In what one could perhaps call a sign of the strange times we live in, a lawyer was reprimanded in court for, um, some unconventional citations that were used in a legal defense. Eric Dubelier is representing Concord Management and Consulting, a Russian company indicted in the Mueller probe for allegedly funding troll farms in its home country, and for some reason decided that quoting Animal House would be an effective way to convince the District of Columbia judge that Mueller’s office is conducting itself inappropriately. In actual court documents, Dubelier accuses Mueller’s team of making up making up crimes that have never been prosecuted, as well as “secret procedures,” before quoting Eric “Otter” Stratton to illustrate the special counsel’s legal overreach.
The Special Counsel also states that if simply trusting him that everything is just peachy is not sufficient, he can tell more ex parte secrets to the Court to support his position. The Special Counsel’s argument is reminiscent of Otter’s famous line, “Flounder, you can’t spend your whole life worrying about your mistakes! You f**ked up … you trusted us. Hey, make the best of it.”
If you think it’s weird to see “Animal House (Universal Pictures 1978)” in the footnotes of a court filing for United States of America v. Concord Management and Consulting, Judge Dabney Friedrich agrees with you. According to BuzzFeed court reporter Zoe Tillman, the judge told Dubelier his tactic of trying to wholly discredit the special investigator’s office was “unprofessional, inappropriate, and ineffective” and that it is “undermining your credibility in this courthouse.” Tillman tweeted highlights from the exchange between Dubelier and the judge, which ended with the courtroom being closed to the public.
