Everyone remembers those Successories posters that became popular in the 1980s. You've seen them. They featured beautiful scenes of nature or architectural marvels along with a short theme in ALL CAPS with some vapid, mindless lesson about management or personal growth in small print below. For a while, they were popular as workplace gifts for situations where you had to get something but couldn't be too controversial. Successories were soon followed by a brilliant series of satire posters marketed by Despair, which featured the same over-the-top beautiful photographs of nature but instead lampooned the hypocrisy, ineptitude and sheer idiocy of Corporate America.
On of the best Despair posters is "MISTAKES -- It could be that the only purpose of your life is to serve as a warning to others." The photo in the poster? A shot of an ocean-going container ship with the stern sticking out of the water and the bow plunged under the water, nowhere to be seen.
Well, that theme not only applies to business but to justice as well. The following things all happened the same day, August 11, 2023, in what we still call the American justice system:
- Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the appointment of existing Hunter Biden prosecutor David Weiss as special prosecutor in the Hunter Biden case, after a prior plea agreement between the Department of Justice and Hunter Biden was questioned by the judge in the case, triggering a collapse of the plea deal and howls of favoritism from Republicans.
- Federal Judge Tanya Chutkan heard motions from Special Prosecutor Jack Smith and Trump's attorneys regarding terms of a protective order around evidence the government would share with Trump in order for his lawyers to prepare his defense and ruled that the protective order should be limited only to SENSITIVE documents, not the entire discovery trove.
- Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan revoked the bail of Sam Bankman-Fried and sent him IMMEDIATELY to jail in Manhattan, citing at least two cases of attempted witness tampering after Bankman-Fried leaked documents to the New York Times he thought would be disparaging to his ex-girlfriend who is set to testify against him. Instead of staying at his parents' plush home on the grounds of Stanford University, he will instead sit in jail until his trial begins October 2, 2023.
Like everything happening in the judicial system today, none of these seem like a pure win for actual justice but implications do emerge which could be encouraging.
What will appointment of a special counsel in the Hunter Biden case accomplish? Especially when the special prosecutor appointed is the CURRENT prosecutor who has already generated criticism for cutting a plea deal with Hunter Biden in the first place? The short answer would seem to be "not much." Numerous witnesses brought forth by James Comer and Jim Jordan in the House Republican show trial charade desperately trying to find Hunter Biden malfeasance that can be linked to President Joe Biden have all raised their right hand and explicitly said they never saw Joe Biden speak about any business matters Hunter Biden might have been working and had no knowledge of any deal Hunter Biden may have executed that benefited Joe Biden. There is zero doubt of any of the following facts:
- Hunter Biden was given business positions BECAUSE his last name matched that of an active or former Vice President
- Hunter Biden had zero moral compass to avoid situtations where he could be accused of trading on his father's name
- Hunter Biden repeatedly failed to pay taxes in a timely manner as an active criminal goal or out of coked-out ineptitude
- Hunter Biden was charged with possession of a gun while an unlawful user of drugs - a federal crime
But there are twists. Critics who thought the terms of the plea deal were too lenient on the tax issues fail to recognize the reality that jail terms are exceedingly rare and short in duration for most tax violations, even those involving flat-out failure to file. The IRS just wants its money in most cases. Having tax charges filed as misdemeanor charges is routine. What WASN'T routine about the Hunter Biden plea deal was the term that granted immunity from prosecution of any other tax-related crimes. It isn't clear WHO inserted that clause in the proposed deal. It also isn't clear if that immunity only involved other tax issues IN THE SAME time period or over some wider period of time dating farther back. Given Hunter Biden's well-documented drug and mental health issues, it appears this deal was primarily negotiated as an issue involving someone who was deemed "incompetent" due to extreme drug use -- a condition with which MANY American families are tragically familiar over the past twenty years of the opioid "epidemic."
In that light, providing immunity for other tax crimes during the same period as the alleged offenses makes sense for ALL involved. It reflects the fact that the IRS likely has a clear enough picture of his ACTUAL income during the period to know they now will have collected what was owed to them. If the IRS is confortable they got their pound of (tax) flesh, then ensuring the entire situation isn't used in the future as a political football to accuse Hunter Biden of MORE tax issues avoids a waste of DOJ resources. It obviously makes sense to Hunter Biden himself. If the tax immunity extended BACKWARD in time, then the origin of that plea term SHOULD be investigated for possible foul play. There's no reason to surrender the right to prosecute older crimes still within any applicable statute of limitations. If it is found there ARE earlier tax crimes AND someone KNEW about those crimes AND thus lobbied to add that immunity grant, that requires investigation and removal of any parties who participated.
The twists with the creation of a special prosecutor for Hunter Biden involving tax/financial issues and weapons charges? First, Hunter Biden isn't the only close family member of a prominent Presidential player (past or present) tied to questionable business dealings. Ivanka Trump gained lucrative trademark rights in China AFTER Donald Trump became President. Jared Kushner -- Ivanka's husband and actual Trump Administration staff member -- closed financing deals worth BILLIONS that prevented financial collapse of his business empire while a taxpayer-paid member of Trump's official policy making staff. Kushner made last minute trips to Saudi Arabia AFTER November 2020 and only three months after Trump left office, Kushner closed a deal to manage $2 billion dollars in assets for the Saudi sovereign wealth fund which will pay him $25 million per year in management fees. TWENTY FIVE MILLION DOLLARS. PER YEAR. For advice from Jared Kushner, whose inexperience and ineptitude were cited by the management team of the soveriegn wealth fund, whose recommendation to AVOID the deal was ignored by the Crown Prince.
The other twist involves the gun charge. Biden was charged under US Code Title 18, Section 922(g)(3) which states:(g)It shall be unlawful for any person—- (3)who is an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance (as defined in section 102 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 802));
That language in that statute has been generating debate within the federal court system for years and in fact resulted in a Supreme Court decision on June 22, 2022 in the Bruen case. In an opinion written by Clarence Thomas, the court ruled that the Second Amendment protects a person's right to carry a weapon for self-defense outside the home, even if the person is a felon.
Given that recent judicial ruling, it seems likely the Justice Department decided the charge might get tossed over overturned at some point anyway and as long as the target participated in a "diversionary program", didn't merit more prosecutorial time being spent. Any continued attempt by Republicans to make political hay out of a Biden escaping a weapons charge could and should backfire on them spectacularly by simply pointing out the entire charge was ruled an offense to their precious Second Amendment by their patron saint of judicial corruption, Clarence Thomas.
The ruling by Judge Chutkan on restrictions regarding discovery documents shared with Trump's defense team seems disappointing for anti-Trump followers of the process. It seems patently obvious that Trump is unable to hold his tongue on ANY topic under any circumstance, much less make distinctions between "sensitive" information protected by the final order versus "regular" information. The government has a legitimate interest in preventing the defendant from making public threats (overt or more subliminal) to those who might cave under pressure and change their testimony or "forget" events. On the other hand, the events of January 6 do not involve national security secrets... only the security of our democracy... a distinction that seems utterly bizarre to make in any prior era of American history.
A more careful review of the judge's ruling makes any interpretation of her decision as a Trump win less appropriate. While refusing to enforce a protective order against the ENTIRE discovery collection of documents to be provided to Trump, she stated "sensitive" documents would remain under protection and -- more importantly -- gave sole discretion of determining "sensitivity" to the prosecutors. This makes more work for Jack Smith's team to sift through the documents before handing them over but ultimately, it leaves Jack Smith in the driver's seat on the larger issue.
Judge Chutkan made two key comments in court as she released her formal ruling. First, she re-iterated that any disclosure of "sensitive" materials creates too great a risk for intimidation of witnesses or polluting the jury pool. In nearly the same breath, she reminded Trump's lawyers (Trump himself did not attend the hearing) that he must continue to abide by the terms of his release at arraignment which include not intimidating witnesses or interfering with the administration of justice. She also stated she will not allow politics to play any part in her decisions throughout the case. On one hand, that's a note to the prosecution that worries about whether Trump might leak information as part of campaign tactics itself will not act as a a priori filter on her decisions. At the same time, it is a direct notice to Trump's team that his campaign schedule will have ZERO influence on her scheduling of actions within the case -- not only the trial itself but all of the mindless motions Trump's team will file in the days to come.
Judge Chutkan's warning to Trump's legal team about witness tampering and jury pool manipulation was serendipitously reinforced by events in the unrelated federal criminal case against Sam Bankman-Fried. As another example of America's two-tiered justice system where the rich and powerful gain bail and temporary freedom while awaiting trial, Bankman-Fried was subject to home confinement at his parent's plush home on the grounds of Stanford University while awaiting his criminal trial for financial fraud regarding FTX. Bankman-Fried leaked private correspondence of his ex-girlfriend and ex-partner Caroline Ellison to the New York Times, expecting it to be used in a background story that would impair her credibility. Regardless of the actual impact of the final article, Judge Kaplan saw the information on how Bankman-Fried provided the information and revoked his bail and sent Bankman-Fried IMMEDIATELY to jail in Manhattan where he will remain until his trial starts on October 3, 2023.
Bankman-Fried's plight is something Donald Trump and his lawyers should spend some serious time contemplating. Judge Chutkan is no Aileen Cannon. She has years of experience as a defense attorney, knows the rules of evidence and criminal procedures inside and out from both a defense and prosecution perspective and has already warned Trump and his team TWICE of the consequences from any behavior that could be construed as witness intimidation or jury tampering. Concerns about witness intimidation were tragically heightened when a Utah man was shot as the FBI attempted to serve a warrant on him after he posted specific threats against Biden on August 7 after learning Biden was coming to Utah for a political event. He had previously posted threats at least back to January 2023 against Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Merrick Garland, Latetia James, Alvin Bragg, Barack Obama and others, many related to Trump cases. The idea that there are Trump supporters willing to kill and willing to die is REALITY and these judges have a immediate example to reference.
Is Trump smart enough to learn from anyone else's mistakes? In "seven seven" years, he has failed to learn from a single mistake of his own -- some costing him billions -- so the odds of him having the intelligence to learn from anyone else's mistakes seem remote. It would be ironic (and completely out of character) if Trump suddenly learns the value of a speedy trial after violating the judge's order and landing in jail awaiting a trial his team has successfully pushed out in time. The real question is.... Is anyone else learning anything from these mistakes?
WTH
