Neil Katyal is a Liberal Douche for Defending Alvin Bragg's Bullshit Prosecution
Luthmann's Previous Political Witch Hunt Doesn't Justify the Current Trump 'Show-Trial'
April 4, 2023. A day that will live in infamy, maybe for many reasons.
Luthmann woke up to a Google Alert with his name on it related to the bullshit, politically motivated Trump indictment. Evidently, some television “legal scholar” named Neil Katyal posted a commentary to the Daily Kos using People v. Luthmann to justify the Falsification of Business Records and charges that liberal hack Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg will arraign former US President Donald Trump on later today.
Let’s get one thing straight off the bat. Neil Katyal and his little lackey Norm Eisen are left-wing shitheads. These two clowns tried to use Luthmann’s case as a precedent as to why Trump’s case isn’t total bullshit. Here is what they said:
Norm Eisen, “We have a good sense of what the Trump defenses are because he has been ventilating them. One is that this case is somehow novel, that you never get a books and records case bootstrapped up into a felony because of campaign finance violations. Ryan Goodman, myself, and some of our colleagues looked, there are many of those cases it turns out in New York. There is the Richard Brega case, the Clarence Norman case, the John Doty (sp?) case, Richard Luthmann case, George Mazearas (sp?) case, these are all books and records cases where there were expenditures to benefit a campaign that were arguably outside the parameters, either the amounts or the disclosure rules, and that bumped up the false books and records into a felony, so they may try to say well, it’s novel, we’ve never seen a books and records case done for this, but it’s just not true.”
Joe Tacopina and his people, as well as anyone else that has to combat the bullshit that liberals will spew about why the Trump prosecution was legally justified, should pay attention.
So evidently, in the Luthmann case, there were “expenditures to benefit a campaign.” Wrong.
Actually, there were two bent campaigns that benefitted from Luthmann’s “Falsification of Business Records” by making satirical Facebook pages of NYC Candidates.
Ronald Castorina, Jr., former Staten Island GOP leader and now a sitting NYS Supreme Court Justice was Luthmann’s co-conspirator in the Fake Facebook page creation. Magically, the politically-connected Castorina wasn’t charged and wasn’t even investigated in The Swamp of the NYS Court System. All Castorina had to do to win over incompetent Special Prosecutor Eric Nelson and crooked District Attorney and Nancy Pelosi Hack Michael McMahon was to perjure himself at Luthmann’s grand jury so they could get an indictment to “Get Luthmann.”
Sound familiar? A crooked lawyer gets rewarded by the left for perjured testimony. Michael Cohen. Yep.
The other crooked campaign was that of NYC Councilwoman Kamillah Hanks.
Nothing tells the story like Kamillah Hanks’ Wikipedia page:
In March 2023, Kamillah Hanks, along with her live-in paramour Kevin Barry Love and her political campaign, were sued for over $86,000 in unpaid and unreported legal fees by Richard Luthmann, a former campaign lawyer.[12] Love vehemently denied the allegations, calling them an “outrageous vulgar lie,” and "missing from his lawsuit is not a single piece of evidence other then the rantings of a mentally ill man." [13] Luthmann produced evidence, including filed court documents in 2017 allowing Hanks' daughter, Nadia, to graduate from Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School.[14]
Hanks, like Castorina, knew all about Luthmann’s fake Facebook pages, even sending him pictures of her opponent, Debi Rose, to use for the social media hit job, ordering Luthmann to edit them. Now, NYC Mayor Eric Adams is all set to campaign with her in her upcoming re-election bid, one where the Republicans aren’t fielding an opponent.
Neither Castorina nor Hanks was prosecuted for the falsification of business records. Why? Because Falsification of Business Records in New York is a bullshit charge used by prosecutors in selective political prosecutions. It is a legal Rorschach test. Anything could be sold to a half-witless grand jury kept in the dark about the real story. New York prosecutors parade out perjurers and then produce their “true bill” of bullshit.
To be a felony in New York, Falsification of Business Records needs an underlying crime. In Luthmann’s case, it was “Primary Elections Violations.” That was code for a “First Amendment violation.” Luthmann was convicted of the crime of free speech, which is a capital crime when aimed at Democrats in New York.
You don’t believe that could happen in America? That a grand jury can be hoodwinked by a crooked prosecutor? This is what they did in Luthmann’s grand jury:
GRAND JUROR: Can you state what freedom of speech, what is -- the second amendment?
GRAND JURY FOREPERSON: First Amendment.
MR. NELSON: First Amendment
GRAND JUROR: Can you tell us what the whole thing --
MR. NELSON: I'm not going to give a course on freedom of speech.
GRAND JUROR: I can look it up though?
MR. NELSON: You could look it up in terms of what freedom of speech means, but not in the context of this case.
GRAND JUROR: No, just --
MR. NELSON: You have a right to go on the Internet and look at anything as long as it doesn't pertain to this particular case.
GRAND JUROR: Okay.
Luthmann’s prosecutor flat-out told the grand jurors that they were not going to hear about the First Amendment, in a case where the core activity criminalized was the creation of satirical social media pages for political campaigns. And this was all fine and good in the People’s Republic of New York.
The Rule of Law was dead in New York State long before the Trump indictment and show trial. New York law is clear:
A New York district attorney is required to instruct the grand jury on the law with respect to matters before it, N.Y. Crim. Proc. Law §190.25(6). If the district attorney fails to instruct the grand jury on a defense that would eliminate a needless or unfounded prosecution, the proceeding is defective, mandating dismissal of the indictment, N.Y. Crim. Proc. Law § 210.35(5). (People v Samuels, 12 AD3d 695, 696 [2d Dept 2004]).
This means if the felony Falsification of Business Records charge has an apparent defense, New York prosecutors are required to tell the grand jury about it, or else the indictment should be chucked out. And there were apparent defenses.
In Luthmann’s case, it was the First Amendment. If Luthmann was expressing satire and political speech, the felony conviction could not be sustained. The prosecutors were legally obligated to “give a course on free speech” if the grand jury wanted one.
In Trump’s case, it is the motivation for the Stormy Daniels payoff. If Trump had the payoff made for any other reason - he didn’t want his wife to know, he didn’t want it on the front page of the tabloids, or he didn’t want to run afoul of the morals clause in his contract with NBC’s Apprentice - the felony charge could not be properly sustained by the grand jury. And the prosecutors had to tell that to the grand jury but probably didn’t. That’s the law in New York:
“The prosecutor's discretion during Grand Jury proceedings is not absolute. As legal advisor to the Grand Jury, the prosecutor performs dual functions: that of public officer and that of advocate. The prosecutor is thus ‘charged with the duty not only to secure indictments but also to see that justice is done.’ (People v Lancaster, 69 N.Y.2d at 26; see also, People v Pelchat, 62 N.Y.2d at 105). With this potent authority, moreover, comes responsibility, including ‘the prosecutor's duty of fair dealing’ (People v Pelchat, 62 N.Y.2d at 104).”
The so-called Rule of Law in the NYS Courts is a line of pure bullshit. Luthmann knows. He dealt with those assholes for years.
Neil Katyal is correct in only one respect. The Luthmann prosecution bears relation to the Trump prosecution because it was THE BLUEPRINT.
If Alvin Bragg wants to conduct prosecutions like Stalin’s Soviet Union or Mao’s Red China, then he shouldn’t be surprised when New York’s leftist powers that be take him out back and give him two behind the ear once he’s outlived his usefulness. Once he’s gone to the great unknown, maybe Bragg can ask Lavrentiy Beria all about it, another man without a soul - a brutal killer and rapist. But then again, if Beria were still alive, the Democrat-controlled New York District Attorney’s Office would probably embrace him as one of their own.
So, will today live in infamy? We all know what will happen in Manhattan, where Trump will be arraigned before a Manhattan Judge.
Across the river, Brooklyn Judge Donald Leo will hear arguments from Luthmann to have his case thrown out. That a case larded with perjury, lies, dishonesty, and criminal activity by prosecutors and grand jury witnesses alike has been allowed to stand for five long years is the real travesty.
When did justice go missing in the New York State Courts?
Richard Luthmann is a writer, commentator, satirist, and investigative journalist with degrees from Columbia University and the University of Miami. Once a fixture in New York City and State politics, Luthmann is a recovering attorney who lives in Southwest Florida and a proud member of the National Writers Union.
Drop me a line if you are a victim of the “Swamp” of corrupt politicians, lawyers, judges, or courts. I write about criminal justice, courts, prisons, and reform.
"Nihil est incertius vulgo, nihil obscurius voluntate hominum, nihil fallacius ratione tota comitiorum.” (Nothing is more unpredictable than the mob, nothing more obscure than public opinion, nothing more deceptive than the whole political system.)
~ Marcus Tullius Cicero
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The news media is a critical check on the powerful, serving as a watchdog to hold elected officials and other public figures accountable for their actions. The media was first called the fourth estate in 1821 by Edmund Burke, who wanted to point out the power of the press. The press plays a crucial role in providing citizens with access to information about what is happening in government, as well as shining a light on corruption, abuse of power, and other forms of wrongdoing.
A lot of vitriol with nothing to back it up. But then GOP’ers seem to think bluster will equal out the illegal crap their party doles out on a daily basis.
My feelings on this commentary: 🥱🥱
More ranting.