As described in this post, last week the government filed a motion that they wished to turn over 395 documents seized in the late November search of the Scruggs law office to the prosecutors; they had been withheld while being processed by the taint team from the US Attorney’s office in Western Tennessee.
Zach has now responded he does not object to the document handover. What does this mean? It could mean that the documents really don’t hurt Zach’s case. It could mean that Zach realizes they will inevitably be turned over– and– when he gets copies of the ones the government will use via discovery (he already got the full set last week), with the government saying “we will use these exhibits, too,” he may well think “Now that is a real issue for my effort to obtain a continuance– the government is telling me less than 10 days out new exhibits in the case. I need time to deal with it!” This is all relatively speculative. I would expect something to come up about this tomorrow at the motions hearing.
Here’s Zach Scruggs’s response on the taint team motion.
h/t to LydiaLaw in comments.
It could also mean that none of the documents relate to him, bolstering his claim that he was not part of the conspiracy. I got the impression from the various transcripts that Backstrom was handling all of the paperwork, so there may be nothing linked directly to Zach.
… when he gets copies of the ones the government will use via discovery (he already got the full set last week), with the government saying "we will use these exhibits, too, " he may well think "Now that is a real issue for my effort to obtain a continuance …
I’m a wee fuzzy here, NMC. I think you mean they “carpet-bombed” Team Zach by returning the entire office-ful of SLO docs last week, but now they’ll do the “precision-strike,” producing discovery of just the stuff pertaining to this case. Zat right?
Would seem reasonable to give him more time to deal with that, but what do I know?
Anyhow, thanks to you and Lydia both.
Last week it was: Here is everything seized that is properly within the terms of the warrant. That does not mean they are exhibits for use at trial– they are everything.
The next move is for the prosecutors to go through them and see what matters to making out their case, then provide a list of those in discovery I would presume. That’s going to be a narrower set (“all things seized” being a subset of “all things seized that help us at trial”), but Zach can legimitately say “well, now I have more things to deal with in trial prep.”
And yes, somslawyer is correct that one possibility is that the documents don’t matter to Zach’s case.
If Zack goes to court and loses, it then goes to the appeal process, and this would be Federal, setting where and what ties would Dickie have to them. Just wondering..
Say again, mag?
Appeal goes to Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals very conservative and will bend over backwards to affirm. Believe me. I had case Gov’t altered doc produced in discovery, concealed testimony and new allegations against clients (totally changed trial prevented any defense to new allegations), Fifth Circuit admitted wrongful conduct by Gov’t, which it did not “condone” but it did exactly that by holding not abuse of discretion. RIDICULOUS DECISION, but that’s the Fifth Circuit.
Also remember Scruggs already got slammed in the Leonard v. Nationwide case by Fifth Circuit.
Jeebus, Tim. Did you take it on up?
What was Leonard v. Nationwide?
lotus//Tim answered, thanks tho..Well I’m thinking one of his lawyers has ties to Ashcraft and he was in Washington for so many years, and the way this thing has been going around in circles somebodys’ Grandpa may set on Fifth Circuit. My Mothers great grand childs GrandPa sits on Mississippi Court of Appeals, so hell who knows, black helicopers again tonight.
Pull the kivvers over yo’ haid, mag. They’ll go away if they can’t see ya.
That fancy $$$ equipment and all, wonder if they can read sign language???
Well, okay then.