Court-Martial Trial Practice BlogHere is a link to the press release.
The YouTube video isn’t operational yet.
Courtesy of TPMMuckraker here is the WRAMC statement:
Articles Tagged with lakin
LTC Lakin update on WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily has commented on the recent memorandum issued by the Article 32, UCMJ, IO in LTC Lakin’s case.
But Lakin said the result "makes it impossible for me to have a fair hearing."
"I cannot even raise the issue of the president’s eligibility, on the grounds that my position has ‘no basis in law,’" he said
LTC Lakin update
Thanks to safeguardourconstitution.com we have the Article 32, UCMJ, IO’s written ruling on several matters in LTC Lakin’s case.
Note, “the Army” did not refuse the defense requests. The IO did, acting in his role assigned under Article 32, UCMJ, and R.C.M. 405. This is what I would have expected MAJ Kemkes, the military defense counsel to have told LTC Larkin, and by inference, Mr. Jensen.
June MilJus calendar
1 June 2010: the Article 32, UCMJ, hearing ICO MAJ Nidal Malik Hasan is set to begin at Fort Hood. MAJ Hasan is in pretrial confinement therefore the Article 10, UCMJ, speedy trial clock applies.
On 26 May 2010, Mr. Galligan, MAJ Hasan’s civilian counsel posted this on his blog.
Today is the deadline, imposed by the Article 32 Investigating Officer, for Army prosecutors to respond to long outstanding Hasan Defense Team discovery requests. As of this posting – after COB at Fort Hood, Texas – no formal response from the prosecutors has been received. And, as readers are aware, the initial Article 32 session is scheduled for just several days hence.
Another LTC Lakin commentator
Andy Martin, Executive Director, Contrarian Commentary, posits that President Obama is not legally president, therefore LTC Lakin has a legitimate challenge to his orders.
Mr. Martin first tells us that:
I am completely independent and impartial in so far as the Lakin matter is concerned. So far as I am aware I have not had any contact with anyone involved in Lakin’s specific case. I am the author of the Obama book “Obama: The Man Behind The Mask” which first raised questions about Obama’s citizenship.
LTC Lakin’s contumacy
safeguardourconstitution reports that: “Obama Administration unleashes Army lawyers instead of releasing birth certificate.” This is shameful hyperbole and utterly incorrect.
LTC Lakin is alleged to have committed offenses in violation of the UCMJ. The conduct alleged cuts to the very heart of military requirements of obedience to orders, fidelity to the oath of office, and the need for seniors to set the example. I’m reliably informed that in addition to formal counselings every effort was made pre-preferral to convince LTC Lakin to obey his orders. In the face of such contumacious behavior the Army had no choice but to prefer charges. Enlisted personnel are regularly disciplined, court-martialed, and jailed for the same or similar conduct and who have better reasons for their AWOL. Such a stunning lack of officership cannot pass unnoticed or undisciplined. Neither President Obama nor his administration has any role in this case at all. Should the administration try to get involved they should be told – politely – to butt out.
LTC Lakin update
Safeguardourconstitution reports that the Article 32, UCMJ, hearing is scheduled for 11 June 2010.
The report links to a letter to MAJ Kemkes (a great TDS lawyer from Fort Myer) granting a delay of the hearing from 6 May to 11 June.
LTC Driscoll, a lawyer, is the IO. The use of non-lawyers as IO is pretty standard within the Army. Thanx CAAFLog for the update.
A LTC Lakin piece
Blogger Rainier4311 has a piece on LTC Lakin which is critical of Anderson Cooper’s interview. Regardless of the merits of the interview, the piece contains some interesting and uninformed comments on the military legal system.
This Article 138 discovery process must be done. LTC Lakin now has the right to discovery based on the Articles of the UCMJ. The United States Army is attempting to prosecute LTC Lakin just to cover their tracks because the Army has put other personnel out because of their refusal to deploy because the erroneously accused wanted proof of Barack Obama’s eligibility to be president.
In all reason, the controversy surrounding Barack Obama’s eligibility must be put to bed. Under Article 138, he is bound by both federal laws to prove his birth, and since he is, by all accounts the Commander in Chief, he is also bound by the UCMJ.
LTC Lakin
Obama Conspiracy Theories blog has this comment on the CNN LTC Lakin interview:
Paul Jensen, tried to imply things that were false by clever irrelevancies and innuendo, but he told one outright whopper:
In the state of Hawaii there’s a statute that allows anyone born outside the state of Hawaii, including in a foreign country, to obtain a Hawaiian birth certificate, at any age, by going back and filling out a form.
LTC Lakin update
LTC Lakin has made his CNN appearance. Courtesy of Dwight “ML” Sullivan and CAAFLog, here is a link. Like DMLS I found the comment about protecting the client somewhat odd in light of counsel’s apparent involvement in producing the video which has in effect become LTC Lakin’s public confession of an “intent” to refuse orders. As DMLS points out there is a link to Mr. Jensen’s own website, Paul Rolf Jensen . . . Lead Counsel for LTC Lakin. That certainly should be admissible as circumstantial evidence of intent as to the missing movement charge. LTC Lakin’s supporters are not happy about the CNN interview, as this piece at World News Daily indicates. Frankly I wasn’t happy with it either as a lawyer who regularly defends clients at court-martial.
I thought I’d use this case as a way to refresh ourselves on how a defense counsel should approach an Article 32, UCMJ, hearing regardless of the accused or the charges. (I HAVE CREATED A LTC LAKIN PAGE here – which I will update as a relevant event happens or I have time.)
Cooper dominated the combative interview, demanding answers from Lakin, telling his lawyer, Paul Rolf Jensen, to let his client answer and then forging ahead with his own arguments.