The CFTC is highly important for ICE. As the firm’s annual report put it, several of its exchanges are “subject to extensive regulation by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.” The Wall Street Journal noted that the CFTC’s “rule-making agenda can have a major impact on the company’s operations.” While a senior exec at ICE, Loeffler criticized the CFTC for proposing “excess regulation.”

One particular conflict was rather obvious. In 2018, Loeffler left the ICE corporate team to become head of Bakkt, a new federally regulated market for trading Bitcoin that ICE launched. A short time later, when she was a senator overseeing the CFTC, ICE was concerned that Bakkt could be severely hurt by CFTC regulations. ICE pointed this out in a filing it submitted to the Securities and Exchange Committee in February 2020. The filing noted that the “CFTC has designated bitcoin as a commodity…subject to the CFTC’s jurisdiction and enforcement powers.” It stated that if the CFTC pursued an aggressive approach to this exchange, “it may have a significant adverse impact on Bakkt’s business and plan of operations.” ICE pointed out that CFTC activity—or the lack thereof—was crucial for the future prospects of the venture Loeffler once headed: “Ongoing and future regulatory actions may impact the ability of Bakkt to continue to operate, and such actions could affect the ability of Bakkt to continue as a going concern.” (In March 2020, the CFTC issued a major decision affecting cryptocurrency markets.)

And Loeffler had a direct financial interest in Bakkt. In early 2019, she was awarded a $15.6 million stake in a company that owned a chunk of Bakkt—about half of which she cashed out at the end of that year when she left the firm, in an arrangement criticized by corporate governance experts.

LOUISVILLE, KY – This morning Louisville resident Johnetta Carr sued seven current and former Louisville Metro Police Department officers in federal court for framing her for a murder she did not commit. The detectives are accused of coercing witnesses, fabricating statements, withholding exculpatory evidence, and framing innocent people for crimes they did not commit.

Ms. Carr, and her attorneys, Elliot Slosar, Amy Robinson Staples, and Molly Campbell, of the civil rights law firm Loevy & Loevy, will speak at a 1 PM news conference today, Tuesday, December 8, 2020 via Zoom.

Johnetta Carr, at the time a 16-year-old, was framed by Louisville Police Officers in spite of significant evidence implicating alternate suspects. Instead of conducting a legitimate investigation, Defendant Tony Finch and other Louisville officers framed Ms. Carr by coercing a false confession from a co-defendant and manufacturing false statements for jailhouse informants. This is the second wrongful conviction lawsuit filed against Defendant Finch in recent years, as Finch was a named Defendant in Kerry Porter v. City of Louisville, et al., a lawsuit that Loevy & Loevy settled in 2018 for $7,500,000. Like Mr. Porter, Ms. Carr was framed for the 2005 murder of Planes Adolphe in spite of mounting evidence against the true perpetrators.

“Johnetta Carr was framed for a murder that she did not commit,” said Slosar, “and as a result was torn from society as a child. The misconduct that stole the formative years of Johnetta’s life is not an aberration, but rather, consistent with the pattern and practice of how Louisville officers operate. When people think of the failed criminal justice system in Louisville, they should say Johnetta Carr’s name just like Kerry Porter, Jeffrey Clark, Edwin Chandler, and all the other innocent men and women framed by a corrupt Louisville Police Department.“

Ms. Carr was wrongfully incarcerated at 16, wrongfully convicted at 18, and released from prison at 20 in 2009. Ms. Carr then languished on parole for the next decade of her life.

“The Kentucky Innocence Project couldn’t have taken on a more deserving client than Johnetta Carr,” said Campbell. “Despite everything Ms. Carr lost over the years, she never lost hope that she would one day be exonerated. Thanks to KIP she realized that dream last year. Nothing can replace the years and life experiences Ms. Carr lost. But she seeks justice that has been long denied, and seeks to bring attention to wrongful convictions and the many innocent individual who, like her, are imprisoned for crimes they did not commit.”

Washington (CNN)Former President Barack Obama cautioned young activists against using the slogan "defund the police" to achieve changes in policing practices, instead urging them in a new interview to have a more inclusive discussion to better enact changes.

In doing so, the former president, who still holds enormous influence in the Democratic Party and has voiced support for protesters in the aftermath of George Floyd's death, is taking a strong stance on a contentious phrase that is a dividing point among Democrats, and speaks to the friction between the more liberal wing of the party and President-elect Joe Biden's calls for a moderate path forward.

"If you believe, as I do, that we should be able to reform the criminal justice system so that it's not biased and treats everybody fairly, I guess you can use a snappy slogan like 'Defund The Police,' but, you know, you lost a big audience the minute you say it, which makes it a lot less likely that you're actually going to get the changes you want done," Obama told Peter Hamby on Snapchat's "Good Luck America" when asked what his advice is to an activist who believes in using the slogan although politicians are likely to avoid it.

"But if you instead say, 'Let's reform the police department so that everybody's being treated fairly, you know, divert young people from getting into crime, and if there was a homeless guy, can maybe we send a mental health worker there instead of an armed unit that could end up resulting in a tragedy?' Suddenly, a whole bunch of folks who might not otherwise listen to you are listening to you."