US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald and several of his assistants are under Congressional Investigation for allegedly manufacturing evidence and forcing witnesses to lie. One of the Assistants named in the Congressional investigation is Assistant US Attorney William Hogan who is prosecuting Hal Turner over an Editorial written last year.
One corrupt aspect of the Turner case that may interest Congress has to do with concealing of evidence by the government. A “blanket letter of declination” was issued by the New Jersey United States Attorney’s office which said the government would not prosecute Hal Turner for anything on his radio show or web site. Instead of honoring that letter, the US Attorney from Chicago circumvented the New Jersey US Attorney’s Office and brought a prosecution against Turner in Chicago. Even worse, when Turner’s defense lawyers found out that the Blanket Letter of Declination existed, they subpoenaed it, but the US Attorney from Chicago asked the court to CONCEAL that letter from the Jury!
Sadly, the court agreed to CONCEAL THE EVIDENCE, saying the letter was “attorney work product” and could not be used by Turner’s defense lawyers. This is yet another example of the deceitful tactics being employed by the US Attorney in Chicago in his politically-correct witch hunt against radio host and blogger Hal Turner.
Below, you can read about other shenanigans being undertaken by the US Attorney in Chicago which seem to prove that the entire office out there is little more than a den of vipers. Details below.
Original story located at: http://www.prnewschannel.com/absolutenm/templates/?z=4&a=1978
(PRNewsChannel) / Washington, D.C. / In an apparent expansion of a four-year
congressional investigation of United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois Patrick Fitzgerald's office, a U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee will call witnesses today to determine if the prosecutor's office manufactured evidence and forced witnesses to lie to obtain a 2003 conviction of a then prominent Chicago real estate developer and attorney.
After his trial and conviction, Peter Palivos, 51, presented the committee with evidence showing that prosecutors forced witnesses to lie against him or face charges themselves.
"They wanted to frame me to get me to become a witness against George Ryan, but I have nothing incriminating to say against the man," Palivos said in Oct. 2005 (http://cbs2chicago.com/topstories/Peter.Palivos.2.321955.html).
After hearing the evidence, which includes sworn affidavits from witnesses who say there were forced to lie about Mr. Palivos, three separate House Judiciary Subcommittees asked the U.S. Justice Department to investigate "possible prosecutorial misconduct" by Fitzgerald's office.
Though the investigation has apparently been ongoing for nearly four years, this is the first time it has become public.
The committee's investigation is seeking to discover the scope of wrongdoing involved after failing to get satisfactory replies from the U.S. Dept. of Justice, which committee members believe should have followed up on its discoveries.
WHO IS U.S. ATTORNEY PATRICK FITZGERALD?
Besides being the current United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, Fitzgerald is also a member of the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Special Counsel.
He was the federal prosecutor in charge of the investigation of the Valerie Plame affair, which led to the prosecution and conviction of Scooter Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff.
He has also been involved in high-profile cases, including former Ill. Gov. George Ryan and several aides to Chicago Mayor Richard Daley. His office is currently investigating an alleged plot to sell Barack Obama's vacated U.S. Senate seat to the highest bidder, which led to the arrest of Ill. Gov. Rod Blagojevich on December 9, 2008--one year ago yesterday--and to his impeachment a few months later.
Gov. Blagojevich has steadfastly proclaimed his innocence.
Antoin "Tony" Rezko, a former campaign contributor to President Obama, convicted in 2008 of fraud and bribery, wrote a letter to his sentencing judge saying Fitzgerald and his prosecutors were pressuring him to lie against then Sen. Barack Obama and Gov. Blagojevich when neither was involved in wrongdoing. (Rezko letter)
Blagojevich's former fundraiser, Chris Kelly, committed suicide after admitting to bribery in an unrelated case to obtain government contracts. Before his death, Kelly suggested he was being squeezed by Fitzgerald's office, suggesting that prosecutors were pressuring him to cooperate with their investigation of Blagojevich, which he refused to do.
SCOPE OF U.S. HOUSE JUDICIARY INVESTIGATION
The U.S. House Judiciary Committee, which has the oversight and authority to investigate the judiciary branch of the U.S. government, began examining the Palivos case nearly four years ago.
Palivos alleges that he was convicted on a concocted obstruction of justice charge after he refused to lie for prosecutors in their investigation of former Ill. Gov. George Ryan, who is serving time in federal prison on corruption charges.
Palivos says he was told by federal agent Thomas Heinzer that he would be 'framed with that crime' unless he cooperated in the office's investigation. When he did not, he was subsequently indicted and convicted.
"For my honesty I earned the wrath of U.S. Attorney Fitzgerald’s office. That office proceeded to create an obstruction of justice crime against me by bullying witnesses and defense attorneys and they even manufactured evidence. These prosecutorial misconduct methods succeeded in wrongfully indicting, convicting and imprisoning me."
Following Palivos' trial, witnesses gave the House Judiciary Committee sworn affidavits “stating that they were forced to lie and the prosecutors on the case engaged in misconduct” in his case, prompting the committee to expand its investigation.
The documents the committee received also contained evidence, which appeared to show federal prosecutors prepared a false affidavit, falsified interview statements, threatened a defense attorney with a trumped-up obstruction of justice charge if he filed a motion, suborned perjury and withheld exculpatory evidence that would have prevented the imprisonment of an innocent man--Mr. Palivos.
On March 30, 2009 the Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Courts and Competition Policy, U.S. Congressman Hank Johnson in a letter regarding Mr. Palivos' case, wrote, "It appears his case is a good example of prosecutorial misconduct." (Misconduct suspected)
On May 7, 2009 the House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers and Subcommittee Chairman Johnson wrote a joint letter to Attorney General Holder requesting a “fresh examination” of Mr. Palivos’ case and for the DOJ to produce six federal prosecutors and agents for interviews: Asst. U.S. Attorney Patrick Collins, Small Business Administration Agent Thomas Heinzer, AUSA William Hogan, AUSA Marsha McClellan, AUSA Pierre Talbert and former AUSA Eric Wilson.
The U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts and Competition hearing is scheduled for 1:00 PM in the Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2237 on Thursday, December 10, 2009.
House Judiciary's web site: http://judiciary.house.gov Phone: 202-225-3951.
TIMELINE:
October 23, 2007: Peter Palivos case mentioned by HJC Subcommittee as warranting "additional scrutiny and committee action." (Palivos case warrants action)
January 16, 2008: Letter to DOJ written by HJC Chairman John Conyers and Congressman Bobby Scott, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security. (Conyers to DOJ letter)
February 29, 2008: DOJ responds with letter to Chairman Conyers. (DOJ response)
March 30, 2009: HJC Subcommittee Chairman Hank Johnson concludes misconduct occurred in Palivos case. (Misconduct suspected)
May 7, 2009: HJC Chairmen Conyers and Johnson write letter to Attorney General Holder requesting a “fresh examination” of Mr. Palivos’ case. (Chairmen letter to Holder)
July 10, 2009: Assistant Attorney General Weich writes DOJ response with similar language from previous letters seemingly disregarding a ‘fresh examination’ of the case. (AAG Weich response)
Dec. 10, 2009: Hearing before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts and Competition. Chairman Johnson is expected to mention the Palivos case and Mr. Palivos and his wife, Vicky, will sit in the front row for the hearing. However, the hearing today is about judicial recusals, not prosecutorial misconduct or U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald.
Media Contacts:
Glenn Selig
PR firm: The Publicity Agency
Email: glenn@thepublicityagency.com
Phone: (813) 300-5454
Web: www.thepublicityagency.com
Justin Herndon
PR firm: The Publicity Agency
Email: justin@thepublicityagency.com
Phone: (813) 708-1220 x7778 or (813) 528-6815
Web: www.thepublicityagency.com
Patrick Flanary
PR firm: The Publicity Agency
Email: pflanary@seligmultimedia.com
Phone: (813) 708-1220 x7781
Web: www.thepublicityagency.com
Source: thepublicityagency.com
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Friday, April 9, 2010
New Lawyer Wins Bail Concessions for Turner
Brooklyn, NY – (http://family-of-hal-turner.blogspot.com) Changing lawyers has started out well for radio host and blogger Hal Turner. On Thursday, Turner’s new attorney won a significant easing of Bail restrictions that had been placed on Turner since his release from federal prison last October.
Upon posting $500,000 bail, Turner was confined to house arrest, forbidden from going back on the radio or the internet, unable to earn a living, prohibited from talking to the media and from speaking to anyone but his immediate family about his case. Turner suffered these draconian restrictions for five months despite the best efforts of his two attorneys.
When Turner’s second trial ended in a hung jury in early March, Turner announced he was releasing his attorneys so that “a new set of eyes” could take a look at his case, hopefully with better results.
At a Bail Hearing on Thursday, April 8, Turner’s new attorney, Peter Kirchheimer, convinced Judge Donald Walter that Turner should be able to leave his home and work. Judge Walter agreed – kind of.
After hearing government objections which included the government fear that Turner would “be able to express his views directly to people” Judge Walter modified Turner’s terms of release to permit him to leave his home for twelve (12) hours a day, 7 days a week to work. A nighttime curfew still applies.
The judge placed no geographic limitations on Turner, saying “I don’t care where he goes as long as he is back in his home by (a specified time.)”
Assistant US Attorney Diane MacArthur repeatedly argued that Turner was dangerous simply because the government said so, and told the judge “easing the restrictions this way is like having no restrictions at all.” MacArthur went on to tell the judge that the government “. . . . . doesn’t trust Mr. Turner. . . . .” and expressed concerns that Turner could “communicate his views about judges and other views, directly to people” without government control.
Political Prosecution
The argument was quite remarkable because it made clear the case against Turner is political in nature; the Obama administration sees Hal Turner as a threat to their socialistic goals. Turner proved to be the single most effective voice opposing the changes being forced upon America by the government.
At the height of his political effectiveness, Turner single-handedly stopped the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007 by publishing the names, home addresses and unlisted home telephone numbers of 63 US Senators who defied the American people by supporting Amnesty for illegal aliens. Turner released the list on his web site during his radio show just twelve hours before the final Senate vote.
Without staff at their homes to intercept (and ignore) constituent calls, Senators were swamped with calls and personal visits to their houses by voters. Twelve hours later, 18 of those Senators - who had supported the Bill just 3 days earlier - changed their votes, sending immigration reform down to crushing defeat.
THE FBI HELPED
What no one knew at the time was that for years prior, Hal Turner had been an Intelligence Operative for the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force. Although the official relationship with the FBI ended, the Bureau stayed n touch with Turner and it was the FBI that supplied the home addresses and unlisted home and cellular telephone numbers of those US Senators, to Turner!
The FBI knew from past experience that Turner was willing to publish home address info of government officials. More importantly, a sizeable portion of the FBI did not take kindly to Congress granting another Amnesty to millions of people who broke our laws to come to the United States. Moreover, many in the FBI were outraged that the Senate was ignoring the Will of the American People.
The morning before the final Senate vote, the FBI dropped off a computer USB memory stick to Turner’s home in North Bergen. The memory stick contained the names, home addresses in the home state and secondary addresses for Senators who also had homes around Washington, DC. It also contained the home telephone numbers, secondary home telephone numbers and private cellular telephone numbers of those Senators. Once Turner got the Memory Stick, he knew exactly what to do with it.
That night, during his radio show, Turner talked about the Immigration Reform Bill, outlined how the Senate was ignoring the Will of The People; ignoring literally millions of phone calls, faxes letters and e-mails. Turner then dropped an information-bomb-shell by publishing the private address info on his web site.
In twelve hours, the site got more than 1.4 MILLION unique visits, including over 1,400 visits from computers from “Senate.gov” the official US Senate servers at the US Capitol! It worked. A Tsunami of Constituents called and paid personal visits to the Senators throughout the night. The next morning, 18 of those 64 US Senators had been thoroughly reminded who they work for.
Despite fierce support by the leaders of both political parties in both houses of Congress, and despite support by then-president Bush, the Immigration Reform Bill went down to defeat. Hal Turner made very powerful enemies when he did this.
So devastatingly effective was Turner’s work that no less than the President of the National Council of La Raza, appeared on CNN’s “Lou Dobbs Tonight” and blamed Turner BY NAME, for “creating a wave of hate” which defeated the Immigration Reform Bill. A clip of that CNN Video appears below. They quote Hal at 1:53 into the video!
Lately, there’s been talk from the Obama regime about resurrecting Immigration Reform. With Hal Turner sidelined by court restrictions, they might think they can get Amnesty through this time. They should think again. We, the Family of Hal Turner, have the list of home addresses and we will publish that list again if the Congress dares to attempt to pass Amnesty for illegal Aliens again.
In the mean time, we’re pleased to announce that Hal’s new attorney is making progress and thankfully, Hal will be able to leave home and work. We’re not certain if he’ll go back to driving a truck, but whatever he does; at least he has won some freedom back.
BACKGROUND ON THE SITUATION
For those unfamiliar, last June, Hal Turner published an editorial which was critical of three federal Judges in Chicago. The Editorial accused the Judges of violating the Constitution of the United States by upholding a ban on handguns and also accused the judges of ignoring a recent US Supreme Court ruling which overturned Handgun bans.
The editorial went on to call the Judges “traitors” to the United States. Tyrants. It quoted Thomas Jefferson who said “The tree of Liberty must be replenished from time to time with the blood of tyrants and patriots.” It then said “Let me be the first to say this plainly, these judges deserve to be killed.”
The US Attorney in Chicago claims that saying the judges “deserve” to be killed is a threat to actually kill them. Hal Turner knows that saying someone “deserves” something is an opinion.
The US Attorney charged Hal Turner with “threatening to assault and murder three United States Judges.” Hal was held in federal prison, without bail, for 119 days. He was later released on $500,000 bail.
Hal went on trial on December 1 and the Jury voted 9 to 3 in favor of ACQUITTAL. A mistrial was declared and a second trial took place on March 1, 2010. That second Jury was also unable to reach a unanimous verdict so another mistrial was declared. A third trial was scheduled for April 12, but has now been rescheduled until August 9.
Legal costs and being jailed for four months severely impacted Hal and his family. Being held under house arrest for five more months once he got out on bail drove Hal into Bankruptcy. Such is the price for freedom of speech under the Obama regime.
Spread the word.
Upon posting $500,000 bail, Turner was confined to house arrest, forbidden from going back on the radio or the internet, unable to earn a living, prohibited from talking to the media and from speaking to anyone but his immediate family about his case. Turner suffered these draconian restrictions for five months despite the best efforts of his two attorneys.
When Turner’s second trial ended in a hung jury in early March, Turner announced he was releasing his attorneys so that “a new set of eyes” could take a look at his case, hopefully with better results.
At a Bail Hearing on Thursday, April 8, Turner’s new attorney, Peter Kirchheimer, convinced Judge Donald Walter that Turner should be able to leave his home and work. Judge Walter agreed – kind of.
After hearing government objections which included the government fear that Turner would “be able to express his views directly to people” Judge Walter modified Turner’s terms of release to permit him to leave his home for twelve (12) hours a day, 7 days a week to work. A nighttime curfew still applies.
The judge placed no geographic limitations on Turner, saying “I don’t care where he goes as long as he is back in his home by (a specified time.)”
Assistant US Attorney Diane MacArthur repeatedly argued that Turner was dangerous simply because the government said so, and told the judge “easing the restrictions this way is like having no restrictions at all.” MacArthur went on to tell the judge that the government “. . . . . doesn’t trust Mr. Turner. . . . .” and expressed concerns that Turner could “communicate his views about judges and other views, directly to people” without government control.
Political Prosecution
The argument was quite remarkable because it made clear the case against Turner is political in nature; the Obama administration sees Hal Turner as a threat to their socialistic goals. Turner proved to be the single most effective voice opposing the changes being forced upon America by the government.
At the height of his political effectiveness, Turner single-handedly stopped the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007 by publishing the names, home addresses and unlisted home telephone numbers of 63 US Senators who defied the American people by supporting Amnesty for illegal aliens. Turner released the list on his web site during his radio show just twelve hours before the final Senate vote.
Without staff at their homes to intercept (and ignore) constituent calls, Senators were swamped with calls and personal visits to their houses by voters. Twelve hours later, 18 of those Senators - who had supported the Bill just 3 days earlier - changed their votes, sending immigration reform down to crushing defeat.
THE FBI HELPED
What no one knew at the time was that for years prior, Hal Turner had been an Intelligence Operative for the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force. Although the official relationship with the FBI ended, the Bureau stayed n touch with Turner and it was the FBI that supplied the home addresses and unlisted home and cellular telephone numbers of those US Senators, to Turner!
The FBI knew from past experience that Turner was willing to publish home address info of government officials. More importantly, a sizeable portion of the FBI did not take kindly to Congress granting another Amnesty to millions of people who broke our laws to come to the United States. Moreover, many in the FBI were outraged that the Senate was ignoring the Will of the American People.
The morning before the final Senate vote, the FBI dropped off a computer USB memory stick to Turner’s home in North Bergen. The memory stick contained the names, home addresses in the home state and secondary addresses for Senators who also had homes around Washington, DC. It also contained the home telephone numbers, secondary home telephone numbers and private cellular telephone numbers of those Senators. Once Turner got the Memory Stick, he knew exactly what to do with it.
That night, during his radio show, Turner talked about the Immigration Reform Bill, outlined how the Senate was ignoring the Will of The People; ignoring literally millions of phone calls, faxes letters and e-mails. Turner then dropped an information-bomb-shell by publishing the private address info on his web site.
In twelve hours, the site got more than 1.4 MILLION unique visits, including over 1,400 visits from computers from “Senate.gov” the official US Senate servers at the US Capitol! It worked. A Tsunami of Constituents called and paid personal visits to the Senators throughout the night. The next morning, 18 of those 64 US Senators had been thoroughly reminded who they work for.
Despite fierce support by the leaders of both political parties in both houses of Congress, and despite support by then-president Bush, the Immigration Reform Bill went down to defeat. Hal Turner made very powerful enemies when he did this.
So devastatingly effective was Turner’s work that no less than the President of the National Council of La Raza, appeared on CNN’s “Lou Dobbs Tonight” and blamed Turner BY NAME, for “creating a wave of hate” which defeated the Immigration Reform Bill. A clip of that CNN Video appears below. They quote Hal at 1:53 into the video!
Lately, there’s been talk from the Obama regime about resurrecting Immigration Reform. With Hal Turner sidelined by court restrictions, they might think they can get Amnesty through this time. They should think again. We, the Family of Hal Turner, have the list of home addresses and we will publish that list again if the Congress dares to attempt to pass Amnesty for illegal Aliens again.
In the mean time, we’re pleased to announce that Hal’s new attorney is making progress and thankfully, Hal will be able to leave home and work. We’re not certain if he’ll go back to driving a truck, but whatever he does; at least he has won some freedom back.
BACKGROUND ON THE SITUATION
For those unfamiliar, last June, Hal Turner published an editorial which was critical of three federal Judges in Chicago. The Editorial accused the Judges of violating the Constitution of the United States by upholding a ban on handguns and also accused the judges of ignoring a recent US Supreme Court ruling which overturned Handgun bans.
The editorial went on to call the Judges “traitors” to the United States. Tyrants. It quoted Thomas Jefferson who said “The tree of Liberty must be replenished from time to time with the blood of tyrants and patriots.” It then said “Let me be the first to say this plainly, these judges deserve to be killed.”
The US Attorney in Chicago claims that saying the judges “deserve” to be killed is a threat to actually kill them. Hal Turner knows that saying someone “deserves” something is an opinion.
The US Attorney charged Hal Turner with “threatening to assault and murder three United States Judges.” Hal was held in federal prison, without bail, for 119 days. He was later released on $500,000 bail.
Hal went on trial on December 1 and the Jury voted 9 to 3 in favor of ACQUITTAL. A mistrial was declared and a second trial took place on March 1, 2010. That second Jury was also unable to reach a unanimous verdict so another mistrial was declared. A third trial was scheduled for April 12, but has now been rescheduled until August 9.
Legal costs and being jailed for four months severely impacted Hal and his family. Being held under house arrest for five more months once he got out on bail drove Hal into Bankruptcy. Such is the price for freedom of speech under the Obama regime.
Spread the word.
Friday, April 2, 2010
ROUND 3: Gov't to try Turner THIRD Time!
(http://family-of-hal-turner.blogspot.com) -- The United States Attorney's Office in Chicago has announced they will put radio show and blogger Hal Turner on trial for a THIRD Time. The latest trial date has been moved five months from April 12 to August 9 as reported by Tickle The Wire.com at: http://www.ticklethewire.com/2010/04/02/fed-prosecutors-plan-to-go-after-right-wing-radio-host-hal-turner-third-time-on-aug-9/
This announcement by the government violated a media "gag order" imposed by the trial Judge in the case. During the first trial, just before the hung jury was announced, Assistant US Attorney (AUSA) William R. Hogan specifically asked the court to remind the defense that no one involved in Turner's case was allowed to speak to the media. The court issued that reminder. When the jury came out and announced they were hung, that same AUSA, William Hogan, walked out of the courtroom and spoke to the New York Daily News which quoted him the next day!
Clearly the US Attorney's office doesn't care what the court wants because they know the Judge in the case won’t hold them accountable. If Hal Turner violated the court's order, he'd forfeit his bail and be thrown back in jail. The prosecution has now violated the court's order TWICE, with no consequence.
This fits a pattern of behavior which grows more troubling with each passing day.
CASE RIGGED?
During trial #1, both the government and the defense gave opening statements one after the other. Also during trial #1, during the government's case-in-chief, the defense was able to cross examine government witnesses about Hal Turner's role as a national security intelligence operative. Fair, right?
All that changed for trial #2. Just days prior to trial #2, Judge Donald Walter issued an order forbidding the defense from giving their opening statement until AFTER the government rested! In addition, the Judge forbid the defense from cross-examining government witnesses about Turner's role with the FBI unless the Defense also subpoenaed those same witnesses for the Defense case-in-chief. More stunning was Judge Walter's ruling that the defense could NOT present any evidence about Turner's role with the FBI unless Turner himself first took the witness stand! This forced Turner to take the stand despite the fact he was not required to do so in Trial #1.
If these benefits to the prosecution weren't good enough, Judge Walter ALLOWED the testimony of three federal judges; the very judges whose testimony he ruled as "irrelevant" in trial #1. In Trial #1, the prosecution made it a key part of their case that they did NOT have to prove Turner ever communicated with any of the Judge in order for the government to convict. In fact, Turner never communicated with any of the judges he criticized in the Editorial which caused his arrest.
Turner never made any phone calls to the judges, never sent any letters, faxes or e-mails to any of the judges and never paid them a personal visit. Turner merely commented in an online editorial that because the Judge violated the US Constitution and ignored a recent US Supreme Court ruling, they ". . . . . deserve to be killed."
The government claims that saying someone "deserves to be killed" is a threat to actually go kill them. Turner says that "deserve" is an opinion and is protected free speech.
In a stunning act of partiality toward the prosecution during trial #2, Judge Walter even went so far as to tell the Jury that he "has ruled Mr. Turner's remarks are NOT protected by the First Amendment." It was tantamount to instructing the jury that Turner was guilty!
In spite of all this case rigging, Jurors in Trial #2 were hung again and a second mistrial was declared.
Two separate and very different claims regarding the jury vote came out after trial #2. After the trial, two jurors from the case were seen in a nearby parking lot and they told Turner's family the vote was 10 to 2 in favor of acquittal. About two weeks later, the Judge in the case gave both sides a different vote tally, less favorable to Turner.
According to well placed sources, if the public were to add the number of jurors who voted for conviction in both trials, it still totals less than 12.
So despite the case rigging outlined above, Turner still didn't get convicted. This makes us wonder how much farther the case will be rigged for trial #3.
Hal Turner spent 119 days in federal prison without bail after he was arrested for his editorial twenty days after it first appeared on the internet. He was then released on $500,000 bail, but under house arrest, with electronic monitoring, forbidden to speak to the media or to anyone outside his immediate family about his case. He is also forbidden from using the internet.
As of today, the United States government has jailed, prosecuted and twice put on trial Hal Turner for nothing more than an editorial opinion. The draconian restrictions placed on Turner forced him into Bankruptcy and deprived him of his civil rights for more than 9 months. Today, we find out Hal must endure such cruel treatment for another 5 months until his third trial on August 9.
Tell us again how the United States is the “land of the free?” Tell us again how we enjoy “freedom of speech?” It’s all a fraud.
This announcement by the government violated a media "gag order" imposed by the trial Judge in the case. During the first trial, just before the hung jury was announced, Assistant US Attorney (AUSA) William R. Hogan specifically asked the court to remind the defense that no one involved in Turner's case was allowed to speak to the media. The court issued that reminder. When the jury came out and announced they were hung, that same AUSA, William Hogan, walked out of the courtroom and spoke to the New York Daily News which quoted him the next day!
Clearly the US Attorney's office doesn't care what the court wants because they know the Judge in the case won’t hold them accountable. If Hal Turner violated the court's order, he'd forfeit his bail and be thrown back in jail. The prosecution has now violated the court's order TWICE, with no consequence.
This fits a pattern of behavior which grows more troubling with each passing day.
CASE RIGGED?
During trial #1, both the government and the defense gave opening statements one after the other. Also during trial #1, during the government's case-in-chief, the defense was able to cross examine government witnesses about Hal Turner's role as a national security intelligence operative. Fair, right?
All that changed for trial #2. Just days prior to trial #2, Judge Donald Walter issued an order forbidding the defense from giving their opening statement until AFTER the government rested! In addition, the Judge forbid the defense from cross-examining government witnesses about Turner's role with the FBI unless the Defense also subpoenaed those same witnesses for the Defense case-in-chief. More stunning was Judge Walter's ruling that the defense could NOT present any evidence about Turner's role with the FBI unless Turner himself first took the witness stand! This forced Turner to take the stand despite the fact he was not required to do so in Trial #1.
If these benefits to the prosecution weren't good enough, Judge Walter ALLOWED the testimony of three federal judges; the very judges whose testimony he ruled as "irrelevant" in trial #1. In Trial #1, the prosecution made it a key part of their case that they did NOT have to prove Turner ever communicated with any of the Judge in order for the government to convict. In fact, Turner never communicated with any of the judges he criticized in the Editorial which caused his arrest.
Turner never made any phone calls to the judges, never sent any letters, faxes or e-mails to any of the judges and never paid them a personal visit. Turner merely commented in an online editorial that because the Judge violated the US Constitution and ignored a recent US Supreme Court ruling, they ". . . . . deserve to be killed."
The government claims that saying someone "deserves to be killed" is a threat to actually go kill them. Turner says that "deserve" is an opinion and is protected free speech.
In a stunning act of partiality toward the prosecution during trial #2, Judge Walter even went so far as to tell the Jury that he "has ruled Mr. Turner's remarks are NOT protected by the First Amendment." It was tantamount to instructing the jury that Turner was guilty!
In spite of all this case rigging, Jurors in Trial #2 were hung again and a second mistrial was declared.
Two separate and very different claims regarding the jury vote came out after trial #2. After the trial, two jurors from the case were seen in a nearby parking lot and they told Turner's family the vote was 10 to 2 in favor of acquittal. About two weeks later, the Judge in the case gave both sides a different vote tally, less favorable to Turner.
According to well placed sources, if the public were to add the number of jurors who voted for conviction in both trials, it still totals less than 12.
So despite the case rigging outlined above, Turner still didn't get convicted. This makes us wonder how much farther the case will be rigged for trial #3.
Hal Turner spent 119 days in federal prison without bail after he was arrested for his editorial twenty days after it first appeared on the internet. He was then released on $500,000 bail, but under house arrest, with electronic monitoring, forbidden to speak to the media or to anyone outside his immediate family about his case. He is also forbidden from using the internet.
As of today, the United States government has jailed, prosecuted and twice put on trial Hal Turner for nothing more than an editorial opinion. The draconian restrictions placed on Turner forced him into Bankruptcy and deprived him of his civil rights for more than 9 months. Today, we find out Hal must endure such cruel treatment for another 5 months until his third trial on August 9.
Tell us again how the United States is the “land of the free?” Tell us again how we enjoy “freedom of speech?” It’s all a fraud.
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