The nation … at least those of us who aren’t drinking Trump’s toxic concoction, is aghast at the breech of protocol in the Department of Justice regarding the Roger Stone case. Our friend Jeff has done some research into the way some other nations have gone about ensuring that the Department of Justice is not influenced by the government, but rather remains independent in order to maintain the rule of law. I hope you’ll take a minute to read Jeff’s piece, for this is something that will affect us all for years, perhaps decades to come. Thanks Jeff!
In the age of Trumpism, it’s time to look how other countries ensure an independent Justice Department
During the Trump era, it’s rare that I agree with anything Alan Dershowitz says. The 81-year-old ‘TV’ lawyer has gone off the deep end it seems, especially when you consider his ridiculous performance during the recent impeachment trial.
But once in a while, he gets it right. A few nights ago on CNN, he was debating his former pupil, Jeffrey Toobin, concerning the recent intervention of Bill Barr into Roger Stone’s sentencing recommendation from federal prosecutors. Dershowitz, of course, first sided with Trump on the issue, saying that he did have the ‘legal’ right to intervene in that particular case. There was nothing in the law that says he couldn’t do it.
But then he also explained that it wasn’t right for him to do so. Because of the long understood norms and…
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The shock at her audacity was palpable in the chamber. As Republicans grow increasingly confident that they have the votes to block calling new witnesses and evidence, Democrats have turned to Chief Justice Roberts as a potential savior for their cause: If there is a tie, it could fall to the chief justice to decide whether to break it. I think Senator Warren’s question was a pointed reminder to Chief Justice Roberts that he is expected to be ‘fair and impartial’. Let’s hope it works! Meanwhile, either way, I give Senator Warren high fives and thumbs up for her courage and tenacity.
“Every public official that I know believes that his election is in the public interest. And mostly, you’re right. Your election is in the public interest. And if a president does something, which he believes will help him get elected in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment. . . .
Then there was the case of young Cristian Fernandez. In 2012, Cristian was 12 years old and had already suffered a lifetime of parental neglect. When he was 2, passers-by found him naked, dirty, and alone in a parking lot. When Cristian was 11, his stepfather shot himself in the head after he learned the police planned to arrest him on charges of beating Cristian. Then on March 14th, 2011, Cristian’s mother, Biannela Susana, left Cristian in charge of his 2-year-old half-brother, David. Sometime later, Cristian called his mother to come home, as he said David was hurt. When Biannela arrived home, she found young David unconscious. Yet, instead of calling 911, she spent the next eight hours trolling the internet for symptoms of concussion. Eventually she drove the child to the hospital where two days later he died of his injuries. The mother pled guilty to negligent manslaughter and faces up to 30 years in prison. Young Cristian was arrested and charged by none other than State Prosecutor Angela Corey with one count of first-degree murder. A twelve-year-old child. “She takes the position if a child commits an adult crime, then she’s going to charge him as an adult,” said one lawyer close to the prosecutor. Fortunately, young Cristian’s case caught the public eye and five local law firms working pro bono intervened on Cristian’s behalf, eventually allowing him to plead to manslaughter as a juvenile, which will allow him to be released on his 19th birthday in 2018. If Ms. Corey had her way, he would have been sentenced to life-without-parole. At age twelve. Cristian, by the way, is African-American.
Corey is reported to have a very thin skin and does not handle criticism well (remind you of anybody else?). When Sandy D’Alemberte, a former president of the American Bar Association, a former president of Florida State University and a well-respected law professor was critical of how Corey handled the Cristian Fernandez case and of her appointment to head up the investigation into the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, saying “I can’t imagine a worse choice for a prosecutor,” Corey filed a public records request with FSU seeking all emails, text messages and phone messages involving D’Alemberte related to Fernandez. When Alan M. Derschowitz, the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, also criticized Corey’s handling of the Martin case, Corey went into a “40-minute rant, during which she threatened to sue Harvard Law School, to try to get me disbarred by the Bar Association and to file charges against me for libel and slander.” And when David Sutter of the Southern Poverty Law Center said on a local radio program that Fernandez should be in the juvenile system instead of adult court, Corey called the center’s director and launched into a tirade.