That’s what this is. Obscene. Disgraceful. Everyone is supposed to be treated equally by the US Government, everyone is supposed to have the same rights, including the right to a fair trial.
…. Twenty agents from the FBI and IRS raided the home of Madeleine Gestas, who has been targeted by the feds for financial crimes. She is the mother of Anderson’s wife, Nicole.
…. The day after Greg was released, they sent a target letter to his wife,” said (Anderson’s attorney Mark) Geragos. “Almost 30 days before the trial, they now execute a search warrant at his mother-in-law’s house. This is coming on the heels of a letter they wrote me two days ago, demanding to know whether or not he was contingent to testify. I’m ashamed of my government. Even the mafia spares the women and children. It’s nothing more than cheap theatrics and frankly, disgusting tactics. It’s blatant intimidation.”
There is nothing fair about this anymore, nothing at all. And forget about fair, how about the astonishing abuse of power we’re seeing here. Barry Bonds didn’t kill anyone, he doesn’t smuggle cocaine into high schools, or rape little girls. He used something to make himself better at what he does for a living. He took steps to improve himself. Regardless of whether you think it was right or wrong, whether you believe that it is the government’s job to tell us what is legal or illegal to take to make us happier, stronger, faster or just plain high; what Bonds did is in no way commensurate to the level of money being spent, and quite frankly, laws being broken, in chasing him down.
Make no mistake, standing by and watching our government do this without a word of protest will haunt us. This is a targeted witch hunt, a black man who is being taken down because a government employee –a man whose salary is paid for by you and me– IRS Agent Jeff Novitzky, decided he wanted to take him down because he was an, “arrogant asshole.”
Not to mention, this investigation, costing between $30 and $50 million while our economy is crashing like the Hindenburg, is the height of absurdity. Twenty federal agents raiding the home of a 60-year old woman, in an effort to pressure Greg Anderson to testify? Really?
Obama, you need to step in here, and shut this horror-show down.
UPDATE: So now we learn that the feds have the sealed samples from the MLB testing program, and they are saying that Bonds failed multiple tests:
…. Barry Bonds tested positive for steroids four times in drug screenings conducted between 2000 and 2003, according to court documents unsealed on Wednesday by the federal judge who will preside over the home run king’s perjury trial next month in San Francisco.
Here’s what Michael McCann from the Sports Law Blog (special to Sports Illustrated) has to say about this:
…. U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston unsealed hundreds of pages of court filings in the Barry Bonds’ perjury case on Wednesday. Taken together, the documents appear to strengthen the government’s case that Bonds knowingly used steroids.
The most important document may be the transcript of a recorded conversation between Bonds’ personal trainer, Greg Anderson, and Bonds’ former business partner and longtime friend, Steve Hoskins.
…. The admissibility of this potentially damning transcript is another matter, however. Bonds’ counsel will argue that a transcript of a conversation between two persons who are not parties to the case, and which was made outside the courtroom, comprises hearsay — an out-of-court statement which is presented in court to prove the truth of a matter material to the defendant’s guilt or innocence. In response the government will argue that an exception to hearsay applies, most notably the “declarations against interest” exception, which in this case would reflect Anderson making a series of self-incriminating statements to Hoskins — the logic is that Anderson would only make such statements if they were true.
Not looking too good for Barry right now….
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Does anyone else think at this point IRS agent Jeff Novitsky (?) is more likely to end up behind bars than Bonds? Wasn’t he being investigated previously?
You got it just right. There is no justification for this witch hunt.
Bonds is taking the bullet for hundreds of baseball players who used PEDs. Let’s get real here.
The feds need to shut this one down.
This is just one of many wasteful projects currently running here in the States…bewildering!!!
Hey John, wondering if you saw Yahoo’s investigative reporting:
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=Am3dP.nX4rxHLoKhbkHn2bo5nYcB?slug=li-clear011409&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
I was hoping/expecting you to post some thoughts on that. Can’t say I have any new thoughts on the Bonds issue. This has been an absurd abuse of taxpayer money from the beginning – this just adds to the list.
I sent him the link a few weeks back – couldn’t post comments here at the time (wasn’t working).
I secretly entertained the notion for some time that the new administration would pull the plug on the whole wretched mess, but my skeptical side says it’ll never happen. The war on drugs mentality is too entrenched, too much the part of the day-to-day that the level of outrage is just not there. I’m glad you wrote so thoughtfully about this, I felt very much the same way when I saw the story.
Well stated and I agree. If you are really serious I suggest you use you blog for a petition to stop this crap. I for one would sign.
S