Monday, August 19, 2013

WILL FEDERAL MONEY LAUNDERING CONVICTIONS BE SET ASIDE, DUE TO UNDISCLOSED DEA USE OF NSA INFORMATION ?


It has already begin: attorneys for criminal defendants have started to file motions in court, seeking telephone records, obtained by the National Security Agency (NSA), and used in criminal investigations by the DEAs Special Operations Division. The information, which was not disclosed to defense attorneys in criminal cases, was required to be made available, as it could be exculpatory.

The landmark US Supreme Court case of Brady v. Maryland requires that any evidence that is material to either guilt or punishment must be disclosed. It has been asserted that the Drug Enforcement Administration concealed these telephone records, by falsely stating that it was discovered through alternative, or "parallel" sources, and even hid its origins from prosecutors and judges.

There are a substantial number of federal money laundering convictions in the United States, where the defendants are still incarcerated, serving long terms of imprisonment. Will the courts set aside some of those convictions, forcing the United States Attorneys who handled those matters to re-try the cases, and will the defendants be released, pending a new trial ? These are serious considerations, and one wonder who the Department of Justice will hold accountable for what could turn out to be a serious denial of justice. Someone at DEA, at the highest level, ordered this illegal policy. 

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