Witness tampering

* President Trump had a hell of weekend on Twitter, where he implied that Democractic Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, and Ayanna Pressley — all women of color — weren’t American citizens and told them to “go back” to their home countries. [CNN]

* Federal prosecutors have now accused Jeffrey Epstein of witness tampering, alleging that the sex-trafficking defendant paid out six figures to buy the silence of those who could testify against him. [New York Times]

* Speaking of people related to Alex Acosta’s resignation as labor chief, Patrick Pizzella, formerly of K&L Gates legacy firm Preston Gates Ellis, an associate of Jack Abramoff who notably wasn’t charged and convicted of corruption, has been named as acting labor secretary. [Big Law Business]

* The D.C. Circuit didn’t really seem all that receptive to Trump’s attempts to block Congress from subpoenaing records from one of his accounting firms. Picture Judge Patricia Millett asking this with a raised brow: “When it comes to a president’s conflict of interest, there’s nothing Congress can do … to protect the people of the United States?” [Washington Post]

* How did Justice Clarence Thomas go from being a “Black Panther type” in law school to being the Supreme Court’s “conservative beacon”? [NPR]

* According to Citi Private Bank, law firm leaders are feeling a little less confident about the second half of the year, but no one is expecting a recession just yet. In fact, they seem downright “optimistic” about the rest of 2019. Yay! [American Lawyer]

* Uh-oh! In the wake of Michael Cohen’s testimony, Chairman Rep. Elijah Cummings of the House Oversight Committee sent letters to President Trump’s tax attorney from Morgan Lewis and the Trump Organization’s outside counsel from Michael Best requesting their appearance for a “transcribed interview.” [National Law Journal]

* After widespread rebuke, the Florida Bar has officially opened an ethics investigation into Rep. Matt Gaetz’s alleged witness tampering of Michael Cohen via tweet prior to his testimony before the House Oversight Committee. [Daily Business Review]

* Milbank’s profits exceeded the $1 billion mark in 2018, which the firm is absolutely thrilled about. The firm less thrilled about its all-male partner class, and unlike in prior years, they haven’t been listed in a press release. [New York Law Journal]

* Hot on the heels of announcing it intends to become a nonprofit, Florida Coastal Law asked a court to dismiss the accreditation suit it filed against the ABA, saying it’s “no longer necessary to protect the interests of our students.” [ABA Journal]

* “For decades a lot of young lawyers have missed opportunities to build families and this technology puts that ability back into their hands.” Bill now, procreate later? Lawyers are flocking to freeze their eggs and embryos. [American Lawyer]

* Nebraska banned the death penalty. Does this signal a new conservative opposition to the practice? Well, is there a way this can make private prison lobbyists more money? Because then, yes. [FiveThirtyEight]

* The best way to sway a Supreme Court justice? Represent clients that the justices have financial stakes in. [Fix the Court]

* Pharmaceutical companies are peeved that lawyers are using Facebook to identify class action plaintiffs. Why aren’t people content to suffer grievous injury for the sake of profits anymore? [Bloomberg Business]

* Now you can know for sure if your job will be replaced by a robot. Good news, lawyers! Unfortunately, I don’t think this thing’s taking into account document reviewers. [Postgrad Problems]

* Jawbone is accusing Fitbit of poaching workers to steal its technology. Ten points to the tipster for the line: “Think this will all work out?” [Slate]

* Two Biglaw partners from rival firms have joined forces on a new challenge Native American adoption rules. It helps that they’re married to each other. [National Law Journal]

* An interesting perspective: “innovation” is more than technology, and it starts with debt relief. [Rawr]

* A former state senate candidate charged with witness tampering. At least he’s got experience with the system — his dad’s political career ended in a hail of guilty pleas too. [Nashoba Publishing]

* Brace yourselves for a shocker, but Biglaw is failing women. [The American Lawyer]

* David Gans on the upcoming “one person, one vote” claim. The proposition at issue, that representation is based on “voters” not “persons,” is so laughably unconstitutional the Court is clearly just trolling us at this point. I mean, putting aside the horrible racism, isn’t the 3/5ths compromise pretty compelling evidence that the Founders meant to count people who didn’t vote? [Constitutional Accountability Center]