Pirro Enlists Dance Photographer-Lawyer in Lawmaker Video Case

[Nevilledog]

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/pirro-enlists-dance-photographer-lawyer-in-lawmaker-video-case

No paywall link
https://archive.li/iHrmR

Washington’s US Attorney Jeanine Pirro tapped a dance photographer who worked for her decades ago as one of the prosecutors who tried—and failed—to convince a grand jury to indict six Democratic lawmakers Tuesday, said two people familiar with the situation.

Steven Vandervelden maintained an active photography studio when presenting federal charges to the grand jury against the six members of Congress for creating a video reminding military service members of their rights to refuse unlawful orders.

He’s one of two Pirro hires with no prior federal prosecution experience who got rejected by the grand jury in a case that’s been widely criticized as a politically-motivated attack on free speech. Assigning such a sensitive probe to lawyers she’d brought in from outside the office with no prior DOJ backgrounds—rather than career line prosecutors—is unprecedented, a former federal prosecutor in DC said.

Vandervelden—who had a long career as a local prosecutor in Westchester County, N.Y. where Pirro was district attorney —declined to comment on the investigation into the lawmakers, calling it a potentially open case. In a brief phone interview Wednesday, he confirmed he is the same Vandervelden who posted an update to his studio’s Instagram account several hours earlier.

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[Walleye]

1. Translation when we don't wanna talk about something we say it's a "ongoing investigation" and never answer another

Question about it. All these Maga carping about Biden having the Epstein files. Maxwell was still on trial or in court with an appeal for most of his term. That’s not just an ongoing investigation. That is an actual trial that he could prejudice. He’s a good lawyer and a good president so he didn’t.