Sam Alito and Clarence Thomas have proven SCOTUS is a sewer of corruption, so what does that say about lower courts? They are worse than you can imagine

Sam Alito (right) with a fishing guide

 

Every conservative justice on the U.S. Supreme Court is involved in a scandal of recent vintage, according to a report at The New Republic (TNR). Such a state of affairs does not seem to surprise longtime Alabama attorney Donald Watkins, who has almost 50 years of legal practice under his belt. In fact, Watkins writes in an item yesterday (6/25/23) at his Facebook page that he has seen judicial corruption up close for years, and he plans to write an article that explains how crookedness has become entrenched in America's judiciary, and why many prosecutors have taken a hands-off approach to wayward judges -- even though the problem is getting worse, not better.

That raises this question: If the nation's highest court is a cesspool of corruption, how bad are America's lower courts? Our answer -- based on personal experience or from reporting on the experiences of other litigants -- is that our courts at all levels (state, federal, trial, appellate) are bad, very bad. Best we can tell, they all need to be fumigated.

So, what is an American -- likely raised to believe judges are honorable, and courts are citadels of justice -- to do or think? 

We don't know of an easy, or re-assuring, answer to that question, but we do know this: Neither the TNR report nor the Watkins Facebook post surprise us here at Legal Schnauzer. When it comes to the deplorable state of America's "justice system," the scales fell from our eyes years ago. When we started this blog in June 2007, the first post was about blatant judicial corruption we had experienced firsthand in the judicial hellhole of Shelby County, AL, just south of Birmingham. Our blog recently passed its 16th anniversary, and our impression of America's courts has only gotten worse.

In fact, Mrs. Schnauzer and I currently are engaged in a federal case in the Western District of Missouri that is emitting the familiar foul odor of corruption. To be charitable (for now), we will say the court has issued a number of "peculiar" rulings -- and by peculiar, we mean rulings that appear to fall well outside the facts and law that are supposed to govern the case.

We recently uncovered evidence that Judge M. Douglas Harpool never should have taken the case because he was disqualified from the outset -- and he proceeded to issue rulings in favor of the party at the heart of the grounds for his disqualification. If we are on target about that, and I'm quite sure that we are, it means all of his rulings in the case -- many of which, surprise, surprise, have gone against us -- are due to be vacated as void. (See Liljeberg v. Health Services Acquisition Corp, 486 US 847 - Supreme Court, 1988).

Were not talking about a run-of-the mill case here. It involves serious constitutional issues of civil rights, invoking the First, Fourth, Sixth, Eighth, and 14th Amendments. It involves a serious personal injury, requiring more than eight hours of trauma surgery, and countless hours of physical therapy, for repair. (Medical records indicate the primary plaintiff's life likely was in danger during a complex surgical procedure, which left plaintiff with a hospital bill of more than $80,000. Even with apparently top-notch care, plaintiff is looking at a best-case scenario where she will lose up to 25 percent use of a limb, not counting possible future complications. Despite all of that, we see signs that the plaintiff is, to put it bluntly, being screwed. (More about this case, and related issues, is coming in upcoming posts.)

How did our courts get so rotten? Let's start with insight from TNR, which presents evidence the rot starts at the top, with the nation's highest court. From a TNR newsletter, which notes that the magazine plans to enhance its coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court. Writes CEO and publisher Michael Caruso:

[Recent] shocking revelations about Justices Samuel Alito and Amy Coney Barrett mean that every single sitting conservative justice is now tainted by a financial scandal. 

 

At this point, their collective lack of transparency and stubborn refusal to adopt a real code of ethics are just a blatant middle finger to ordinary Americans.

 

Three justices—Barrett and Justices Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas—are involved in previously undisclosed real-estate scandals, selling properties to people who have had business before the court. Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s ascension to the court came after the dark-money group Judicial Crisis Network spent $10 million backing his nomination. Thomas is in a league of his own, scandal-wise, with more than two decades of financial ties to billionaire and Nazi-memorabilia collector Harlan Crow, who has had business before the court. 

 

John Roberts, whose role as chief justice makes him the only member who can force transparency on the Supreme Court, has flat-out refused to do so. Could that be because he is also involved? Roberts oversaw cases involving multiple law firms that paid his wife for consulting services—to the tune of more than $10 million. 

 

The conservative court has made a practice of cozying up to Republican donors and right-wing corporate interests, handing down rulings that have wreaked havoc on middle-class and working-class Americans, while sweeping these obvious conflicts of interests under the rug. 

 

We believe, along with historic Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, that “sunlight is the best disinfectant.” The New Republic’s newly launched Supreme Court Watch is an important part of our mission to shine a spotlight on corruption and attempts to subvert democracy, and we are laser-focused on this month’s revelations and controversial opinions. 

Donald Watkins has witnessed judicial sleaze from a front-row seat as a longtime attorney, and his recent Facebook post shows just how ugly and deep the sewage can get:

This ProPublica article on U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito exposes another story on how the super-rich bribe Supreme Court justices. This article is about Justice Samuel Alito, who is Clarence Thomas' ideological twin in more ways than you can imagine. You should read the article.

 

The Supreme Court votes of Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito can be bought all day long with free and unreported trips on private jets and luxury vacations at exotic ports of call. As far as these justices are concerned, "justice" in the Supreme Court can be fairly administered in your favor, if you reward them for a favorable outcome with free trips, luxury vacations, and other acts of personal hospitality. Their so-called "judicial philosophy" merely serves as a pretext and cover for their selfish acts of bribery.

 

Political "whoring" within the ranks of federal and state judges has been around for a long-time. All judges know about it. Most judges tolerate it by looking the other way and pretending that it does not exist. I was first exposed to this "whoring" in the 1970s. The scheme at that time, which excluded black attorneys and judges in Alabama, involved the practice of allowing the state and federal judges to win large sums of money from lawyers with cases pending before them in illegal poker games at local country clubs. The luxury hunting and fishing trips and vacations emerged as a form of bribery during the 1990s and still occurs regularly in Alabama.

 

Unannounced "scholarships," consulting contracts, and other massive financial perks for the children and relatives of judges came into vogue in the 2000s.

 

The list of acts for bribing federal and state judges is as long as your imagination.

 

No acts of bribery shock me anymore. "Whoring" among federal and state judges is growing, not diminishing.

 

The federal government used to prosecute crooked federal judges, but they stopped that practice years ago. I will explain why in an upcoming article.

The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg News look the other way as deadly nuclear disaster looms at Southern Company's troubled Plant Vogtle in East Georgia

Waynesbogo, GA

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has notified Atlanta-based Southern Company, the nation's second largest utility, of two willful violations of NRC procedures for nuclear power Unit 3 at the Vogtle Electric Generating Plant near Waynesboro, GA, according to a report today at DonaldWatkins.com.

Unit 3 is "99 percent likely" to have a Level 7 nuclear disaster within 90 days after it becomes fully operational. The unit currently is set to go online in July, and a Level 7 disaster would cause widespread loss of human and animal life, plus property damage, within a 40-mile radius of the Vogtle site in East Georgia. It would be the deadliest nuclear disaster in U.S. history.

Watkins, a longtime Alabama attorney and civil-rights advocate, has become a leading voice in online journalism about the racketeering and accounting-fraud scandals, plus construction delays and cost overruns, that have wracked Southern Company for years. Under the headline "Southern Company Willfully Falsified Test Results at Vogtle Unit 3," Watkins writes:

On June 20, 2023, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) notified Southern Nuclear Operating Company about two willful violations of the Commission’s “Instructions, Procedures, and Drawings” for nuclear power Unit 3 at the Southern Company’s Vogtle Electric Generating Plant.

In its letter to Southern Nuclear, the NRC found the following two violations:

“[A] former test engineer employed by a contractor of Southern Nuclear Operating Company (SNC) . . . . deliberately falsified completion of a required step associated with hot functional testing (HFT) procedures at Vogtle Unit 3. The first [violation] involved the failure to obtain ambient temperature pressurizer shim gap measurements and record the values on the appropriate data table in accordance with the procedure, placing SNC in violation of Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) Part 50 Appendix B, Criterion V, ‘Instructions, Procedures, and Drawings.’ The second [violation] involved the failure to maintain complete and accurate information in accordance with 10 CFR 52.6, ‘Completeness and Accuracy of Information,’ when the contract test engineer signed off a procedure step confirming the pressurizer shim gap measurements had been taken, when in fact they had not.”

Southern Nuclear, an affiliate of the Southern Company and the designated “operator” of Units 3 and 4 at Vogtle, admitted that the two violations occurred.

These two violations, which occurred in 2021, had “no actual consequences and the potential safety significance was very low” only because the “issues were identified during HFT with no fuel loaded into the reactor core.” (Emphasis added)

Today, Unit 3 is still riddled with design and engineering flaws, as well as shoddy workmanship. Unlike the testing in 2021, there is now fuel loaded into the reactor core.

Given Unit 3's troubled history, plus this latest information, should anyone be confident the Vogtle facility is safe? The answer is no. A whistleblower warned Southern Company officials about poor design and workmanship at the firm's coal-gasification facility in Kemper, MS. For his trouble, he was sued and then fired, writes Watkins:

In 2012, a whistleblower named Brett Wingo alleged that the Southern Company’s Kemper, Mississippi coal-gasification plant construction project was mismanaged and that the company fraudulently concealed cost overruns and misled investors about project delays.

Although engineers told management in February 2014 that the company should not promise completion of the Kemper construction project by the year’s end, the Southern Company ignored that advice. The engineers were told by plant managers to present an optimistic picture to avoid a financial calamity.

The Southern Company sued Wingo on February 19, 2015, to stop him from talking about the concealed cost overruns and project delays.

Wingo was subsequently fired when he would not keep quiet about the Southern Company’s mismanagement of the Kemper project.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration subsequently ruled that Wingo's firing was illegal. The agency stated that Wingo should be rehired and paid back wages and benefits.

Wingo was offered $975,000 by the company to keep quiet, but he did not stop talking.

In August 2017, Wingo filed a whistleblower-retaliation lawsuit against the Southern Company stating that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's order to reinstate him was being ignored. Wingo also claimed he had reported safety concerns and unrealistic construction schedules internally, but he was warned that he was “digging a hole for his career and not to become a martyr.”

Wingo raised his concerns with Southern Company executives as high as former CEO Tom Fanning. He also reported them to PricewaterhouseCoopers, which was managing the project before Wingo was fired.

The Southern Company mistreated Brett Wingo and made his life miserable. This mistreatment was meant to deter employee whistle-blowing activities.

Why was Wingo concerned? Watkins explains:

The $3.5-billion Kemper plant was more than $4 billion over budget and well behind schedule. The equipment failed to capture the promised amount of carbon dioxide and keep it out of the atmosphere.

In the end, Thomas Fanning conceded that ending the coal-gasification operations at the Kemper plant was in the best interest of all parties involved.

In 2021, the demolition of the Kemper coal-gasification plant commenced. In all, the Southern Company wasted nearly $8 billion on this failed power plant.

The abusive treatment of Brett Wingo has not kept other company insiders from getting information out to the public, writes Watkins:

After the Southern Company's crucifixion of Brett Wingo, whistleblowers at the company began sending their internal information about the outdated design plans and specifications, structural engineering flaws, shoddy workmanship, inadequate inspections, and falsified documents relating to the construction of Vogtle Units 3 and 4 and testing failures to independent journalists in the region.

Kevin B. Forbes, who serves as the chief executive officer of CDLU, Roger Shuler, who is the owner and publisher of Legal Schnauzer, David Meckley, the owner and publisher of The Meck Report, and my online news organization, www.donaldwatkins.com, have been entrusted with the journalistic responsibility for informing the public about the nature and scope of the deathtraps commonly known within the nuclear power industry as Vogtle Units 3 and 4.

As reported by National Public Radio in articles published on December 19 and 21, 2022, the Southern Company has been able to effectively compromise financially struggling legacy media organizations in the South.

What is more, the Southern Company has been highly successful in its creative “catch and kill” program that prevented the publication of unfavorable investigative articles about former CEO Thomas Fanning and his mismanagement of the Southern Company that were developed by Bloomberg News and The Wall Street Journal in 2022 and 2023, respectively.

That news organizations such as Bloomberg News and The Wall Street Journal, both with stellar reputations, would turn their backs on the story of corruption and incompetence at Southern Company is shocking -- especially with a deadly nuclear disaster looming on the horizon. Writes Watkins:

Based upon industry reports, Units 3 and 4 have the highest pre-operational testing failure rates among the nation’s 92 nuclear power plants. These failure rates are the product of:

• A culture of production over quality;

• A culture of poor inspecting or non-inspecting of work;

• High personnel turnover and absenteeism;

• Significant work backlogs;

• High first-time component testing failure rates;

• Need for extensive rework and retesting; and

• The willful falsification of tests results.

Today, there is a 99% probability that a Level 7 nuclear disaster will occur at Unit 3 within 90 days after it becomes fully operational. Level 7 is on the scale of the worst nuclear disasters at Chernobyl in the old Soviet Union in 1986 and Fukushima in Japan in 2011.

Level 7 is the most destructive category of a nuclear and radiological event.

We have publicly warned the residents who will be most affected by the Level 7 nuclear disaster at Vogtle to leave an 11-county area surrounding Vogtle, as soon as possible. No agency of the federal or state regulatory agency is adequately protecting their vital interests with respect to the safety and soundness of the anticipated commercial operations at Units 3 and 4.

When the Level 7 nuclear disaster occurs, deaths and serious bodily injuries from radiation poisoning, along with massive property destruction, will rain down upon the unsuspecting and innocent men, women, and children who live within a 40-mile radius of Vogtle.

Based upon the credible whistleblower complaints and supporting documentation we have received to date, no other outcome is likely or probable.

Southern Company officials have: (a) lied to state and federal regulatory agencies; (b) gouged and cheated the company's utility customers for more than a decade; (c) co-opted greedy and morally bankrupt politicians who accepted “dark money” campaign contributions to sell out their constituents; (d) concealed design problems, engineering flaws, and shoddy workmanship from external safety monitors and inspectors; and (e) willfully falsified critical pre-operation test results.

Unbelievably, the NRC and the Georgia Public Service Commission have allowed these same Southern Company officials to self-certify the safety and soundness of Vogtle Units 3 and 4.

As was the case with the Southern Company’s coal-gasification plant in Kemper, Mississippi, politics have trumped public safety with respect to the NRC’s regulatory approvals of Vogtle Units 3 and 4.

The NRC is rushing to issue a final approval for Unit 3 to begin commercial operations so that President Joe Biden can (a) brag about this new “clean energy” nuclear power plant during his re-election campaign; and (b) showcase the Southern Company’s affirmative-action hire of new CEO Christopher C. Womack, who is Black.

Hundreds of thousands of residents in the 11-county area surrounding Vogtle will be forced to permanently resettle solely because of a political decision that is designed to help Joe Biden, whose presidential approval rating is in the toilet.

Residents within a 40-mile radius of Vogtle have entrusted their public safety to the Southern Company, a proven corporate serial cheater, and the NRC and Georgia PSC, two of the primary government entities that this serial cheater has corrupted.

This lax agency oversight and public corruption have created an extremely high risk of catastrophic deaths, bodily injuries, and property destruction from a Level 7 nuclear event at Vogtle.

Unit 3 is about as safe as the OceanGate submersible that was lost at sea last Sunday on a dive to the Titanic.

Unfortunately, an estimated 500,000 residents living within a 40-mile radius of Vogtle have trusted the Southern Company to do the right thing at Units 3 and 4, at their own risk. The Southern Company has done nothing to earn their trust.

**********************************************************************************

For your information, we are providing Georgia Power Company's 2023 Emergency Plan for a Nuclear Disaster at Vogtle Units 3 and 4. Click here to read or download the plan.

Outnumbered rich elites of Europe created the white race in the middle 1600s as a way to keep poor Whites and Blacks from rising up to "take their stuff"

Books by Tim Wise

 

The history of "whiteness" in the United States is much different from what many white people, including yours truly, probably perceive. American Whites, it seems, understand that they are products of European heritage. But they might not realize that European heritage was highly fractured and fragmented, to the point that there was no concept of a "white race" until about the mid-1600s in Europe. According to Tim Wise, one of the country's most prominent anti-racist writers and educators, the process that produced a "white race" had as much to do with class and fear as it did with race. 

Wise presented perhaps the best, and most concise, explanation of American "whiteness" and its history, during a 2017 presentation, which was captured on video, at San Jose City College in California.That's from a post today at DonaldWatkins.com, where the longtime Alabama attorney, civil-rights advocate, and criminal-defense expert writes under the headline "The History of 'Whiteness' in America."

Let's consider these words from a Black man, who has been a leading voice in the struggle for justice and equal rights in Alabama and beyond. Writes Watkins:

When the U.S. Department of Justice “fixed” First Son Hunter Biden’s felony criminal case on June 20, 2023, this brazen act of "white privilege” forced the nation to focus on the history of "whiteness" in America.

This is one of the times when "white privilege" was conferred on a person whom many Americans view as "white trash".

Tim Wise, a well-known anti-racist activist, essayist, and author of seven books on racism, inequality, and "white privilege," explains the history of "whiteness" in America in this three-minute video. It's the best explanation I have heard.

How does Wise frame the history of American "whiteness" in a video that barely reaches three minutes? Here are some of the highlights:

The whole history of America is rich white men telling not rich white people that their enemies are black and brown. It starts in the colonies of what would become the United States. Let's remember during the colonial period, in the mid 1600s, there was no such thing as white people. I know some people who are called white find that shocking because they think whiteness is real. But whiteness was created.

Europeans didn't call themselves white. Have you studied the history of Europe? We weren't members of one big happy family. The history of Europe was about killing each other. That's what we did before we figured out there were other people to kill. That was the history of Europe. The English hated the Irish. northern Italians didn't think southern Italians were Italians. Germans hated everybody, and everybody hated them right back. There was no team or race called "white."

 

In the middle of the 1600s, all of a sudden, it was necessary to create a white race. Why? Rich people can count. The ones who owned all the land, the colonial elite, looked around, and realized they were heavily outnumbered by black enslaved folks, white indentured servants, and other European who were peasants, didn't have any money or land.

The rich people could count, they could do the math, and they realized, "We've got to split these folks apart or they will rise up and take our stuff. They are going to figure out they are getting played by rich people. The easiest thing was to get poor Europeans on their team. At least they look like you and share a little bit of your culture and customs.

 

Rich people created this thing called whiteness, and told poor whites you're part of club. We will let you own a little bit of land (if you're man), enter into contracts (if you're a man), let you vote (if you're  a man), And they put white men and on slave patrol to  keep black people in line. They would give them a gun, a horse, and a badge, make them feel big and powerful. But they were still poor because they didn't pay the slave patrol well. They exploited them, used them, as as a buffer between the elites and poor folks. Pretty soon, the rebellions that occasionally happened when black ad white got together to over the elite. 

The divide-and-conquer strategy had begun to work -- rich white men telling not rich white people that their enemies are black and brown.

Numbers don't lie: Hunter Biden's plea deal on gun charge was handled in a most unusual way, suggesting Merrick Garland's DOJ is playing outside the rules

Hunter Biden

Statistics from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) show that Hunter Biden's plea deal on gun-possession charges was handled in an unusual way. How unusual was it? A post at DonaldWatkins.com tells the story. A longtime Alabama attorney, civil-rights advocate, and criminal-defense expert, Watkins writes under the headline "Hunter Biden: Is He Lucky or Is Merrick Garland's DOJ Corrupt?"

A review of statistical reports compiled annually by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on firearms cases handled by U.S. Attorneys around the nation from FY 2001 through FY 2021 shows that at least 185,082 of these cases were processed and concluded during this 20-year period.

The statistical report for FY 2021, which was published in December 2022, is the most recent one available online.

According to a DOJ letter submitted to a Delaware federal court on June 20, 2023, Hunter Biden was charged with a “firearms offense – namely, one count of possession of a firearm by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(3) and 924 (a)(2) (2018).”

Section 922 is a felony “weapons” offense, as defined in the annual DOJ statistical reports.

According to the reports, none of the 185,082 “weapons” cases prosecuted during this 20-year period was referred by DOJ to a pretrial-diversion program. U.S. v. Hunter Biden is the first and only time a federal offender has enjoyed this kind of preferential treatment in a firearms case.

Claims by the White House and DOJ that Hunter Biden was treated like all other federal firearms offenders are complete and utter "bullshit."

Hunter Biden is either the luckiest federal firearms offender in U.S. history or a beneficiary of the most corrupt Department of Justice in modern history.

The tax cases of Hunter Biden and actor Wesley Snipes -- one free, the other imprisoned for three years -- raise questions about the role of race in U.S. courtrooms

 

Wesley Snipes in "Demolition Man"

Hunter Biden's plea deal on tax and gun-possession charges has set off a flurry of heated public exchanges among Democrats, Republicans, and legal experts of various political stripes -- centering on claims of favoritism for the son of a sitting president vs. questions about whether former President Donald Trump will be held accountable on anything, including tax and classified-documents issues.

Donald Watkins, a longtime Alabama attorney, civil-rights advocate, and criminal-defense expert, has entered the fray, approaching it from a different angle -- comparing the Hunter Biden case to a tax matter involving Black actor Wesley Snipes and asking if Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, is the embodiment of a justice system that allows favorable and unjust treatment for certain defendants based on "white privilege," which now appears to be operating in plain view. Writes Watkins under the headline "Defining 'White Privilege' in Hunter Biden’s Criminal Case":

America, Hunter Biden’s tax-evasion and gun-possession case is a clear example of “white privilege” operating freely and openly within the federal criminal-justice system. If you do not see this “white privilege,” it is because you do not want to see it.

Let’s compare Hunter Biden’s preferential treatment within the federal criminal-justice system with Wesley Snipes’ nightmarish experience.

Hunter Biden, who is white, failed to pay federal income taxes and possessed a firearm while being addicted to crack cocaine.

Hunter Biden lied on the application he signed to buy the gun in question. Hunter falsely claimed that he was not addicted to illegal drugs when, in fact, he was.

Hunter Biden will be allowed to enter a federal pretrial-diversion program. Because of the gun-possession charge, the Deputy Attorney General had to approve Hunter Biden's admission into the program.What are the criteria for entry into a federal pretrial-diversion program? Watkins spells them out:

Absent approval by the Office of the Deputy Attorney General, any pretrial-diversion program created by a U.S. Attorney's Office shall exclude any individual who is:

1. Accused of an offense related to child exploitation or child pornography, or an offense involving sexual abuse or sexual assault;

2. Accused of an offense resulting in serious bodily injury or death;

3 Accused of an offense involving brandishing or use of a firearm or other deadly weapon;

4. A public official or former public official accused of an offense arising out of an alleged violation of the public trust.

5. Accused of an offense related to national security, including terrorism offenses or foreign affairs; or

6. Accused of an offense in connection with which the individual held a significant managerial role in a a large-scale criminal organization or violent gang.

Writes Watkins:

White House claims that Attorney General Merrick Garland had nothing to do with this case are pure bullshit. The Department of Justice's "fix" of this major criminal case for America's crackhead, gun-toting, First Son required Merrick Garland's prior knowledge and approval.

The Department of Justice has agreed to recommended probation for Hunter Biden, who did not have to cooperate with law-enforcement authorities or give up the names of his drug dealers. Apparently, "snitching" is beneath the dignity of Hunter Biden.

Hunter Biden

 Hunter Biden's drug dealers remain free to roam the streets of Delaware. They continue to peddle their crack cocaine to young teenagers and adult drug addicts.

Thanks to a whistleblower complaint filed in Congress, we now know that IRS Criminal Division agents working on Hunter Biden’s case were impeded and/or blocked from conducting a full, fair, and proper criminal investigation into the First Son's case.

What about Wesley Snipes' tax case? Watkins provides the details:

On October 12, 2006, actor Wesley Snipes, Eddie Ray Kahn, and Douglas P. Rosile were charged with one count of conspiring to defraud the United States and one count of knowingly making or aiding and abetting the making of a false and fraudulent claim for payment against the United States. Snipes also was charged with six counts of willfully failing to file federal income tax returns by their filing dates.

No drugs or guns were involved in Wesley Snipes’ federal criminal case.

Wesley Snipes, who is Black, maintained his innocence. He pleaded “Not Guilty” and stood trial on the felony and misdemeanor charges lodged against him.

On February 1, 2008, Snipes was acquitted on the two felony charges. He was found guilty on three misdemeanor counts of failing to file federal income tax returns (and acquitted on three other "failure to file" charges).

On April 24, 2008, Snipes was sentenced to 12 months on each of the three misdemeanor convictions, which ran consecutively. He spent nearly 3 years in prison.

When the Hunter Biden and Wesley Snipes cases are examined side-by-side, the evidence appears overwhelming that something helped Hunter Biden stay out of prison, while Wesley Snipes spent three years behind bars. Was that "something" white privilege? A reasonable person could conclude the answer is "yes."

Hunter Biden is part of a famous political family, but any achievements to his credit -- perhaps in business -- have been shrouded in controversy and kept mostly under wraps.

By any definition, Wesley Snipes was a major movie star. In the 1980s and '90s, he starred in numerous box-office hits, including Major League, New jack City, Mo' Better Blues, Jungle Fever, The Waterdance, White Men Can't Jump, Passenger 57, and Rising Sun.

Snipes starred in more than 50 films, 18 television shows, one theatre production on Broadway, one music video ("Bad," by Michael Jackson), plus appearances in soundtracks and video games. He has won, or been nominated for. more than 20 awards.

His tax problems reached a head in October 2006, and Snipes' acting career never has fully recovered. Many of his films since 2005 have been direct-to-video or in limited release. At age 60, Snipes' days as a box-office star appear to be over.

Snipes was a celebrity, an artist, and a movie money-making machine. But tax problems and a three-year stint behind bars pretty much put an end to that.

Hunter Biden is famous, but seems to have few achievements to his credit. Wesley Snipes was an accomplished and genuine star. The reported box-office take for his films was $1.2 billion. Snipes' tax case, on the surface, involved a whole lot more money than did Hunter Biden's.

But the bottom line: Hunter Biden is white, and so far, has avoided prison time. Wesley Snipes is Black, and three years behind bars ruined his career. Watkins calls Hunter Biden's plea deal a "failure of justice," and he writes:

Hunter Biden’s plea deal is a failure of justice on many levels and in many respects.

The Hunter Biden versus Wesley Snipes comparison is a clear example of how “white privilege” operates openly, freely, and often within the federal criminal justice system.

This dual system of federal criminal justice, based upon race, operates consistently, whether the sitting president of the United States is a Democrat or Republican and whether he is white or black.

What is worse, most trial judges knowingly allow this race-based disparate treatment within the federal criminal justice system to run rampant, even though they have the power to stop it.

Please notice that neither the American Bar Association, nor the Federal Judges Association, has spoken out against the "fix" in Hunter Biden's federal criminal case.

Finally, we know of no black criminal offender with federal tax-evasion and gun-possession charges who has been offered Hunter Biden's "sweetheart" deal -- ever! This deal is reserved for the most politically connected white offenders.

 

(Note: Item No. 3 above, regarding the "brandishing or use of a firearm" raises questions about Hunter Biden's eligibility for a federal pretrial-diversion program. Based on our research so far, we are not sure if he is eligible or not. Several primary questions come to mind: (1) Photos on the Internet, apparently taken from Hunter Biden's laptop, show him holding a gun by his side; does that amount to "brandishing a firearm" under Delaware law, which appears to be the governing statute in this case? (2) We know of no allegations that Hunter Biden fired a gun during the course of the investigation on his case, so that means the key question is: Did his actions meet the legal definition of "brandishing a firearm"? Our research, so far, indicates the definition of "brandishing a firearm" varies by jurisdiction, so we have no clear-cut answer to our question: (4) Item 3 holds that a subject must have been accused of "brandishing or use of a firearm" to be excluded from the pretrial-diversion program. We have found no information that indicates Hunter Biden was, or was not, accused of such an offense. So again, we have no clear answer to our question. At this point, Hunter Biden's eligibility for a pretrial-diversion program, in our view, is undetermined.)