Month: March 2023

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Defendant Used Chemical Spray Against Law Enforcement Officers

            WASHINGTON – A Florida man was sentenced to assaulting law enforcement officers for his actions during the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. His actions and the actions of others disrupted a joint session of the U.S. Congress convened to ascertain and count the electoral votes related to the presidential election.

            Mitchell Todd Gardner II, 34, of Seffner, Florida, was sentenced yesterday in the District of Columbia to 55 months in prison on the felony charges of civil disorder, obstruction of an official proceeding, and assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers with a dangerous weapon. Gardner pleaded guilty on June 27, 2022. In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Court Judge Amit P. Mehta ordered 36 months of supervised release, and restitution of $3,500.

            According to court documents, on Jan. 6, Gardner was part of a mob just outside the Lower West Terrace Tunnel from approximately 3:45 p.m. until at least 4:05 p.m., During that time, he shouted, among other things, “drag them out,” and “pull the cops out,” “grab their hands and pull them out.”  Gardner used a Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Oleoresin Capsicum device against officers within the tunnel area. The contents hit one officer directly in the face shield and splattered onto at least two additional officers. This caused the officers to cough for an extended period and also burned their eyes. Gardner also urged other rioters to use a ladder to break into a window. When the ladder was not used, Gardner stood on a window ledge outside of a Senate Terrace Room and bashed the window with the Oleoresin Capsicum canister. The cost to replace that window exceeded $2,900. Gardner ultimately entered the Senate Terrace Room. While inside the Capitol, he waved other rioters to come closer or into the building. He also handed another rioter what looked to be a table/desk leg; that object was used to assault police officers.

            After Gardner exited the Capitol, he remained on the Lower West Terrace from at least 4:45 p.m. to approximately 4:58 p.m. He encouraged the mob and even cheered at 4:55 p.m. when one rioter threw a fire extinguisher into the tunnel at police officers.

            Gardner was arrested on June 25, 2021, in Tampa, Florida.

            The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the Justice Department’s National Security Division prosecuted the case, with valuable assistance provided by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida.

            The FBI’s Tampa Field Office investigated the case, with valuable assistance from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations, the FBI’s Washington Field Office, which identified Gardner as #220 in its seeking information photos, the U.S. Capitol Police, and the Metropolitan Police Department

            In the 26 months since Jan. 6, 2021, more than 999 individuals have been arrested in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, including over 320 individuals charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement. The investigation remains ongoing. 

            Anyone with tips can call 1-800-CALL-FBI (800-225-5324) or visit tips.fbi.gov.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Defendant Was Convicted in Separate Trials

            WASHINGTON – Ronald P. Berton, Jr., 48, of the District of Columbia, was sentenced today to two life sentences for home invasion sexual assaults committed in 2007 and 2010. Berton was sentenced to life without the possibility of release plus 27 years for a June 2010 home invasion and sexual assault of an adult woman; and to life without the possibility of release for the October 2007 home invasion and sexual assault of another adult woman. Both victims were strangers to Berton.  The sentences, which will run consecutively to each other, were announced U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves and Chief Robert J. Contee, III, of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).

            In the case from 2010, Berton was found guilty, in February of 2023, of first-degree burglary, kidnapping, first degree sexual abuse with aggravating circumstances, assault with intent to commit first degree sexual abuse, and attempted first degree sexual abuse with aggravating circumstances. In the 2007 case, Berton was found guilty, in March of 2020, of kidnapping and first-degree sexual abuse with aggravating circumstances.

            “This sentence helps to ensure that a very dangerous sexual predator will not roam our streets,” said U.S. Attorney Graves. “This office truly appreciates the courage it took for each survivor to come forward and testify about their ordeal in a courtroom full of strangers, particularly after so many years had passed. Their strength has undoubtedly saved others from falling prey to this serial offender. The people in this office will do everything possible to get justice for victims of sexual assault.”    

            “Every survivor deserves justice, and I’m pleased that, through the hard work of our officers, detectives, attorneys, and other law enforcement partners, our criminal justice system has delivered it to these two women,” said Chief Contee. “The Metropolitan Police Department is committed to closing every case, no matter how long it takes.”

             According to the government’s evidence presented at trial, on June 12, 2010, at approximately 7:30 a.m., the victim was at home sleeping in her ground level apartment in Adams Morgan. Berton, who was a stranger to the victim, entered her home and proceeded into her bedroom where he stood over her. The victim woke up and the defendant restrained her and sexually assaulted her. The victim fought back, ultimately collecting the defendant’s DNA underneath the fingernails of both her hands. After the assault, Berton stole the victim’s phone and fled. The defendant used the victim’s stolen SIM card, which he placed into a different handset, to call an acquaintance five hours later.

            The victim ran to a firehouse immediately after the assault and reported the offenses. MPD responded promptly and a crime scene technician swabbed under her fingernails for possible DNA. The fingernail swabs were tested in 2010 and resulted in a partial DNA profile of the defendant under her left hand fingernails and a more complete profile under her right hand fingernails.

            Berton was developed as a suspect in this case in approximately 2017, when detectives with MPD’s Cold Case Sexual Assault Unit identified him as the suspect in a 2007 home invasion sexual assault. In that case, Berton had entered the ground level Adams Morgan apartment of a 27 year-old woman who was sleeping. The defendant restrained and sexually assaulted her and then stole her phone and fled. The victim obtained an immediate Sexual Assault Examination and reported the offenses to police. Berton was later identified as the perpetrator of this offense by his DNA profile. He was convicted of the 2007 crimes in a March 2020 trial, in which the jury found him guilty of kidnapping and first-degree sexual abuse with aggravating circumstances.

            Berton also has a 2014 rape conviction in the Commonwealth of Virginia, Arlington County. In that case, in September 2010, Berton entered the ground level apartment of a woman who was sleeping and sexually assaulted her. After the assault, the defendant stole two cell phones and a laptop and fled. He was later identified as the perpetrator through DNA.

            In announcing the verdict, U.S. Attorney Graves and Chief Contee commended the work of those who investigated the case from the Metropolitan Police Department. They also expressed appreciation for the assistance provided by the U.S. Marshals Service and FBI CAST team. They acknowledged the efforts of those who worked on the case from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including Assistant U.S. Attorneys Stuart Allen, Dan Lenerz, Nick Coleman, Bryan Han, Chrisellen Kolb, and Sharon Donovan; Lisa Kreeger-Norman, Special Counsel for DNA and Forensic Evidence Litigation; Paralegal Specialists Cynthia Muhammad, Garcia Clarke, and Tiffany Jones; Lead Paralegal Specialist Michelle Wicker; and Victim/Witness Coordinator Katina Adams-Washington. 

            Finally, they commended the work of Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kathleen Kern and Amy Zubrensky, who investigated and prosecuted the case.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

The Justice Department today commemorates the 60th anniversary of Gideon v. Wainwright, the landmark Supreme Court decision which held that the assistance of counsel is a fundamental right essential to a fair trial, and that the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments require states to appoint attorneys for defendants who cannot afford to retain counsel on their own. The Office for Access to Justice (ATJ) is leading this effort by elevating the right to counsel and the importance of public defenders throughout the month of March.

“With its decision in Gideon, the Supreme Court transformed the American legal system by renewing the foundational promise of equal justice under law,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “There is still so much more work to be done to make the promise of Gideon real. The Justice Department recognizes the urgency and seriousness of these challenges. And we are committed to doing all we can to support our colleagues who have devoted their careers to public defense.”

“Twenty-five years ago today, former Attorney General Janet Reno, for whom I had the privilege of working, recognized that rigorous application of the Gideon decision secures the ‘fundamental fairness and accuracy of every criminal proceeding,’” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. “Those words ring equally true today, as we strive to enhance access to counsel throughout the Bureau of Prisons and recognize the extraordinary contributions of hard-working public defenders and panel attorneys across this country.”

“Defending those accused of crimes is not just a nice thing to do, it is a constitutional requirement,” said Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta. “That constitutional requirement helps ensure fairness and legitimacy — and for that reason, every actor in the criminal justice system should be invested in the work of public defenders. The Department of Justice stands with, and is taking concrete steps, to support public defenders as we work to make real the promise the Gideon decision made 60 years ago.”

Leading up to the anniversary on Saturday, March 18, ATJ, in partnership with Justice Department officials, launched a National Public Defense Day Tour focused on the appreciation and recognition of public defense. Through the Tour, the Department aimed to demonstrate commitment and responsiveness to concerns related to indigent defense in many communities. The National Public Defense Day Tour stops included:

• Miami – Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, joined by U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe for the Southern District of Florida and ATJ Director Rachel Rossi, launched the tour in Miami, where they met with federal and local public defenders and discussed barriers to access to counsel in detention facilities. The Deputy Attorney General announced a comprehensive, 100-day review to ensure consistent, timely access to counsel in Bureau of Prisons pretrial facilities.

• Tulsa, Oklahoma – Director Rossi met with the organization Still She Rises and local public defenders to discuss racial equity and holistic defense models of public defense.

• Muscogee (Creek) Nation – Director Rossi visited Muscogee (Creek) Nation Attorney General Geri Wisner and tribal defenders to discuss unique issues in public defense in Tribal jurisdictions.

• Las Vegas – Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Jason M. Frierson for the District of Nevada joined Director Rossi at the William S. Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada to discuss with law students the importance of public defense careers. Both announced a collaborative effort with ATJ and the Criminal Division’s Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development and Training program to visit with and learn about Ghana’s legal aid commission and the commission’s public defender division, and to consider the possibility of study exchange visits to the United States. Director Rossi also announced that ATJ will soon launch a series of visits with law schools across the country to promote public defense careers.

• Nashville, Tennessee – Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Amy Solomon of the Office of Justice Programs joined Director Rossi to visit with members of the Public Defender Forensic Social Work Program and Nashville Public Defenders to discuss resource needs, and to announce the issuance of a joint dear colleague letter encouraging use of Byrne-JAG federal grant funding to resource public defense.

• Des Moines, Iowa – Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta and U.S. Attorney Richard D. Westphal for the Southern District of Iowa joined Director Rossi where they met with the Iowa State Public Defender and contract attorneys to explore the needs of bar panel and contract defense attorneys, learn about issues faced by rural defenders, and discuss the assessment of fees for public defense services.

“On this 60th anniversary of Gideon, the Department is elevating the perspectives and experiences of public defense professionals and impacted communities across the country,” said Director Rossi. “As the principal advisor to the Department on the Sixth Amendment, ATJ will fulfill its mission by continuing to center these voices.”

To conclude the National Public Defense Day Tour, the Justice Department will hold a reception at the Department of Justice with over 100 attendees from various public defender offices, public defense organizations, judicial officers and court staff, government officials, and international partners. The reception, which can be viewed live, will feature remarks from Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta, ATJ Director Rachel Rossi, and the Federal Public Defender for the Western District of Virginia Juval Scott.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Mr. Chief Justice, and may it please the Court.

The Bar of the Court met today to honor the life and legacy of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court from 1993 to 2020.

Justice Ginsburg was brilliant, courageous, and principled. 

She believed deeply in the capacity of the law to fulfill our country’s fundamental promise of equality. 

And she believed deeply in our Constitution. As she wrote in her opinion for the Court in United States v. Virginia, she believed in its “story of the extension of constitutional rights and protections to people once ignored or excluded.”

I first caught a glimpse of Ruth Bader Ginsburg in this courtroom in 1978, when she came here to argue Duren v. Missouri.

The Court’s law clerks were crowded into the wings of the courtroom to hear her. Our Justices had told us she was the best advocate we would hear that Term. 

And she did not disappoint – she won the case 8-1.

As it turned out, that would be her last argument before the Court. Two years later, she was appointed to the D.C. Circuit, and 13 years after that, she was appointed to the Supreme Court.

But it had been an amazing run as a litigator. Like Thurgood Marshall on behalf of equal rights for Black Americans, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was the chief tactician in a campaign for equal rights for women.

Beginning in 1971, she filed more than 20 Supreme Court briefs challenging legislative distinctions between the sexes – including distinctions that disadvantaged men – in order to establish the principle of equal treatment. 

She argued six cases before the Court, losing only one.

Just to describe some of those cases is to recall how different the world was then.

In Duren, the Court struck down a Missouri law that made jury duty optional for women – and only women.

In Weinberger v. Wiesenfeld, the Court struck down a provision that permitted a deceased man’s social security benefits to be paid to his widow, but did not permit a deceased woman’s benefits to be paid to her widower.

And in one of the first cases Justice Ginsburg briefed, Reed v. Reed, the Court unanimously struck down a state probate statute that said “males must be preferred to females” in appointing estate administrators.

Now, if you think the 1970s were different, you should hear just a snippet of Justice Ginsburg’s own description of what it was like in 1956, when she was one of only nine women in a Harvard Law School class of more than 500:

“[W]omen were not admitted to faculty club dining tables; one could invite one’s father, but not one’s wife or mother, to the Law Review banquet; [and] the old periodical room at Lamont Library was closed to women.”

In 1958, the Justice’s husband Marty – whom all of us who knew him loved – graduated from Harvard a year ahead of the Justice and received a job offer in New York. 

Justice Ginsburg asked the Dean to let her finish the requirements for her Harvard degree at Columbia. Famously, and to Harvard’s ever-lasting regret, the Dean denied her request.

So the Justice transferred to Columbia anyway, served as an editor of the law review, and tied for first in her class.

But in those days, even that was not enough. 

A Supreme Court Justice turned her down for a clerkship, telling the Dean of the law school that he “just wasn’t ready to hire a woman.” Nor could she find a job in a corporate law firm.

But as the Justice noted in 2009, that wasn’t such a bad result. If she had gotten the job, she said, she would have been a retired law firm partner instead of a Supreme Court Justice.

I do not need to tell anyone in this courtroom how different the world would be had that happened. 

During the Justice’s 27 years on this Court, she influenced every area of the law, from issues that made the headlines, like equal rights for women, to highly complex questions of civil procedure, without which our court system could not function.

Everyone here knows what an intellectual force she was on the Court. 

Every lawyer who appeared before her knows how incisive her questioning was at oral argument. 

And everyone who reads her concise, elegant opinions can see her commitment to – in her own words – “get it right and keep it tight.”

Justice Ginsburg was not only one of the country’s brightest legal minds; she was also a beacon of civility and collegiality.

She revered the role of the federal judiciary, and this Court in particular, in upholding the Rule of Law. 

She understood the necessity of an independent judiciary to our democracy.

“[E]ssential to the rule of law in any land,” she said, “is an independent judiciary, judges not under the thumb of other branches of government, and therefore equipped to administer the law impartially.” 

She strived to be that kind of judge. And she succeeded.

Justice Ginsburg was also an enormously caring person.

In her personal life, she supported Marty during his battle with cancer and then fought her own.

And in her professional life, she was an extraordinary mentor to her law clerks.

Justice Ginsburg’s impact on this Court, and on our country, will be felt for generations to come. She is – and always will be – deeply missed.

May her memory be a blessing.

Mr. Chief Justice, on behalf of the lawyers of this Nation – and in particular, the members of this Court’s Bar – I respectfully request that the resolutions presented to you in honor of Ruth Bader Ginsburg be accepted by the Court, and that together with the chronicle of these proceedings, they be ordered kept for all time in the records of this Court.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that DJONIBEK RAHMANKULOV was sentenced today to 121 months in prison for laundering millions of dollars in criminal proceeds obtained from computer hacking, healthcare fraud, and Small Business Administration loan fraud, as well as operating an international unlicensed money transmitting business.  The defendant was convicted at trial on September 1, 2022, of money laundering conspiracy, bank fraud, and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business.  U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams imposed today’s sentence.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “Djonibek Rahmankulov laundered money for a living.  He exploited the financial system to launder millions of dollars from multiple fraudulent schemes and repeatedly lied to banks to operate his illegal enterprise.  Once caught — and even after he was convicted — the defendant continued to show that he believed he was above the law by threatening a witness and submitting false information to the Court.  Today’s sentence reflects that this Office will find and prosecute those who seek to abuse the U.S. financial system to launder dirty money.”

According to the superseding Indictment, evidence at trial, and statements made in Court:

Between 2017 and September 2020, RAHMANKULOV operated a network of shell companies that were used to launder millions of dollars of criminal proceeds from multiple types of criminal activity.  RAHMANKULOV worked with computer hackers who fraudulently gained control of the bank accounts of victims located throughout the United States and executed millions of dollars in fraudulent wire transfers into bank accounts opened by RAHMANKULOV and his co-conspirators.  RAHMANKULOV received wire transfers into bank accounts he created and bank accounts he instructed others to create and laundered these proceeds through multiple additional bank accounts to prevent the victims and the banks from recovering the stolen funds.

In addition, RAHMANKULOV worked with a network of pharmacies engaged in Medicare and Medicaid fraud.  These pharmacies submitted millions of dollars of fraudulent billing for HIV medications that they did not dispense or obtained illegally, including by repurchasing medications from HIV patients who were Medicaid recipients.  RAHMANKULOV created companies to receive these criminal proceeds from the pharmacies and laundered them through a variety of means, including by using them to fund an unlicensed money transmitting business that illegally moved money to and from multiple countries, including Iran.

In 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic began, RAHMANKULOV filed fraudulent applications for COVID relief loans from the Small Business Administration for multiple companies he controlled.  He laundered the proceeds of loans and grants through these companies.  RAHMANKULOV also made a number of materially false statements to financial institutions in connection with his money laundering schemes, both when opening bank accounts and when executing financial transactions with those bank accounts.

RAHMANKULOV sought to obstruct justice during the pendency of his case.  In the months before trial, RAHMANKULOV instructed a witness to lie to law enforcement.  When the witness later informed RAHMANKULOV that the witness would tell the truth to law enforcement, RAHMANKULOV threatened the witness, stating, among other things, that if he went to prison, “I will drag all of you with me, and once you are there, then I will have my revenge.”  Nonetheless, the witness testified at trial.  RAHMANKULOV continued seeking to obstruct justice after his conviction.  In advance of his sentencing, he submitted multiple letters to the Court purporting to show support from members of the community, but two of these letters were in fact fraudulent and had not been written by the purported authors.

*                *                *

In addition to the prison term, RAHMANKULOV, 35, of Queens, New York, was sentenced to three years of supervised release.  RAHMANKULOV was further ordered to pay a forfeiture of $5,413,278 and a $40,000 fine.

Mr. Williams praised the outstanding investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s New York Money Laundering Investigation Squad.

The prosecution is being handled by the Office’s Money Laundering and Transnational Criminal Enterprises Unit.  Assistant U.S. Attorneys Cecilia Vogel, Thane Rehn, and Samuel Raymond, with the assistance of Paralegal Specialist Nerlande Pierre, are in charge of the prosecution.