No One is Safe

Former federal prosecutor under nine US attorneys, Sidney Powell, has authored a five-star bestseller that should be required reading for all US citizens. In Licensed to Lie: Exposing Corruption in the Department Of Justice, Powell adds fuel to the fire that the U.S. Department of Justice, the FBI, and many district attorneys and judges around the country are suspect when it comes to investigating crime and administering justice.

This book is important as it provides foundation and context for the misuse of power that we see today at the highest levels of our government by both elected and unelected officials. Getting a conviction rather than seeking justice has become a cancer that is wreaking havoc on our Republic.  

Today’s house of “legal” horrors is characterized by sacrificing innocent people, by threatening witnesses to testify to what the prosecutor needs for indictment or conviction,  prosecutorial misconduct by concealing and altering evidence, ignoring the law, and constantly displaying an ego-driven desire to win at all costs. This is the product of a bureaucratic swamp where there is no accountability for people who seek to gain power by gaming and abusing the system to advance their agendas.

Licensed to Lie focuses on government corruption that led to the destruction of venerable Arthur Anderson and 85,000 thousand jobs, the unjust prosecution of Merrill Lynch executives who did one business transaction with Enron, the politically motivated prosecution of Alaska Senator Ted Stevens and more.

Powell tackles these cases in detail, taking on by name, prosecutors, former prosecutors and judges who continue to serve in powerful and responsible positions. She provides a list of where those mentioned in the book serve today. One of the most notorious, Andrew Weissman, who oversaw the destruction of Arthur Anderson, only to have his head handed to him the U.S. Supreme Court, reappeared recently as the lead lawyer In the Mueller investigation. Malfeasance, as the reader will see, has been rewarded over and over again.

In the case of former Senator Ted Stevens, DOJ prosecutors got a conviction by concealing evidence favorable to the defense and then lying about it in court. The conviction was vacated once the government’s deception was revealed, but this occurred long after Stevens had lost an election ending his 40-year Senate career that changed the balance of the power in the Senate. Prosecutions can have political consequences!

My concern about misconduct grew when a close friend was indicted by the DOJ and was then convicted in what I will characterized as a “symbolic conviction” for the banking fraud that characterized the 2007-2009 economic recession. The person who was responsible for the fraud left the country. Others in the bank were then granted partial immunity so the DOJ could get its ‘scalp” by convicting my friend. He was railroaded. Unlike those in the banking industry who were culpable and benefitted personally from the fraud, my friend was not and did not. This remains a miscarriage of justice.

Another case that drew my attention to this issue was the case that federal prosecutors brought against Howard Root, the founder of Vascular Solutions, a medical device firm. This case is thoroughly detailed in Root’s excellent book, CARDIAC ARREST: Five Heart-Stopping Years as a CEO on the Feds’ Hit-List. After five years and $30 million legal fees, Root, without even having to present his defense was acquitted of all charges by a jury. Jurors after the acquittal expressed shock and dismay about the conduct of the prosecutors.

These cases highlight many of the most serious types of prosecutorial misconduct that are debasing our system of justice. These include:

o            Charging a suspect with more offenses than is warranted

o            Withholding or delaying the release of exculpatory evidence

o            Deliberately mishandling, mistreating, or destroying evidence

o            Allowing witnesses they know or should know are not truthful to testify

o            Pressuring defense witnesses not to testify

o            Relying on fraudulent forensic experts

o            Overstating the strength of the evidence during plea negotiations

o            Making statements to the media that are designed to arouse public indignation

o            Making improper or misleading statements to the jury

o            Failing to report prosecutorial misconduct when it is discovered

Licensed to Lie as well as Root’s Cardiac Arrest serve as a lightning rod for serious review about our justice system and whether it lives up to its reputation – or down. Our system only works if the participants follow the rules. If the government is not honest, no one is safe.

@SydneyPowell @HowardRoot #vascularsolutions  #AndrewWeissman #departmentofjustice #corruption #politics #medicaldevice #ArthurAnderson @senatortedstevens #alaska #MerrillLynch #ThomasMLoarie #prosecutorialmisconduct