Top Eight

Your Tuesday night briefing from the staff of Courthouse News

Top eight CNS stories for today including a representative for Equatorial Guinea challenged France’s prosecution of a vice president for the only Spanish-speaking country in Africa; A federal judge said she will not derail plans to sentence Roger Stone; President Donald Trump commuted the 14-year prison sentence of disgraced former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich and granted several pardons, and more.

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National

1.) In her first brush with the Roger Stone case since uproar over prison-time recommendations shook up the Justice Department, a federal judge said Tuesday she will not derail plans to sentence the longtime Trump adviser.

2.) A voluntary group of nearly 1,100 federal judges will meet Wednesday to address Attorney General William Barr’s recent intervention in politically sensitive cases tied to President Donald Trump.

3.) In a flurry of pardons and clemencies issued Tuesday, President Trump commuted the 14-year prison sentence of disgraced former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and granted pardons to a former NFL team owner, New York police commissioner and financial fraudster Michael Milken.

4.) The D.C. Circuit gave the Trump administration a cool reception Tuesday as it attempts to quash a lawsuit by Congress in the funding fight over the president’s long-promised border wall.

5.) Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders broke away from the field of presidential candidates Tuesday with a 12-point lead in a nationwide poll of voters, solidifying his front-runner status on the Democratic Party’s 2020 ticket.

International

6.) Arguing before the highest court of the United Nations, a representative for Equatorial Guinea challenged France’s prosecution of a vice president for the only Spanish-speaking country in Africa.

7.) A Dutch appeals court on Tuesday ordered Russia to pay $50 billion to former shareholders of oil and gas giant Yukos, the latest development in a complicated, 15-year legal battle.

8.) In a speech at an annual gathering in Munich where world leaders and foreign policy experts chew on the state of the world, a tone deaf Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tried to dispel European misgivings over the trustworthiness of American leadership and dismiss notions that the power of the West is in decline.

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