Friday, January 05, 2018

Cliven Bundy-FBI debacle: Another example of why the feds need to be leashed


In USA Today James Bovard basically makes the same points I did with reference to prosecutorial misconduct and the Wooten memo, although in a much more articulate fashion. He then provides examples of similar federal abuses in the Randy Weaver case and at Waco, and concludes with the following:

In the Bundy case, Judge Navarro slammed the FBI for withholding key evidence.  Unfortunately, this seems to be standard procedure for the FBI — including in their investigations of both the Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton presidential campaigns as well as the Las Vegas shooter who slaughtered concert goers last October. FBI officials have also been caught routinely twisting the truth to burnish prosecutions. False FBI trial testimony may have helped sentence 32 innocent people to death, as the Washington Post reported in 2015. How many other innocent people have been put behind bars because of federal misconduct? Attorney General Jeff Sessions is ordering a formal investigation into how the Justice Department went awry in Nevada. Until the feds cease wrongfully abusing their targets, there will be no rebound in trust in Washington. If the Trump administration cannot rein in renegade federal prosecutors, the president should cease-and-desist any and all claptrap about “draining the swamp.”

I would add that Sessions is sending an expert in discovery to review the case, while Larry Klayman has written to Sessions asking for investigations by the Inspector General and DOJ's Office of Professional Responsibility.

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