Special counsel Robert Mueller — and the American judicial system — got a stern dressing down for "do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do" behavior from lawyers for a company in mystery foreign country.
The supplemental brief from U.S. lawyers for an unnamed corporation in "Country A" made public Monday — and posted by the website Law&Crime.com — is part of an ongoing dispute over jurisdiction and the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, the website explained.
The brief was submitted to support an effort to get the U.S. Supreme Court to review a D.C. Circuit court's order the company comply with a grand jury subpoena — one the company's lawyers have called "unreasonable and oppressive . . . because it would require the Corporation to violate Country A's law," Law&Crime has reported.
In the Monday brief, the company said the D.C. Circuit court's finding on FISA exceptions was an example of America saying, "Do as I say but not as I do," saying the United States has argued in the past that sovereign countries should not be subjected to foreign criminal jurisdiction.
The American lawyers for "Country A" outline five legal problems with the D.C. Circuit's ruling — and further argued if the ruling were left to stand, it would "create chaos in the international community, possibly alienating American allies, undermining diplomacy, and all but guaranteeing that American agencies and instrumentalities will (despite their protestations) face criminal proceedings abroad."
They also accuse the court of flying in the face of long-standing international laws and norms.
"The United States has rejected the International Criminal Court as a threat to America's sovereign immunity from foreign criminal jurisdiction. With the decision below, America has said to the world, 'Do as I say, not as I do,'" they said, arguing these are "among the most important [FISA] questions" the court could decide.
And in a final parting shot at the U.S. justice system, the lawyers concluded: "In the world stage, the United States has argued with the force of history that one foreign sovereign may not exercise criminal jurisdiction over another.
"The courts below have now cast doubt on America's commitment to that longstanding rule."
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