There are probably no more disappointing words to those of us who have made a career in the criminal justice system than “The fix is in.”
I genuinely believe that almost all members of that system, judges, prosecutors, defense lawyers and police officers strive to insure that cases are handled evenhandedly and justly regardless of the outcome.
I have represented a fair share of politicians, public officials, wealthy and powerful defendants during my career as a defense lawyer.
I also presided over many cases involving the wealthy, powerful and influential defendants during my time on the bench.
It goes without saying that when a defendant who is white, wealthy, powerful or has friends in high places escapes conviction that the public becomes cynical and assumes the worst and that the ‘fix is in.”
There can be little doubt that the recent intervention in the Roger Stone sentencing recommendation by Trump and his Attorney general, William Barr, is a textbook example of the “the fix is in.”
If you were to look up the word “sleaze” in the dictionary, Roger Stone’s photo should be next to it.
Stone, a Trump advisor and confidante, has made a career out of performing the dirtiest, most underhanded and sleaziest dirty tricks for anyone who had the bad judgement to hire him.
Perhaps his sleaziest occurred in 2007, when he was discovered to have made harassing and threatening telephone calls to former Governor Eliot Spitzer’s father, Bernard, at a time when the elder Spitzer was suffering from dementia.
Justice caught up with Stone this year when he was convicted by a jury of obstructing the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, lying to investigators and intimidation a witness by threatening physical violence.
Justice Department prosecutors handling the case recommended a sentence of seven to nine years in prison for Stone until Barr stepped in and ordered it to be reduced.
In order to appreciate how the “fix” occurred it is important to follow the machinations of Trump, Barr and others involved in it.
The first move was nominating the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, Jessie K. Liu, to become an Undersecretary of the Treasury. Liu had been the U.S. Attorney that had overseen the prosecution of Stone. She was persuaded to leave her position as U.S. Attorney and assume the Treasury position on an acting basis.
Barr then replaced her with an interim U.S. Attorney, his close aide, Timothy Shea.
Trump then began tweeting that the sentencing recommendation made by the prosecutors in the case was “horrible and very unfair” and “Cannot allow this miscarriage of justice.”
Shea, then wrote to the Judge that the Justice Department believed that Stone should get some jail time but that the seven to nine year term proposed by the trial prosecutors would be excessive. This interference prompted all four of the prosecutors to resign from the case.
Once this had been accomplished, Trump withdrew Liu’s nomination to be Undersecretary of the Treasury, leading t hero resignation from the Administration.
This last act is one that should draw some real scrutiny and prompt Congress to investigate.
What would motivate Trump to withdraw Liu’s nomination for the Treasury position?
Clearly the Administration believed that she was qualified for the position or it would not have nominated her in the first place.
It couldn’t have been a question of loyalty since she joined the Administration and wasn’t an Obama holdover.
There hasn’t been any suggestion of misconduct on her part.
I suspect that the answer lies in the fact that she was scheduled for a confirmation hearing before a Senate committee and would have been required to testify truthfully under oath and the change in Stone’s sentencing recommendation would have been a likely subject of the inquiry.
If there is one thing we know about the Trump Administration it is that they are loath to let anyone testify before Congress.
Now that Liu is a private citizen, Congress should call her as a witness and get to the bottom of this “fix.”
I lived through the Watergate scandal and I have to say that Trump makes me miss Richard Nixon.
William Barr makes me miss John Mitchell too.