Stan Quoted by Bloomberg re: NFL and Congress

Members of Congress would see “political appeal” in pushing to end an NFL work stoppage, said Washington lawyer Stan Brand, former general counsel for the U.S. House and current vice president of Minor League Baseball. “People follow sports in this country with great interest.”

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Stan Quoted in Politico re: Ensign Investigation

Stan Brand, a veteran ethics lawyer, said the Justice Department is most likely “informally gathering information” and hasn’t decided yet whether to move forward with a full-blown criminal investigation of Ensign, meaning the Senate Ethics Committee is not interfering with a criminal case by conducting its own probe.

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Extensive Blog Post on Stan's Comments re: American Needle

Here's a report on Stan's speech at the Baseball Winter Meetings relating to the American Needle case scheduled for argument before the US Supreme Court on January 13.

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Stan Quoted Extensively in TPM re: Supreme Court's Analysis of Honest Services Fraud

If the law goes down, pretty much anyone else convicted of honest services fraud could benefit. "There will be a rush to the courthouse," Stan Brand, a veteran Washington ethics lawyer, told TPMmuckraker. Even those like Abramoff and Jefferson who were convicted on multiple counts, honest-services fraud among them, could get their sentences shortened. "Where you've got multiple counts, they're not gonna get a pass, but they could get a reduction," Brand said.

Brand, reached in Indianapolis where's he's attending baseball's winter meetings (the Granderson trade is the big news, he said), noted that former Maryland governor Marvin Mandel, and former Utah congressman George Hansen both had their corruption convictions overturned after the courts narrowed the laws -- mail fraud, and false statements, respectively -- on which they were convicted.

In a sign of how the issue is already shaking up corruption cases, prosecutors working on the case of former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich indicated earlier this week that they planned to re-file their indictment against him, this time with no reference to honest services fraud, because of the chance that the Supreme Court might strike down or narrow the law. Blago was charged in connection to an alleged scheme to sell Barack Obama's Senate seat, as well as other pay-for-play allegations.

Nonetheless, Brand, a longtime defense lawyer, said that if the law is indeed struck down, it won't be a major blow for anti-corruption efforts. He said that prosecutors still would have numerous other charges at their disposal, including bribery, gratuity, conflict of interest, and false statements, among others.

"These guys have so many arrows in their quiver," Brand said.

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Stan In Politico re: Baucus' Girlfriend

Stan Brand, an ethics law attorney who doesn’t think Baucus will get punished by the Ethics Committee, said, “You shouldn’t be disqualified because of who your boss was at any particular moment.”

And he said that the Senate confirmation process is meant to root out unqualified nominees who may be chosen because of cronyism, among other things.

“I think there’s an issue of who is the most qualified person for the job — but I think that gets addressed in the confirmation process,” Brand said.

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Stan Named to Super Lawyers List for Third Consecutive Year!

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Stan In National Journal re: Ring Retrial?

"These retrials tend to favor the government. It's like a do-over," said Stanley Brand, a Washington lawyer with experience in bribery cases. The prosecution can adjust its arguments based on lessons learned in the first trial, he said.
However, Brand noted, the evidence "doesn't get any better for the government." The Department of Justice "wins the vast majority of the cases that it brings," he said, so a mistrial can be seen as a "victory" for the defense. And that victory -- even if it wasn't total victory -- may embolden Ring's attorneys come June.

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