Lindaman writes:
With former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich being found guilty of 1 out of 24 counts, a lot of people are focusing on one juror, Eric Sarnello, as the reason the jury was deadlocked.
NOBODY is saying Eric Sarnello is the reason the jury was deadlocked. Not even your own link says that! Again, do you even check your sources?
Eric Sarnello is just one of the jurors that was willing to talk to the press. It was a delusional female juror that kept the vote locked at 11-1 for the "selling seat" issue, which was the important one.
However, one person seems to be escaping what I feel is well-deserved scrutiny.
US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald.
The Blagojevich trial is the second high profile case Fitzgerald has botched, the first being the investigation into who "outed" Valerie Plame. Even after it came out that Richard Armitage "outed" Plame, not Robert Novak or Scooter Libby, Fitzgerald went ahead with the prosecution of Libby and won a conviction over an immaterial point, and only after the jury was stacked and admitted they didn't have any real reason to convict Libby, aside from a desire to see someone take the fall for it.
Why is this so hard for people to understand?
It is illegal to lie to investigators, even if it turns out that no crime was committed. The whole 'no underlying crime committed' is a bogus argument. Ask any lawyer, judge or policeman.
If there was no underlying crime committed, then why did Libby lie?
Perjury, if proven, should carry a huge penalty. How can we rely on our courts if they are not given the correct information to make a decision? How can we entrust them with the duty of justice if they are basing it on lies?
Libby must be the dumbest son-of-a-bitch alive to lie about something that wasn't even illegal. It's either that or he must have had a very, very good reason to lie to investigators and ruin his career.
I wonder what that reason could be. Hmmmm?
He was convicted of four out of five counts, and would've been ass-raped in prison if Bush hadn't have pardoned him from serving time. I'd say that was a success.
And now, he earned a similar meaningless conviction against Blagojevich.
Uh... there's going to be another trial.
At some point, shouldn't we be expecting a federal prosecutor to, oh I don't know, win a meaningful conviction every so often? I know he's a government employee, but damn! Even they have some performance standards.
Fitzgerald's handling of the two big cases on his recent resume shows he's not capable. He seems to love the sound of his own voice, making statements that backfire on him on a regular basis and make him look foolish. Just like Joe Biden, only with the power to prosecute you...badly.
If we were serious about cutting government waste, I'd say a good place to start would be to fire Fitzgerald.
11-to-1 in favor of guilty (and that one being a deluded twat) on the key issue (selling Obama's seat) is pretty damned good. When the retrial happens, we'll see. Won't we?
You're just mad because Blago's tape exonerated Obama of any involvement. Rod's hyper-pissed at Barry for not playing ball on who gets his seat. So much for Obama being "another Chicago machine hack".
With former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich being found guilty of 1 out of 24 counts, a lot of people are focusing on one juror, Eric Sarnello, as the reason the jury was deadlocked.
NOBODY is saying Eric Sarnello is the reason the jury was deadlocked. Not even your own link says that! Again, do you even check your sources?
Eric Sarnello is just one of the jurors that was willing to talk to the press. It was a delusional female juror that kept the vote locked at 11-1 for the "selling seat" issue, which was the important one.
However, one person seems to be escaping what I feel is well-deserved scrutiny.
US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald.
The Blagojevich trial is the second high profile case Fitzgerald has botched, the first being the investigation into who "outed" Valerie Plame. Even after it came out that Richard Armitage "outed" Plame, not Robert Novak or Scooter Libby, Fitzgerald went ahead with the prosecution of Libby and won a conviction over an immaterial point, and only after the jury was stacked and admitted they didn't have any real reason to convict Libby, aside from a desire to see someone take the fall for it.
Why is this so hard for people to understand?
It is illegal to lie to investigators, even if it turns out that no crime was committed. The whole 'no underlying crime committed' is a bogus argument. Ask any lawyer, judge or policeman.
If there was no underlying crime committed, then why did Libby lie?
Perjury, if proven, should carry a huge penalty. How can we rely on our courts if they are not given the correct information to make a decision? How can we entrust them with the duty of justice if they are basing it on lies?
Libby must be the dumbest son-of-a-bitch alive to lie about something that wasn't even illegal. It's either that or he must have had a very, very good reason to lie to investigators and ruin his career.
I wonder what that reason could be. Hmmmm?
He was convicted of four out of five counts, and would've been ass-raped in prison if Bush hadn't have pardoned him from serving time. I'd say that was a success.
And now, he earned a similar meaningless conviction against Blagojevich.
Uh... there's going to be another trial.
At some point, shouldn't we be expecting a federal prosecutor to, oh I don't know, win a meaningful conviction every so often? I know he's a government employee, but damn! Even they have some performance standards.
Fitzgerald's handling of the two big cases on his recent resume shows he's not capable. He seems to love the sound of his own voice, making statements that backfire on him on a regular basis and make him look foolish. Just like Joe Biden, only with the power to prosecute you...badly.
If we were serious about cutting government waste, I'd say a good place to start would be to fire Fitzgerald.
11-to-1 in favor of guilty (and that one being a deluded twat) on the key issue (selling Obama's seat) is pretty damned good. When the retrial happens, we'll see. Won't we?
You're just mad because Blago's tape exonerated Obama of any involvement. Rod's hyper-pissed at Barry for not playing ball on who gets his seat. So much for Obama being "another Chicago machine hack".