Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Prosecutors in the Ron Paul Inc. Criminal Trial: "Follow the Money"

Opening argumnets were made Tuesday in the trial of Ron Paul Inc. operatives Jesse Benton and Dimitri Kesari.

Federal prosecutors told an Iowa jury today that former congressman Ron Paul will be called as a witness, reports David Weigel.

"Ron Paul wanted his campaign to be about ideas," said Richard Pilger, an attorney for the Justice Department. "He hated the idea of endorsements. He'll tell you that in his career, he only sought one endorsement -- from Nolan Ryan."

"Follow the money, ladies and gentlemen," said Pilger, "and you will be able to see the conspiracy in black and white."

Benton's defense is apparently going to be that he was confused the days he met with the FBI and allegedly lied to them, and the documents that implicate Benton were "hastily" put together,

Weigel reports:
Benton's attorney Meena Sinfelt asked the jury to focus on the days that Benton met with FBI investigators, July 21 and 22, 2014. It was difficult for anyone to recall the circumstances of tax day, or another busy financial period. Benton, far from misleading investigators, had been misrepresented by documents and hastily written e-mails.

-RW

4 comments:

  1. So is the moral of the story that if you're ever deposed by the FBI you should lawyer-up and refuse to answer any questions? Seems this is how they got Martha Stewart too.

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    1. Bingo!

      You should always lawyer up and say nothing. There's nothing that will ever help you by talking with any government agency without an attorney(or anyone else in most cases if there's a possibility of a court case involved) when it comes to a potentially serious matter.

      In fact, the few run-in's I've had with government agencies via my business, I always tell them to go get warrants and that I'm answering no questions, even over the smallest of issues, and it ALWAYS works in my favor. It changes the nature of any inquisition immediately.

      Most bureaucrats don't like the paperwork and most don't like doing their "job", so when you start off by telling them you're going to get an attorney involved and that they have to go get warrants to get anything out of you, most of them will go away and not come back if their inquisitions are minor by my experience- and even if they come back with a warrant, which I had OSHA do once- I made the head of OSHA in my state sit in my office while I read his entire warrant before I let him in and it resulted in the following:

      When I read the warrant, I discovered they were violating their own policies(no more than 1 inspection every other year according to their warrant, they had been here the previous year) and I told him, "I'm not letting you in, I think we need to stand in front of the judge issuing the warrant instead and you can explain to him why you are violating your own policies while my attorney asks you some other questions."

      He sat silent, then begged me to let him in my shop to look around and promised me he wouldn't fine me for anything. (I'm not kidding)

      I told him to attest to that on the warrant itself, AND HE DID! (signed and everything)

      That was 7 years or so ago...when he was finished noting to me what he thought I should address for "safety", I told him "thank you" and said "Every time you want to come in here from now on just plan on getting a warrant." and they haven't been back yet. (I used to get yearly visits with fines that always total $1100 more or less, one time I was fined $500 for having a spray bottle with water in it not labeled "water")

      Give them nothing, tell them you'll hire an attorney and they need a warrant for questions, entry to your home/business, etc.- End of story. If they get a warrant get an attorney and have him/her handle everything. Say nothing, do nothing. That's what attorney's are for.

      Even if your attorney screws up and gives them something he/she shouldn't have, that can still be rectified many times legally versus if you did it.

      The government can/will use the most inane of statements you make against you if possible & most of the gov't agents that are asking you questions spend all day listening to people lie to them, so the odds of you saying anything that will "help" you are not good, best not to roll the dice. I've never heard yet of someone being convicted for something they DIDN'T say.(but that's a possibility I suppose given what the "justus" system has become)

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    2. Maybe if Benton and his ilk had read LewRockwell.com or had listened to the candidate they were supposedly working for, they would have known what to do when the Feds sat them down. Amateur hour.

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    3. Great response and very interesting. I'll remember all of this for future reference.
      To sum it all up, when dealing with any government agency with policing powers you'd always "Better Call Saul."

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