Congressman Fattah's New Legal Team Works To Get Racketeering And Conspiracy Charges Dismissed
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Congressman Chaka Fattah's new legal team is trying to get most of his racketeering and conspiracy charges dismissed, before the trial. His old lawyers asked to withdraw, because Fattah wasn't keeping up with his payment arrangements.
His new attorneys argued legacy motions filed by a predecessor law firm asserting Chaka Fattah's so-called "speech and debate" protections as a Congressman. In essence, they claim he could not be held criminally responsible for legislative actions, or documents related to them.
Federal prosecutor Eric Gibson countered by saying the government was "scrupulously careful" in preventing the grand jury from being exposed to "speech and debate" material.
Federal Judge Harvey Bartle was instantly dubious of the defense motion, adding it was "somewhat thin, perhaps to delay the trial." Attorney Bruce Merenstein assured the judge if the case is not thrown out, they'll be ready to go May 2nd. That's less than a week after the April 26th primary; Fattah is facing 4-challengers.
Lawyers representing Fattah's four co-defendants also chimed in on a motion to get the racketeering charge dismissed. As attorney Peter Goldberger put it, the indictment was "unconstitutionally vague, flimsy and loosey goosey."
Federal prosecutor John Kravis shot back "that's for a jury to decide." In his words, "the alleged schemes are not an issue," it's whether Fattah and the others "committed to participate in an illegal enterprise."
The three attorneys now representing Fattah are from Schnader, Harrison, Segal and Lewis, after Fattah's previous law firm asked to drop their client, because Fattah was not keeping up with his agreed to legal bills.
The new team was handed quite a bit of homework. Court documents produced so far include 900,000 pages of material.
