{"id":137829,"date":"2017-12-10T01:35:58","date_gmt":"2017-12-10T06:35:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=137829"},"modified":"2017-12-10T01:35:58","modified_gmt":"2017-12-10T06:35:58","slug":"judge-dies-days-before-trial-of-private-eye-over-trump-taxes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/12\/10\/judge-dies-days-before-trial-of-private-eye-over-trump-taxes\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge dies days before trial of private eye over Trump taxes"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Chief<\/a>
Chief Judge Brian A. Jackson of Louisiana’s Middle District said Saturday in a statement that Judge James J. Brady had died. (Photo By United States District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana , Public Domain)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

BATON ROUGE, La. \u2014 A senior federal judge in Louisiana died Saturday, days before he was to preside over the trial of a private investigator accused of trying to get Donald Trump’s tax returns illegally during the 2016 presidential campaign, court officials said.<\/p>\n

Chief Judge Brian A. Jackson of Louisiana’s Middle District said Saturday in a statement that Judge James J. Brady had died. Michael McConnell, clerk of court for the district, confirmed that Brady died Saturday at a Baton Rouge hospital after a brief illness.<\/p>\n

Brady was to preside as jury selection began Monday in the trial of Jordan Hamlett. It was not immediately clear what would happen with the trial following Brady’s death.<\/p>\n

The 32-year-old Lafayette resident is charged with misusing a Social Security number in his attempts to access Trump’s tax information through a government website. Authorities say Hamlett failed in his attempts to get Trump’s tax returns several weeks before last year’s presidential election.<\/p>\n

Hamlett’s attorney says he didn’t have \u201cintent to deceive\u201d \u2014 a key element of the charge he faces.<\/p>\n

Every president since Jimmy Carter has released tax returns, in what has become an American tradition during presidential elections. Trump has refused to release his.<\/p>\n

A biography on the court’s website says Brady was nominated to the bench in 1999 by then-President Bill Clinton and assumed senior status in December 2013. Senior status is a form of semi-retirement for federal judges, who get lifetime appointments. It enables them to take reduced caseloads while continuing to draw a salary.<\/p>\n

The district’s chief judge said in his statement that Brady’s fellow judges \u201cmourn the loss of our esteemed colleague and friend.\u201d He continued, \u201cJudge Brady’s remarkable career as a federal judge was exemplary and his commitment to providing equal justice under the law resonated throughout his career as a lawyer and a judge. He will forever be remembered for his extraordinary integrity, compassion and devotion to the rule of law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said in a statement that Brady \u201crepresented honesty, fairness and integrity on the federal bench in Louisiana, and his wisdom in the courtroom will be sorely missed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Acting U.S. Attorney Corey R. Amundson called him \u201ca great man, and a dedicated jurist with tremendous compassion, integrity and ability.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BATON ROUGE, La. \u2014 A senior federal judge in Louisiana died Saturday, days before he was to preside over the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":137833,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24157,16],"tags":[38002,38003,9869,38005,38004,38000,38001,333],"class_list":["post-137829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-american-news","category-news","tag-2016-presidential-campaign","tag-chief-judge-brian-a-jackson","tag-donald-trump","tag-judge-james-j-brady","tag-louisianas-middle-district","tag-senior-federal-judge","tag-tax-returns","tag-trial","mauthors-michael-kunzelman","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}