I published an article The Crimes and Punishments of Michael McLaughlin in CommonWealth Magazine the other day that I hope you will read. Here are some key points and additions to it.
One aspect of the case I find very troubling is that the Office of U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz traded a recommendation of no time or minimal time for McLaughlin because he is willing to offer evidence, apparently about illegal fund-raising practices involving Lieutenant Governor Tim Murray. That is pretty standard stuff for a prosecutor’s office, to trade a lighter sentence in exchange for a bigger fish. But here is my problem, as stated in The Crimes and Punishments of Michael McLaughlin:
When asked by US District Court Judge Douglas Woodlock what McLaughlin’s motive was, the assistant US attorney replied, “It was money.” Contrast the outcome here with what the late Aaron Swartz was facing from Ortiz’s office: six months in prison for making public academic papers. His motive was free access to information, not to score pelf. Apparently greed is good. Alas, Swartz had no pol to trade.
This is justice?
Another thing that makes me uneasy is that the U.S. Attorney’s Office seems focused on McLaughlin’s crime of illegal fund-raising practices and ignores his sin of diverting money meant for the poor and vulnerable tenants of Chelsea (Sister Margaret of the Angels, my first grade principal back at Blessed Sacrament School, would be proud to see me make this distinction). Isn’t stealing millions of taxpayer dollars intended for the poor worthy of prosecution and serious time? I’m ambivalent about this because money is the main reason our democracy is in such parlous condition. But the problem is a global one and not one any U.S. Attorney can influence in any meaningful manner. Anyway what you can do legally with fund-raising dwarfs anything you can do illegally.
Then there is the nagging concern that prosecutors are willing to trade quite a lot to get a pol or other high-profile person. That is how ambitious prosecutors get to move up – see Bill Weld, or Rudy Giuliani, or Eliot Switzer (hey, actually the last two prosecuted Wall St. figures – whatever happened to that?)
I’ve also recently posted about the value of the Tim Cahill prosecution by the Office of Attorney General Martha Coakley, which I would estimate as approximately zero (on the high side).
Years ago when I was a young attorney my firm represented a fellow named Bob who was a bag man for some local interests. Bob and a co-defendant were indicted for a scheme involving payments to public employees and we went to trial. Our client was old and he had only recently been released from prison in a similar case. He was stone cold guilty but the U.S. Attorney didn’t have a case against the co-defendant, so they came to Bob with a deal: give us the other guy and we’ll go light on you. Bob said ‘No, I can’t give you him; he didn’t do anything and didn’t understand what I was up to at all.’ The other fellow was found not guilty and Bob was found guilty, and back he went to federal prison.
I’ve always admired Bob for that. And I bet Tim Murray wishes he was dealing with Bob and not Michael McLaughlin.
