thetorontobulletin.com Blog

Black’s prosecutors are a disgrace

November 29, 2007 on 3:39 pm | In Social & Political Issues | No Comments

By Frank Touby

The only thing worse than the taxman is a U.S. prosecutor hot to make a name for him or herself.

That’s the case with showbizzy U.S. attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, persecutor of Conrad Black and his three co-accused in the case where no crime was committed.

Not to worry. Fitzgerald, who is making a name for himself by bringing down the super rich and CEOs, doesn’t require actual guilt in order to make a case stick.

Using the obscene powers of his office, along with taxpayers’ money, he and his band can trump up enough of a case to get a conviction from a jury on nearly anything he wants.

He did that in the case of Black, et al. He even went one farther with Black and got him wrongly convicted of obstruction of justice, which could put him away for 20 years…in essence, a life sentence.

Get a load of this presentation Fitzgerald and gang made before the sentencing judge to try and put Black away for life: “the relevant-conduct analysis should consider not only convicted conduct, but also acquitted and uncharged criminal conduct that is proved by a preponderance of evidence.”

What chutzpah! Just being acquitted isn’t enough of a signal to Fitzgerald that his case fell short. He wants to imprison Black for things he was acquitted of doing or wasn’t even charged with doing!

Unbelievable? Not in George W. Bush’s America.

Fitzgerald and crew have no discernable consciences and continue to rail at the judge to throw the book at Black and friends.

This is despite the fact that no crime was committed. The defendants sold their personal pledges not to compete with companies purchasing newspaper assets from the pubic company they headed, Hollinger International.

Nothing wrong with that. Hollinger shareholders aren’t entitled to revenue from such a transaction any more than they would be if Black and the others moonlighted with the purchasers for wages.

And the obstruction of justice? Utter bullshit. Black was nailed for removing documents the prosecution had already seen and copied. And that was in Canada. Further, he says hadn’t seen a fax sent to him that day by the U.S. prosecutors insisting he not remove the documents.

Prosecutors have the big advantage in the U.S. of being the last voice a jury hears before deliberating.

In this Chicago farce of a trial, the defense concluded on a Friday. That was a bad tactic because the prosecutors had all weekend for the jurors to forget much of what they were told. Thus, on the Monday, jurors got an earful all the long day from prosecutors.

On most of the charges, they found the defendants not guilty. But because the nice young people who were so intently proclaiming that crime had been committed seemed so sincere, the jurors did convict on some minor points.

No crime had been committed. Conrad Black has been persecuted because he’s often portrayed as a bombastic and arrogant rich guy.

Maybe he is. Maybe not. I don’t know him. But it’s not crime. Still, the poor bastard who has already been brought to the possible brink of bankruptcy is very likely going to be imprisoned.