WHY WOULD CNN TRUST SUCH A MAN ?

Should CNN now be called the Criminal News Network ? Eliot Spitzer violated federal money laundering laws as well as the Mann Act, which prohibits transporting a woman across state lines for the purposes of prostitution, which a Republican New York State Supreme Court Justice was charged, convicted and jailed for in 2009. Why not Spitzer?

WHY WOULD CNN CONDONE THIS BEHAVIOR?

Eliot Spitzer also violated Federal Money Laundering laws which were reported by two New York banks (North Fork Bank and HSBC) with the U.S. Treasury department and the Internal Revenue Service after Spitzer moved large sums of cash in bank accounts he controlled. The banks reported the transactions because they looked like “structuring” transactions. A structured transaction, according to the FFIEC’s Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) exam manual, is used to evade BSA reporting and certain recordkeeping requirements. They are used to hide the source, destination or reason the money is being sent. Spitzer broke the law.

WHY WOULD CNN GIVE A FORUM TO SUCH A MAN ?

Prior to his arrest, Spitzer was being investigated for his role in the Troopergate scandal where he directed his aides to use dirty STATE POLICE to spy on a political opponent. Emails acknowledging Spitzer’s direction and knowledge of these acts came out after his resignation. Use of state resources for political purposes is a crime and a felony.

WHY WOULD CNN RISK THEIR CREDIBILITY WITH A MAN LIKE THIS?

There is also the issue of how he financed his failed 1994 race for attorney general and his successful one in 1998. In both races for Attorney General he took over $9M in illegal loans from his father to finance his campaign and lied about it to the New York Times. Campaign laws prohibit Spitzer, the son of a multi-millionaire, unlimited use of his father’s money for campaign funds. In order to finance his campaigns, he entered into a series of shady loans with the ultimate source being his father. After being uncovered by various media outlets, Spitzer finally admitted to breaking Campaign Finance Laws stating “he had to do it”.

WHY WOULD CNN PROMOTE HYPOCRISY?

As Attorney General, Eliot Spitzer prosecuted people for promoting prostitution. Spitzer on June 6, 2007 signed into law legislation to prevent human trafficking and to suppress the demand for prostitution. New York’s punishment for patronizing prostitutes changed from a Class B misdemeanor (3 months jail/$500 fine) to a Class A (1 year jail/$1,000 fine) misdemeanor. All the while Eliot Spitzer was frequenting these same agencies. Spitzer has yet to admit to his hypocrisy.

CNN BETTER WATCH THEIR RATINGS

Yes, everyone deserves a second chance. However, how can you give someone a second chance when they haven’t asked for forgiveness? They haven’t admitted the entirety of what they have done but rather tried to downplay their actions in hope that we would eventually forget. There has been no apology or admission to the taxpayers he betrayed. The idea of Eliot Spitzer having any moral authority or any credibly regarding law- breaking on Wall street given his own record of disregard for the law is a joke.

Citizens who oppose glorifying Eliot Spitzer with a CNN Cable TV show should go here to register their complaint and send an e-mail message to CNN executives- Just say No to Spitzer.

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KRISTIN DAVIS supplied escorts for Eliot Spitzer when he was both Attorney General and Governor of New York for which she served four months in prison and six years probation. A political and women’s rights activist, Davis is running for Governor of New York as a Libertarian.

I speak from the point of view of an attorney with a passion for the protections of the law.

In 1770, a rowdy mob of Massachusetts colonists accosted and provoked British soldiers until they responded with lethal force and committed the Boston Massacre.   The soldiers were arrested and placed on trial where their convictions seemed imminent out of sheer populace outrage.  One bold lawyer rose in their defense, John Adams, who in his closing argument reminded the jurors that “the law no passion can disturb.  Tis void of desire and fear, lust and anger . . . it is deaf, deaf as an adder to the clamours of the populace.”

Today the populace is clamoring at Joe Bruno.  They protested – protested! – His recent defense fund fundraisers, and blogs, abound with smug joy at the Senator’s conviction.  Meanwhile, the facts and flaws of the case have disappeared into the ruckus.   Nary a soul concerns itself with the serious constitutional misgivings of a law that has floundered through the federal circuit courts because no knows what it means.  Consider the helpless inquisition of Judge Jacobs in the Rybicki case, now Chief Judge of the Second Circuit – the same federal circuit hearing the Bruno case:

How can the public be expected to know what the statute means when the judges and prosecutors themselves do not know, or must make it up as they go along?

Or consider Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia who says that “it is simply not fair to prosecute someone for a crime that has not been defined until the judicial decision that sends him to jail.”

Joe Bruno’s case abounds with the consequences of these concerns.  According to the prosecution, the crime revolves around the purity of one’s motive behind the act in question, and robbing the public of the ability to fully assess a legislator’s motives constitutes, on some imaginary planet, fraud.  Meanwhile, the jury decided that some of Senator Bruno’s consulting fees were unearned and therefore amounted to gifts, which we then are permitted to assume were given in return for legislative favors.  And then came the jury instructions.  The judge instructed that a conviction need not require the finding of an actual conflict of interest; a finding of its mere appearance would suffice.  In other words, if he looks guilty, he is guilty.  This is shocking.

And it is happening because the statute is constitutionally flawed.  It violates due process of law for failure to give adequate notice of that conduct the law is rendering criminal.  The absence of notice invites legal invention.  No one knows what the test for honesty is, and even worse fraudulent intent is not even required.  Even if the senator did not act out of self-interest, but only created its ethereal appearance, however happenstance, the rest of the crime can somehow just be presumed as a legal inference and the need for actual proof is dismissed.

It’s no wonder the law consumes almost one-fourth of the Supreme Court’s current docket.  The law clearly needs tinkering, if not a swift death.  If Antonin Scalia is telling us that the rights of a criminal defendant are being violated, which occurs only cosmically, it’s a clear sign that there is a constitutional flaw at work because Justice Scalia normally has little patience for due process to begin with.  If even he finds it unfair, we should all take note.

So protesting Senator Bruno’s well-attended fundraiser rises to the absurd in light of the valid legal ground upon which the Senator stands.  If Joe Bruno is being prosecuted under an unconstitutional law, no matter how guilty one might think he is, he must be exonerated.  Protesting his right to defend himself offends justice, especially when this case has only really just begun.

Contrary to public belief Bruno is not a wealthy man. He has resigned from his job to fight to clear his name. This prosecution will cost Bruno $3 million or more in legal fees, threatening to ruin him financially. The first trial was a foreordained exercise and why the Judge, who was clearly biased, did not dismiss or delay the case on any number of respectable legal grounds, is especially confounding given the high court’s assumption of the matter.

In all probability, the Court may require the finding of the commission of an underlying state crime upon which to base a federal honest services prosecution.  Attorney General Cuomo has found no such crime in Joe Bruno’s case.  Therefore, let the histrionic din die down and allow the Joe Bruno his full constitutional protections.

Joe Bruno the legendary longtime leader of the New York Senate Republicans stands accused of ” the theft of honest services, ” but the Feds never proved a crime at trial. New York’s political class is waiting with bated breath for a vedict.

Joe Bruno: Target of Political Hit Job

The Judge  in the Albany trial wanted to give the Jury an “Allen charge” – meaning a directive that they MUST reach a consensus when the have failed to do so. It gives juries the impression they cannot come back and announce they are deadlocked. It is a wicked pro-prosecution tool- after the first note requesting clarifications of the “reasonable doubt” standard- a true jump of the gun.

Supported for his job by Sen. Chuck Schumer, Sharpe has a son who is an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the same office and jurisdiction where Bruno is being prosecuted . Sharpe should have recused himself on that basis alone.

Sharpe finally issued the charge to the Jury that they should continue deliberations after the jury sent a note saying they cound not reach consensus. Courtroom observers believe four of twelve jurors want to acquit the long time Republican Leader.

Throughout the trial Sharpe was hostile ,short tempered and contemptuous ,chiding former Bill Clinton lawyer Abbe Lowell not to “make speeches” when he tried to address the jury. The judge over-ruled Bruno lawyers 56 times and sustained them twice while ruling for the Government 47 times and overruling them twice.

Sharpe even launched a personal attack at Bruno over what he said was a comment by the Senator, but the OFFICIAL RECORD by the Court stenographer records no such comment; Bruno was leaning over talking to his lawyer- a Constitutional right. To hear about the Judges inappropriate rant go here

This charade must stop. The government’s case is a patchwork that includes  testimony regarding conversations Bruno supposedly had with a dead Union president from a union thug brought from prison, who admits he  never met Bruno, and Bruno associates given immunity to distort and lie about the Senator. The U.S .Supreme court has three reviews of this ‘honest services ” law, which is a overreaching prosecutors wet dream.

The Bruno jury has made it clear to the judge that they are hopelessly hung. So Sharpe sends them home at 4:45 each weekday with weekends and the Holidays off, wearing them down to push them to a guilty verdict, while implying that they must reach verdict.

The Feds have no bribe, no inapproriate use of authority, no official act  by Bruno which benefited the Senator’s allowable outside clients.

I pray those who believe in justice on this jury not be steam-rolled by a prosecution and a hanging judge working together to take down a big fish.

Those citizens who want to contact Judge Sharpe and tell him you are watching and that his conduct is deplorable can do so at gsharpe@courts.state.ny.us . I am big on citizen input.

Bruno has been indicted under the controversial ” theft of honest services” law. The same law that Supreme Court Justice Anton Scalia says is unconstitutionally vague. Indeed, the US Supreme Court has taken not one but two “honest services cases” for review. The government has no evidence of bribes or improper pressure on government–required by the law–that Bruno took for his clients. Under New York Law, legislators are part-time  and are allowed to have outside income. Bruno , an non-lawyer with a business background, is a business consultant.

When the Government dropped hundreds of thousands of pages of new documents on Bruno’s defense team only days before trial Bruno’s lawyer asked Judge Gary Sharpe of the Northern District of New York for a mere two week delay. The motion was denied.

Indeed , in three weeks of trial Sharpe has overruled Bruno’s lawyer Abbe Lowell 49 times and sustained him twice while he has sustained the Government 36 times and overruled them twice.

But last week Sharpe showed why he is not fit to be a Federal Judge. After a particularly surprising ruling by the Judge, Bruno registered his shock facially and leaned over to speak to his lawyer. Sharpe went berserk and betrayed his animus towards the 81 year old Republican. “For once in your life you do not control something ….I do. If you ever do what you just did in the presence of the Jury again, which is question one of my rulings, I will take measures to make sure you never do that again.”

This arrogant Judge has one problem. Even though the New York Times headline says ” Judge in Bruno Corruption trial Chastises Him Over a Remark”-the court stenographer recorded no audible “remark” by Bruno! Sloppy reporting by Timesman Nick Confessore. How can there be a remark when the official record records none, thus Bruno conversation with his lawyer must have been inaudible.

Sharpe quickly dismissed a motion for a mistrial.

On top of this the Troy Record Reports that Judge Sharpe’s son is an assistant U S Attorney in the same office that is prosecuting Bruno. Sharpe should have had the integrity to recuse himself. Judge Sharpe is a disgrace to the Federal Bench caught up in what he thinks is his 15 minutes.

Citizens who want to contact Judge Sharpe and tell him to recuse himself in the name of fairness can e-mail him at gsharpe@courts.state.ny.us.