The dishonest "honest services" law is receiving a lot of bad press. Now in New York, a federal judge was angered when a defense lawyer attacked the law, verbally insulting it.
The judge ordered comments to be immediately curtailed.
From today's Albany Times-Union:
An attorney for [former New York Senate Majority Leader] Joseph L. Bruno was warned by a federal judge Wednesday that his comments outside the courtroom need to be curtailed.
U.S. District Court Judge Gary L. Sharpe issued an order that Bruno's lead defense attorney, Abbe D. Lowell, explain comments he made to news reporters outside the courthouse on Monday following the final pre-trial conference in the case. The comments came minutes after the judge had cautioned attorneys in the case, for a second time, not to violate court rules regarding public comments.
The judge's order specifically referred to comments by Lowell that the federal honest services law being used to prosecute Bruno is ''squishy.''
