{"id":2678,"date":"2019-12-05T20:54:36","date_gmt":"2019-12-06T02:54:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.orderofephors.com\/?p=2678"},"modified":"2019-12-05T20:54:37","modified_gmt":"2019-12-06T02:54:37","slug":"the-failure-of-american-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.orderofephors.com\/?p=2678","title":{"rendered":"The Failure of American Justice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On Wednesday, October 23, two clients of Donald\nTrump<\/a>‘s\npersonal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, pleaded not guilty to federal campaign\nfinance crimes during an appearance in Manhattan federal court.  The two men, Russian-born Lev Parnas and Igor\nFruman, were released on $1 million bonds and subjected to house arrest at\ntheir homes in Florida.  According to an ABC\nNews<\/em> report, the indictments outline a “foreign national donor scheme”\nalleging the men conspired to circumvent federal election law by funneling\nforeign money to candidates in U.S. elections.  The indictments detail how the defendants\nallegedly funneled $1-2 million\u2019 from a Russian\ndonor into the U.S. political system between June 2018 and April 2019.
\n
\nThe two men face charges\nincluding conspiracy to commit campaign finance fraud, making false statements\nto the Federal Election Commission (FEC), and falsification of records.  ABC News<\/em> reports that  the defendants have \u201cin recent weeks become\nkey figures in the congressional impeachment inquiry against the president,\u201d\nsuggesting that they \u201cplayed a significant role in assisting the president\u2019s\npersonal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, in digging up dirt on former Vice President\nJoe Biden and his family.  It is also\nalleged that Parnas and Fruman\nmade a series of illegal contributions that included a $325,000 donation to the\npro-Trump super PAC America First Action, and that the two violated the law by\nfalsely reporting the source of those funds. \n <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nindictments cause us to once again deplore the existence of a double standard\nin U.S. law enforcement under which Republican-linked wrongdoing is thoroughly\ninvestigated and severely punished, while the same violations, linked to\nDemocrats, are ignored, excused, and covered up.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example,\nin July 2008, Barack Obamaboasted\nthat, as of May 31, that year, his contributor base numbered some 1.5 million\npeople, with one-fourth, or $66.25 million of his $265 million, coming from\nthose contributing $2,000-2,300\u2026 some 33,200 people.  Thus, the remainder, or $198.75 million, came\nfrom some 1.47 million people, each contributing $5, $10, $20\u2026 or, as Obama\nassured us, \u201cwhatever they could afford.\u201d    \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it is\ntrue that Obama is the kind of guy who could read Bill Clinton\u2019s golf scorecard\noff a teleprompter and make it sound convincing, simple arithmetic should have\ntold him that $198.75 million cannot be contributed by 1.47 million people in\n\u201c$5, $10, or $20\u201d amounts.  Each of those\n1.47 million people would have had to contribute, on average, $135 to create a\npool of $198.75 million\u2026 and that simply does not happen.  It has never happened before in American\npolitics and it did not happen during the 2008 presidential campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But then, in\nOctober 2008, the Obama campaign compounded their error.  They reported that their contributor base had\nincreased from 300 1.5 million to 2.5 million people, and that the total amount\nraised approached $600 million.  If we\ncan assume that 25% of their contributions still came from individuals giving\n$2,000-2,300, that base had grown from 33,200 individuals to 65,000 in a time\nspan of just three months, and the number of individuals contributing modest\namounts\u2026 \u201c$5, $10, $20, or whatever they could afford\u201d\u2026 had grown from 1.47\nmillion to 2.43 million people, each contributing, on average, $185.  Anyone who believes that bold-faced lie will\nbelieve almost anything.  So how did they\ndo it?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a July 25,\n2008, column we pointed out that UBS Americas, headed by Robert Wolf\u2026 along\nwith George Soros, one of Obama\u2019s top two bundlers\u2026 had been accused of highly\nunethical and illegal banking practices in six months of hearings by the Senate\nPermanent Subcommittee on Investigations. \nAccording to an article in The\nNation<\/em>, UBS Americas, a subsidiary of UBS, of Zurich, Switzerland, had\nadvised wealthy Americans, including many of our worst villains, how to shelter\nfunds from the IRS, as well as from prosecutors, creditors, disgruntled\nbusiness associates, family members, and others.     <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a Statement of Facts in the criminal trial of former UBS executive\nBradley Birkenfeld, it was alleged that UBS took extraordinary steps to help\nAmerican clients manage their Swiss accounts without alerting federal\nauthorities.   For example, UBS advised\nAmerican clients to avoid detection by using Swiss credit cards to withdraw\nfunds, to destroy all offshore banking records, and to misrepresent the funds received\nfrom their Swiss accounts as loans<\/em>\nfrom the Swiss bank.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was the perfect instrument for funneling illegal campaign contributions\ninto the coffers of an unscrupulous American politician.  Putting two and two together, I surmised that\na very wealthy individual, or cartel, wishing to influence the election of the president\nof the United States, could transfer unlimited sums of money through this\ndevice.  A U.S. recipient, such as the\nObama campaign, could receive hundreds of thousands of individual contributions\nvia Swiss credit card transfers, with fictitious donors\u2026 contributors \u201cborrowed\u201d\nfrom the campaign\u2019s list of $10 and $20 contributors\u2026 being entered on FEC\nreporting forms by teams of paid staffers working in a \u201cboiler room\u201d\nsetting.  The owners of the Swiss\naccounts would receive periodic statements indicating: a) debits of varying\namounts, up to $2,300 each, and b) offsetting credits provided by the cartel,\nor by the wealthy, but unnamed, \u201cinternational financier.\u201d    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For most of the super wealthy, especially those attempting to hide income\nand assets from U.S. authorities, an unexplained debit and credit of $2,300, or\nless, would not even raise an eyebrow. \nSo, who would ever know the source of such contributions?  No one. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But then, in an October 20, 2008, Newsmax<\/em>\narticle by Kenneth Timmerman, an article following up on suppositions contained\nin my July 2008 column, provided details from FEC records that gave substantial\nweight to my theory.  In studying Obama\u2019s\nFEC filings, Newsmax<\/em> found more than\n2,000 donors who had given substantially more than their $4,600 limit ($2,300\nin the primaries and $2,300 in the General Election).  The law requires that such excess\ncontributions must be returned to the donor within 60 days of the donor going\nover his\/her limit.  However, many of the\ndonors contacted by Newsmax<\/em> said that\nthey had not been contacted by the Obama campaign, nor had they received\nrefunds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But those were relatively minor infractions compared to 66,383 highly\nsuspicious contributions, from 37,265 donors, whose contributions were not\nrounded to even dollar amounts. For example, Timmerman found that an insurance\nagent in Burr Ridge, Illinois, gave a total of $8,724.26.  He gave in odd amounts such as $188.67;\n$1,542.06; $876.09; $388.67; $282.20; $195.66; $118.15; and one of $2,300.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A self-employed Los Angeles caregiver made 36 separate contributions\ntotaling $7,051.12.  An astonishing\nnumber of contributions.  Thirteen of her\ncontributions were later refunded. \nHowever, in an odd coincidence those 13 refunds, in amounts such as\n$233.88 and $201.44, came to an even $2,300, the maximum amount then allowable\nin any one election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One contributor interviewed by Newsmax<\/em>,\na retired schoolteacher from Rockledge, Florida, was reported to have given\n$13,800\u2026 $9,200 over his limit.  However,\nthe donor did not remember giving that much money to Obama, nor had anyone from\nthe campaign ever contacted him about a refund. \nOf the 66,383 who contributed in odd amounts, 44,410 were in unrounded\namounts of less than $100; 15,269 contributions were in unrounded amounts of\nbetween $101 and $999; and 704 contributions were in odd amounts greater than\n$1,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lest anyone suspect that these 37,265 donors either emptied their piggy\nbanks or emptied their pockets and purses periodically and just sent it all to\nObama, pennies and all, allow me to suggest something a tiny bit more\nMachiavellian.  Those 66,383\ncontributions are the proceeds of foreign currency conversions, smuggled into\nthe country through foreign credit card receipts, and converted to U.S.\ndollars.  According to a Newsmax<\/em> analysis, the Obama campaign\nfinance reports contain some 370,500 unique names\u2026 a far cry from the 2.5\nmillion contributor base claimed by the campaign.  Of course, when your money is coming in large\nchunks from offshore accounts, such as hundreds of thousands of dollars at a\ntime from the Middle East and from Third World African countries, then\nlaundered through UBS accounts in Zurich, it takes a bit of creativity to put\nauthentic-sounding names on all of it for the FEC records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How massive was their crime?  Since\nthe Obama campaign refused to disclose their complete contributor list (they\ncontinue to hide the identities of some 2 million donors).  Newsmax<\/em>\nestimated that \u201cObama was financing his presidential campaign with anywhere\nfrom $13 million to a whopping $63 million from overseas credit cards or\nforeign currency purchases.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On January 20, 2009, we inaugurated a man who should have been impeached\nbefore his wife had a chance to measure the White House for new draperies.  But that\u2019s not what happened.  Instead, official Washington gave our first\nblack president a wink and a nod and then looked the other way.  So, can Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, and\nGiuliani\u2019s Russian clients expect the same kid glove treatment from the U.S.\njustice system\u2026 even though it is highly unlikely that Trump had anything at\nall to do with the illegal contribution made by Giuliani\u2019s clients?  Not a chance! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Realizing what has happened to General Michael Flynn, Dinesh D\u2019Souza, Paul Manafort, and Roger Stone\u2026 the latter two destined to spend the rest of their lives behind bars for relatively minor offenses\u2026 their chances do not appear to be good.\u00a0 They simply had the misfortune to put their faith in the American system of justice and then to serve openly as members of the Republican Party. \u00a0

If our constitutional republic is to be saved, our first imperative is to reelect Donald Trump to a second four-year term in 2020, during which he will be in a position to create a strong 7-2 or 6-3\u00a0 conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court, while adding\u00a0 hundreds of like-minded judges to our district and appellate courts.\u00a0 We have no alternative.\u00a0 We must deliver a landslide victory in 2020.\u00a0 The only long-term alternative is political, economic, and geographic bifurcation.\u00a0 We damn sure can\u2019t live with Democrats any longer, but I\u2019d sure like to try living without them.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul R. Hollrah is a retired\ngovernment relations executive and a two-time member of the U.S. Electoral\nCollege.  He currently lives and writes\namong the hills and lakes of northeast Oklahoma\u2019s Green Country.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Wednesday, October 23, two clients of Donald Trump‘s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, pleaded not guilty to federal campaign finance crimes during an appearance in Manhattan federal court.  The two men, Russian-born Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, were released on … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orderofephors.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2678"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orderofephors.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orderofephors.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orderofephors.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orderofephors.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2678"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.orderofephors.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2679,"href":"https:\/\/www.orderofephors.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2678\/revisions\/2679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orderofephors.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orderofephors.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orderofephors.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}