Posted on 05/25/2010 2:39:51 PM PDT by Beaten Valve
Sounds like an instance of throwing the kitchen sink at the defendant to see if anything sticks.
Is it “abuse” of a Congressman to tell him a lie intended to influence his vote on legislation? If so, a lot of folks need to get rounded up.
If someone can look up the actual act that would be appreciated, however I suspect the wording in the law is not “and” but “or.” The gummit is throwing the kitchen sink at this guy hoping at least one of these things gets past the court.
I agree. This is nonsense. But who is driving this? Bunning? Or the FBI? I hope Bunning can place himself above this kind of tyranny. I don’t care how sleazy Shore is — a false name/location on a complaint to congress? Good grief. No threts mentioned. Harassment?
“For all we know he sent Bunning a death threat.”
That would have led to a specific charge, right? I’m no lawyer, but the law is codified.
“Did he? It is entirely conceivable that the emails were threatening but prosecutors went with the easily provable charge without letting the defense distract the jury on what consists of a threat.”
hmmm or the emails could have been non-threatening and you have an over-zealous prosecutor acting on a political agenda.
AP writer [confirmation]
Man accused of sending harassing e-mails to Sen. Jim Bunning
http://nky.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/AB/20100528/NEWS0103/305270020/
By Brett Barrouquere Associated Press May 28, 2010
It was probably a staffer who sent this email to the FBI. I doubt this is a big scandal if Bunning heads it off. But if he bungles his response or tries to ignore it, from my search engine checking, this thing is going viral. Well it should. If this is not a fabrication by an AP writer, then it needs to be dealt with head-on.
I would have to see what he wrote. Without that I have no idea what the merits of the case are.
Extremely unlikely. The prosecutor has no interest in doing so. In fact, getting overturned on Constitutional grounds over a penny ante prosecution is not anything a prosecutor wants to get near.
This guy isn't much of a political threat to Bunning or anybody else. If this were an example of (a) mass prosecutions or (b) specific political enemies being singled out, I'd be more inclined to agree with you. But this is just a nobody sending less-than-anonymous emails.
One thing that should tip you off that this story isn't right: He seems to be completely unaware of what he sent.
He knows exactly what he sent. The first thing his lawyer got was the email archives I'm sure, if he couldn't call them up himself. The prosecutor can keep the specific contents secret for now, but this guy knows what he wrote.
I see this time and time again, especially in the lefty media. The story is written by the defense attorney (essentially) and everybody goes into high dudgeon about loss of liberties.
Then the real story comes out and it's on the equivalent of page B29.
Jim Bunning is 78, is retiring from the Senate and doesn’t care about this case — either the original emails or the political blowback.
...maybe, he's wearing one of those
"Ankle-bracelet tracking devices" thingee.
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