Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Holzer response to a lawyer acquaintance



I admire your thoughtful analysis of what was at bottom a cynical political, cowardly decision by the Director of the FBI.

Virtually everyone is missing what I tried to make clear in my recent blog: The FBI investigates facts.

It is not the Bureau’s (or its spokesman’s) job to decide who gets prosecuted, let alone what statutes mean or require. (We don’t even know if the investigators were lawyers.)

It is not the FBI’s business to crystal-ball what DOJ will do, let alone a grand jury, let alone a “reasonable prosecutor,” let alone a trial jury.

It is not the FBI’s business to make decisions about the constitutionality of federal statutes.

Comey’s whole smoke screen of “intent” is absurd. That is the trial  jury’s job to decide.

Comey’s performances were nothing more than his pathetic attempt to straddle both sides of Clinton’s culpability: “She did it, but she didn’t.”

Sickening, but simply par for the course.

Aristotle – “A is A” – must be spinning in his grave.

Best.

Hank


Monday, July 11, 2016

Hillary's non-oath doesn't matter

Much is being made about Hillary not being under oath when she was interviewed by the FBI during the July 4th weekend. It doesn't matter. Under 18 United States Code Section 1001 it is a five-year felony to lie to an FBI agent (and other government officials) about a material fact relevant to an investigation. The federal criminal dockets are loaded with convictions of people who beat the underlying charge only to be convicted of an 18 USC 1001 offense.

If Hillary loses the election, keep an eye out for an Obama pardon, to choke off a retributive indictment by a Trump Department of Justice. There is a long road ahead for Mrs. William Jefferson Clinton before the statutes of limitations expire on her crimes.

Saturday, July 9, 2016

Definitions relevant to Hillarygate, and FBI's Comey as legislator


Federal Bureau of Investigation: "The FBI is charged with investigating all violations of Federal laws." Black's Law Dictionary. [Note the FBI's jurisdiction: "Investigate."]

Investigate: "To follow up step by step by patient inquiry or observation. To trace or track; to search into; to examine and inquire into with care an accuracy; to find out by careful inquisition; examination; the taking of evidence; a legal inquiry." Black's Law Dictionary. [Note the absence of power to prosecute.]
      
Prosecute: "To follow up; to carry on an action or other judicial proceeding; to proceed against a person criminally. To 'prosecute' an action is not merely to commence it, but includes following it to an ultimate conclusion." Black's Law Dictionary. [Note the express power to "proceed"; in other words to "try" an already-investigated alleged criminal.]

 Gross Negligence: "The intentional failure to perform a manifest duty in reckless disregard of the consequences as affecting the life or property of another." Black's Law Dictionary. [Note that under certain circumstances this reckless kind of conduct can be criminal.]

Reckless: "Careless, heedless, inattentive; indifferent to consequences. * * * For conduct to be 'reckless' it must be such as to evince disregard of, or indifference to, consequences, under circumstances  involving danger to life or safety of others, although no harm was intended." Black's Law Dictionary. [Note that reckless conduct is less culpable than "intentional" conduct.]

Intent: "Design, resolve, or determination with which a person acts. * * * Being a state of mind is rarely susceptible of direct proof, but must ordinarily be inferred from the facts." Black's Law Dictionary. [Note that, thus, someone must be the fact-finder.]




Jury: " A certain number of men and women selected according to law, and sworn to inquire of certain matters of fact, and declare the truth upon evidence to be laid before them." Black's Law Dictionary. [Note what the jury's task is.]

SUMMARY

The FBI smelled a rats' nest concerning at least Hillary's server and her email usage.

As the preeminent federal investigatory agency, it investigated.

At the conclusion of its investigation, the Bureau's director, Mr. Comey, changed hats and became a volunteer prosecutor. While he did report the damning facts -- more than sufficient to warrant a Justice Department Grand Jury, indictment, and trial of Hillary-- Comey went beyond them.

Comey unilaterally amended the applicable criminal statute by ignoring its express "gross negligence" standard, and substituting the straw-man standard of "intent" which does not appear as an element of the crime in the statute or case law.

In doing so, he exceeded the Bureau's fact-investigation jurisdiction, overrode Congress which had enacted the law and the president who had signed it, set the table for Loretta Lynch (the corrupt and amoral Attorney General of the United States) who had promised to accept the FBI report, and, for good measure usurped the role of a jury in deciding whether a given state of facts violate a specific law(s).

To "intentionally" mix metaphors: The FBI director, while carrying water for Obama, the democrat party, and the Clintons didn't simply drop the ball, Mr. Integrity deliberately threw it away.