Licensed To Lie:  Exposing Corruption In The Department Of Justice, by Sidney Powell

The only surprise I had in reading this particular book was how the author had been that idealistic about the justice system in the United States.  There is nothing in the lengthy insider account of government malfeasance that this book is that is remotely surprising otherwise, at least for those of either a cynical bent or any kind of knowledge in the way that the Department of Justice operates.  At seemingly every turn of this book the author expresses some degree of hope that someone, be it a judge or someone on the government, will admit their wrongs and try to do right, and she finds herself disappointed over and over again.  One wonders why she expected such a thing.  I certainly would not expect to see judges and bureaucrats, who are often in a lifetime of lucrative public and private jobs, willingly lose face in order to defend a standard of proper views of procedural law in a way that would strengthen the defense of those who are being brought up in show trials like the Enron affair, as cynical as it is for me to say so.  Why does the author herself harbor such precious illusions?

This particular book is just over 400 pages long and consists of the author’s painful and lengthy experience as a defense attorney for a decent man who had been falsely accused of crimes and convicted of two felonies and who served almost a year in prison on charges that were trumped up for political gain and had no basis in existing criminal law.  Throughout the book the author notes the case’s treatment by the Department of Justice, which deliberately engaged in attempts to prevent the defense from knowing what sort of exculpatory evidence had been found in their discovery and intimidated witnesses who could have cleared the defendants of guilt so that they could gain public credit and personal profit as being tough on white-collar crime.  The book as a whole serves as a cautionary tale of what happens when winning cases becomes more important than ensuring that justice is done, and has some really negative things to say about the state of our legal system.  Again none of these things are surprising.  The book has a lot of technical comments about the author’s various filings and motions and shows her to be someone who frequently got on the nerves of the people who had to deal with her steely glare and ferocious rhetoric in court.  Bless her soul.

For the most part, I must admit I found the writer to be appealing even if somewhat overly naive.  I don’t know what kind of cave she was raised in, but most of the people I know are aware that justice systems the world over are corrupt and ordinary and decent people have always been endangered by the desire of lawyers and government bureaucrats to look like they are being tough on crime and corruption, except of course for the crime and corruption that they regularly and profitably engage in.  It is easy, as this book does, to comment at length and in depth about the problems that this country’s justice system faces, especially given the asymmetry of power between prosecutors with political motivations to get convictions at any cost and that of defendants faced with the full power of the government wielded against them.  It is less obvious to figure out what should be done in a world were procedural laws designed to protect ordinary and innocent people are being undermined and where people in authority simply cannot be trusted to do what it is right.  Who can be trusted to provide justice and to encourage it?  The author certainly is someone I would want on my side, but it doesn’t surprise me that the people she was in court with didn’t appreciate her razor wit and ferocity being directed at them.  Who would appreciate that?  Justice systems depend on human beings, after all, and must be treated as not only logical but also emotional beings.