We welcome your comments and postings on our blog

Saturday, May 9, 2020

Bill Roy Cohn Barr

 tRUMP infamously said, "where is my Roy Cohn?"  At that time tRUMP was upset that Jeff Sessions acted ethically in recusing himself from the Russia investigation  tRUMP wanted an unethical attorney general.  Roy Cohen was a poster child  for unethical lawyers.  tRUMP now has his Roy Cohn.

      Yesterday, Bill Roy Cohn  Barr (hereafter referred to as BRCB) made an unprecedented motion to dismiss the conviction of Michael Flynn.  Please remember how that conviction came about.  Flynn had inappropriate contacts with the Russian ambassador. Then Flynn lied to Pence about his contacts.  Then tRUMP fired Flynn for lying to Pence.  Then Pence pleaded guilty to lying to federal investigators.  Flynn was scheduled to be sentenced on his guilty plea  on 12/18/18.  Prior to sentencing his attorneys submitted a sentencing memo saying that Flynn was unfairly tricked into pleading guilty.  At that hearing the judge made it clear that he would not guarantee that Flynn would not be incarcerated.  The judge said it appeared that Flynn may have betrayed his country.  The judge asked if Flynn wanted to withdraw his guilty plea.  Flynn did not.  The judge asked Flynn if he was pleading guilty because he was guilty.  Flynn answered "yes."  Please remember that Flynn not only pleaded guilty twice, but he was required to agree to a written detailed statement of facts describing his crime.  
         
       Now along comes BRCB.  He was previously excoriated by a huge number of former U.S. attorneys as well as many legal scholars for contradicting his line prosecutors' sentencing recommendation for Roger Stone.  Up to that point, no  one could recall an attorney general doing such a thing.  Now  BRCB  has  his previous improper interference in the judicial system as a precedent.  But this is far worse.  And it is scary.  Barr  is literally the  consigliori for  the tRUMP criminal enterprise.  He is in a position to help his criminal friends and prosecute  his political enemies.  This sounds very much like Stalin's courts of justice.  

         Barr's motion to dismiss does not deny that Flynn lied.  He merely asserts that the lies were not "material."  This is a defense which had been available to Flynn at any time.  When he pleaded guilty his attorneys knew that materiality was an element of the crime. 

        This story is barely 24 hours old.  I predict that the outrage in the legal community will be far greater than the outrage over the Stone imbroglio.  I am hoping that BRCB suffers the same fate before the bar of justice as did Roy Cohn, tRUMP's hero.  Roy Cohn was disbarred by  the New York State bar for unethical and unprofessional conduct.  One of the charges against Cohn was that he put a pen into a comatose client's hand and scrawled a signature on a will.  The will  made a huge bequest to Cohn.   I will be asking my colleagues who are much more knowledgeable about the canons of ethics whether Barr may be subject to disbarment proceedings.

             And how about this for closing the circle.  In 1979, Roger Stone was employed by the Reagan for president campaign.  During that time Stone stayed at Roy Cohn's townhouse in Manhattan.  Cohn had a scheme to put John Anderson on the Liberal Party ballot for president.  This would presumably split the opposition to Reagan.  It worked.  Reagan carried New York State with 46% of the vote.  Stone told the story that at one point Cohn gave him a suitcase to be delivered to a prominent attorney for the Liberal Party.  Cohn  told Stone not to open the suitcase.  Years later Stone said that he assumed that the contents of the suitcase were a bribe.

                So tRUMP wanted his Roy Cohn  He has him.  His Roy Cohn interfered in the criminal case involving Cohn's old buddy  Roger Stone.  In my view Roger Stone will never see the inside of a jail cell.  Either tRUMP will pardon Roy Cohn's buddy, or he will have his consigliori do the dirty work.  I said it long ago, this will go down in history as by far the most corrupt presidency ever.  God willing it will end soon.  And if it does, a new attorney general may look into the activities of the tRUMP continuing criminal enterprise.
  
             On that optimistic note, stay safe.

                                                           Richard

No comments: