Claims And Issues

THEN THEY CAME FOR YOU, JOHN.

(Photo of Chief Justice John Roberts via the U.S. Supreme Court Website)

At first, they came for the jurors. John Roberts did not protest. He was not a juror.

Then they came for the District Judges. John Roberts did not protest. He was not a District Judge.

Then they came for some of the Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court.

And then they came for John Roberts. And there was no-one left to protest.

A modern-day elegy indebted to Pastor Martin Niemoeller.
Please read the disclaimer. ©2020 Dennis J. Wall. All rights reserved.

JURY SERVICE DOES NOT INCLUDE BEING LYNCHED.

This is part of a series. The reasons for this series have already been written here and without further ado, here is another suggestion in a series of suggestions of ways to display solidarity with people who stand up.

(Brennan Linsley/AP)

A unanimous jury voted to convict the defendant on all seven of the counts filed against him. All felonies. Unanimous. Convicted.

After they heard all the evidence. After they heard all the witnesses. After they read all the documents. And after they heard everything that the defendant's lawyers had to say.

Jury duty is hard enough. It involves sacrifice that deserves more recognition than a paper certificate and the thanks of the judge when the case is at an end. That is true in any case.

When jurors are punished with a verbal lynching because they listened to all of the witnesses, because they read all the documents, and after they heard everything that the defendant's lawyers had to say, they have earned particular recognition.

They were clothed with the power of truth to resolve disputes against all odds when they acted collectively as a jury. They are still clothed with the power of truth when they act with such admirable integrity as they do now.

They deserve to be recognized for the good they have done. They deserve a medal, honors, and all the accolades we can bestow upon them. They are our fellow citizens who did the right thing and the only "price" they should pay for doing the right thing is for us, their fellow citizens, to recognize that in every way we know how to do.

Please read the disclaimer. ©2020 Dennis J. Wall. All rights reserved.

LAWYERS: WRITE A LETTER TO RECOGNIZE OTHER LAWYERS. AND JUDGES.

(Image made available via the Collection of the New York Public Library)

I have sent letters to Bar Associations to encourage lawyers to write a letter supporting their fellow lawyers. And judges also. Feel free to use this as the text for your letters too (it is not copyrighted or anything like that, feel free to use it):

I urge your Bar to call for immediate investigations by U.S. House and Senate Judiciary Committees, and by the Inspector General of the Department of Justice, regarding the Attorney General’s obvious interference with the prosecution of persons of interest to President Donald Trump.

    Four Assistant Attorneys General have withdrawn from the case against Roger Stone when their decisions were overturned by the Attorney General after their superior had already approved them, and after they obtained jury verdicts of guilty on seven counts against Mr. Stone.  Two other Assistant Attorneys General have left the criminal case against Michael Flynn, also apparently overruled by the Attorney General after their recommendations had already been approved by their superiors.

    It has been over forty years since I worked in the State Attorney’s Office while attending the University of Florida School of Law, but it has not been so long that I have forgotten to support prosecutors in their difficult work. Beyond the fact that these people are prosecutors, they are fellow lawyers and they deserve our support.

    The Association of the Bar of The City of New York called for public investigations in a letter they sent on February 12, 2020, calling “for Congress and the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General to begin immediate investigations into these unusual and troubling events.” So did the Bar of the City of Boston. Is it possible that the New York City Bar Association and the Boston Bar find it more important to protect lawyers than you or your Bar Association do?

    Here is a link to the NYC Bar’s Letter on Lincoln’s Birthday “Re: The Prosecution of Roger Stone and Related Actions by the Department of Justice”: https://s3.amazonaws.com/documents.nycbar.org/files/StoneProsecutionDOJresponse_2.12.20.pdf. And here is a link to the Boston Bar Association's Press Release on Valentine's Day: https://bostonbar.org/membership/publications/news-release?ID=441.

    Thank you.

Please read the disclaimer. ©2020 Dennis J. Wall. All rights reserved.

BAR ASSOCIATIONS, HERE ARE SOME WAYS TO HONOR INTEGRITY ...

IN PROSECUTORS.  IN JUDGES.  AND IN JUDICIAL SYSTEMS.

This is part of a series. The reasons for this series have already been written here and without further ado, here are more suggestions in a series of suggestions of ways to display solidarity with people who stand up.

 

(Image via Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services)

The four prosecutors who resigned from the Roger Stone prosecution are well-known. See Neil Vigdor, U.S. Attorneys Who Resigned in Stone Case, NEW YORK TIMES, Thursday, Feb. 13, 2020, at A21.

The two prosecutors who resigned from the investigation of Andrew McCabe are not well-known. In fact, they have not even been identified yet but they probably will be, as they resigned perhaps and most probably because the investigation of Andrew McCabe was groundless (it was finally closed the other week after two years). One of the two prosecutors definitely told people he had reservations about the way it was handled before he left. See Adam Goldman, After Two Years in Limbo, a Former F.B.I. Official Won't Be Charged in Lying Case, NEW YORK TIMES, Saturday, February 15, 2020, at A18.

The judge who sentenced Roger Stone and who has the duty to sentence Michael Flynn has come under attack. To paraphrase one insightful commentator, 'The U.S. Marshal's Service will be very busy now, protecting Judge Amy Berman Jackson from physical harm.' Here are the reports in the Washington Post ten days ago and in the Washington Post this week.

Bar Associations, each of these people belongs to you. They may not be your members but they are your colleagues and they are your family.

When prosecutors and judges are instructed to pardon felons or are attacked for doing the work of justice, they deserve to be recognized. Write letters in support of them. Give them your awards to recognize them. Feature them in your newsletters, magazines, newspapers, webinars and podcasts.

Be creative. You have many minds and hearts. Recognize these people. In doing that, you can protect them.

Think of this if it helps:  The alternative to recognizing them is remaining silent.  Remaining silent will not protect them.  Or you.

Rule 2. .... Do not speak of "our institutions" unless you make them yours by acting on their behalf. Institutions do not protect themselves. They fall one after the other unless each is defended from the beginning. So choose an institution you care about -- a court, a newspaper, a law, a labor union -- and take its side.
Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny / Twenty Lessons From the Twentieth Century (2017).

Please read the disclaimer. ©2020 Dennis J. Wall. All rights reserved.

NATIONAL SECURITY, INTELLIGENCE NEED HER TO BE YOUR FEATURED SPEAKER.

This is part of a series. The reasons for this series have already been written here and without further ado, here is the first suggestion of ways to display solidarity with people who stand up.

(Kisha Ravi / NPR)

Let her speak.

Shelby Pierson was appointed as the first person to fill a position by the Director of National Intelligence, Dan Coats, that he made in July 2019 as a result of foreign interference in U.S. elections:  the U.S. Intelligence Community's election threat executive.

Mr. Coats resigned his position shortly after that.  Joseph Maguire, his successor and Acting Director of National Intelligence, has reportedly been fired or forced to resign or has resigned because Ms. Pierson and others informed the House of Representatives Select Committee on Intelligence that the Russians are once again interfering in a U.S. presidential election on behalf of a candidate.  The reports are unclear on whether Mr. Maguire is leaving "voluntarily," but they are pretty clear on the likelihood that the reason he leaving is because of testimony to the U.S. House Select Committee on Intelligence that the Russians are interfering, again, on behalf of a candidate in a U.S. presidential election.  See House is Warned of Russian Effort to Bolster ..., NEW YORK TIMES, Friday, Feb. 21, 2020, at A1 (posted online by the NYT under a different headline, Lawmakers Are Warned That Russia is Meddling to Re-elect ...).

Ms. Pierson herself is herself reportedly about to resign under pressure because she delivered that message to the lawmakers -- as she is required by law to do.

"I've really taken some very important suggestions to heart that transparency enables resilience and, potentially, sunlight is the best disinfectant," Shelby Pierson told NPR in an interview in January, 2020.

Shelby Pierson obviously has important things to say about our nation's security.  Let her say them.  I have researched and found a number of organizations devoted to intelligence professionals and their profession of protecting the national security of the United States.  If I mention a few of them here, I would be in the position of seeming to endorse some at the expense of others.  Instead, you are free to research their existence and satisfy yourself as to who and what they are.  In the meantime, any and all of these organizations should extend an invitation to Ms. Pierson to speak publicly to them in person, or in one of their webinars, or during a podcast.

Let her speak.  Feature her.  She is a person standing up and she deserves to be recognized.

Please read the disclaimer. ©2020 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

PARDON ME: SO WHAT? STAY FOCUSED. SENTENCE HIM ANYWAY.

Roger Stone may get "the full Rod Blagojevich" pardon.  So what?

Sentence him anyway.

(Image via Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services)

Rule 1:  "Do not obey in advance."  Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny / Twenty Lessons From the Twentieth Century (2017).

Please read the disclaimer. ©2020 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION, STEP UP AND RECOGNIZE.

This is part of a series. The reasons for this series have already been written here and without further ado, here is the first suggestion of ways to display solidarity with people who stand up.

Give awards publicly to the lawyers who are standing up.  Let them know by your awards that they are not alone.  Encourage others to stand up.

(American Bar Association)

Four attorneys resigned from the Roger Stone criminal prosecution after they obtained jury verdicts of guilty on seven counts, and after their recommendation was approved by their supervisor.  They resigned from the case rather than submit to the unprecedented intervention of the Attorney General.  Their names are Jonathan Kravis, Aaron S.J. Zelinsky, Adam C. Jed, and Michael J. Marando.  Honor them that they might be kept safe and that others might also refuse to follow illegal orders.  See Neil Vigdor, U.S. Attorneys Who Resigned in Stone Case, NEW YORK TIMES, Thursday, Feb. 13, 2020, at A21.

Two other attorneys, as yet unidentified, left the Andrew McCabe investigation before it was closed, apparently rather than continue with an unconscionable directive.  See Adam Goldman, After Two Years in Limbo, a Former F.B.I. Official Won't Be Charged in Lying Case, NEW YORK TIMES, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020, at A18.

Recognize the value of their lives by publicly giving them the awards they have earned at such high cost.

Please read the disclaimer. ©2020 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

 

FIRST, SUPPORT WITH RECOGNITION.

This is part of a series.  The reasons for this series have already been written here and without further ado, here is the first suggestion of ways to display solidarity with people who stand up.

Give awards publicly.  Do what Georgetown recently did when they conferred an award on Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch and gave her a standing ovation in the process:

(Susan Walsh / Associated Press)

Recognize the value of a person's life by publicly giving them an award for the value that their life has given the rest of us.

Please read the disclaimer. ©2020 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

SUGGESTIONS OF SOLIDARITY: THE BEGINNING.

How do you support the people standing up? They shouldn't be going through the things that they are going through. They shouldn't be marginalized.

This is the beginning of a series of exploring possibilities, of possible ways of making them feel that we have solidarity with them, that they are not alone, that we hear them, we recognize them, and we appreciate what they have done and continue to do.

In the broadest possible way, we have to do more than say that what's happening is wrong. We have to say that we can be a much, much better country than this, that we can not only have a future that is better than this, we have a present that can be better than this.

One way to respond to the present is to say that we do not accept this reality. It's awful. It's not the kind of thing that people should want. People should not get up in the morning and say that this is okay. It's not.

The reason this series was born is to recognize the people who have already stood up and said that this is not okay, that we can do so much better, and who have acted it out in their own lives. As was said earlier, we can say that we hear them and recognize them and we appreciate what they have done and what they continue to do. The articles that follow will suggest that there are many places to begin.

This series was inspired by the actions and thoughts of many people whose names are featured in the articles that follow.  And by the actions and thoughts of many people whose names are as yet unknown.  For this opening piece, I have drawn especially on the words of Dr. Timothy Snyder to whom this nation owes a great debt of gratitude.

Please read the disclaimer. ©2020 Dennis J. Wall. All rights reserved.

JUDGE AMY BERMAN JACKSON, WHAT IS YOUR SENTENCE NOW?

William Barr's Justice Department has withdrawn its own prosecutors' sentence recommendations for convicted felon Roger Stone.  Instead of 7 to 9 years behind bars, Mr. Barr objects.  He leaves the substituted recommendation open-ended without committing to anything beyond leaving the sentencing decision to the judge, who will have the final say in any event.

This was not an ambiguous criminal case.  It was clear from the start to everyone involved.  The jury in Mr. Stone's case deliberated for only seven hours before they returned convictions on every  count, every charge against Mr. Stone.

"In their initial sentencing memorandum federal prosecutors said that Mr. Stone should serve up to nine years because he threated a witness with bodily harm, deceived congressional investigators and carried out an extensive, deliberate, illegal scheme that included repeatedly lying under oath and forging documents."  Katie Benner, Sharon LaFraniere, and Adam Goldman, Justice Dept. Acts to Ease Sentence ... / 4 U.S. Prosecutors Quit Stone Case After Bosses Step In to Overrule Them, NEW YORK TIMES, Wed., Feb. 12, 2020, at A1.

After his indictment and before he was tried, Mr. Stone reportedly also violated the Court's gag orders against speaking out and threatened Judge Amy Berman Jackson, the judge presiding over his criminal case.  She is also the judge who will sentence him following his convictions.

One of Mr. Stone's defenses to all this is that Mr. Stone was once riddled with anxiety but that he is much better now, the New York Times reports.

So, Judge Amy Berman Jackson, what sentence if any will you impose for these crimes?  "Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you."

Please read the disclaimer. ©2020 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

 

 

VINDICTIVENESS IS FOR LOSERS. RESIST THEM. DON'T HATE THEM.

Today is Abraham Lincoln's Birthday.

  February 5, 1865.

 (Alexander Gardner /

National Portrait Gallery,

Washington, D.C.)

The Department of Homeland Security is effectively making New Yorkers stand in line at airports now.  The bar is expected to affect 50,000 people now and another 175,000 people by year's end.

The ban was announced by the current Acting DHS Secretary because, he said, New York State enacted a driver's license law that hinders the Federal Government from accessing the New York State Government's motor vehicle databases without a court order.  New York is one of about a dozen States plus the District of Columbia that require ICE to get a court order before the Feds start rifling through State databases without a warrant.  The whole story is laid out, for example, in the Washington Post here and here, and New York State is filing suit to block the ban.  See Luis Ferre-Sadurni, New York Will File Lawsuit Over Traveler Program Ban, NEW YORK TIMES, Saturday, February 8, 2020, at A23 (online access controlled by The New York Times).

Net result:  People who can afford not only to pay for airline tickets and baggage fees etc. plus pay the program fees, are now going to have to wait in TSA lines with everyone else.  I too have waited in TSA lines.  It's not so bad.

In a similar way, Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman was fired from the National Security Council staff on February 7 after he testified in the House Impeachment Proceeding under subpoena.  He had already given or was in the process of giving notice that he was leaving at the end of February.

                                       (Andrew Harnik / AP)

Net result:  Colonel Vindman will be leaving his position about 3 weeks earlier than he otherwise would have.

Colonel Vindman's brother was a lawyer with an ethics portfolio at the National Security Council.  He did not testify about anything but he too was fired on February 7.  This is all reminiscent of the greater vindictiveness levelled against Andrew McCabe who was terminated a day or so before his Federal pension would have vested.  It is true that the thread that is common to all these incidents is the desire to inflict harm regardless of whether other reasons exist, or not.

However, the incidents highlighted in the media over the uproar in New York and repeated in the media over the departure of Colonel Vindman have not really inflicted all that much harm.  Not really.  They display a disgusting vindictiveness but they do not carry real harm as their consequences.  The people that indulged their vindictiveness in these cases have shown themselves to clearly be losers.

Net result:  They are vindictive and they are losers.  Resist them.  Don't hate them.  If you hate them, you become them.

Please read the disclaimer. ©2020 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

FIFTH THIRD BANK: DID YOU REALLY THINK THESE BANKERS ...

... GIVE A DAMN?

They were for it, before they were against it, and now they're for it again.

Fifth Third Bank switched back to discrimination after a U.S. Senator, see MARCO RUBIO, IT'S NOT ABOUT THEIR CHOICE.  IT'S ABOUT MAKING ME PAY FOR IT, popped off against their position.  No coincidence here:  Fifth Third Bank is regulated by the Feds.  Marco Rubio is a Fed.

This must be remembered about Fifth Third Bank or nothing wonderful can come of this tale, to paraphrase Dickens:   They are bankers.  They are in the business of using other people's money.  When they take a credit on their taxes, for example, other people's taxes have to make up the difference.  Other people pay.

So now they say they find nothing wrong with taking tax credits for donating to discrimination.  See Leslie Postal, Fifth Third to Keep Funding / Bank reverses, will continue to back program benefiting schools with anti-LGBTQ policies, ORLANDO SENTINEL, Sat., Feb. 8, 2020 (unless you have a free article coming, the Orlando Sentinel may be online behind a paywall). 

Let's stay focused here:  It's not about their choice.  It's about making you and me pay for it.

And giving Fifth Third Bank a tax credit.

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MARCO RUBIO, IT'S NOT ABOUT THEIR CHOICE. IT'S ABOUT MAKING ME PAY FOR IT.

Marco Rubio, currently a United States Senator serving in Washington, D.C. from Florida, reportedly says he does not want to change the State system of taxation. Schools discriminate in Florida with taxpayer money, but Senator Rubio defends their choice. See Annie Martin, Rubio Critical of Banks' Back Out, ORLANDO SENTINEL, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2020 (online access behind a paywall).

My choice would be not to pay for discrimination. What about my choice? Florida's choice? America's choice?

No, Marco Rubio, it's not about their choice. It's about making me pay for it.

And anyway, we're in Florida here, not D.C.  The Feds have no say in this.  And Marco, you're a Fed.

Please Read The Disclaimer. ©2020 Dennis J. Wall. All Rights Reserved.

WHERE HAVE YOU GONE, ALBERT SPEER?

Sung or hummed like "Where have you gone, Joe Dimaggio?"

                                   (Speer Book Cover, available from Monacelli Press.  

                                                  Image via Monacelli Studios)

There's a new regime in town.

See Katie Rogers and Robin Pogrebin, Decreeing Classical Buildings for U.S., NEW YORK TIMES, Thursday, February 6, 2020, at C1 (online access by the New York Times).

Please read the disclaimer. ©2020 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

 

THE STORY ISN'T IN JOB NUMBERS, IT'S IN PEOPLE'S SALARIES.

Stories fill our eyes and ears that we have a rising economy because job numbers are rising.

What the stories don't tell is the always-low wages companies pay people whose work means always-higher company profits.

The story isn't in the number of jobs in the U.S. economy on any given day in February 2020 (or any other month or year). The story is in the low salaries and wages of jobs in the U.S. economy today.

"We can use facts to prove that the stock market is rising, but that does not make it true that everyone in the country is paid a living wage." Sister Joan Chittister, You Shall Know The Truth And The Truth Shall Make You Free. Really? / Democracies Can Die, NCRonline.org, Jan. 15, 2020.

Please read the disclaimer. ©2020 Dennis J. Wall. All rights reserved.

THE PRACTICE OF TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY JOURNALISM.

"[S]ometimes," the current regime's "denials or responses to questions can be so blatantly untrue that printing them without comment does a disservice to the truth."
Andrea Bernstein.