特拉华州联邦法官批准保护令 总检察长无需在前审计官 McGuiness 诉讼中作证
特拉华州纽卡斯尔县威尔明顿市的联邦法院近日作出裁决，总检察长 Kathy Jennings 无需在前州审计官 Kathy McGuiness 提起的民事诉讼中接受作证。主审法官 Maryellen Noreika 批准了保护令，认为 McGuiness 的律师未能证明存在需要总检察长亲自作证的特殊情形，也未能证明相关证据无法从其他渠道取得，且没有证据显示 Jennings 直接参与起草了案件核心的那份虚假陈述。
McGuiness 2018年当选州审计官，2022年因聘用女儿到审计官办公室工作被定轻罪后辞职，但陪审团此前已宣判她盗窃重罪与恐吓举报人等指控不成立。她随后起诉 Jennings 等人，指控恶意起诉与诽谤。法院此前已驳回诽谤指控，并因检察豁免权驳回了针对除司法部调查员 Frank Robinson 之外所有被告的恶意起诉指控，现存的唯一指控与 Robinson 在申请搜查令宣誓书中的不实陈述有关。
法官同时以程序不合规为由驳回了 Robinson 要求即决判决的动议，案件可能进入陪审团审理。
Delaware Judge Shields Attorney General from Testifying in Former Auditor McGuiness's Lawsuit
WILMINGTON, Del. — A federal judge in Wilmington, New Castle County, Delaware, has ruled that Attorney General Kathy Jennings does not have to testify in the civil lawsuit brought by former state auditor Kathy McGuiness. Judge Maryellen Noreika granted a protective order, finding that McGuiness's lawyers had not shown extraordinary circumstances requiring the attorney general's testimony, had not shown the evidence was unavailable from other sources, and had offered no evidence that Jennings personally helped draft the false statement at the heart of the case.
McGuiness was elected state auditor in 2018 and resigned in 2022 after a misdemeanor conviction for hiring her daughter into the auditor's office, though a jury had acquitted her of felony theft and witness-intimidation charges. She then sued Jennings and others for malicious prosecution and defamation. The court has already dismissed the defamation claim and, on prosecutorial-immunity grounds, the malicious-prosecution claims against every defendant except Justice Department investigator Frank Robinson; the sole remaining claim concerns alleged false statements in Robinson's search-warrant affidavit.
The judge also denied Robinson's motion for summary judgment on procedural grounds, meaning the case may proceed to a jury trial.
来源：特拉华在线
发布：GSM·美国（发布链接）
图片来源：威尔明顿公共大楼，特拉华州纽卡斯尔县（资料图）。（经 Wikimedia Commons）
GSM Global · 本篇英文版 English edition of this story
