An Important Question from Mississippi

On Sunday night, the Greenwood (Mississippi) Commonwealth newspaper's editorial asked, "Why isn't Peters facing prison, too?"

Ed Peters is the corrupt DA from Mississippi who we affectionately call the "Pied Piper." Pied Piper Peters plays a tune so wonderfully that he worked out a sweet immunity deal with disgraced and embattled U.S. Attorney Jim Greenlee of the Northern District of Mississippi. The immunity deal has been sealed tight and the U.S. Department of Justice won't provide details.

The Commonwealth correctly opines:

Why has Ed Peters, who was hired by [Richard] Scruggs and his friends to try to bribe [Judge Bobby] DeLaughter, gotten off so lightly? It was Peters who federal prosecutors say dangled the poisoned fruit -- a lifetime judicial appointment in exchange for a favorable ruling in a multimillion-dollar dispute over legal fees -- in front of DeLaughter. It was Peters who was the go-between, ferrying messages and documents between the judge and the Scruggs team. Yet, the former Hinds County district attorney has been able to skirt prosecution by turning on his onetime protegé. Peters’ only penalty, other than losing his law license, was giving back what was left of the $1 million the Scruggs team had paid him.

“I find it rather odd that the man who got $1 million is out fishing, and Bobby DeLaughter is going to prison,” [DeLaughter's lawyer] said. “At least in Chicago we chase the money.”

So have federal prosecutors in Mississippi, except when it comes to Peters. So far, six plaintiffs’ attorneys, three state judges and a former state auditor have drawn prison time in three judicial bribery cases -- some of them for misdeeds that were a lot less culpable than Peters’.

Why did he get such a sweet deal? That’s a question the feds have yet to answer.

Monstrous Mississippi Mistake

Breaking news: We recently wrote about the leaky U.S. Attorneys office in Northern Mississippi. Prosecutors were relying on the conflicting testimony of several convicted felons and the testimony of the Pied Piper Ed Peters, a corrupt DA who was given full immunity for pointing fingers, in an attempt to prosecute and convict a state judge named Bobby DeLaughter.

Tonight, it was announced that a plea was reached and DeLaughter will simply plead guilty to lying to the FBI. The other serious charges will be dropped.

Looks like the U.S. Attorney's Office finally figured out they made a monstrous, Mississippi mistake. These agents of the Rove Republican Racket gave Peters a free ride: 100-percent immunity in the DeLaughter bribery scandal and partial reimbursement of $1 million in proceeds from the same bribe.

After figuring out Peters was simply pointing fingers and that they truly had given Peters the keys to a "golden Cadillac," prosecutors cut a deal with DeLaughter and saved face.

Although we applaud these prosecutors for doing the right thing with DeLaughter, we only have harsh words for the deal they gave the Pied Piper Ed Peters: stupid, anserine, foolish, boneheaded, dumb, ridiculous, worthless, senseless.

Leaky Feds in Mississippi?

Last week's filing in the bribery case against Judge Bobby DeLaughter in Mississippi, an interesting footnote is found. DeLaughter's attorneys allude to irregularities and possible prosecutorial misconduct by remnants of the Rove-Bush-Cheney racket.

The brief states:

In addition, it has recently come to undersigned counsel’s attention based upon prejudicial articles published in the Jackson Clarion Ledger, that further irregularities may well have occurred in the conduct and supervision of the grand jury in this matter.

The footnote states:

These articles are: (1) an extremely misleading and inaccurate June 10, 2009, story regarding the existence of plea negotiations between Defendant and the government attorneys; (2) an ad hominem July 5, 2009 story regarding the fact that Judge DeLaughter remains suspended with pay that incorrectly suggests that this is the doing of Judge DeLaughter; and, (3) a July 9, 2009, article detailing a deposition transcript of Co-Schemer Timothy Balducci taken by the lawyers for the Frisby Corporation in the matter of Eaton orporation, et al., v. Jeffrey D. Frisby, et al., Civil Action No. 251-04-642-CIV, currently pending in the Hinds County Circuit Court.

This suggests that federal prosecutors or staffers from the U.S. Attorney's office have been leaking internal or circumstantial facts to manipulate the jury pool.

This kind of media manipulation caused a federal judge in Boston recently to grill prosecutors and demand detailed briefs on the "public relations" effort by the Boston U.S. attorney's office.

Is this slew of anti-DeLaughter media coverage part and parcel of a orchestrated media relations campaign from the good old boys in backwards Mississippi? Sho' looks like it.

Read the full brief here.

Time, Truth, and a Load of Bull

Talk about prosecutorial bull!

In a stunning admission, U.S. prosecutors in Mississippi filed a motion on Monday asking a U.S. District Court to prevent a judge from defending himself in a corruption case.

From today's Associated Press:

Mississippi Judge Bobby DeLaughter, facing federal corruption charges, has said his rulings followed the letter of the law. Federal prosecutors don't want a jury to hear that when his trial begins in August....Prosecutors asked a judge in a pretrial motion filed Monday to block DeLaughter from giving any testimony that his rulings followed the law, claiming it would take weeks during the trial.

So the prosecutors are worried about TIME? What they're really worried about is the whole TRUTH and nothing but the TRUTH!

The corruption case rests on the fact that prosecutors, part of the Rove Racket, allege that DeLaughter made corrupt and bias rulings because of a bribery scheme involving a former clerk. Now they won't let him argue that the rulings were sound.

Read the full article here.