Letters to the Editor
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Carol Lam Redux?
This has some chilling parallels to former AG Carol Lam's case against the San Diego City Councilmen who reportedly took bribes from a strip club owner. The FBI wiretapped Zucchett for several years, built a case, (one of the council members died before he went to trial), and the jury returned a guilty verdict. Then the judge threw out the case, calling the evidence prejudicial. Carol Lam promised to to retry the two, but then she was gone, and Zucchett won a counter suit. The case was never brought up again. While a city council member is generally considered small fish, Zucchett was deputy mayor, and the sitting mayor was under a cloud, and eventually resigned. Zucchett was replaced with a pro-business candidate. The mayors race turned in favor of the Republicans, after a local favorite actually won the election as a write in candidate but was disqualilfied on a technicality. The head of a local school district became state party chairman, (close friend of Grover Norquist).
What was the FBI doing wiretapping a guy for two years, gathering flimsy evidence that wouldn't hold up in court? Some think the strip club owners were turning tricks as part of a plea bargain, but that was never substantiated. There was no way to be sure if Lam was pursuing the council members on behalf of the FBI, or the other way around. Meanwhile Duke Cunningham was doing his thing. If this pattern holds don't be surprised if all these allegations turn out to be baseless, or at the very least useless in a court of law, but then perhaps exacting political change is the real motive here?