Will he never go away (nassar trigger warning)

[Doug1233]

Just goofing up an investigation

It wasn’t though.

their conduct was either intentional

I thought it was.

 

[JaJa]

This is probably the most patronising thing I’ve heard you say!

sorry – truly. It was a bit patronizing. Should not have said it.

mea culpa mea culpa mea maxima culpa.

 

[JaJa]

Side question relating to a 90s X-Files plot point (!)…is there a harsher (written or in practice) penalty for murdering a federal employee?

That is a great question actually. Its interesting because while murder is in general a state crime and each state has its own laws and penalties, if you kill a federal judge or federal law enforcement agent or an elected or appointed federal official you will be charged with murder under federal law. First degree federal murder is life or the death penalty and 2d degree is up to life (could be less). Some states no longer have a death penalty (almost half) so in those states for sure the federal law is harsher. I honestly have no idea if the federal courts overall hand out harsher sentences generally when it comes to time. And I am sure it is quite different circuit to circuit (i.e. I would expect courts in the 9th circuit to be more lenient etc)

 

[JaJa]

I think there really was some confusion about jurisdiction. Does NOT excuse it. They clearly needed to figure those issues out and if they had jurisdiction they should have pursued it and if not refer it to either the FBI field office that did OR the state authorities if it was theirs.

 

[Doug1233]

But it wasn’t so much the inaction but the lying about it afterwards.

 

[JaJa]

But it wasn’t so much the inaction but the lying about it afterwards.

Right. But at that point they were lying to protect themselves. Not in the service of any crime. Trust me to
there is no prosecution to be had here. I’ll tell you what is a crime tho. This stupid new keyboard format they put on iPads all of a sudden.

 

[Doug1233]

at that point they were lying to protect themselves.

Which should be a crime in and of itself.

 

[RAFIKI]

Thanks very much. I always wondered because of the emphasis the actor playing Blevins put on his second line in the the exchange below. The murder took place in Virginia.

BLEVINS: I’m not at liberty to say. But unless you can offer up someone else who might have fired the kill shot, everything points to you as this man’s murderer. Are you prepared to give testimony about the man who fired the shot?
MULDER: Why am I here?
BLEVINS: The man worked for the Department of Defense, Agent Mulder.

Tangent resolved!

 

[KristyJ]

Surely the sexual abuse additional victims experienced in Michigan while the FBI acted slowly is considered more than simply “emotional distress?” I know that it did not physically injure them in any lasting way, but it seems that it should not be considered to be equal with simple distress.

We are definitely out of the two year window though.

 

[Doug1233]

Doug it depends on how much political pull and/or money you have whether you are prosecuted or convicted.

It shouldn’t.

 

[JaJa]

It shouldn’t.

And it really doesn’t

Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell are very good examples of that. So was Martha Stewart. Anthony Wiener. I could go on and on. Federal Prisons are filled with people who had lots of money and thought they had plenty of political pull. Its just a myth that only poor people get prosecuted. At the end of the day we really are a nation which lives by the rule of law. And that FBI agents do not always do a great job, that they bungle cases and drop the ball does not mean otherwise. Show me one human enterprise which is not filled with human error. But we all look pretty bad when put under a microscope and judged in retrospect.

 

[rlayt]

It has made a difference when the media doesn’t put the case under a microscope.

 

[rlayt]

REDACTED

I’d rather not have an entire OFF TOPIC argument again.

 

[JaJa]

What do campaign funding disclosure rules have to do with the claim that you don’t get criminally prosecuted if you are rich or connected?

 

[JaJa]

So I heard that a number of gymnasts have filed the administrative claim. I can not say more than that other than my guess is their lawyer is counting on the Feds not to have any stomach or heart for litigation at this point and will just want to settle before it gets to that stage. The FBI is under increasing pressure and scrutiny after that Sussman trial. But we shall see what happens.

 

[KristyJ]

I wonder if any of those gymnasts have written to their representative. While there is not necessarily any official connection there, I feel like pressure from Congress would help their case. But we’ll see where this goes. There are certainly enough things to take Congress’ attention right now.

 

[Doug1233]

Can they bring a private prosecution or are they barred from that?

Well they’re trying!

https://www.npr.org/2022/06/08/1103659247/simone-biles-gymnastics-fbi-lawsuit?fbclid=IwAR0ksIZSQWCMx43axGxcuVM8majzwCHZ-R-6hoYMpuGYSGhXcTgwSaWO9kY&mibextid=onnTyB&fs=e&s=cl

 

[JaJa]

This is not a private prosecution. This is what I wrote about before – Under the Federal Tort Claims Act, in order to file a civil lawsuit against the feds you first have to file this administrative claim. In other words it is just an initial step which has to be taken before filing a lawsuit. But its not a private prosecution, which as far as i know, does not exist under federal law.

 

[Doug1233]

before filing a lawsuit

I thought you said none of them could do this though. And no lawyer in their right mind would try?

 

[QuietColours]

Is this something that would be more likely to bring a lot of high visibility negative publicity to the situation than actual succeed in court?