This weekend I watched the Netflix documentary Martha. As an appellate lawyer and a civil libertarian it brought two crucial points to mind, the first being Martha Stewart's decision to end the appeal of her criminal conviction.
Recall that after being wrongfully, in my humble opinion, convicted of “lying” to the FBI about her supposed insider trading, Ms Stewart initially filed an appeal. This is hardly surprising given the fact that she was not convicted or even charged with insider trading. In fact, she could not be charged because the evidence did not show that she traded on "insider" information. Rather, Stewart was convicted of lying to the FBI when she truthfully said she had not engaged in insider trading. If this seems nonsensical, remember that President Donald Trump was convicted of fraudulently failing to disclose payments to a mistress as a campaign contribution even though such payments do not fit the definition of a campaign contribution or expenditure, this last point illustrated by the failure of the Department of Justice to prosecute Mr. Trump on any campaign finance charges.
Though this appeal might have set useful precedent, Stewart courageously withdrew her appeal in order to put this incident behind her. The FBI, of course, is not required by any law to tell the truth when it interviews someone, but is still very fond of claiming it has been "lied to" when it cannot bring any other charges. Though Ms. Stewart's appeal did not proceed, this area is ripe for appellate review given the prosecutorial abuses of the Department of Justice and their cohorts at the FBI.
Which brings us to the second point, to wit, the role of our good friend James Comey in all this. Ms. Stewart does not mince words when she notes how the sanctimonious Comey, then a Federal Prosecutor, decided to take down the first self-made female billionaire as what Stewart calls his "trophy."
This, of course, is the same James Comey who signed, under penalty of perjury, a FISA warrant application central to the entire Russia Hoax, a hoax which wasted millions and millions of dollars and countless hours in a vain attempt to prove a claim for which there was no evidence: that Trump was a Russian Asset. Indeed, following the report of Inspector General noting the errors and mischaracterizations in the FISA warrant application, Comey continued to defend his use of the "pee dossier" from Michael Steele as the basis for the FISA warrant application.
And so it is ironic that before James Comey did this to Donald Trump, he did it to Martha Stewart. Comey was nonetheless later permitted to be named Director of our nation’s top Law enforcement agency, FBI, the era where the FBI was let by Comey seguing into the current era of political “lawfare" we have just lived through.
Martha, then, is a must-see because it shows us how Comey took down his first "trophy" before he later went after Trump.
No comments:
Post a Comment