Nothing to see here. Move along.
That is the message from the prosecutor in the Sam Bankman-Fried case, as he notified the judge that the government would not be pursuing a trial in the charges not adjudicated in SBF’s trial over defrauding customers.
What charges are affected? Maybe it really is no big deal since the prosecutor tells us that the judge has all the information he needs to sentence SBF to a nice long sentence.
The charges that are dropped relate to bribery of politicians and illegal campaign contributions.
Quelle surprise.
What is so infuriating about this is obvious: it’s not that SBF is getting off on these charges–how much time he spends in jail likely would not change much or at all; it’s that all those bribed politicians and the ones who got illegal campaign contributions will completely avoid the public scrutiny that a trial of SBF would have brought.
Dropping the charges is about protecting the Establishment, not SBF. SBF is a minor beneficiary of the scheme to protect the people in power.
This is how the system works these days. Equal justice for all has always been more an aspiration than a reality, but it was an important aspiration, and over the past couple hundred years, we have been inching toward the ideal, rooting out corruption and at least sometimes holding the powerful accountable.
These days the elite is no longer even trying to pretend that there is equal justice under the law.
We’ve seen this time and again. The FBI abuses its power and targets the politically inconvenient; the justice system prosecutes and imprisons conservatives while letting Leftist rioters off; prosecutors allow thugs to run riot in cities while inventing crimes with which to charge Donald Trump.
Massive fraudsters funnel money to politicians, and the prosecutor hides the ball, protecting the politicians.
Are we surprised? pic.twitter.com/7EMj12q2Oq
— Inverse Cramer (Not Jim Cramer) (@CramerTracker) December 30, 2023
The fig leaf being used to cover the prosecutor from criticism is that the Bahamas is objecting to the prosecution.
Of course, among the politicians bribed by SBF are Bahamians, so they are covering for themselves in objecting.
But PLEASE. Does anybody believe that if the US government really wanted to prosecute SBF, we couldn’t pressure the Bahamas to lift its objection? In the game of state power, money, and leverage, the US has at least a minor edge over the tiny Bahamas.
I’m just spitballing there, but it seems likely.
The contempt with which the Establishment holds us is stunning, but obviously, they are correct in their assessment that they will pay no price for spitting in our eyes.
Chances are good that most Americans have forgotten about SBF because, well, they have lives. The news being dropped between Christmas and New Year’s ensures that few will notice the small news stories about the event.
Now, if SBF had been the Republicans’ big donor and not the 2nd largest donor for the Democrats, the outcome would be different. If Trump’s Justice Department had swept the corruption under the rug, the MSM would be all over the story.
But as it is, they want the story to go away. They care more about keeping their cocktail party friends in power than doing the job of informing Americans about how their government works.
The MSM likes how the government works, so they don’t rock the boat.
Few Republicans will make a big issue of this–as if that would matter anyway–because SBF threw just enough money their way that they have to protect some vulnerable members.
The big losers will be the average American, who will lose just that much more power of their elected representatives and, in turn, lose a little more faith that America is a free country.