Election 2020

[pbrower2a]

(03-12-2020, 12:39 PM)JDG 66 Wrote:

(03-11-2020, 06:37 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: ...President Trump made a phone call to the President of Ukraine and tried to get him to initiate a highly-publicized prosecution of an opponent's son...

No, Trump asked Zelensky to initiate a highly an investigation on the son of a former US government official*, after said former government official is on tape bragging that he had a prosecutor fired who was investigating his son's company. Very different. I think Plagiarism Joe's crack addict son should be investigated. Why don't you?

*and the stepson of another former US government official (Senator and Secretary of State), and the friend of a current Senator, but that's another story.

I can assure you that effective prosecutions have secretive investigations that leave the suspect in the dark and let the suspect act as if he is getting away with deeds that ultimately incriminate him.  Besides, a good prosecutor does whatever is necessary to avoid prejudicing a jury in a way that might set up an appeal. The defendant is usually arrested when he tries to escape prosecution (typically flight), when caught in flagrante delicto, or when his behavior becomes too dangerous to tolerate. 

Announcing an investigation to the media before the investigation has begun is inept prosecution unless one has an "enemies of the people" campaign as in the Third Reich or the old Soviet Union, in which case the defendant is doomed from the start in a political entity in which nobody is safe.

Well, Ukraine has made huge breaks from the old Soviet Union and its practices (much in contrast to Belarus!) because, in part, the FBI is more effective in nailing mobsters (Ukraine has a big problem with the Russian Mafia) than was the KGB. It is a choice between finesse and brutality in law enforcement.