This is a no-brainer in my opinion, but one that Preet himself did not do as a U.S. Attorney in New York. From his piece in the New York Times:
Prosecutors formally advised lawyers for former Vice President Mike Pence this past June that he would not be charged for retaining classified materials after leaving office. I expect that the special counsel Robert Hur will similarly soon announce that President Biden will not face charges for his own handling of classified documents. The merits of those determinations, no less than the one to indict Donald Trump for hoarding such documents in Mar-a-Lago’s bathrooms and ballrooms, are properly debated.
Criminal investigations into holders of high office invariably raise questions about equal treatment and equal justice under the law. Is there, people ask, a double standard?
Well, there is one species of double standard and special treatment that reveals an overlooked unfairness in our justice system: It is generally only the famous and the powerful who get the courtesy of closure, who get the benefit of formal notice that the case against them is over. In too many cases and for no good reason, people never know when they are out of jeopardy.
Outside of the most high-profile cases, a prosecutor’s decision to close an investigation remains a secret — from the public, the victim, and even the target of the inquiry.
For targets who have never appeared in the pages of this paper, that means there is no news conference at the Department of Justice or letter to their lawyers to dispel the cloud of uncertainty and fear that accompanies the threat of prosecution. There is only silence. Many involved in perpetuating this purgatory — including the prosecutors themselves, as I know from my time as the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York — understand it serves no real purpose. Yet routine nondisclosure continues unquestioned.
It can, and should, stop.
2 comments:
Bhahara outs himself as the self-interested climber he always has been. When he was US Attorney, he gave zero fucks for the rights of the accused, only his own public reputation and political aspirations. Now that his bills are being paid by the wealthy and powerful instead of the taxpayers, he's very concerned bout how people are treated. The only thing that remains is his contemptible self-righteousness.
Most US Attorney's are in it for the politics...as are those in their Executive staff... look at the Acosta bunch...they really screwed up the Epstein case...the only one with clean hands was the line prosecutor. Who has her career wrecked by greedy men!
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