Thursday, July 30, 2009
Dana Milbank on the Bill Jefferson trial
Posted by Kevin Allman on Thu, Jul 30, 2009 at 9:51 PM
Part of the reason that Washington Post reporter Dana Milbank is so often frustrating is that his ego-driven antics too often conceal real talent; in other words, when the man's on, he's damn good -- as he is today in his wrap of the Bill Jefferson trial:
As defense attorney for the congressman who stashed the bribe money in his freezer, Robert Trout had an unenviable task. So in his closing arguments Wednesday, Trout adopted a different client: He acted as if all of Washington were on trial."We all occupy the gray area -- it's just part of human nature," Trout explained, as if former congressman William Jefferson's proposal to bribe the vice president of Nigeria were an everyday occurrence.
"We're going to make mistakes . . . we may do reckless things," the lawyer continued, as if having $90,000 of the FBI's money in Pillsbury pie crusts in the Louisiana Democrat's house was tantamount to exceeding the speed limit.
To illustrate this curious analogy, Trout displayed a graphic for jurors. On one side of a yellow line, in bold red letters, was the word "CRIME." On the other side of the yellow line were the words "recklessness," "negligence" and "mistakes" -- and a headless man in jacket and tie raising his hands in a shrug ...
The whole thing is here.
Speaking of...
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On the television show Homicide, this was called a "red ball"
The FBI is assisting in the Good Samaritan murder investigation.
- Jan 26, 2012
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Another week, another front-page murder...
Judges asked to increase bonds for gun defendants, require electronic monitoring.
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Philly mayor has unique diagnosis for curbing his city's murder problem
After three 14-year-olds are gunned down, Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter urges citizens "not to act like idiots and assholes." Sounds good to us.
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"And, after all, if a member of Congress feels entitled to hide FBI cash in the freezer, who is the Justice Department to say he isn't?" And with that one sentence, damn near all our attitudes towards government corruption are put into sharp focus...as in "Dear God, what are we all DOING?"
