Lawyers for a former lobbyist are going before a federal appeals court in San Francisco to try to overturn his conviction for carrying out a scheme to raise money illegally for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. federal prosecutors and lawyers for Harvey Whittemore, a one-time Nevada political powerbroker who headed a billion-dollar real estate company, argue their case before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Whittemore’s lawyers wrote in their appeal that he violated no laws because he didn’t force anyone to give any money to Reid.