DOJ: "**** due process!"; Courts: *shrug*

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

A few weeks back, DOJ prosecutors handling January 6th cases began to file legal memoranda offering weak excuses for why they are unable to comply with their obligation to provide discovery consistent with the federal rules and the defendants’ right to a “fair and speedy trial.” These memoranda describe the undertaking that the DOJ now refers to as the “The Capitol Breach” investigation.

The documents tell a sad tale in which a poor, beset-upon DOJ is saddled with an overwhelming undertaking connected to the events of January 6th, made all the more impossible by the obligation to comply with the Constitution and court rules established to protect the rights of criminal defendants. Here is a passage from one such memorandum that was filed by the Biden Justice Department in the matter of United States v. Timothy Hale-Cusanelli.

[T]he government’s investigation into the breach of the United States Capitol on January 6th, 2021 (the ‘Capitol Breach’) has resulted in the accumulation and creation of a massive volume of data that may be relevant to many defendants. The government is diligently working to meet its unprecedented overlapping and interlocking discovery obligations by providing voluminous electronic information in the most comprehensive and usable format.

Identical memoranda have been filed by the government in multiple other cases as well, including in the matter of United States v. Nathaniel DeGrave, United States v. Justin McAuliffe, and United States v. Aaron Mostofsky.

Nothing in the passage above addresses the failure by prosecutors in innumerable cases to comply with “Rule 16 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure.” Under the Rule, a defendant is entitled, upon request, to production of certain evidence and information in the possession of the government. Two broad categories of material that fall within Rule 16 include any evidence the government intends to offer during trial to prove the defendant’s guilt; and any records, documents, items, etc., in the possession of the government that are “material to preparing the defense.”

The DOJ’s “Memo of Woe” continues:

The investigation and prosecution of the Capitol Breach will be the largest in American history, both in terms of the number of defendants prosecuted and the nature and volume of the evidence. In the six months since the Capitol was breached, over 500 individuals located throughout the nation have been charged with a multitude of criminal offenses. … There are investigations open in 55 of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s 56 field offices.

The circumstances confronting Justice Department prosecutors here are entirely of their own making. No law or rule compelled the DOJ to file all the cases at the earliest possible moment it could. Nothing prevented DOJ management from, you know, “managing” the caseload by filing cases in smaller numbers at the outset, starting with most serious alleged offenders. This would have allowed prosecutors to work through the discovery problems in order to meet their obligations under the Constitution and procedural rules, rather than bringing the entire system to a grinding halt by needlessly dragging hundreds of people into court all at one time.

https://humanevents.com/2021/08/05/the-biden-justice-department-cant-seem-to-produce-the-evidence-it-supposedly-used-to-indict-the-january-6th-protest-cases/

[Eupher]

In other words, incompetence at the highest levels of DOJ. And Merrick Garland was gonna sit on SCOTUS?

 

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

In other words, incompetence at the highest levels of DOJ. And Merrick Garland was gonna sit on SCOTUS?

 

It's not incompetence if it's done with malicious intent.

In fact, this is going exactly as planned.

[Eupher]

It's not incompetence if it's done with malicious intent.

In fact, this is going exactly as planned.

You're giving Garland waaaaay too much credit. He's a chump.

What would be the point in clogging up the court system? In a real DOJ (not the one that we have), doing so just gives the defendants more ammo in their countersuits citing the 6th Amendment.

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

What would be the point in clogging up the court system? In a real DOJ (not the one that we have), doing so just gives the defendants more ammo in their countersuits citing the 6th Amendment.

Most of the political prisoners have now been held captive for terms longer than could be meted out as a sentence for the highest misdemeanor convictions.

The DOJ is holding hundreds of people in jail, claiming they are too dangerous to be allowed to walk the streets before trial. Many are being held in solitary confinement despite no prior criminal history and no allegations of violence.

Then they claim they cannot meet their due process and discovery obligations until 2022.

More than a year from the date of offense.

No trial yet. Just confinement.

All the while - again - saying these people are too dangerous to grant them their constitutional rights.

Then, as things inevitably proceed, the government says, "Never mind the felony charge. Take a misdemeanor plea deal" with the defendant having already spent more time in jail than the offense would allow for.

Oh, and it's a violation of written DOJ policy to plead down like that. The plea has to allow for the same elements as the initial complaint.

The purpose is to make people too afraid to protest the regime.

"Hey, MAGAt, wanna spend a year or two in solitary confinement while we drag out the paperwork? **** due process. **** speedy trial. **** discovery. **** habeas corpus. Because **** you and your 1st Amendment rights."

[Eupher]

The purpose is to make people too afraid to protest the regime.

"Hey, MAGAt, wanna spend a year or two in solitary confinement while we drag out the paperwork? **** due process. **** speedy trial. **** discovery. **** habeas corpus. Because **** you and your 1st Amendment rights."

Well, in one sense it's working. There hasn't been another 1/6. But there wouldn't have been one anyway. 1/6 -- which may have been prompted by DOJ -- was a one-off.

Pelousy ain't gonna get her day in court. The Repubs, conducting their own "investigation," are gonna come up with the same questions they've been asking -- with no answers.

Tyrants gonna exercise tyranny. Asterisk's puppetmasters show us every day how astounding their lies are. But unless you're wedded to Twatter, Fakebook, and the rest of the Big Tech propaganda machines (I'm not), we're not being held back by anyone or anything. This thread is ample proof of that. Or are the black helicopters circling overhead? If they are, I can't hear 'em. I'm hearing impaired.