February 20, 2025

The End Of The Eric Adams Prosecution : Holier-Than-Thou Federal Prosecutors

February 20, 2025/ Francis Menton

Since my post a few days ago about the demise of the Eric Adams prosecution, controversy has continued to swirl around the matter.
On the side supporting the action of the Trump/Bondi Justice Department, several new voices have emerged to join what were previously the lonely cries of a handful of people like myself and Josh Blackman. These new voices include James Copland and Rafael Mangual (of the Manhattan Institute), writing in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on February 18; and Alan Dershowitz in a column in the New York Post on February 19.
On the other side of the argument, an ex-colleague of mine sends me a copy of an “open letter” dated February 17, and signed by a gigantic list of well over 1000 former federal prosecutors. This letter essentially adopts the arguments set forth in the resignation letter of ex-SDNY US Attorney Danielle Sassoon, including echoing some of her language.
A fair description is that these guys adopt a holier-than-thou attitude, claiming to be wholly pure and above politics and devoted only to the “facts and law.”

January 04, 2025

Bizarre End To The Trump Criminal Prosecution

January 04, 2025/ Francis Menton

By now you may have almost forgotten that, back on May 30, Donald Trump was convicted by a New York jury on 34 supposedly felony counts of “falsifying business records.”
In the time since, the judge in the case, Juan Merchan, has occupied himself with denying various post-trial motions and with postponing the sentencing several times. Yesterday, Acting Justice Merchan issued an Order which, besides denying several of the outstanding motions, also scheduled sentencing for next Friday, January 10 — thus just over a week in advance of President-elect Trump’s second inauguration.
This Order is one of the most bizarre documents I have ever seen to issue from a court.

December 18, 2024

December 18, 2024/ Francis Menton

After two Manhattan Contrarian posts in the last month on the subject of anti-money laundering (AML) regulation (here from November 24 and here from December 9), the topic is suddenly in the news.
On November 26, Marc Andreessen appeared on the Joe Rogan podcast, with an extensive discussion of the debanking of the crypto industry, and that appearance got some notice. The Wall Street Journal ran two op-eds on the subject of AML on Monday (December 16): “Debanking and the Return of Operation Choke Point” by Allysia Finley, and “Businesses Get a Reprieve from a Draconian Law” by Caleb Kruckenberg and Andrew Grossman. Both are worth your time if you can get behind the paywall.
It’s about time that some attention is paid to this issue. AML enforcement ranks right up there among the most egregious systematic violations by the government of the people’s civil rights.

December 09, 2024

December 09, 2024/ Francis Menton

In a government full of nasty, obnoxious and extra-legal regulatory initiatives to harass the people, the effort to regulate “money laundering” out of existence has to rank at the top.
The basic idea is for the government to require all banks to become involuntary deputies of law enforcement to spy on their customers behind their backs, so that the bureaucrats can gain access to detailed information on what every single person is doing all the time. And thus will all criminality be stomped out!
In the real world, what anti-money laundering (AML) regulation means is that the government gains vast information on the innocent citizenry. This information in almost all cases has nothing to do with criminality and instead finds its principal use in hobbling and harassing the political opponents of the régime.
Meanwhile, the real crooks have plenty of ways (cash, Bitcoin, ten other forms of crypto, gold, MoneyGram, etc., etc.) to continue business as usual.

December 07, 2024

December 07, 2024/ Francis Menton

Throughout my life, no matter who has been in charge of federal or state prosecutions, there have been voices alleging some level of politicization of the law enforcement process. Mostly, those allegations have been about improper use of government resources to protect those in power, who should be relying on their own private lawyers when their own conduct is at issue.
But then there is the subject of use of the government’s law enforcement and regulatory authority to harass, disable and convict political opponents of the régime. Prior to the Trump Derangement Syndrome era, those sorts of abuses had been notably rare during my lifetime.
But there is nothing remotely comparable in our history to the diversion of law enforcement resources during the past four years toward the effort to take down the political opponents of the régime.

October 12, 2024

October 12, 2024/ Francis Menton

A couple of weeks ago I posed the question of whether the recently-initiated federal prosecution of New York Mayor Eric Adams is legitimate, or whether it is yet another instance of abject corruption by our Department of Justice and FBI, in this instance pay-back by the prosecutors for Adams’s criticism of the regime’s immigration policies.
To help you as you ponder that question, it might be useful to look at a few other things that the DOJ and FBI are recently up to.
As Item Number 1, Justice “Special Counsel” Jack Smith chose the date of October 2 — 34 days before the upcoming election — to file his brief laying out his reasons why ex-President Trump does not qualify for immunity from prosecution under the Supreme Court’s July 1 ruling in Trump v. United States. . . .