UPDATED 3:52 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) A federal judge has issued an order that permits Michael R.N. McDonnel, a Florida attorney, to appear in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on behalf of AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin.
U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer issued the order this afternoon in response to a request by Charles A. Murray, another Bowdoin attorney.
“Michael R.N. McDonnell is hereby permitted to practice and appear before this Court on behalf of claimant Thomas A. Bowdoin in this matter,” Collyer wrote, in a minute order.
Murray asked for the order last week, in the aftermath of dramatic filings by the prosecution that claimed Bowdoin was trying to lie his way back into the civil-forfeiture case and that Murray was engaging in “fantasy.”
Prosecutors claimed Murray had filed documents at odds with affidavits filed by Bowdoin Sept. 14 and 15. On Sept. 25, prosecutors made a veiled reference to the AdViewGlobal autosurf, saying, “Maybe Bowdoin thought that before the government brought its charges he (like some of his family members) could move to another country and profit from a knock-off autosurf program that Bowdoin funded and helped to start.â€
On Sept. 28, prosecutors filed a U.S. Secret Service transcript of a recording Bowdoin had made earlier in the month, calling the transcript evidence that “this con man cannot manage to keep his stories straight.â€
Bowdoin has maintained in court filings that money seized in the Secret Service investigation into ASD belonged to him. In the transcript, Bowdoin said the money belonged to ASD members, putting him at odds with his own court filings.
Murray, too, had filed motions at odds with Bowdoin’s claims, prosecutors asserted.
“Mr. Murray’s apparent suggestion that Bowdoin made a mistake because he was ‘hoodwinked’ by his prior defense counsel is belied by Bowdoin’s own affidavits,†prosecutors said.
Murray, though, says Bowdoin believes in his innocence.