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patgund(Cross-posted to my LJ and Yes To Democracy)
I stumbled across an interesting bit of news. Interesting because:
a) It's so far flown under the radar, and
b) Philip J. Berg may have done a massive screwup.
Now, some of you may know what PACER is. PACER is an "electronic public access service that allows users to obtain case and docket information from Federal Appellate, District and Bankruptcy courts, and from the U.S. Party/Case Index. " It is a Government website, and is pretty reliable. It's a good resource for lawyers, but non-lawyer and "legal geeks" can also use it.
It's free to use, downloads will cost money though. Not a lot however.
While searching "All Courts", I found Philip J. Berg's name attached to a new case, "Berg vs. Obama", 1:08-cv-01933-RWR, filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia on 7 November 2008.
So I brought up the information available, mostly information about who filed it and when. The Case Summary showed the following data:
Curious, I downloaded them. Three documents, total pages of 37, total cost to download $2.96.
The three documents were all PDF files:
1) "Complaint Pursuant to Federal False Claims Act"
2) Exhibits for the above-mentioned complaint
3) The "Case Form" filled out on filing.
The PDF files are not hosted on a free site, however, getting a PACER account is easy and the cost of the files is very low.
According to the complaint on this lawsuit, Berg is claiming President-elect Obama needs to return his Senatorial salary because he's an "illegal alien", and that he has committed fraud against the US Government by accepting the salary of a US Senator.
From page 2, paragraph 5 of his complaint:
The evidence form (PDF #2) actually bears the case number from his previous case, Civil Action # 08-cv-04083, and is the "evidence" from "Bishop" Ron McRae, "Kweli Shuhubia", the supposed interview of Obama's step grandmother, and the Indonesian school record that he submitted as part of his Supreme Court appeal.
The complaint goes on, in page 4, section 12, to request the US Attorney General to secure the "vault" birth certificate from Hawaii, Kenya, name change documents, Indonesian adoption records, and "Certificate of Citizenship".
On the Case Form, Berg checks the box to state that Defendant is "Citizen or Subject of a Foreign Country" It looks like Berg has expanded his "illegal alien" claim to claim that Barack Obama was elected to the Senate improperly and should be removed forthwith.
Curiously enough, while this is in the PACER system, there's nothing about it on Berg's own website as of 13 November 2008. With good reason it seems. You see, fraud charges are very serious, and this is the section of US law that handles "whistleblowing". And the False Claims Act, (31 U.S.C. § 3729–3733) which Berg filed his complaint under, states:
Philip Berg did NOT file this under seal. Jeff Schreiber at "America's Right" acknowledged this in a comment, stating:
I understand Mr. Schreiber wishing to protect himself and his future career as a law student. Since I am not in the legal field nor am I studying it, I see no reason not to post the information that is freely available on the US District Court computer systems.
So basically it already it looks like Berg may be in trouble due to the complaint not being under seal. As for the other parts, we have yet to see if it's been "buttressed by a comprehensive memorandum, not filed in court, but served on the government detailing the factual underpinnings of the complaint", since all we have is the complaint, the case form, and the recycled "evidence".
Hardly enough evidence to justify a claim that a US Senator is, in fact an "illegal alien" defrauding the government and taxpayers.
I will leave it up to those skilled in the legal craft to determine what, if any, repercussions of Berg's misfiling will happen, and what punishments or damages Berg might take as a result. It seems very unusual that an Attorney of the level Berg professes to be, would make such a serious mistake. Unless he knows the case is without merit and the sole purpose of this lawsuit, among others, is to further attack and defame without a single credible speck of evidence.
Which really seems to have been Philip Berg's plan from day one.
I stumbled across an interesting bit of news. Interesting because:
a) It's so far flown under the radar, and
b) Philip J. Berg may have done a massive screwup.
Now, some of you may know what PACER is. PACER is an "electronic public access service that allows users to obtain case and docket information from Federal Appellate, District and Bankruptcy courts, and from the U.S. Party/Case Index. " It is a Government website, and is pretty reliable. It's a good resource for lawyers, but non-lawyer and "legal geeks" can also use it.
It's free to use, downloads will cost money though. Not a lot however.
While searching "All Courts", I found Philip J. Berg's name attached to a new case, "Berg vs. Obama", 1:08-cv-01933-RWR, filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia on 7 November 2008.
So I brought up the information available, mostly information about who filed it and when. The Case Summary showed the following data:
1:08-cv-01933-RWR BERG v. OBAMA, Richard W. Roberts, presiding
Date filed: 11/07/2008, Date of last filing: 11/07/2008
Office: Washington, DC Filed: 11/07/2008
Jury Demand: None Nature of Suit: 890
Cause: 31:3729 False Claims Act Jurisdiction: U.S. Government Defendant
County: 88888 Origin: 1
Lead Case: None Related Case: None
Other Court Case: None Flags: PROSE-NP, TYPE-F
Plaintiff: PHILIP J. BERG Defendant: BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA, JR.
Curious, I downloaded them. Three documents, total pages of 37, total cost to download $2.96.
The three documents were all PDF files:
1) "Complaint Pursuant to Federal False Claims Act"
2) Exhibits for the above-mentioned complaint
3) The "Case Form" filled out on filing.
The PDF files are not hosted on a free site, however, getting a PACER account is easy and the cost of the files is very low.
According to the complaint on this lawsuit, Berg is claiming President-elect Obama needs to return his Senatorial salary because he's an "illegal alien", and that he has committed fraud against the US Government by accepting the salary of a US Senator.
From page 2, paragraph 5 of his complaint:
"The Defendant, Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. [hereinafter "Obama"], is not a citizen of the United States but is nevertheless a United States Senator from the State of Illinois, elected to that office, improperly in November 2004, as will be seen more fully, infra."
The evidence form (PDF #2) actually bears the case number from his previous case, Civil Action # 08-cv-04083, and is the "evidence" from "Bishop" Ron McRae, "Kweli Shuhubia", the supposed interview of Obama's step grandmother, and the Indonesian school record that he submitted as part of his Supreme Court appeal.
The complaint goes on, in page 4, section 12, to request the US Attorney General to secure the "vault" birth certificate from Hawaii, Kenya, name change documents, Indonesian adoption records, and "Certificate of Citizenship".
On the Case Form, Berg checks the box to state that Defendant is "Citizen or Subject of a Foreign Country" It looks like Berg has expanded his "illegal alien" claim to claim that Barack Obama was elected to the Senate improperly and should be removed forthwith.
Curiously enough, while this is in the PACER system, there's nothing about it on Berg's own website as of 13 November 2008. With good reason it seems. You see, fraud charges are very serious, and this is the section of US law that handles "whistleblowing". And the False Claims Act, (31 U.S.C. § 3729–3733) which Berg filed his complaint under, states:
1) a complaint under the False Claims Act must be filed under seal;
2) the complaint must be served on the government but must not be served on the defendant;
3) the complaint must be buttressed by a comprehensive memorandum, not filed in court, but served on the government detailing the factual underpinnings of the complaint.
Philip Berg did NOT file this under seal. Jeff Schreiber at "America's Right" acknowledged this in a comment, stating:
"jeff schreiber said...
And YES, I am aware that Philip Berg has filed an action under the False Claims Act in DC Federal Court. However, as the action SHOULD be filed under seal (but for some reason has not been), I am NOT touching it.
November 12, 2008 5:19 PM"
I understand Mr. Schreiber wishing to protect himself and his future career as a law student. Since I am not in the legal field nor am I studying it, I see no reason not to post the information that is freely available on the US District Court computer systems.
So basically it already it looks like Berg may be in trouble due to the complaint not being under seal. As for the other parts, we have yet to see if it's been "buttressed by a comprehensive memorandum, not filed in court, but served on the government detailing the factual underpinnings of the complaint", since all we have is the complaint, the case form, and the recycled "evidence".
Hardly enough evidence to justify a claim that a US Senator is, in fact an "illegal alien" defrauding the government and taxpayers.
I will leave it up to those skilled in the legal craft to determine what, if any, repercussions of Berg's misfiling will happen, and what punishments or damages Berg might take as a result. It seems very unusual that an Attorney of the level Berg professes to be, would make such a serious mistake. Unless he knows the case is without merit and the sole purpose of this lawsuit, among others, is to further attack and defame without a single credible speck of evidence.
Which really seems to have been Philip Berg's plan from day one.
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no subject
Date: 2008-11-13 10:36 pm (UTC)Article 1, Section 3 indicates that the person needs to be a US Citizen for 9 years and be at least 30 years old.
Nothing in this indicates anything about needing to be natural-born citizen.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate
Even if there WAS a claim against Mr. Obama not being born in the US, if he did eventually obtain citizenship in the US, he would be qualified to be a US Senator.
President of the US is another story. But this does not cover the Presidency.
Oh, yeah... sorry, preaching to the choir again, I guess...
C.
no subject
Date: 2008-11-13 10:42 pm (UTC)You may find this site interesting, it's an examination of the legal aspects of Berg's suits, from a lawyer
http://www.whatsyourevidence.com/
no subject
Date: 2008-11-13 10:46 pm (UTC)And if he DID have his citizenship for at least 9 years at the time of his Senatorial election, there is no case there because it would have met everything in the Constitution.
C.
no subject
Date: 2008-11-13 10:56 pm (UTC)Of course, it's a "gotcha" question, because a native-born US citizen wouldn't have those.......
no subject
Date: 2008-11-13 11:16 pm (UTC)After all, isn't that one of the main reasons quoted when people wonder if Schwartzenegger is gonna run for president??
no subject
Date: 2008-11-13 11:28 pm (UTC)I have one.
no subject
Date: 2008-11-13 11:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-14 12:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-14 01:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-14 03:02 am (UTC)What's funny is fellow anti-Obama conspiracy nut, Chicago anti-semite Andy Martin is accusing Berg of being an Obama "plant" and is filing complaints himself.