Motion: Iowa Judge Helped Plan Immigration Raid

Associated Press: Attorneys for a former Iowa kosher slaughterhouse executive filed a motion Thursday seeking a new trial, claiming the judge that presided over his trial participated in the planning of a May 2008 immigration raid that led to his arrest. Sholom Rubashkin was found guilty last fall of 86 federal financial fraud charges and was sentenced in June by Chief U.S. District Judge Linda Reade to 27 years in prison and ordered to pay $27 million in restitution. His attorneys filed a motion and more than 100 pages of documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit that they say show Reade met with immigration officials and prosecutors beginning as early as October 2007. "I was shocked quite frankly when I came across those documents to see the extent the judge was participating in the raid," said Nathan Lewin, Rubashkin's lead appellate attorney. "I've never seen it before."