Pence, Ex-National Security Advisor Subpoenaed by Trump Special Counsel

(Bloomberg) — Former Vice President Mike Pence and former National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien have been subpoenaed in the special counsel investigations of Donald Trump and his allies.

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Pence’s subpoena for documents and testimony came after months of negotiations between his legal team and federal prosecutors working with Special Counsel Jack Smith, according to ABC News.

A spokesman for Pence declined to comment on Thursday evening. The special counsel’s office declined to comment when asked if Pence had been subpoenaed.

Smith is investigating efforts by Trump and others to overturn the 2020 presidential election as well

Aviva Investors Ground Rent GP Ltd and another v Williams and others [2023] UKSC 6 – UKSC Blog

On appeal from [2021] EWCA Civ 21

This appeal is concerned with the validity of a provision in a lease which allows the landlord to revise the proportion of the overall costs of maintaining the wider estate that a leaseholder should pay by way of a service charge.

The dispute related to long leases of residential flats in a block in Southsea, Hampshire. The leaseholders were required to pay service charges towards the overall costs incurred by the landlord in maintaining the building and wider estate. Each lease provided that the leaseholder was to pay a specific percentage of the

DCM (Optical Holdings) Ltd v Commissioners for His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs [2022] UKSC 26 – UKSC Blog

In this post, Neal Chandru, an Associate in the Tax team at CMS, comments on the case of DCM (Optical Holdings) Ltd (“DCM”) v Commissioners for his Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (“HMRC”) [2022] UKSC 26 – handed down on 12 October 2022.

The issues on appeal before the Supreme Court were whether HMRC:

  1. were, on the facts of the case, constrained by the statutory time bar in s 73(6) of the Value Added Tax Act 1994 (“VATA”); and
  2. can deny a self-assessment claim for payment of a VAT credit while HMRC validates the claim.

The background facts which

Latest news on Russia and the war in Ukraine

Explosions heard near Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant: IAEA

Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe’s largest nuclear power station.

Carl Court | Getty Images

Monitors from the UN’s nuclear watchdog agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency, reported hearing explosions near Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant as Russia hit the country with a new wave of attacks.

Rafael Grossi, IAEA chief, made a repeated call for a security zone to be established around the plant, which is Europe’s largest of its kind and currently occupied by Russian forces.

A representative for the Russian state nuclear energy company Rosenergoatom, Renat Karchaa, called the comments

Barton and others v Morris and another in place of Gwyn-Jones (deceased) [2022] UKSC 3 – UKSC Blog

On appeal from: [2019] EWCA Civ 1999

Foxpace Limited (“Foxpace”), the Fourth Respondent, owned a property known as Nash House in London. This appeal concerns an oral agreement between Foxspace and Mr Barton, the First Respondent, regarding the Nash House. In the High Court it was held that Foxspace agreed to pay Mr Barton £1.2 million if he introduced a purchaser for Nash House who bought it for £6.5 million. The £1.2 million represented deposits and other expenses that Mr Barton had lost on two previous attempts to buy Nash House.

Mr Barton introduced to Foxspace a purchaser who attempted

Rakusen v Jepson and Ors – UKSC Blog

In this post, Luke Arnold, Associate in the Real Estate team at CMS, previews the case of Rakusen v Jepson and Ors, which is due to be heard by the UK Supreme Court on 26 January 2023.

Factual Background

The respondent in this appeal, Mr Rakusen, is the leasehold owner of a flat in North London. In 2016, he granted a tenancy of the flat to Kensington Property Investment Group (“Kensington”) which permitted the subletting of individual rooms in the flat. Kensington later entered into separate agreements with the Appellants (Jepson and Ors) granting them each possession of one room.

R v Maughan (Northern Ireland) [2022] UKSC 13 – UKSC Blog

In this post, Ross Ludlow, Legal Support Assistant at Matrix Chambers, comments on the case of R v Maughan (Northern Ireland) [2022] UKSC 13. This case is considered the Northern Irish approach to reduction in sentences for defendants who pleaded guilty to offenses at an early stage of proceedings.

The Supreme Court was asked to consider two sentencing policies – firstly, that stage at which the defendant indicated their intention to plead guilty is important, in that in order to be entitled to the maximum discount they must plead guilty at the earliest opportunityand secondly, that the reduction

Monterey Park mass shooting updates: Suspect died of self-inflicted gunshot wound, police say

The suspected gunman who allegedly shot 20 people, 10 fatally, at a dance studio near a Lunar New Year celebration in the Los Angeles suburb of Monterey Park has been identified and linked to a second incident the same night, authorities said Sunday.

Huu Can Tran, 72, was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound inside a white cargo van in Torrance that law enforcement officers had surrounded and forced their way into about 30 miles from where the massacre occurred, authorities said.

Authorities said they found a handgun and other evidence inside the van. An investigation is ongoing, and