Connecticut Commentary: Red Notes from a Blue State

Blumenthal And The Abuse Of Ex Parte Attachments There is no rule on earth, Cardinal Henry Newman once said, to which there is not at least one exception. Ex parte attachments of assets may best be viewed as an exception to the 14th amendment to the U. S. Constitution. That amendment, in its procedural due process clause, secures the citizens of the United States in their property, which ordinarily cannot be seized by agents of the state without a hearing before a judge. The 14th amendment requires the state to ensure that no one is deprived of "life, liberty, or property" without a fair opportunity to affect the judgment or result. The exception is necessary because those accused of crimes – when found guilty – are called upon to surrender their assets as a part of their punishment, and an ex parte attachment prevents accused persons from disposing of their assets through fraudulent transfers or, in the case of drug kingpins, mobsters and career criminals, by using ...

After announcing his availability for a U.S. Senate position to be vacated at the end of Chris Dodd’s term, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal -- who has no plans to leave office during his campaign – mentioned several times in press appearances his ambition to serve the people of Connecticut in the U.S. Senate aggressively and energetically as he had while attorney general. It is not too far fetched to imagine that the two former co-owners of New England Pellet (NEP), put out of business by Blumenthal two years ago on a charge of having committed or having intending to commit a fraudulent transfer, might wish the attorney general had been a little more attentive to the circumstances in their case. Less aggression and more energy might have been useful. The fraudulent transfer charge was the SOLE charge, made in a sworn affidavit signed by Blumenthal’s “investigator” in the case, that allowed Blumenthal to attach all the business machinery of NEP, effectively putting the company ...

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and the Hoffmans have reached a settlement on the three-year-old case. Blumenthal’s press release following the settlement is written in his usual triumphant mode. The case was a losing proposition for Hoffmans going in, and it is instructive to ask why. The final settlement, reached after years of litigation, demonstrates that the forces arrayed against the Hoffmans – which include, by the way, a compliant media – could not be overcome. Never-the-less, some battles are worth fighting, if only to make a record that would not exist when one chooses simply to lie down in the path of an irresistible force. In the Hoffman case – and more strikingly in the New England Pellet (NEP) case – some of Blumenthal’s questionable methods were closely scrutinized by this blog. The attorney general’s methods are as simple and effective as those employed in 15th century by the Grand Inquisitor Tomás de Torquemada, who was inclined to settle matters of religious...

CONNECTICUT COMMENTARY WAS ADVISED A FEW HOURS BEFORE BROADCAST THAT THE SHOW BELOW WOULD BE DELAYED FOR A FEW DAYS. ANOTHER ADVISORY WILL BE POSTED BEFORE THE SHOW AIRS. Over the course of his well promoted career – twenty years as Connecticut’s attorney general, and now but a heart-throb away from occupying U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd’s seat – Richard Blumenthal has sued, in the past 8 years alone, more than a thousand companies. A PFD link to companies that have had court appearances with Blumenthal as a party to the suits can be accessed through a link on the following blog: Blumenthal’s Suits . A recent Republican American editorial notes that Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has bitten off far more than he can chew: His most recent annual report shows that “his office had 36,495 cases pending at the end of 2008-09, a 40 percent increase over 1995-96.” Virtually none of the principals involved in Blumenthal’s Byzantine and punishing suits have made themselves available to t...

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal’s latest media release announcing his plans to lead an investigation into “allegedly defective legal documents filed by banks in thousands of foreclosures nationwide” is written, as usual, in the heroic mode. Although the legal documents are “allegedly” defective, the banks, according to Mr. Blumenthal, “broke the law, papering the courts with defective documents to railroad consumers into fast, possibly fraudulent foreclosures.” Mr. Blumenthal’s summary judgment – the banks broke the law – precedes a careful investigation that may or may not support his prejudgment. According to the press release, Mr. Blumenthal’s “powerful multi-state investigation will hold big banks accountable, determining how and why they broke the law.” There is a certain dissonance in Mr. Blumenthal’s media releases that those in the media who receive them – this one was sent to over 40 recipients and media outlets – have grown used to over the years. If the investigati...

Attorney Martha Dean will launch her campaign for attorney general on March 16, 2010 from the state Capitol’s North steps at high noon. Dean was the Republican nominee for attorney general in 2002 when she faced off against Richard Blumenthal. “The state of Connecticut,” Dean said in a short pre-announcement release, “is entering a full-blown crisis. For the people of Connecticut, the scope of this crisis means that the quality of the people who we elect this year is more important than ever. "We are in an economic crisis, a cultural crisis, and a leadership crisis. As attorney general of Connecticut, I promise to work with other state officials to take the legal steps necessary to save this great State and see it safely to the high ground of competitiveness and prosperity.” On the Democratic side, there are numerous contenders for the position, which opened up after Attorney General Richard Blumenthal announced he would abandon 20 year hold on the office after his term en...

Three press accounts appeared over the weekend that had Attorney General Richard Blumenthal as their subject, two in the Journal Inquirer by reporter Alex Wood, and one in the Hartford Courant by Kevin Rennie , a political columnist. One of the Journal Inquirer’s stories by Wood (available through subscription) is likely to generate some interest because it includes what may be called, loosely speaking, a rebuttal to a press release issued by Mr. Blumenthal following the “settlement” of a case against New England Pellet. The rebutter is Jim Oliver, the lawyer for New England Pellet. The story involves an objection by Mr. Blumenthal to an assertion by Mr. Oliver that Mr. Blumenthal’s inspector, Patrick Ahlquist, used a defective affidavit in the case and later offered perjured testimony in a deposition. The charge by Mr. Oliver that Mr. Ahlquist perjured himself in a sworn deposition has yet to be put before a judge. Such being the case, it is partly true, as Mr. Blumenthal asse...

Not for nothing was Attorney General Richard Blumenthal kept on the American Enterprise Institute’s first spot listing of worst attorneys general in the United States for the last few years . Only recently did Mr. Blumenthal slip from first place, which presented a rare moment of anguish for the heir apparent to U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd’s seat in the congress. Blumenthal wore the first place distinction, he said, as a red badge of courage. The AEI is a conservative (read: “bad”) center of sweetness and light, whereas Mr. Blumenthal is, as every careful reader of Connecticut’s icon burnishing media well knows, goodness unalloyed. Two icon breaking newspapers recently have taken a shot at St. Blumenthal’s solar plexus: the Connecticut Post and the Journal Inquirer, both relying on a comprehensive report written by Bill Cummings, a Post investigative reporter . Is it possible that some Connecticut papers are heart-sick at being scooped by outliers such as the New York Times and the Wall S...