The Libby trial live blogging was fantastic and got me hooked on FDL. Thanks soooo much. Don’t think I’ll be at YK2–think I’m too old to fit in.

This has to be the only truly silly comment I’ve ever seen you make my dear. Trust me, if this ole creaky brat can find my way to YKos2 it should be a walk in the park for vous! Be there or be square! ;~)

Phoenix Woman’s upstairs now, time for me to check it out.

burnspbesq @ 46

Ot question for Jeralyn:

Any initial thoughts on today’s opinion in the KPMG case?

Yes, it was great the way it took the Government to task for it’s inexcusable interference with the defendants’ Sixth Amendment rights to counsel of choice.

The government “foreclosed these defendants from presenting the defense they wished to present and . . . deprived them of counsel of their choice. This is intolerable in a society that holds itself out to the world as a paragon of justice,” he wrote.

I’ve only seen the news articles though, I’m about to read the opinion.

You and I may have to agree to disagree, to a certain extent, on this one.

1. The Sixth Amendment guarantees the right to counsel. It doesn’t guarantee the right to Lamborghini counsel on somebody else’s nickel. If these defendants wanted greater assurance that their legal fees would be covered by their employer, they could have gone to work for a Delaware corporation (KPMG is a New York limited liability partnership); under Delaware corporation law, reimbursement is mandatory. In addition, as a former employee of a Big Four accounting firm, I have a pretty good sense of how wealthy these defendants are; to suggest that they were unable to mount competent defenses using their own resources is simply ridiculous.

2. I’ve never had a real problem with the Thompson Memorandum, or any of its predecessors or successors. There is no enforceable right to a deferred prosecution agreement. DOJ can impose any conditions it damn well pleases on its willingness to enter into settlement negotiations with any entity or individual defendant.

I think there is a pretty good argument that the District Court overreached. My money is on a reversal by the Second Circuit. However, I will freely admit that as a tax professional, I have a dog in this fight. This case ought to be a slam dunk on conspiracty to defraud, 7206, and 7212; the stuff these guys were selling was 100 percent bogus. These guys have to go down, in order restore the public’s always-tenuous belief that the tax system isn’t rigged against Joe Ordinary.

Teddy at 157 — Alas, no. Mr. ReddHedd and The Peanut will be staying home this year. Momma has several panels and Mr. ReddHedd is swamped at work, so we decided this was the best way to deal with things logistically. So you guys get to deal with me being mopey and missing The Peanut. Guess we’ll just have to make time for some shopping… *g* (Not Olympic shopping likelast time, Teddy, I’m going to try and be a good girl and budget.)

SHOPPING !!

That’s great some of you will be there. I think we’re going to have a lot of fun with it. I’m getting pretty excited.

How many of you went to YKos last year? I missed it because of court. This year I planned better.

Hope to meet you at some point at YKos, Jeralyn, although it sounds like I may miss the panel.