Whitaker cited in bid to drop LV drug case
A pair of Las Vegas lawyers asked a federal judge Tuesday to throw out drug conspiracy charges against their client, arguing that President Donald Trump’s appointment of Matthew Whitaker as acting U.S. attorney general was unconstitutional.
“The defense finds itself in uncharted territory,” attorneys Gabriel Grasso and Michael Pariente wrote. “The historical events currently taking place within the United States Federal Government, with a President under investigatory fire clearly seeking to somehow turn the controversy towards his own advantage, has resulted in a never before seen manipulation of the (Federal Vacancies Reform Act). These presidential battle plans have consequences. One of those consequences has landed The idea that Mr. Whitaker being confirmed in 2004 to become the U.S. Attorney in Iowa allows him to serve as the attorney general today lacks merit. squarely in the lap of the accused.”
Whitaker was appointed last year as chief of staff to then-attorney General Jeff Sessions. He became acting attorney general last week after Sessions resigned.
The defendant, Oliver “Sonny” Maupin, is a 61-year-old Las Vegas businessman, according to his lawyers. He was indicted in Iowa last year on a federal charge of conspiracy with intent to distribute 100 kilograms or more of marijuana.
Grasso said in a phone interview that Whitaker being named acting attorney general after charges came down against Maupin should have no bearing on the motion to throw out the case.
“What the defense alleges in this motion as a violation of federal law is not window dressing,” the filing from the Las Vegas attorneys states. “It goes to the core of the validity of the Department of Justice and how that arm of the
MOTION
New Senate Majority Leader Kelvin Atkinson, D-las Vegas, said the long play is more important than ramming through a bunch of legislation that pleases only one side.
“We have the opportunity to do great things, but I also think we’ll have to temper some folks,” he said. “We need toknowwhatwecanpush andwhatwecandotomake surethatwecanhavethemajority for quite some time, not just a session.
“We need to make sure that we don’t want to be so drastic in our policies that it turns people against us.”
Atkinson said he doesn’t expect the caucus’ priorities to change much from 2017, and he wants to see bills dealing with community solar projects and collective bargaining. Gov. Brian Sandoval vetoed similar laws in 2017, when he denied 41 bills.
Assembly Speaker Jason Frierson, D-las Vegas, said he has requested a bill vetoed last session that dealt with paying prevailing wages on school construction projects. But he also said he doesn’t want the next session to be simply a rehash of 2017.
“I am not interested in a revisit of every single thing we didn’t get our way last session,” he said.
Frierson called the fears expressed on the campaign trail that Democrats would turn Nevada into California “rhetoric.”
“I have recruited some great candidates with ideas of their own,
but they know that my interests are passing good policies that represent Nevada interests, not California or any other state,” he said.
Both Frierson and Atkinson said they will push for a bill banning bump stocks in Nevada — a measure that was also supported by Sisolak and that was requesteddaysaftertheroute 91 Harvest festival shooting on Oct. 1, 2017.
The lawmakers plan to look at an initiative approved by Nevada voters in 2016 that called for the FBI to conduct expanded background checks on firearm purchases. The initiative could not be implementedbecausestatescan’t mandate the allocation of federal resources.
Assembly Minority Leader Jim Wheeler, R-gardnerville, said that despite being in a superminority (Democrats hold a 29-13 advantage in his chamber), Republicans don’t plan to abandon their priorities, and they will push for legislation dealing with school safety, education and mental health initiatives.
“Those are some big things where I think we can work together with them,” he said.
Supporting a potential ban on bump stocks would be “up to the individual lawmaker,” Wheeler said.
As for his counterparts’ talks of tempering their expectations, he said he expects Democrats will “try and ram some stuff through, but I don’t know what that is.”
Contact Colton Lochhead at clochhead@reviewjournal. com or 775-461-3820. Follow @Coltonlochhead on Twitter.