will be no problem getting people to serve in that capacity. The issue is not whether you get people to serve in that capacity. They will be standing in line to fill in the blank checks.”
“What we have to do is finally put an end to this. And Your Honor can do that. Put an end to it fairly and justly, and allow this thing finally to terminate. And that’s what we urge you to do.”
Dershowitz has the energy and power of someone half his age. As I see it, what he said captures the drama of the outright crime that has been orchestrated upon TransPerfect. He is being bold in calling out this injustice so future companies aren’t treated so awfully in Delaware. Let’s see if McCormick does what is right for all of us hereby ending Skadden’s highway robbery. Please send your feedback on this. It’s always appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
Judson Bennett–Coastal Network
OPINION
Dear Friends,
Are we seeing a new chapter in Chancery Court history? One in which concepts like truth, justice, merits, facts, and the Constitution actually mean something? Is the Leo Strine and Andre Bouchard era — in what I consider the era of legal corruption — over IN DELAWARE? New Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick hasn’t ruled yet, but she did grant me and other Delawareans something I haven’t seen in nearly a decade: A glimmer of hope.
The Chancery Court has done, in my view, so much illegal activity to enrich its personal friends (Bob Pincus, Kevin Shannon, Jennifer Voss, Skadden, Potter Anderson), that I believe the Feds should have raided it years ago. Eventually, avoiding this scenario is probably why Bouchard retired with 5-years remaining on his term?
To try to understand the magnitude of what I consider the ex-Chancellor’s possible crimes-against-humanity and the appearances of impropriety in the TransPerfect case, please consider this: He seized the #1 firm in an entire industry, declared it “dysfunctional” and dissolved it despite all witnesses testifying to the opposite. He put his friends in charge with a blank checkbook — who tried to sell it to their vulture, private equity friends in a phony auction, putting thousands of U.S. jobs at risk — and they took a $250 million payday for themselves. Then what did they do? They sold it back to one of the original owners, at a price that amounted to less than what he’d offered voluntarily. Think it can’t get any more corrupt? Bouchard’s friends sold TransPerfect back to the original founder, Philip Shawe, who Bouchard himself said was the “logical buyer” from the beginning. $15 million dollars for Skadden directly. $50 million dollars for Skadden’s buddies. And all told, over $250 million dollars spent. For what? For nothing?
But wait, we did get something! The people of Delaware had our state’s business image tainted and disfigured beyond all recognition by what I consider and believe are colluding pirates, with Bouchard and Strine at the helm?!
So what is the glimmer of hope? TransPerfect has quietly knocked off a few victories, including defeating TWO contempt motions brought forward by law firms hired by Custodian Bob Pincus. Twisted side-point, folks: He’s spending TransPerfect’s own money to bring contempt motions against TransPerfect. As crazy as that sounds, at least he is no longer winning, for now anyway, under Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick.
All eyes are now on the new Chancellor! Will she free these 7,000 workers? Or let the Delaware elites continue with what I see as a serious and corrupt, legal, gravy train? What will McCormick’s legacy be? Send your feedback and thoughts. They are always welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
TransPerfect Wins Contempt Motion Victory Against Custodian-Hired Law Firm
Sun, September 26, 2021, 7:45 PM
· Court Order Discharges Robert Pincus from Position as Court Custodian
· Pincus Has Denied Owing Fiduciary Duties to TransPerfect as Custodian, after Being Specifically Named “a Fiduciary” by Ex-Chancellor Bouchard
·TransPerfect Moves for Sanctions for Alleged Ethical Misconduct by Robert Pincus, Jennifer Voss & Skadden Arps
NEW YORK & WILMINGTON, Del., September 26, 2021–(BUSINESS WIRE)–
TransPerfect, the world’s largest provider of language and technology solutions for global business, won a major legal victory when it successfully defeated a spurious motion for sanctions by Ross Aronstam, a Delaware law firm hired by Chancery Court-appointed Custodian Robert Pincus to execute an agenda against the interests of the company. Ross Aronstam previously employed Delaware Supreme Court Chief Justice Seitz, who has ruled on certain TransPerfect appeals despite previously recusing himself twice for self-identified conflicts of interest.
TransPerfect also succeeded in obtaining a Delaware Chancery Court order discharging Pincus from his role as Custodian and ending a three-year battle to remove him after TransPerfect’s ownership consolidation in 2018. In a letter to employees praising their business acumen and TransPerfect’s performance despite his interference, Pincus implicitly acknowledged that his appointment was not necessary and that there had been no impediments to the company’s “continued success.” His letter enraged the many TransPerfect employees who had their health benefits cut by Pincus while he simultaneously wasted millions of dollars from the company’s coffers.
TransPerfect has now filed a motion seeking relief from the most recent acts of alleged dishonesty by Pincus and his counsel, Jennifer Voss of Skadden. That motion, pending before new Chief Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick, painstakingly details allegations of vast misconduct by Pincus and Voss, including the improper retention of $4 million in escrowed funds under false pretenses. It also recounts Pincus’s ever-changing parade of excuses for hijacking the escrow, which has devolved into nothing more than an admission that he engaged in self-help and improperly froze the escrow as insurance against “future possible” claims.
The escrow funds were supposed to be returned to TransPerfect CEO Phil Shawe and former shareholder Liz Elting three years after the completion of the Court-ordered sale. Despite a Chancery Court decision confirming there were no “claims” against the escrow and that its termination date passed, Pincus and Voss have improperly frozen the account indefinitely. Specifically, the escrow agreement—which was drafted by Pincus and Voss of Skadden—expired on May 7, 2021, and clearly states that all money be returned after three years unless there are “existing” claims pending.
TransPerfect’s motion is rooted in there being no provision that permits a unilateral extension of the escrow for “future” potential claims. Nevertheless, Pincus has openly breached the contract, engaged in self-serving self-help, and again flaunted the tenets of well-established Delaware contract law.
Pincus, Voss, and Skadden are also generating more billable hours for themselves by refusing to accept full payment of “fees” erroneously ordered to be paid by TransPerfect, and have employed such tactics as not depositing checks and refusing to accept escrow monies ordered to be paid to them. Consistent with these bad faith acts, Voss filed a frivolous contempt motion of her own that failed to disclose Skadden’s obstructionist behavior and is designed to generate even more bogus fees.
TransPerfect has now been forced to incur custodial fees of over $50 million by Pincus and his agents, and the current motion asks the Chancery Court to put an end to this perversely incentivized and highly unethical warmongering. “This six-year gravy train must end for Robert Pincus and Jennifer Voss,” stated Shawe. “These ‘state actors’ have disclaimed their fiduciary duties, and continue to pocket millions for ‘work’ that is of no value whatsoever to TransPerfect. This injustice must end.”
Martin Russo, an attorney for the company, added that, “Pincus’s refusal to accept funds from escrow clearly shows that he is not interested in being paid for the services Skadden allegedly rendered; rather, it appears that he is intent on grabbing a fund that he and Skadden can indiscriminately bill against in the future—notwithstanding the fact that their legitimate duties ended years ago. Even Chancellor McCormick publicly has recognized TransPerfect is not a credit risk and it follows that no escrow is needed.”
Dear Friends,
Some of the most important words in our magnificent history were uttered by Patrick Henry (who constantly comes into my mind) before we established our Republic: “Give me liberty or give me Death!”
I feel that way almost every day these days. The second most important words in our history within the essence of our constitution are “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness!”
That being said, is creating a welfare state of authoritarian Socialism going to give you “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”? Is teaching our children “Critical Race Theory” in order to hate each other because of the color of our skins going to fulfill the American dream?
Is literally destroying our ambition, our innovation, and our creativity by taxing us into oblivion, going to fulfill the American dream as promised in our Constitution? Is deterring and eliminating freedom to express our ideas and thoughts without consequence a way to achieve happiness?
Folks, the clear intention, the specific plan, the definite, diabolical conspiracy and platform of the Democrat Party and that specifically of Joe Biden and the Democrat Legislators, is to make us all ordinary pawns in the Global picture of mediocrity and the proven non-working operation of Socialism and eventual Communism. If not stopped, we will become a big Venezuela, where 90% of the population lives in abject poverty. Look at the former Soviet Union. Look at Cuba. Is that the way you want to live?
The $3.5 TRILLION fiasco and plan to economically destroy this country is in the works. Frankly it could become law, where “Big Brother” will be watching every move you make through special gestapo-type IRS agents funded in this despicable bill to monitor your lives.
Folks it must be stopped, Biden must be stopped, Pelosi must be stopped, Ocasio Cortez must be stopped! Call your Congress members and your Senators! Don’t let these power hungry hypocrites ruin your lives. Thomas Jefferson. Ben Franklin, and George Washington are rolling over in their graves right now.
As always, your feedback is welcome and appreciated. God bless America and protect it from the grotesque, internal evil that now pervades our country.
Respectfully submitted,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
This is one of the rare departures from my usual political punditry.
What is love? That esoteric, fleeting emotion– a painful, powerful feeling that can often make or break us. Something I often wonder about as I am remarkably traveling into my golden years.
This morning while eating my Sunday morning eggs benedict at the famous City Diner in West Palm Beach, Florida, I noticed a young couple, probably in their mid-20’s, enter the restaurant and sit near me in a booth. He was not particularly an impressive specimen, while she was exceptionally attractive. Regardless, the affection, the touching, the smiles, the looks, were obviously apparent of some extreme, mutual admiration between the two young people. There was an impressive light shining off their heads. Maybe, they had just made love. Indeed, there was something really happening.
Lord Tennyson wrote “Better to have loved and lost, than not to have loved at all.” Love to me is having trust, having an admiration beyond someone’s faults, and unconditional caring for that person. Indeed I have had that in spurts throughout my life, but never a total fulfillment.
I am now alone with a beautiful cat that does love me unconditionally.
I admit it is not enough. I felt such envy and a moment of sadness while observing the passionate young couple. I wondered if in 50 years, after all the familiarities, successes, and failures, in sickness and in health, will they at 85 years of age walk down the street together holding hands. It always impresses me when I see that enduring love.
Regardless, beyond all the turmoil and pain of a horrible pandemic and a country seriously divided, those of you who have somebody… Please cherish them. You are very lucky and blessed.
Indeed, I have loved and I have lost and I am not sure Tennyson’s words are the truth. At times for me, the pain of that loss was unbearable, so not so sure it was better to have loved at all? Seeing that young, unconditional expression of love this morning stimulated that romantic side of me again. It briefly brought tears to my eyes. I am such an emotional softie sometimes. So be it.
As always, any thoughts or expressions are welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully submitted,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal Network
Voss Turns in a Losing Snooze-Fest to Over 50 Zoom Hearing Attendees, as TransPerfect is Victorious with Skadden Court Filings forever “Struck From The Record”
OPINION
Dear Friends,
The title says it all! Jennifer Voss’s losing argument during a Thursday afternoon Chancery Court hearing was a lifeless presentation — devoid of any passion or conviction —making me struggle to stay awake.
Without the home-court advantage of knowing the judges, Voss couldn’t argue her way out of a wet paper bag.
Finally, a glimmer of justice, temperament and even-handedness — after years of Bouchard brass and bratty corruption.
See the Law.com article below. Continue sending me your feedback, folks! It’s been pouring in lately — I appreciate and salute my loyal readership.
Respectfully Yours,
Judson Bennett–Coastal Network
Law360
Within about an hour of Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick’s admonition, New York-based TransPerfect wired that money requested by custodian and former Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom attorney Robert Pincus
September 30, 2021 at 10:46 AM
Ellen Bardash
TransPerfect Global and CEO Phil Shawe won’t face additional contempt sanctions after wiring $1.9 million to the custodian in their long-running case in the Delaware Court of Chancery, Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick said at the end of a virtual hearing late Wednesday.
Within about an hour of the hearing ending, New York-based TransPerfect wired that money requested by custodian and former Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom attorney Robert Pincus in connection with previous contempt findings, which could mean the final unresolved disputes in the case will soon come to a close.
McCormick said with a payment wired through the means specified in former Chancellor Andre Bouchard’s April 30 order, she won’t consider the remedial action proposed by Pincus. Without that payment, McCormick said she would consider sanctions and the post-judgment interest that’s been proposed.
“You say you want to pay. Here’s your chance,” she said. “Pay and I will consider that issue resolved and take everything else under advisement.”
Based on the motions currently in play, everything else now includes whether the escrow agreement will be terminated and the funds in it distributed, as TransPerfect and Shawe have moved.
The $1.9 million is the largest of three sums Bouchard ordered in April to be paid by May 7. TransPerfect has maintained the money ordered by the court has been available to be paid to Pincus all along in the case’s escrow account.
At the hearing, Skadden attorney Jennifer Voss said that doesn’t qualify, noting Bouchard previously found the majority of money TransPerfect was ordered to pay couldn’t be taken from escrow and arguing the TransPerfect side should be held in contempt, as Pincus moved in June.
Arguing for Shawe, Alan Dershowitz said that’s not true under the escrow agreement.
“Nothing in this order prevents Mr. Pincus from electing to seek release of funds from the escrow. The only order directed to Mr. Shawe is to ‘promptly and fully cooperate with Mr. Pincus to achieve any amendments that are desirable’ – a relatively vague term – ‘necessary or required,'” Dershowitz said. “There is no order, nor could there be an order, for Shawe to agree or to execute an amendment with which he disagrees.”
The two other amounts ordered are now taken care of, McCormick said, finding $186,921 can be released from escrow and the other $1.1 million wired to Skadden but previously not accepted can also be released.
“We consider this a victory and are confident that Chancellor McCormick will return our escrow once payment is complete,” Shawe said after the hearing.
Shawe and TransPerfect have repeatedly fought fees petitioned for by Skadden throughout the case, a concern which Dershowitz raised Wednesday.
(This note is not in the Law360 article: Jennifer Voss tried to argue to Chancellor McCormick the “difficulties” that Pincus was having collecting his fees would damage the institution and Delaware’s courts would find it hard to find anyone to agree to serve as an appointed custodian anymore. Dershowitz’ reply below was in response to Voss’ assertion)
“I have never seen billing like this in my life, in my experience and in everything I have ever read,” Dershowitz said. “I can tell you anybody, any lawyer, no matter how wealthy or how rich, if they are given what Mr. Pincus was given, a carte blanche, an empty checkbook, allowing him to charge $20,000 for an email, there will be no problem getting people to serve in that capacity. The issue is not whether you get people to serve in that capacity; they will be standing in line to fill in the blank checks. What we have to do is finally put an end to this.”OPINION
Dear Friends,
I must say that until Joe Biden got elected I always respected the office of the Presidency. I have absolutely no respect for this incompetent horse’s ass. I never agreed with Obama, but never thought or wrote the diatribes that this grotesque political monster creates. He is the worst President in U.S. history and with his Socialist/Communist agenda and the idiots he has surrounded himself, he is attempting to ruin America.
Taking into consideration Biden’s innumerable lies and those of his fake wife Jill, the essence of this man’s character is in the sewer. The defamation of Curtis Dunn, who had the misfortune of having Biden’s first wife Nealia run into his truck, killing herself and her infant daughter (Biden claimed the man was drunk, but I understand that he was completely sober), the rape of Tara Reid, the selling of his influence though Hunter’s nefarious criminal operation when he was VP, the termination of the Keystone Pipeline, the crisis at the Border, and most recently the Afghanistan debacle are all the responsibility of Joe Biden. The man is a traitor and if he was not President, he would be arrested and imprisoned.
Folks, as egotistical and brash as Donald Trump was, he cannot be blamed for any of this. Biden owns it, lock, stock and barrel! Biden has mismanaged everything he has done. He has lost his mind, and folks my inside WH sources tell me the situation is much worse than we realize. Biden takes a huge amount of drugs and by 3AM he is wandering around the WH screaming and yelling at people, and periodically doesn’t even know who or where he is. Furthermore, he is seriously incontinent and poops his pants several times a day.
Click on the link below and check out the telling article about Biden’s personal actions, his craziness, and his incontinence. Joe Biden must be removed from office either by his resignation, through the 25th Amendment, or through impeachment.
As always, your feedback is welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Submitted,
Judson Bennett-Coastal Network
Secret Service Warns Biden Has Lost His Mind, Regularly soils himself!
Will Delaware Ever Be Clean of what I believe is the Bouchard-Era Corruption?
Potter Anderson — the law firm of Kevin Shannon, the dirtiest lawyer in Delaware in my opinion – is now the law firm for Robert Pincus in his latest Court-appointed Custodianship. Apparently, in my view, one dirty legal hand washes the other in Delaware!
During the famous TransPerfect case in Delaware‘s Chancery Court, when Potter Anderson and Kevin Shannon started losing, they basically started calling Pincus unethical! Potter Anderson said Pincus had a “disabling conflict of interest” and that he “abandoned his duties” as Custodian to act in his own self-interest instead.
After all that, which law firm does Pincus pick? Potter Anderson?!? The same firm that dragged Pincus’ name through the mud during his last Custodianship, which he now chooses to be his firm? Does this sound legit? To anyone?
I’m even putting aside, for now, the huge question of how Pincus — accused of being a billing fraudster — even gets another gig from the Courts?! Is this just another opportunity to print money for himself??
I have to wonder, in my opinion, with one dirty, elite legal hand washing the other, with this same gang apparently up to their old tricks again– Will Delaware ever be clean?
Mark my words folks: In my view, if we don’t proactively put an end to what I like to repeatedly call the Andre Bouchard-Era corruption, ordinary Delaware taxpayers will eventually pay the price.
Send me feedback on this charade folks! Your comments are appreciated.
Sincerely Yours,
JUDSON Bennett – Coastal Network
University of Delaware Comes to Town, Political Recognition of Reality
Once every so often, I enjoy sharing a personal story in addition to my political punditry. If I can relate it to the disconcerting, political realities of our time, I usually do that as well. As some of you know, I am a huge University of Delaware football fan. I have been a season ticket holder for many years. My football travels have been curtailed since the Covid-19 pandemic. I now try to attend a Delaware away game every year when they play a big time school.
This past weekend, Delaware played Big East Conference member Rutgers University. I flew to Philadelphia last Friday, before the game, traveled down to Wilmington, Delaware by car, checked in at the Hyatt Riverfront Hotel. I got up the next day, and drove via the New Jersey Turnpike to New Brunswick to Rutgers’ beautiful new Stadium where Delaware’s “Fightin Blue Hens” had come to visit, to take on the Rutgers “Scarlet Knights”!
Interestingly, my best friend from Rehoboth, who had passed away, was also a huge Delaware fan. In his honor, since his tragic death, I have wanted to take his dedicated widow to a big-time game, once a year, and she agreed. What a trooper she is. And frankly, without her assistance, and excellent driving, I don’t think I could have accomplished the situation as easily as we did.
Folks, I meticulously planned every detail and even then, it was a bit complicated and stressful. I have found the best way to get really good seats, and I like to be able to be on the 50 yard line, and have easy, close parking, is to go through an agency like STUBHUB or TICKET CITY and believe me it is pricey and complicated. Unfortunately, for this very computer-challenged Delaware fan, nowadays everything is on an app and transferred to your cell phone. Once the tickets and parking are transferred to the cell phone, you have to make sure your phone doesn’t die and you can retrieve the tickets on the phone before entering the stadium area. That, indeed naturally became an issue for yours truly-LOL.
My arrival details in regard to getting there were perfect. I flew out of Palm Beach via American Airlines, walked to arrivals where my friend picked me up, drove us to the Hyatt in Wilmington where we checked into our rooms. Those of you from Rehoboth will appreciate this part, because next door to the Hyatt RiverFront Hotel was Big Fish Grill which is owned by friends we both know well from Rehoboth Beach where they own another Big Fish Grill. That is where we had two meals and the food absolutely melts in your mouth. I had forgotten how good that restaurant is. Interestingly, the place was not full with many empty tables, yet there was a waiting time to get a table. They have trouble getting employees, especially in liberal Delaware, where the freebies and unemployment compensation is huge. Bottom line, nobody wants to work, as long as the government pays them not to do so.
GAME DAY:
Not knowing exactly where we were going, how to find the parking at Rutgers, me being diabetic and having to eat every so often, we decided to leave Wilmington quite early to proceed over the Delaware Memorial Bridge onto the New Jersey Turnpike for a two hour drive to Exit 9. After traveling in circles for a bit, we found the specified parking lot where the $200 Parking Ticket on my cell phone could not be retrieved by inept me. After some personal panic, we were able to bring it up and were able to enter the tail-way parking lot, which was packed with a sea of red-shirt clad Rutgers folks with a smattering of blue-shirt clad Delawareans.
At this point it was getting hot with 87 degree temperatures and we were two hours early. Then of course, I could not bring up the very expensive tickets on my cell phone to get into the stadium, where I hoped we could get something to eat. Hungry (sugar dropping), no tickets, and hot. On our weaving in and out of tailgaters, we came upon a Delaware tailgating crowd, who I desperately asked if we could join them. We were invited under their tent, (some wonderful shade), given seats to sit on and given a tasty lunch and some fun conversation. They saved us from some difficulties and helped me retrieve my special tickets on my cell phone.
My delightful friend charmed everybody while I stressed over my meticulously planned details. Regardless, we attempted to enter the stadium 30 minutes before the game and the New Jersey Gestapo would not let my friend enter because her pocket book was too big. I had to wait while she had to go through the nightmare of finding the car to stow her bag and come back to the gate. Both of us were sweating profusely, as she found her way back to me. Meanwhile, I was holding my cell phone delicately to prevent the App from disappearing again. We then made it into the stadium and found our spectacular seats.
Delaware got beat 45 to 13. The score was not really indicative of the contest. Delaware’s quarterback threw many perfect passes into the hands of receivers who dropped them. The interior line opened some great holes, and Delaware had several scoring opportunities, but blew them with ridiculous penalties. I have to say this without any doubt. Delaware has a terrible pass defense and gave up 3 touchdowns that never should have happened. I frankly question the Delaware coaching, as the offense – clicking at times – was not innovative – no reverses, no fake plays, no fake punts, or attempts on 4th down.
I also found it interesting that the Delaware punter kicked it directly to the top punt return guy in the country. He did run one back for a touchdown. Why not kick it out of bounds? Poor coaching folks. Delaware had everything to gain and nothing to lose, but played conservatively. Why? The bottom line is as follows, in my educated football opinion: If you can pass, you can beat Delaware. I predict Delaware will lose at least two more games. That is the way I see it. I believe Rutgers is for real, and the renewed spirit and marketing that Rutgers is presenting these days is remarkable. When the Rutgers mascot – the “Scarlett Knight” clad in bright red-armor galloped into the middle of the field on his beautiful stallion, the sell-out crowd went wild. Rutgers could be in the hunt for a National Championship. Unfortunately, I predict Delaware will not be successful in its division, because of its poor pass defense. It drives me crazy. Regardless, it was a fun day, interesting to see the revised Rutgers program and I see them as a regular national contender in the future.
The drive back to Wilmington was tedious, dark, and we got lost despite our GPS. When we finally got to our rooms at the Hyatt, our beds had not been made and no clean towels. I raised hell, and was told that Delaware has Covid regulations that prevent Housekeeping room service, if you are not booked for more than 3 nights, and then you have to actually request it. Absurdity beyond belief and folks, the clerk was not even slightly concerned and was rude to me. The Hyatt Riverfront Hotel is not up to par. I don’t recommend it to anybody. The only good thing about it is it is next to the Big Fish Grill, which is superb. This would never happen in Florida under our magnificent Governor Ron DeSantis.
The next day, we departed early, my friend successfully delivered me to American Airlines at Philadelphia Airport. She was wonderfully helpful and I hope we can continue this tradition in honor of her departed husband and my friend who I knew and adored for over 60 years Like me, he loved Delaware football.
I now have to get political. While waiting at my gate to board the plane at the Philadelphia Airport, every 15 minutes, a threatening voice announced over the loudspeaker the Federal “Biden” mandate that everyone in the airport had to wear a mask or receive a $3,000 fine. I witnessed some cops harassing a person, accordingly. Big brother is watching and Biden is starting his totalitarian platform to completely control our lives through his Marxist/Socialistic agenda. God I felt outraged at this non-scientific absurdity that is all about political control and an eventual termination of our constitutional freedoms.
Finally, after boarding, and heading down the runway , the Pilot announced we had to return to the gate because there was a “Paper” error. Two hours later, we finally took off. Such incompetence by American Airlines is outrageous. Never will I fly American again. Frankly, I am not in any hurry to leave the Free State of Florida any time soon. I have experienced some of the Biden dishonesty and authoritarian crap first hand, and it is just the beginning. I finally arrived home, stiff and sore, hot and tired, and literally exhausted. I slept for 7 straight hours.
Regardless, all things considered, it was a positive weekend; I had a fabulous companion and efficient driver who was a magnificent trooper in dealing with stressed-out me. We saw some interesting football and an amazing Rutgers program. Hopefully we can do another game next year and I will plan it even better.
In conclusion, I say, Go Delaware! I thank my old friend, and I look forward to better days for the State of Delaware and our entire country.
As always, your comments are welcome and appreciated.
Blessings to all,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
Between the recent Politico article calling out Delaware’s Chancery Court corruption and now, the hit show Billions obviously being influenced by my years of investigative journalism into Bouchard-Era Corruption, my detractors can kiss my grits! In this article, Kevin Shannon of Potter Anderson says the caddie is lying, and he didn’t golf with Bouchard during the case. What was it Shannon? Tennis? Croquet? Badminton? Fox hunting?
Link to Politico story:
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/08/22/sharpton-biden-delaware-court-drama-506496
Everything I have been screaming from the mountain tops about the con Delaware’s elites pull on shareholders and workers is on clear display in Billions, Season 5, Episode 9.
Link to Showtime’s Billions:
https://www.sho.com/billions/season/5#/stream/episode/3475703/int-billions-11879
The glad-handing, nepotism and “Good Ole Boy” back-scratching are the subject of this episode, and my fears for Delaware tolerating this are all coming home to roost: Court crimes can only be so big before the world learns the unfortunate truth about the “no jury” — “no wheel spin” — “it’s all about who you know” Chancery Court with its archaic rules that make the Chancellor a Feudal Lord, unaccountable to anyone.
Without my investigative reporting on this issue, I find it hard to believe the Billions people would have known exactly what to look for. Voters, tell your elected leaders: Something must change in Delaware’s corrupt court system. If we don’t make changes ourselves, it will thrust upon us economic havoc in the industry for which we rely on most: Incorporations.
We must have integrity in our courts!!! As always, your comments are welcome.
Respectfully Yours,
JUDSON Bennett–Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
Folks, I write this dissertation with great concern and frankly in amazement at the apparent operation and incompetence of General Mark Milley, the United States Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who according to Bob Woodward in his latest book, might have committed treason? The basic job description of this military position is to advise the President militarily. Our President is our constitutionally designated, civilian Commander in Chief. When I consider the history of the Obama administration, the Biden operation in China with son Hunter selling his father’s influence for billions of dollars to the Chinese government, and the huge abundance of untapped, natural resources that exist in Afghanistan, including lithium, gold, copper, and iron ore, that will be utilized by China, along with the establishment of a perfectly located military base, I have to wonder about a long term conspiracy involving all the players going forward? This is way too coincidental, in my view, and the arrogance is earth shaking. None of it makes sense, unless you dig deep and look at exactly what has transpired.
Before going forward, it must be mentioned again, that the timing, the decisions, the orders, the total debacle in Afghanistan was the absolute responsibility of President Joe Biden who it appears was led by the hand of General Mark Milley. The decision to abandon a strategically located and easily defended airbase near the Chinese border; leaving behind billions of dollars of military hardware for the Taliban (making them the best equipped terrorist organization in the world) was pure lunacy. To allow the Taliban to take over Kabul, to surround the Kabul Airport, eventually leading to the bombing, assassination of 13 US service people, the deaths of hundreds of civilians and countless others who were severely wounded, was beyond stupidity and acute incompetence. To make matters worse, leaving behind hundreds of Americans and possibly thousands of Afghan allies, was grotesque in its entirety. Biden and Milley— the decisions are complete absurdity and absolutely unacceptable by any logical standards, setting the perfect stage for China to be the supreme operator in Afghanistan, thus controlling everything.
Now let us go further back in the Trump administration. According to documented evidence by writer Bob Woodward, General Milley contacted his Chinese Counterpart and informed him that “China was under no threat from the US.” He also apparently told him “if there was going to be an attack, he would warn him ahead of time.” President Trump was neither informed about this conversation before it happened or afterwards. Folks, if this actually did happen, General Mark Milley, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has committed treason and has compromised the security and safety of the American people.
When you combine, so many things, HUNTER BIDEN—Billions spent by the Chinese Government for influence with Vice President Joe Biden, General Milley, while acting as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, under Trump apparently betrays the administration, covertly talks to the Chinese military (Treason?), then Afghanistan debacle—basically giving our airbase to China, freeing up their huge military influence and economic benefits from mining the abundant natural resources. Let us look at China folks—Hunter, Joe, Milley, Wuhan Virus, China, China, China!!! If what I believe is true, then General Milley should be terminated and prosecuted for selling out our country. Never in my life have I seen such audacity and corruption in this remarkable Republic called the United States of America.
If anybody wants to destroy the United States, the Biden/Milley plan seems to be the way to go. It is hard to believe anybody could be that stupid? Folks, our freedom is at stake and something must be done. It is all just too much, all things considered?
As always, your comments are welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Submitted,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Read the original post, Ultimate Vindication As Mainstream Press Calls out Chancery Court Corruption
Dear friends,
I received substantial feedback from the article in which yours truly was interviewed by National White House Correspondent, Chris Cadelago from Politico magazine on the TransPerfect case. The piece not only confirms my suspicions about EX-Chancellor Bouchard and his gang of legal pirates – but also vindicates my view that the corruption in the Chancery Court is real, and devastating to Delaware’s image.
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Lord Acton said this in 1887. It is still true today, and there is no better example of this than the Delaware Chancery Court – in which archaic Old English rules make the system vulnerable to a man of Bouchard’s ethical fiber, which is ripe for abuse in my opinion. Example: Judges can select their own cases where the attorneys are their friends!?!? Versus a randomized process of judge selection!?!? A five-year-old could tell you this isn’t fair – the Chancery has no interest in even giving the appearance of fairness – in my view, just in enriching its “Good Old Boys Club” of cronies.
This must stop for the good of Delaware, and our Chancery must change. Thank you Politico for spotlighting the corruption I have spent near 10 years fighting! The story appears in full below. Thanks to so many of you for the flood of feedback! Perhaps change is in the air. I wish I could print them all, but here are 10 representative comments.
Forever for Delaware!
Feedback from Politico story:
1. Lynn R.
Judd, making POLITICO put you on the National Stage.
Good comments and to the point.
You pulled no punches. Great Job!
2. Albert S.
Wow what a story! Judson you are ready Fox News!
Philip Shawe has fulfilled the American dream and Delaware has tried to ruin it for him.
Glad the truth is coming out, thanks to people like you.
Can’t stand Sharpton who is an idiot. Keep up the great work. Al
3. Nickalous C.
Judson,
Great job keeping us informed.
Delaware is a corrupt state and your dedication to the truth about it is laudable.
Time for change in Delaware.
Best Regards,
Nick
4. Evelyne B.
Wow! Very involved.
I read it and it is quite amazing.
Sincerely,
Evelyne
5. Julia D .
It’s sad that the Delaware Way has been allowed to get so bad. Keep after it, Judson!
6. John W.
Judson, Great article.
Biden a crook, U.S. Attorney in Delaware a crook, Governor a dictator, and the Chancery Court has been passing money around like water for years at the expense of businesses. The Delaware Way is alive and well.
Thanks for your tireless work on this saga. Best regards, John
7. Julie V.
Bouchard should be in jail!
8. Frank M.
It runs much deeper than I would have ever thought! I pray this, Biden, and “other antics” all are exposed and our legislators take action!
9. Thomas B.
Everyone is beating up this court, yet it is deserved and not without sin.
God Bless America, Judson!
10. Susan L.
Who knew this level of dishonesty is even going on? Thank you for your reporting!
Indeed I thank you all for your many responses through Facebook and the Coastal Network. I dropped the last names to protect your privacy. Again I appreciate and welcome the amazing feedback. which shows that the public is recognizing the Chancery Court’s inequities and the importance for change.
Scroll down to read the well-written Politico article. Let’s keep this momentum going for change in Delaware and our Chancery Court.
Yours Truly,
JUDSON Bennett–Coastal NetworkDear Friends,
Look at this, folks! Retired Skadden Arps partner and former TransPerfect Custodian Bob Pincus — who orchestrated the court-ordered highway robbery of $50 MILLION in the TransPerfect case — is at it again! He’s “raising eyebrows” by asking to exceed a $2 million cap on his fees in the sale of Citgo’s parent company case, as you’ll see in the story below.
What nerve this guy has to go to the trough yet again in Delaware, where he knows the fix is in! Why else would he have the brass ones to ask for more money than all the parties involved have agreed on?! Well, why not?! He’s on the inside of a fixed system where he and his judge buddies all hang out at the country club, play tennis, go golfing and likely figure out how to pay for new pools and their kids’ educations over drinks — that’s the Delaware Way! And now others are getting screwed in addition to TransPerfect. Who will be next?!
Once again, shamefully, the rich are getting richer and the poor workers at these companies are paying for it with lower salaries, healthcare benefits and bonuses. This money has to come from somewhere and you can bet it’s coming out of the pockets of employees to pay for the Rolls Royces of people like Pincus and Andre Bouchard and their Skadden and Chancery Court buddies.
Read the dreadful story below. Pincus is at it again. Send your feedback on this, my friends. Your comments are welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
JUDSON Bennett–Coastal NetworkSpecial Master Targeted In Fight Over Fees For Citgo Sale
By Caroline Simson
Law360 (September 8, 2021, 10:00 PM EDT) — The special master overseeing the sale of Citgo’s parent company has become embroiled in a dispute over fees that exceed a $2 million cap, marking at least the second time that the retired Skadden partner has raised eyebrows over fees incurred while overseeing a court-ordered sales process.
The parties involved in the dispute — including Venezuela, its state-owned oil company PDVSA, ConocoPhillips and Crystallex — have sent letters filed under seal in recent weeks objecting to court-appointed special master Robert B. Pincus’ request that a Delaware district court judge allow him to exceed the $2 million fee cap the judge set earlier this year.
Pincus, a former mergers and acquisitions partner of Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP who retired from the firm in late 2018, was officially appointed to the special master position by U.S. District Judge Leonard P. Stark in May to oversee the sale of PDVSA’s shares in PDV Holding Inc., the indirect parent of U.S. petroleum company, as part of Canadian company Crystallex’s efforts to enforce a $1.2 billion arbitral award against Venezuela. He had been one of the candidates put forward by Venezuela, PDVSA, PDV Holding, Citgo and ConocoPhillips.
In a public version of an Aug. 30 letter penned by Pincus that was posted to the docket on Tuesday, Pincus defended his requested fees and noted that the parties had understood that those fees might exceed the $2 million cap. As a result, Judge Stark included a mechanism to adjust the fee cap upward when Pincus was appointed back in May, according to the letter.
“My mandate already has been an extraordinarily complex and difficult endeavor on many levels,” Pincus told Judge Stark. “One need only read my report to understand that, and I am confident that all of the interested parties appreciate that our task has been a difficult and complex one just to get to this stage.”
Pincus, who submitted proposed sale procedures for the PDV Holding shares to the court on Aug. 9 that remain under seal, nevertheless agreed to reduce the fees being sought by him and his advisers for the month of July by a combined $75,000, with the caveat that he “hesitate[d]” to offer the concession for fear of making it appear that the reduction is warranted or of establishing a pattern for every time a party objects to his fees.
Counsel for Citgo and PDV Holding declined to comment. Counsel for Pincus and the other parties could not immediately be reached for comment.
The dispute marks at least the second time that Pincus has been targeted over his fees, although in the previous situation, involving global translation company TransPerfect, he emerged mostly on top. Earlier this year, another judge in Delaware ordered TransPerfect and co-founder Philip Shawe to pay Pincus, who had been appointed custodian to sell the company in 2015, fees and expenses totaling more than $3.2 million.
TransPerfect and Shawe had attacked Pincus’ fee petitions “in every way imaginable,” now-retired Delaware Chancellor Andre G. Bouchard wrote in the April 30 opinion, filing three rounds of objections that took issue with “with virtually every time entry in the fee petitions,” including a motion accusing Pincus of bad faith over certain categories of expenses.
The judge denied TransPerfect and Shawe’s contempt, preclusion and bad faith motions against Pincus, although he sustained certain objections they had raised and shaved some $420,000 off the fees and expenses that Pincus said he was owed.
In the Crystallex case, meanwhile, a redacted version of an Aug. 25 letter penned by Citgo, PDV Holding, PDVSA and Venezuela, which appeared in the public docket on Sept. 1, reveals that they had asked Judge Stark to reject Pincus’ fee request over the $2 million cap and to require him to seek advance approval before submitting any further requests to exceed the cap.
In addition, they asked the court to require Pincus to provide a “satisfactory explanation as to what extraordinary, unforeseen reasons made it impossible to stay within the court’s ordered limit,” and to consult with the parties and ConocoPhillips regarding any expansion of the fee cap and provide a plan to “rein in costs and establish more certainty that any new fee cap will not be exceeded.”
In a follow-up letter dated Sept. 1 that was made public on Wednesday, they complained that Pincus had “failed to address the thrust of [their] objection to his July fee request” in his Aug. 30 response and argued that the “generous sum” of $2 million “appears to have been treated as an estimate or proposed budget rather than as a cap.”
“Of course, as the special master noted … the May 27 order provides a mechanism for the special master to petition the court to exceed the cap, but presumably only upon a showing that there was a diligent effort to stay within the cap and that some unforeseeable, extraordinary event has made it impossible to stay within that limit,” they continued. “The special master has done none of those things and has made no attempt to justify the twenty-seven lawyers that have billed an extraordinary amount of time to this matter.”
Crystallex won its award in April 2016 after an international tribunal concluded that Venezuela breached its investment treaty with Canada by wrongfully ousting the company from an operating contract for the Las Cristinas mine, which contains one of the world’s largest undeveloped gold deposits. The award was confirmed by a D.C. federal court in March 2017.
In an order issued in January, Judge Stark denied Venezuela’s motion to quash an attachment order for the PDV Holding shares that he issued to Crystallex some three years ago in light of the “extraordinary” circumstances relating to an ongoing power struggle between Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and opposition leader Juan Guaidó, saying that it would be “inequitable” to permit the Venezuelan government to continue evading payment on what it owes.
ConocoPhillips, which is owed some $2 billion by Venezuela after the country nationalized two of its onshore extra-heavy oil projects without compensation in 2007, has also taken an interest in the case since Citgo is considered Venezuela’s most significant U.S. asset.
Crystallex is represented by Travis S. Hunter, Jeffrey L. Moyer and Raymond J. DiCamillo of Richards Layton & Finger PA and Robert L. Weigel, Rahim Moloo, Miguel A. Estrada, Lucas C. Townsend and Jason W. Myatt of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP.
Citgo Petroleum Corp. and PDV Holding Inc. are represented by Kenneth J. Nachbar and Alexandra M. Cumings of Morris Nichols Arsht & Tunnell LLP and Nathan P. Eimer, Lisa S. Meyer, Daniel D. Birk and Gregory M. Schweizer of Eimer Stahl LLP.
PDVSA is represented by Samuel T. Hirzel II of Heyman Enerio Gattuso & Hirzel LLP and Joseph D. Pizzurro and Julia B. Mosse of Curtis Mallet-Prevost Colt & Mosle LLP.
Venezuela is represented by Donald B. Verrilli Jr., George M. Garvey, Elaine J. Goldenberg, Ginger D. Anders, Brendan B. Gants and Jacobus P. van der Ven of Munger Tolles & Olson LLP and A. Thompson Bayliss and Stephen C. Childs of Abrams Bayliss LLP.
Pincus is represented by Myron T. Steele, Alan Richard Silverstein, Abraham C. Schneider and Matthew Foulger Davis of Potter Anderson & Corroon LLP and by Alexander W. Welch and Jason Hufendick of Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP.
The case is Crystallex International Corp. v. Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, case number 1:17-mc-00151, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware.
–Editing by Jay Jackson Jr.OPINION
Dear Friends,
Look at this Citizen’s billboard finally calling out Custodian Bob Pincus and Jennifer Voss of Skadden Arps for what they have done, which in my opinion, is state-sanctioned highway robbery – to the tune of $50 MILLION!!
The rich get richer by scratching the backs of their fellow Country Club members – only in Delaware – and only under the false veil of legality that defined Chancery Court under its Bouchard-Era corruption.
Who is not pictured? Another crony that made over $1.7 million, Kevin Shannon of Potter Anderson. Shannon officially denied playing golf with Chancellor Bouchard during the trial; so now, it’s his word against a caddie according to Politico Magazine. My money is on the caddie telling the truth. However, Kevin Shannon did not deny being best friends with then-Chancellor Bouchard, did not deny playing tennis with him, nor being hand-picked by him for Bouchard’s prestigious hospital Board Seat – a vacancy created when Bouchard took the bench for his infamous and disgraceful reign. Nor has Shannon denied his using a forged retainer letter during trial (Exhibit JX378) to hide the premeditated dissolution plan – evidence that would have exonerated TransPerfect and Shawe from the outset.
A chorus of my reader is wondering: “When will justice come for these cronies?” Bouchard ordered his cronies Skadden, Pincus, Voss, Shannon and his former partner Steven Lamb, over $50 MILLION in unitemized fees. That’s a lot of extra-cheese on your Whopper for being public servants.
As always, your feedback is welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
Judson Bennett-Coastal Network
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210902005706/en/Citizens-for-a-Pro-Business-Delaware-Exposes-Skadden-Arps’-Shamelessly-Endless-Appetite-for-Litigation-with-New-Mobile-Truck-Ad
Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware Exposes Skadden Arps’ Shamelessly Endless Appetite for Litigation with New Mobile Truck Ad
The advocacy group is publicizing the $50 million billed to TransPerfect after Skadden Arps’ Voss choose to take TransPerfect to court over funds already in hand
WILMINGTON, Del.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Following a recent letter from Skadden Arps’ attorney Jennifer Voss to TransPerfect lawyers refusing to cash a payment of more than $1 million made for debts owed, Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware (CPBD) is exposing the firm for its overzealous inclination to sue. The company continues to pay fees to Skadden after more than three years after the forced sale of the company.
The unprecedented forced sale of the profitable company sparked TransPerfect employees to start CPBD to promote transparency, accountability and diversity in Delaware courts for more just and fair rulings.
Said Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware Campaign Manager Chris Coffey, “The residents of Delaware lose when powerful law firms can overburden the court system with more opportunities for selfish gain. Skadden Arps and their consultants have made more than 1000 times the median salary of a Delaware resident on a single case. Previous judges like Chancellor Andre Bouchard and former Skadden employees that now reign on the Chancery continue to allow the firm to sue TransPerfect and other companies rather than mediate, negotiate and serve the benefit of the public.
“We have come back year after year in hopes for change. We have received the attention of national media and we have seen small gains in exposing the way the Delaware court system is skewed to advance lawyer greed as opposed to worker and resident rights. The more we amplify the message, the more people join the effort, and we will continue on.”OPINION
Dear Friends,
Make no mistake about the acute incompetence of President Joe Biden. He was clearly informed by the CIA and his military advisors that Afghanistan was on the verge of collapse. Evidence indicates that Biden had a detailed conversation with the Afghan President in July, where he was clearly told that without U.S. air-support, the take-over by the Taliban was inevitable, especially with Pakistan’s planning and financial support. Biden completely ignored those warnings and told the Afghan President that he needed to present a different image. Biden has left 100s of Americans behind and thousands of Afghan allies who are possibly going to be slaughtered. The Taliban are now going door-to-door, executing former U.S. helpers on the spot. Impeachable offense??
Folks, 13 brave servicemen and women were killed at the main gate of the Kabul Airport. Folks, 86 billion dollars of American military hardware was left behind for the Taliban including Black Hawk Helicopters, armored vehicles, night-goggles, M-16 assault rifles and thousands of rounds of ammunition, drones, aircraft, and much more. Taliban soldiers are strutting around in American uniforms. The Taliban, thanks to the incompetence and poor planning of Joe Biden are now the best-equipped terrorist organization in the world. I shake my head in disgust and disbelief that the most powerful country and best-equipped military in the world was kicked out of Afghanistan with its tail between its legs by a bunch of 16th-century goat herders, because of the incompetence of our leaders. Our troops, who performed magnificently under horrible conditions, were put in untenable situations by Joe Biden and indeed, he has disgraced our nation. It is shameful!
Make no mistake, that in 2022, the Republicans, with the support of the American people, will take back the House and Senate and Biden will be impeached, Calls for his resignation or impeachment are coming from everywhere. He is incompetent and has put our nation at risk.
As always, your comments are welcome and appreciated. Please check out my website at www.coastalnetwork.com.
Respectfully Submitted,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkWhat a shocker, folks! Whenever I read about Bouchard’s long-time friend and country club crony, Kevin Shannon of Potter Anderson, involved in a decision in Delaware’s Chancery Court, I have to wonder: It is another win!! What are the odds??
If you wanted mathematical proof that the Chancery Court, in my educated personal opinion, is now nothing more than a corrupt parasite that leeches off the people and businesses of Delaware, my view is that you need look no further than Kevin Shannon’s win percentage?
Further, you may remember how many of the cast of cronies – who in my opinion, got rich or enriched their pals, off the backs of TransPerfect’s workers – all got super cozy with each other in the first place? They worked on Delaware’s 2nd most famous case, the Disney/Ovitz case: Shannon, Bouchard, and Kramer Levin (including Gary Navtalis himself) all worked as co-counsel against the shareholders – in fighting to allow management – to give Ovitz one of the largest executive severance payments in history. It’s just another amazing coincidence that could only happen in Delaware. It’s an outrageous disgrace in my opinion. As I see it – and it is my definite belief that these people are possible co-conspirators who met on Disney-Ovitz – I believe they’ve been working together to extract millions together in many ways ever since!
Folks, the Chancery Court in my opinion, under Bouchard has been a corrupt disgrace for over 6 years. When I think about Chancellor Bouchard, Kevin Shannon, Jennifer Voss, and Bob Pincus, no matter how much I wash, I can’t feel clean. Something is way too coincidental, subjective, and seemingly inequitable.
The verdict is still out on McCormick. Let’s pray for a better tomorrow.
Please check out the article below and send your feedback, folks. It is always appreciated!
Respectfully Yours,
Judson BennettCoastal NetworkChancery Nixes Dyal Capital-Owl Rock Tie-Up Injunction
By Jeff Montgomery
Law360 (April 20, 2021, 5:04 PM EDT) — Sixth Street Partners Management Co. lost a battle Tuesday to block Dyal Capital Management’s $12.5 billion merger with Owl Rock Capital, after a Delaware vice chancellor branded its preliminary injunction motion as an unsupportable bid to force an undervalued Dyal sell-back of its stake in Sixth Street.
Vice Chancellor Morgan T. Zurn, ruling after a hearing on March 24, found that Sixth Street’s suit and a similar, unsuccessful action by Golub Capital in New York “were part and parcel of a calculated effort to ‘muck up'” the Owl Rock transaction and create pressure for the buyout.
Dyal, a multifaceted holding of Neuberger Berman Group, acquired an interest in Sixth Street’s $50 billion business in 2017 through its third unit, Dyal III. In December, however, Dyal announced a planned merger with Owl Rock Capital, a credit business that Sixth Street views as a competitor and a potential beneficiary of Dyal’s access to Sixth Street’s proprietary information.
Sixth Street said in a complaint earlier this year that Dyal intended to funnel knowledge gathered from its stake in Sixth Street into the merged Dyal-Owl Rock business – to be named Blue Owl Capital Inc. – despite prohibitions in the 2017 Dyal-Sixth Street investment agreement. It sued both Dyal and Neuberger Berman.
“Sixth Street’s concerns about misuse of its confidential information in the hands of a competitor are speculative at best and cannot support a preliminary injunction,” Vice Chancellor Zurn wrote. “Since filing, nothing in the record indicates Sixth Street ever actually became concerned about its confidential information. Rather, the record further undermines Sixth Street’s purported irreparable harm.”
In a statement released Tuesday, Dyal said, “We’re pleased with this resounding victory. We look forward to completing our strategic combination and remain on track to do so in the first half of this year.”
Dyal’s five limited partnership funds manage passive minority equity in 50 private investment businesses. General partners, controlled by Neuberger, manage the LPs, with Dyal III acquiring a passive minority stake in Sixth Street for $417 million in 2017.
The deal provided Dyal with limited information rights needed to monitor its Sixth Street investment but not competitive information. Vice Chancellor Zurn said Sixth Street’s own senior executives noted the distinction while reassuring their investors about risks from the Owl Rock deal late last year, “reiterating its lack of concern on multiple occasions.”
Sixth Street’s posture changed early this year, the court said, with an assertion that the Dyal-Owl Rock merger required Sixth Street’s consent in what the court concluded was an effort to force a buyback. Although Dyal offered additional assurances, Sixth Street demanded buyback of its stake for the same $417 million price paid in 2017, despite indications as early as 2018 that Sixth Street’s value had risen to $6 billion, implying a $700 million value for Dyal’s holding.
During arguments in March, William Savitt of Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz LLP told the vice chancellor, “There’s an active, guerilla war campaign on behalf of Sixth Street to block this deal.” He said the injunction effort “confirms to us that what we’re talking about here is an attempt to get leverage to force a buyback at non economic terms, to create a windfall in Sixth Street’s favor.”
A Sixth Street spokesman said Tuesday, “We entered into our agreement with the understanding that Dyal would be our partner and not our competitor. We are disappointed that Dyal and Neuberger’s unreliable narrative was the basis of today’s decision, and we will consider appropriate options. Our focus always has been and continues to be providing value for our stakeholders.”
During arguments last month, Andrew Rossman of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP, counsel for Sixth Street, said, “The bedrock principle in hundreds of years of partnership law is ‘You get to pick your partner.’ That’s what this case is about.”
Vice Chancellor Zurn found that Sixth Street’s effort “threatens the interests of a panoply of parties interested in the Dyal-Owl Rock transaction, “including Neuberger and Owl Rock investors who are in no way implicated in Sixth Street’s relationship with Dyal III.” The decision also noted that Sixth Street’s attorney also represented Golub Capital in its unsuccessful attempt earlier this month to block the deal in a New York state court.
The court rejected all of Sixth Street’s claims, including an alleged breach of a transfer restriction in the 2017 investment agreement and tortious interference with a contract.
Dyal violated none of the Sixth Street agreement’s transfer restrictions, the vice chancellor found, adding that “Sixth Street’s interpretation would have the court enjoin a transaction at any level of Dyal’s corporate pyramid, regardless of whether that entity was explicitly bound by the transfer restriction.”
“Sixth Street’s concerns about misuse of its confidential information in the hands of a competitor are speculative at best and cannot support a preliminary injunction,” the vice chancellor wrote.
Sixth Street Partners LP et al. are represented by Michael A. Barlow and Eliezer Y. Feinstein of Abrams & Bayliss LLP, and R. Brian Timmons, Andrew Rossman, Corey Worcester, Maaren Shah, David Mader and Kimberly Carson of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP.
Dyal Capital Partners III et al. are represented by Kevin R. Shannon, Christopher N. Kelly and Daniel M. Rusk of Potter Anderson & Corroon LLP, and William Savitt, Stephen R. DiPrima, Corey J. Banks, Nathaniel D. Cullerton, Daniel H. Rosenblum and David P.T. Webb of Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz.
Neuberger Berman Group LLC is represented by Robert S. Saunders, Sarah Runnells Martin, Jacob J. Fedechko, Susan Saltzstein and Shaud Tavakoli of Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP.
The case is Sixth Street Partners Management Company LP et al. v. Dyal Capital Partners III (A) LP et al., case number 2021-0127, in the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware.OPINION
By Hiding his True Role as a Bouchard Croney and Paid Chancery’s Attorney, Larry Hamermesh Constantly Commits Lies-of-Omission
Should Hamermesh be Permitted to Misidentify Himself as a Neutral and Unbiased Source, or Should Rules Governing Ethical Misconduct Require Hamermesh to Properly Identify Himself?
Hint: He’s not just the neutral college professor he claims to be.
Dear Friends,
People ask me why I write so much on the TransPerfect case and the State Actors that, in my opinion, colluded to get away with looting TransPerfect over $250 million (Andre Bouchard, Robert Pincus, Jennifer Voss, Skadden Arps, etc.). My anger is explained in an example below.
Despite Bouchard’s Attorney, Larry Hamermesh, saying something to the effect of, “There’s not a corrupt bone in his body,” the Delaware people now know better, in my view – and Bouchard’s perceived corruption is generally accepted as the reason he left in disgrace, after serving only half his term, amidst controversy surrounding TransPerfect case.
What makes me so angry to maintain my reporting and the fight against this injustice, is the same spirit that outrages me about the Boston Globe “Spotlight” story about priests abusing children: PEOPLE PLACED IN POSITIONS OF PUBLIC TRUST TO PROTECT COMPANIES, AND EMPLOYEES, SHOULD NOT ABUSE THESE GOVERNMENT POSITIONS AND BETRAY US.
This Reuters article clearly shows Hamermesh as Bouchard’s Co-Counsel, and the Chancery’s Attorney.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-otc-chancery/biotech-company-cries-conflict-from-bouchards-past-work-as-counsel-to-chancery-colleagues-idUSKCN1QI5LN
“Bouchard’s name doesn’t appear on the 2012 trial court decision granting judgment to DelCOG; that ruling names Widener law professor Lawrence Hamermesh as Chancery’s counsel.
Yet, when Hamermesh props up Bouchard, and tries to sweep the, what I believe, is the Bouchard-Era Corruption in Chancery Court under the rug, time and again, he gives no disclosure that Hamermesh is actually the Chancery’s attorney.
Hamermesh is in my opinion, a serial liar by omission, keeping his past secret press to constantly get quoted as a “neutral” — what a joke! I have listed one recent example below, but there are many others.
Question: Should Hamermesh face repercussions, for what I view, as blatant ethical misconduct and propaganda in support of perceived Bouchard-era corruption? Is it not the appearance of impropriety?
Let me know what you think!
Respectfully Yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal Network
Example:
Hamermesh in Recent Politico Piece on Chancery Court Corruption:
Story link: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/08/22/sharpton-biden-delaware-court-drama-506496
Hamermesh Paragraphs in the story. NO MENTION whatsoever that he’s the Chancery’s attorney…
“I’ve had a hard time hearing this message from quarters I believe are doing it simply out of personal pique — and vengefully, at that — as opposed to out of a genuine concern for addressing the [diversity] problems that are real,” said Larry Hamermesh, a former professor of corporate and business law at Widener University’s Delaware campus.
Hamermesh, who knows Bouchard personally, said he felt “dismay and even anger,” at the nature of the attacks on him. “He is a completely honorable person,” he said. “There’s not a trace of corruption in his activities.”
Dear Friends,
What a joke?! No court system from Moscow to Madagascar lacks more transparency than Delaware’s archaic and feudal Chancery Court.
While Joe Biden’s supporters accuse the U.S. Supreme Court of a “lack of transparency,” how about taking a look at our poorly-run and without-an-ounce of transparency Chancery Court. Our once-proud, yet now decimated Delaware equity court is far behind modern times. We have the “forced-to-resign in disgrace” former Chancellor Andre Bouchard to blame and things appear to be turning it around.
Would love to hear your feedback on this, folks. Please keep your notes coming!
Respectfully Yours,
Judson Bennett-Coastal NetworkAnalysis: Biden’s Supreme Court losses prompt more ‘shadow docket’ scrutiny
By Lawrence Hurley
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Joe Biden’s administration was dealt a double blow by the conservative-majority Supreme Court this week, raising new questions about how the justices handle cases brought via an emergency process known as the “shadow docket.”
The court in recent years has increasingly made substantive decisions on major issues via the shadow docket, deciding quickly and sometimes late at night in a process that critics from across the ideological spectrum say lacks transparency.
The administration of Biden’s Republican predecessor, President Donald Trump, did very well with the process, winning a wide majority of the cases it brought via emergency applications. Some experts attributed that to a court that has traditionally been deferential to the White House.
This week’s decisions have raised questions as to whether a Democratic president receives the same friendly reception from a court with a 6-3 conservative majority.
“What we are seeing are the consequences of a deeply conservative court, with the added travesties of the shadow docket,” said Elizabeth Wydra, president of the Constitutional Accountability Center, a liberal nonprofit based in Washington.
The court in a decision (https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-supreme-court-ends-federal-residential-eviction-moratorium-2021-08-27) on Thursday night ended the pandemic-related federal moratorium on residential evictions imposed by Biden’s administration.
That came two days after a Tuesday evening decision denying Biden’s bid to rescind an immigration policy implemented by Trump that forced thousands of asylum seekers to stay in Mexico awaiting U.S. hearings.
That decision (https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-supreme-court-requires-biden-revive-trump-era-remain-mexico-immigration-2021-08-24) requires the government to revive Trump’s “remain in Mexico” policy, formally known as the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) program.
In both cases the three liberals on the court dissented.
Trump won 28 of the 41 cases his administration brought via the shadow docket, which his administration turned to at a much higher rate than those of both Republican President George Bush and Democratic President Barack Obama.
The “remain in Mexico” request was the first request made by Biden, who faces a court with which he is ideologically out of sync.
BREYER RAISES QUESTIONS
In the evictions case, liberal Justice Stephen Breyer referenced some of the shadow docket criticism in his dissenting opinion.
“These questions call for considered decision-making informed by full briefing and argument. Their answers impact the health of millions,” he wrote.
The majority appeared to respond to Breyer in the unsigned ruling, saying the case had been “thoroughly briefed” and that the court had undertaken a “careful review” of the relevant court papers.
Steve Vladeck, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law who is a critic of how the court has handled shadow docket cases, noted that the court did explain its evictions decision in an eight-page opinion. By contrast, the immigration case was resolved in a two-paragraph order.
The eviction decision “responded to at least some of the concerns,” Vladeck said. But, he added, “I still think decisions with implications as wide-ranging as the eviction moratorium would benefit from plenary review,” meaning that the court would hear oral arguments and have more time to consider the case.
But Jonathan Adler, a professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Law in Ohio, said he believed the court handled both cases appropriately based on court precedent. In the evictions case, he added, the administration knew the court would likely find the moratorium was unlawful based on the justices’ June decision https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-supreme-court-maintains-cdcs-pandemic-related-residential-eviction-ban-2021-06-29 that grudgingly allowed a previous version to remain in place.
“The CDC was on notice that the court would be very skeptical of a renewed moratorium, and made little effort to insulate the new order,” Adler said.
Last month, a Reuters analysis of emergency applications over the previous 12 months showed how certain litigants – most notably the Trump administration and religious entities – fared better than others.
(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Scott Malone and Jonathan Oatis)OPINION
Dear Friends,
Without a doubt in my opinion, Joe Biden is the worst President in United States history. Trump is gone –every decision and order as Commander in Chief is Biden’s responsibility. Setting aside the following facts which cannot be debated: Biden lied about everything he has ever done, grades, degrees, and accomplishments. He cheated in law school and plagiarized papers and speeches.
Then the Biden family went to work, influencing, peddling, Ukraine, China, Russia, Romania—through son Hunter for millions of dollars. Evidence is and was overwhelming with testimony from crack-head Hunter’s former business partner who clearly identified Joe Biden as being totally involved and spoke about a secret meeting he had with him. Then of course the famous laptop which is in FBI possession. Why has the Delaware U.S. Attorney not prosecuted them both? More cover-up. Then the closing of the Keystone Pipeline which cost thousands of good-paying jobs. Then the disaster at the Southern border where Biden is allowing thousands of illegals to come into our country creating a dangerous, national security situation and the production of criminal activity. Many of these things are impeachable offenses and many of them are a definite indication of Biden’s pure evil and incompetency-intentional and irrational. Biden has no business being President of the United States.
Now let us look to Afghanistan where Biden has created the greatest military crisis and disaster in United States history. Everybody agrees that America has to eventually get out of Afghanistan, but you do not turn it over to the Taliban. Biden has abandoned thousands of Americans and Afghan allies to possible death and torture, especially Afghan women who will be brutalized. He abandoned $82 billion of U.S. military hardware including helicopters, armored vehicles, night goggles, drones, M-16 assault weapons, and much more, making the Taliban the most powerful terrorist group in the world.
It is a fiasco determined and acted upon intentionally, regardless of severe warnings from the CIA, betraying every American veteran, active-duty soldier, and all our allies. Folks Biden is a traitor. His incompetency has no bounds and he must be removed from office. God help us and deliver us from this grotesque malevolence called Joe Biden-President of the United States of America! I will say it again — No doubt he is the worst President in U.S. history.
Disrespectfully Submitted,
JUDSON Bennett–Coastal NetworkOPINION
Folks, I’m excited to share with you that finally — after eight long years of putting a clear spotlight on Chancery Court corruption — a publication not beholden to the Delaware Chancery Court has taken on and is exposing what I’ve been talking about for years. Allow me to take a victory lap as you read the Politico story by White House Coorespondent, Christopher Cadalago.
Finally, another journalist cares about this awful situation in America’s First State. I’ve been writing about this since 2013 and now a journalist who is not part of the media establishment has taken an objective look at this and clearly sees exactly how incestuous and downright corrupt and in need of reform the Delaware Chancery Court is.
“In my opinion, it is the greatest legal sham that operated under the veil of legality that there ever was in United States history,” I’m proudly quoted in the article regarding the TransPerfect case.
Please read, folks, and share your feedback. I would love to hear from you!
Inside Al Sharpton’s wild campaign to draft Biden into Delaware’s most tortured court drama
The MSNBC host wants to get the president to help reshape his state’s Chancery court. And he’s working with an aggrieved business group to do it.
By CHRISTOPHER CADELAGO
08/22/2021 07:00 AM EDT
President Joe Biden had just wrapped a recent speech when Reverend Al Sharpton’s brooding mug appeared on MSNBC.
Sharpton, a longtime host and presence on the liberal cable TV network, wasn’t punditizing about national affairs. Instead, he was starring in an ad campaign whose focus was far more parochial: a powerful, yet obscure court in Delaware that is at the center of one of the most acrimonious and lurid legal standoffs to ever occur in the president’s home state.
The case involves jilted lovers, the separation of a nearly $1 billion company, cameos from the likes of Alan Dershowitz and Rudy Giuliani and, if Sharpton has his way, an intervention from Delaware’s favorite son. And should the bending of Biden’s ear prove successful, it would resemble one of the most audacious quasi-lobbying efforts in recent memory.
“We’ve been fighting for years in the streets, in our communities, to put Black people on Delaware’s courts,” Sharpton says in the ad, as the faces of the all-white Delaware Court of Chancery appear on screen. “When I talked to President Biden, he told me he would put court diversity front and center on the national stage, and he has. But in Biden’s home state of Delaware, leaders talk about diversity while nothing actually changes.”
The Sharpton-narrated TV ad is ostensibly about the Chancery court’s lack of diversity. That is Sharpton’s sole focus in the spot, anyway. But the group paying to air the ad, Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware, was formed by distressed employees of the massive translation services company TransPerfect, which years ago was forced into a sale by Chancellor Andre Bouchard, who recently retired from the court.
Sharpton, in an interview with POLITICO, stressed he was not paid to shoot the ad specifically. But he acknowledged receiving speaking fees from the Citizens group when he traveled to Delaware. Sharpton’s appearances are raising eyebrows among detractors of the group, who contend the reverend is trading on his well-earned civil rights clout to help privileged, white C-suiters exercise their grudge against the court. His involvement is puzzling observers in Delaware, who note the commercial issues that are the Chancery court’s primary focus rarely touch on diversity.
“I’ve had a hard time hearing this message from quarters I believe are doing it simply out of personal pique — and vengefully, at that — as opposed to out of a genuine concern for addressing the [diversity] problems that are real,” said Larry Hamermesh, a former professor of corporate and business law at Widener University’s Delaware campus.
“We’ve been fighting for years in the streets, in our communities, to put Black people on Delaware’s courts,” Sharpton says in the ad, as the faces of the all-white Delaware Court of Chancery appear on screen. “When I talked to President Biden, he told me he would put court diversity front and center on the national stage, and he has. But in Biden’s home state of Delaware, leaders talk about diversity while nothing actually changes.”
The Sharpton-narrated TV ad is ostensibly about the Chancery court’s lack of diversity. That is Sharpton’s sole focus in the spot, anyway. But the group paying to air the ad, Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware, was formed by distressed employees of the massive translati
OPINION
Dear friend,
President Joe Biden, besides being the worst President in United States history, is without any doubt in my mind, not only a huge hypocrite, phony, and a criminal, he is now and always has been a nefarious liar about everything in his entire life.
He lied about his grades, his education, his accomplishments, his marriage to Jill and how they met, and much more. It amazes me that the majority of the people of Delaware and much of the nation never really recognized, just how bad Biden really is? Not only is he all of the horrible things I mentioned above, he is also quite stupid and incredibly arrogant.
When you are President, eventually, everything you ever said or did is checked and documented. Biden always thought he was immune to being exposed. A corrupt press has apparently been covering up for Biden’s despicable prevarications combined with his previous charisma (which is no more), is the only possible explanation I can offer for his re-elections and now absurd Presidency? Well folks, the chickens have finally started to come home to roost!
The latest outrageous lie that Biden propagated, which was only covered by Fox News, is his laughable and false story about his epiphany concerning his feelings about Gay marriage. Being from Delaware, having played football against Joe Biden at his school (Archmere Academy) and at my old school St. Andrew’s, this latest lie really rubs me the wrong way, and I can personally vouch for his falsehood.
Biden claims at a young age he learned from his father how to appreciate Gay relationships and marriage. Biden said recently, that when he was a young boy, while his father was dropping him off at Archmere Academy, they observed two well-dressed men in business suits kissing, and after the embrace, Biden says he watched one man go into the DuPont building and the other go into the Hercules building across the Street. His father told him it was “because they loved each other.” Biden then said, got out of the car and went into his school.
Here’s the rub folks: The DuPont building is and was 7 miles from Archmere Academy and the Hercules Building was not built until 1989. Biden graduated in 1961. I know the area extremely well. He is lying.
What is even more damming, there is a clear video of Biden stating as a young Senator, “That marriage should only be between a man and a woman and he was opposed to Gay Marriage.”
Folks, Biden has lied all his life, and he is lying to the American people about everything. He must be removed from office and the thought of him being in charge of our country for another term as President gives me chills. He is, in my view, a true abomination.
I personally don’t care what people do in their bedrooms. But Biden, who has always been homo-phobic and definitely touted it as a young man at Archmere Academy in 1961 according to my very reliable information. He has conveniently changed his tune for political purposes and has made up an absurd story to back it up. He is so stupid, he never thought this lie, among his thousands of others, would be recognized. That is the truth as I know it, and how I clearly see it. What do you think?
As always your feedback is welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkCoastal Network Asks: Why Was Andre Bouchard a Controversial Character?
We Got Quite the Answer From ChatGPT
OPINION
Dear Friends,
I finally tried ChatGPT, folks, after hearing so much buzz about it. For an old guy, I’ll admit I’m slow to try new things, but I was curious to try it and I asked it this question: Why was Andre Bouchard a controversial character?
In summary, Bouchard’s handling of the TransPerfect case got him into deep trouble as he ignored evidence, awarded excessive legal fees, had close ties to his favorite attorneys and firms (Skadden), awareding lucrative legal fees, according to ChatGPT, and his domain over the court defamed it, questioning the integrity and impartiality of the court itself.
Well said, ChatGPT. If you want to try it, just Google ChatGPT and you can start asking questions.
In case you’re not familiar with it, as I also wasn’t, ChatGPT is a language processing tool driven by artificial intelligence technology and creates human-like conversations on the internet. with a chatbot. ChatGPT answers questions, and helps with tasks such as emails and essays.
It’s been on my mind lately as I’ve been writing about Bouchard and the Chancery Court Corruption that he ruled and fueled.
I’ll let you read it, as I pasted the ChatGPT answer below.
I would love to hear your feedback on this, folks. Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks?
Respectfully Yours,
JUDSON Bennett–Coastal Network
Phil Shawe
President & CEO of TransPerfect | Entrepreneur | Philanthropist |
Coach, Mentor, Leader | Fan of Adventure Travel
Just a typical Wednesday at the Pune TransPerfect office…
A great honor of being CEO is having the opportunity to travel to our global offices, meet with our teams, and celebrate significant milestones.
Thank you to Anita G. and TransPerfect India for the warmest welcome I have ever received—what a surprise! Stay tuned for a second post with big news from Pune.
Happy 20th Anniversary TransPerfect India!OPINION
Dear Friends,
Don’t count former President Donald Trump out from winning the Republican nomination for President of the United States in the 2024 election. Despite the bad publicity from the January 6th fiasco and his vociferous and direct style, Trump is the favorite to win the nod, according to the polls. He controls 35% to 40% of the GOP and that percentage is real. Frankly, although in error with his knocking of former VP Mike Pence over the verification of the Electors, Trump never advocated attacking the Capital and he will not be prosecuted successfully for that.
Although very popular and extremely successful in Florida, and indeed a man who would be an excellent President, Governor Ron DeSantis is well behind Trump in the polls. Former Governor and UN secretary Nikki Haley is also a capable candidate, but also well behind Trump. I am hopeful that Trump will resist speaking ill of this competition, however Trump is Trump, and beats to his own drum.
At the CPAC convention in Maryland, Trump easily won the straw vote with 62% of the vote. He gave a dynamic speech covering all the inadequacies of Joe Biden, the worst President in U.S. history—covering his lies, influence peddling, border operation, terrible evacuation of our troops from Afghanistan, destruction of our oil and gas industry, and much more.
Frankly, any Republican candidate over this idiot Joe Biden, would be fine with me. Biden is doing his best to ruin this country. A Donald Trump and Nikki Haley combo would be very hard to beat if indeed the scenario turns out that way.
That’s the way I see it. As always, your comments are welcome and appreciated. Let me know what you think.
Sincerely yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal Network
Leo Strine, Andre Bouchard and Jennifer Voss being called out for their Chancery Court corruption indeed is well-deserved for this collection of corrupt and former Skadden Good Old Boys. You chimed in and let me know, ranging from supportive to outraged. I’ll share your feedback in my next column.
Until then, I present the full-page ad that ran in the Delaware News Journal. Your feedback is always welcome and appreciated!
Respectfully Yours,
JUDSON Bennett–Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
I was amazed at the remarkable feedback I received from my last piece: 99% of you are extremely concerned about the huge increase in crime everywhere. Only one response took me to task, saying that since a huge six-foot-five student attacked a Teacher’s Aide in Florida recently, “DeSantis should get his own house in order first, before criticizing any other state or municipality.” The huge difference between how most of these other places operate and the state of Florida is that perpetrators are prosecuted and they go to jail. They are not out the next day, to continue with carjacking, smash and grabs, vicious assaults, and brutal murders like they are in most Democrat controlled cities.
Cash bail, which has been eliminated in many Democrat-controlled cities, is the major problem, while woke, progressive, corrupt prosecutors financed by George Soros — who refuse to do their jobs — is another serious issue. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis does not tolerate this absurdity and if you commit a crime, you are arrested and prosecuted in the state of Florida. I personally had a car theft and a home invasion issue. The police arrested the crook the next day and he is now serving a prison sentence.
I was delighted to learn that Chicago voted out one of the worst mayors in U.S. history: Lori Lightfoot. She actually encouraged crime and allowed an already spiralling crime situation to explode to extreme proportions. Good riddance!
As the American people are finally determined to end this criminal anarchy, they are finally waking up and slowly taking criminal prosecutors and incompetent politicians to task. Nobody wants to live in fear.
Folks, vote these monsters out of office, and look to Florida as the way to best govern in the U.S.A.!
Respectfully submitted,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
Can you imagine walking down the street in New York City and a guy punches you for no reason or throws you off a subway platform? If you own a business anywhere in Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, or even Washington DC among other Democrat controlled cities, imagine organized gangs invading your business, smashing and grabbing your merchandise? In all these places, District Attorneys, financed by George Soros, refuse to prosecute these blatant criminals, and there is no cash bail! The same criminals are able to operate over and over again with absolute impunity.
Folks, I value a person based on how they think and how they treat me. I also have no problem pointing out factual reality. Gangs, involved in vicious attacks, high-jackings, smash and grabs, and other violent crimes have become totally out of control, and we are no longer safe anywhere in most American cities. Crime has increased in all aspects, the police have been defunded and are no longer effective. Where are the parents and community leaders who should be influencing the American youth? Anarchy is happening throughout our country and we are no longer safe.
Interestingly, this rarely happens in Florida, because of Governor Ron DeSantis, where crime is not tolerated, regardless of a person’s race. There is cash bail, there is a stand your ground law (many private citizens are legally armed), and criminals are arrested, prosecuted, and go to jail. I think Florida is the safest state in the Union, because our Governor and his legislature have good sense and are willing to protect the citizens in the Sunshine State.
Folks, the answers to these problems are obvious. Vote out these Democrat Mayors, Governors and weak, prosecuting Attorneys, increase funding for the police, bring back cash bail, and promote more, active community outreach in impoverished communities. It is imperative that repeat offenders are removed from our society and locked up. Do I think this will happen any time soon? No, unfortunately I do not.
Regardless, crime will be a major issue in the 2024 election. The United States should look to Florida as the proper way to govern.
That is the way I see it. What do you think? As always your feedback is welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Submitted,
JUDSON Bennett–Coastal NetworkCheck out Leo the Hutt! And his cabal of Jabba the Hutts, folks! Leo Strine, Andre Bouchard and Jennifer Voss are also being called out for their Chancery Court corruption. Well deserved for this collection of corrupt and former Skadden Good Old Boys.
Below is the full page ad that ran in the Delaware News Journal. Take a look and let me know your thoughts. Your feedback is always welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
JUDSON Bennett–Coastal NetworkOpinion
Dear friends,
Nikita Khrushchev, former Premier of the Soviet Union, once said that the “United States would become communist from within!” It is extremely disturbing to realize, from documented testimony from innumerable students and a few conservative professors, that many of our country’s Universities are dedicated to indoctrinating students towards the destruction of our constitution, the elimination of capitalism, and eventual Communism.
Folks, this is a real and present danger and is actually happening.
Most of your Ivy League Colleges, including Harvard, Yale, University of Pennsylvania, and Columbia have dedicated Socialists teaching our students and indoctrinating them with a communist agenda. Even the University of Delaware has a Woke culture that forces many students to comply with this communist propaganda. In many cases Communist China is sending millions of dollars to various Universities and is also buying up private schools!
To make matters worse, many of the top prep schools, such as Exeter, Choate, and St. Andrew’s have hidden woke agendas, utilizing subtle Diversity Training and Critical Race Theory to prep the students towards a liberal agenda and socialist concepts. By the time these upper level students arrive at their colleges after graduation, they are already geared towards further indoctrination from Communist Professors who are dedicated to destroying our whole system.
Our state Governors, our Representatives and Senators must take legal action to stop the teaching and indoctrination of our students from a curriculum that promotes communism over Capitalism, contrary to our Constitution and American way of life. Folks, this is really happening and is a tremendous threat.
As always, your comments are welcome and appreciated. What do you think?
Respectfully yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
Look at the story below and you’ll see that TransPerfect is still growing and stronger than ever. The company – once saddled with Andre Bochard and his court-appointed cronies like Robert Pincus syphoning millions out of the company – is doing better than ever.
I repeatedly said nothing was ever wrong with this company when Andre Bouchard took it over for 3 years for what I clearly saw as paying his friends off with it. Then Bouchard left and now the company is three times bigger. It’s so offensive that the government took this company over for 3 years. There was never anything wrong with it.
I’m glad to see them thriving after being treated harshly by Bouchard and Leo Strine. Please send your feedback on this, folks. It’s always appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
JUDSON Bennett
Opinion
Dear Friends,
I hit a nerve that resonated with my readers about how incapable Delaware’s Governor and our now shamed Chancery Court of making a monumental, or big decision as the nation watches. It’s sad that America’s First State pales in comparison to other states in our grand country when it comes to thinking of the greater good, and not just what’s good for the cronies in Delaware.
I enjoyed hearing from you all… here are 10 interesting comments I chose to share from the hundreds that everyone sent in. I removed the last names to protect your privacy.
“Our Governor is the most anonymous Governor in the U.S.A.”
-Harold
“You are right to give our dumpster fire of a governor a hard time. Carney is nearly invisible at this point.”
-Jesse
“You’ve described so well how much of what really goes on in our Chancery Court is simply to appease those in power in our state. No one seems to care or even take notice.”
-Susan
“I used to think you were making controversy when there really wasn’t any. Now I know that you have been a lone voice for a long time and people and the media now are saying what you’ve been saying!”
-Fred
“Judson, I think you’re beating a dead horse here.”
-Thomas
“Maybe you’re right. Maybe they’ll do nothing. Let us know what happens..”
-Jerry
“I don’t have faith in our leadership to make a strong decision.”
-Roxanne
“I laughed when I read your “act on matters of great concern.”
Not in this century or the last. It’s sad.”
-Walter
“This advocacy group can press for as long as they want. They’ll get nothing out of our leaders.”
-Edward
“This is important. I hope these guys step up for a change.
-Louis
Thank you for your feedback, folks. Keep them coming! They are always welcome and appreciated.
Best Regards,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear friends,
Do you remember not too long ago, it was “RUSSIA, Russia, Russia”, with the Democrats and DOJ constantly attacking President Donald Trump from the time he was elected til his Presidency ended in a compromised election, with a victory by Joe Biden, the absolute worst President in United States history!
Factual evidence of FBI corruption, falsifying documents in support of a phony hit piece paid for by Hillary Clinton, and millions of dollars of taxpayer money wasted on a baseless investigation that was ultimately proven to be totally invalid, is the unconstitutional standard of our crooked President and the crooked Democrats who support him!
To the contrary, the falsely elected Joe Biden has weaponized the FBI, which is illegally being used to harass, intimidate, and attempt to entrap American citizens.
In addition to the clear violation of our immigration laws and clear evidence of influence peddling by Joseph Biden, it has now been discovered through the heroic distribution of the “telling” censorship operations by the FBI, in regards to Twitter and it has been a shocking revelation to informed and caring Americans. Thank goodness new Twitter owner Elon Musk has our back!
Folks, the 1st Amendment to the constitution, clearly states that “no freedom of speech shall be abridged by the United States government.” When agents of the FBI (our sacred, top, supposedly trusted, law enforcement governmental agency) prevented Twitter from publishing the Hunter Biden scandal, which broke in a New York Post story prior to the 2020 election, they intentionally censored free speech, which is our most sacred constitutional right, thereby violating federal law.
Folks, we now live in a Banana Republic with a corrupt Federal Bureau of Investigation which has been created as an arm of a compromised President of the United States. The bottom line — no doubt the intrinsic and despicable rub here — is that Biden would not have been elected, if the FBI had not interfered in the 2020 election through its censorship operation with Social Media companies. It is so dangerous, so terribly wrong, and such a basic violation of our American ethics and constitutional operation, it is indeed mind boggling.
If the American electorate does not ultimately — through the House and Senate — eliminate these criminal activities, our country will become a huge dictatorship with a corrupt society that nobody wants. The problem is that a compromised press does not tell the truth and half the American people have no idea how bad things really are.
Folks,that is the way I see it. As always, your comments are welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Submitted,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
Delaware’s Governor and the once-prestigious Chancery Court are once again faced with an issue that is bigger than what America’s First State appears capable of solving and handling at its root. As I wrote last week, it’s not an issue I’ve championed over the years. Yet, I remain curious to see how our Governor and Chancery Court handle this challenge as a nation watches.
See the Delaware Live story below for more. Delaware and the Chancery Court have shown a real inability, in my opinion, to act on matters that are of great concern. Instead, they’re all about circling the wagons and cronyism. Can either step up? We’ll see.
Please send your feedback on this, folks. It’s always welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
Judson Bennett–Coastal Network
OPINION
Ron DeSantis, the BEST Governor in the United States!
Dear friends,
Having left Delaware seven years ago, after my wife died of breast cancer, to move to Palm Beach, Florida and being an experienced political operator and pundit, it is extremely easy for me to recognize true leadership that includes the use of solid logic, efficiency, fairness, and dedication to the people who are being served.
Folks, besides not having a state income tax, having great weather year round, enjoying innumerable palm trees, beautiful beaches, fabulous fishing, and much more, the great state of Florida, I can tell you, without reservation, is being operated the way it should be by our Governor Ron DeSantis.
DeSantis, a Navy veteran, graduate of Harvard, a former Congressman, and now the Governor of the great state of Florida has exercised superior control over the state’s operation with an emphasis on promoting freedom to conduct business (regardless of the Covid pandemic), not requiring unhealthy masks for our school children, outlawing the teaching of critical race theory and the teaching of sexual orientation (the LBTG and transgender absurdity) to kids under the age of 9, thus leaving that up to the parents. People are flocking to Florida, especially from California and New York, in the hopes of enjoying the freedom that Florida offers.
Disney executives in their Orlando, Florida, Disney World operation, made the huge mistake of openly criticizing the legislation involving Florida school policies, while attempting to move Disney into a “Woke”, left-wing agenda that dangerous radicals in several states are promoting. Disney for years has been allowed to operate its own government in Florida, with special consideration in many areas, including no property taxes. Governor DeSantis, through his inspired legislation, has now removed Disney from its special privileges and Disney must now operate like everyone else. The arrogance and audacity by Disney World operators has come home to roost, and DeSantis has ended their former situation for good and rightfully so.
Interestingly Gavin Newsom, the idiotic Governor of California, where crime, homelessness, huge taxes, and despotism reign, has had the audacity to publish TV ads criticizing Florida and DeSantis. DeSantis, unlike California’s incompetent Governor, promotes family values, is tough on crime (cash bail required in Florida), is for border security, and is the complete, polar opposite of the insipid leadership promoted by so many Democrat Mayors and Governors throughout the United States. People are leaving California in droves and coming to Florida to enjoy the freedom that DeSantis offers, and the worst Governor in America, Gavin Newsom, doesn’t like it.
Folks, I could write a book about how great Governor Ron DeSantis is because of the superb job he has done in Florida. I predict he will be President of the United States some day, if not in 2024, especially with Trump’s controversial situation developing.
That’s the way I see it. The world has gone crazy and the United States is being severely damaged by President Joe Biden and the Democrats. Governor Ron DeSantis, like the state he leads, offers us hope and sunshine.
As always, your feedback is welcome and appreciated.
Best regards,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkDear Friends,
After years of coverage, Bouchard’s BFF and man I view as Delaware’s filthiest attorney and his employer—Kevin Shannon and Potter Anderson—are about to cash in, in the Twitter vs. Elon Musk case. Shannon’s relationship with the Chancellor greased the TransPerfect case into a 7-year $250 million of orchestrated corruption in Delaware’s Court of Chancery. Twitter shareholders and employees have no idea what’s about to be unleashed in terms of fees.
To make matters completely bonkers, Kevin “able to win cases with no witnesses” Shannon has teamed with his old pal, disgraced ex-Chancellor Leo Strine, who resigned mid-term amidst corruption allegations.
Shareholders and employees are sure to get fleeced, as the Good Old Boy Network starts dancing its Delaware two-step.
Both Shannon and Strine have been hired by Twitter, because they’re not stupid, folks. They fully agree with what I have been saying all along: To win in Delaware, where the “fix is in” you need to hire fixers. When I close my eyes and imagine this case, I see a business murders row I’ve studied for years with Shannon, Strine, Skadden, and now Andre Bouchard’s replacement, Chancellor Kathaleen “McCorrupt” McCormick.
How long will Delaware’s elected officials allow Shannon and Strine to profit from cronyism?
I would love to hear your feedback on this! It’s always welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Women’s Sports in Trouble Thanks to Democrats??
Dear Friends,
For many years women have fought extremely hard to get equal scholarships (same as men) in our Universities for Track and Field, Swimming, Basketball, and innumerable other sports. They have worked hard to get equal pay in professional sports as well. Women have their own, unique sports.
It is a scientific fact that men are stronger than women physically. A man who desires to be a woman, through modern science, can develop breasts, grow long hair, and for all intents and purposes look like a woman. These transsexual people who wish to be women have every right to do so. However, they are not biological women. They are still men, who are stronger and faster, because of their God-created gender.
It is acutely unfair for a biological man, regardless of his sexual change desires, to participate in female sports–yet it is happening and being permitted because of President Joe Biden and the Progressive Democrats. Outrageous? Absurd? Acutely unfair? It must be stopped or Female sports will be dominated by transmales who wish to be women, thus compromising all female sports.
Recently, at the University of Pennsylvania, a Transgender male who is 6′- 4″ has dominated female swimming, crushing competing real females. Even Transmale Caitlyn Jenner (former Bruce Jenner), one of the world’s greatest male athletes, recognizes the unfairness of this situation and has called for its prohibition.
Folks, this horrible situation has been caused, promoted, and effected because of the Democrat Party. It is part of their POLICY! How would you feel if you had a daughter who was a great athlete, who could win, but never does because she always loses to a biological male?
Frankly, I can’t understand how any woman could vote for a Democrat in any venue, because of this! Women’s sports are about to be destroyed by the Democrat party and their absurd liberal ideas. Folks, I implore you to vote these Democrats out of office. The preservation of viable, female sports is a legitimate reason, among many, to vote for Republicans in November.
As always, your feedback is welcome and appreciated. Let me know what you think.
Respectfully yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal NetworkOPINION
Dear Friends,
I wish I was wrong, but I told everyone that Bouchard’s, Strine’s and now McCormick’s corruption would eventually catch up with Delaware. And now, folks, it has! Read and weep about our Chancery Court’s tarnished image. It’s a sad reality that our once proud court is now so deeply stained.
Please send your feedback on this! It’s always welcome and appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal Network
President Joe Biden talks with his son Hunter Biden, who is holding the president’s grandson Beau Biden, as they walk to board Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., on March 26, 2021.Patrick Semansky / AP fileFilings with the Washington, D.C., government show Owasco P.C. is controlled by Hunter Biden.
A review of the personal and corporate emails on Biden’s hard drive yield little information about any business he conducted on behalf of Hudson West III, and his autobiography doesn’t discuss his Chinese business dealings in any detail.
One of the few potential business opportunities discussed appears in a series of email exchanges among Biden, several U.S. partners and Chinese individuals associated with Hudson West III.
They talked about a potential gas deal on Monkey Island in Louisiana in 2017, but it appears no deal was made, and no publicly available documents indicate any sort of purchase, sale or agreement.
A federal investigation into the business affairs of Hunter Biden is continuing in Delaware, The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal reported.
The investigation included the convening of a grand jury, according to a mid-March Times story, which did report that the son of the president has satisfied tax claims. The payments do not end his legal liability but reduce his chances of facing charges.
On Monday, the Wall Street Journal (subscription) 
