Posted on 06/16/2009 8:37:26 PM PDT by Libloather
Clarence Darrow Meets Clarence Birdseye
By Dana Milbank
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
"I almost think I should begin with a joke about cold cash or frozen assets," defense lawyer Robert Trout told the jury at the start of his opening statement yesterday.
Probably a good instinct: Trout has little to lose.
**SNIP**
This left Trout little to work with. Could he say the pie crusts made his client flaky? Or might the Boca Burgers justify a health-food version of the Twinkie Defense?
It nearly came to that.
The money in the freezer? "He was leaving town for the month of August. He was looking to hide the cash . . . so it would not be found by the housekeeper or an intruder," Trout explained.
Payments made to Jefferson by a businessman who pleaded guilty to bribing the congressman? "Kind of a finder's fee," Trout reasoned.
The $100,000 bribe Jefferson had agreed to give the vice president of Nigeria? "An upfront payment."
Jefferson being caught on tape soliciting bribes? His client, Trout said, had consumed "a lot of wine."
You know you're in trouble when your lawyer describes you as sleazy but not technically a criminal. "He used who he was to help businesses in which his family members had an interest," Trout said. "These facts alone are not themselves crimes."
"A lot of what you hear you will disapprove of and find distasteful coming from a member of Congress," Trout readily confessed. "Did he say and do foolish things? . . . Yes, he did." But, the lawyer argued, "he is not charged with a violation of House ethics rules. He is accused of a crime."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Heck, I could've said that. How much is this numbnut getting paid? I could use the loot.
!00’s of millions funneled to his family?
http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009/06/prosecutors_say_former_rep_wil.html
Hussein? *Crinton? Pelosi? Reid? Rangel? Frank? Dodd?
“Hussein? *Crinton? Pelosi? Reid? Rangel? Frank? Dodd?”
If our nation is to survive, we have to vote these people out. All the criminals and NOT pay their retirement packages if they are convicted of a crime.
Ole Jefferson wuz movin on up, he thought. But now I wonder if he will have a cell next to Duke Cunningham? There’s one that really, really disappointed me.
Oh, for a minute there I thought "William Jefferson, Democrat, Louisiana" was in big trouble.
I almost feel sorry for Trout.
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