It is already almost a month that a dear person, a wonderful individual, is incarcerated, as a result of the government’s vendetta against him. A day doesn’t pass that my heart is not pained over the plight of R’ Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin, imprisoned out of cruelty, only because he is a steadfast religious Jew. As we prepare to mark the day of the Alter Rebbe’s liberation from prison, as we begin to read in the Torah the story of Yosef haTzaddik’s captivity through no fault of his own, I can’t help but remember a modern-day Yosef who is patiently awaiting his own liberation.
Any Jew that has to suffer in any way is senseless and intolerable, and the thought of any Jewish person having to spend time in jail is unimaginably painful. But there is an important additional aspect here:
We read stories about the “justice system” in communist Russia, about the so-called trials that were staged by the government, to justify their sentencing innocent people to spend time in Siberia or worse. They are stories that invariably fill us with a rage and frustration, but one that is, nonetheless tempered by the passage of the many years since those events took place, as well as by the fact that that particular government is no longer in power.
We definitely never expected to witness such circuses in “free” America!
I know, some of you are saying: ‘It’s true, it’s a terrible thing for a Jew to sit in jail, but why do you have to turn everything into a anti-Jewish conspiracy? Maybe he did something wrong, and got caught, and has to suffer the consequences?’ I certainly don’t know much about the specifics of the case, but I did spend one day in court, and even in the little that I saw there, the corruption and criminality were staring me in the face:
1) The government initially investigated Agrifor alleged immigration violations
i.e., charges that they were employing workers who didn’t have legal right to work (or were underage etc.). The 2-year long investigation finally resulted in the raid in which hundreds of workers were detained. Understandably, the raid crippled the company, leaving them fighting desperately for survival. Subsequently (and predictably), the company defaulted on a $35 million loan, and R’ Sholom Mordechai was charged with bank fraud. Now, he was facing two distinct accusations; the immigration charges, that had to do with the employment practices, and the charges connected with the loan. The judge ruled that the 2 cases would be decided separately.
Now, I would think that anyone with a drop of intelligence understands that the financial woes were a direct result of the government persecution vis-à-vis the raid. In other words, if it could be determined that the company is innocent of all of the immigration violations, then the resulting financial difficulties would inevitably be viewed in a different light. So even if this doesn’t have direct impact on the bank fraud charges, the immigration case definitely has bearing on it, and could be a factor in the defense. Thus, the machshefa judge’s insistence on separating the two cases and hearing the fraud case first (which is not even reflective of the chronological order of the charges) despite the Rubashkin lawyers repeated requests for the reverse, prevents him from the first chance of a fair hearing in the first place..
Moreover, she insisted that no mention or reference be made to the immigration case, thus removing the possibility of this crucial information being presented to the jury.
2) During the trial, this was suddenly reversed for the benefit of the prosecution
Not only were they able to introduce the immigration issue as background information, but they actually rested their case in part on the allegations of immigration violations! This is something that I personally heard repeatedly in the few hours that I spent in the courtroom: The lawyers for the prosecution made the case to the jury that R’ Sholom Mordechai cheated the bank by hiring illegal immigrants as workers without informing the bank. In other words, the prosecution was allowed, unchallenged to suggest to the jury that the immigration violations are a fact, and that they are what constituted his fraud to the bank, while the defense wasn’t given the opportunity to address these allegations!
I don’t know all of the evidence offered by the prosecution, but they obviously felt it weak enough to feel the need to introduce the employment practices as evidence of the fraud (in their cross-examination of the representative of the bank). And it is preposterous that they were able to get away with that! What is the jury supposed to think, when the prosecution is repeating the information (of the immigration violations) as fact (albeit as if incidentally), and the defense is not enabled to answer to those charges?
Furthermore, besides the fact that the immigration allegations were a direct factor in the fraud charges, they had a tremendous indirect effect on the case: The prosecution attempted to portray the defendant as a criminal personality who was guilty of all kinds of organized crime (rather than an innocent citizen who was a victim of circumstances, even were the charges to be validated). Thus, their repeated references to the immigration offences were also an attempt to cause the jury to view R’ Sholom Mordechai as an evil conniving thief (which is the reason that the machshefa judge okayed it to them, contrary to her earlier decision), and thus make it much easier for them to believe that he intentionally defrauded the bank of millions of dollars. Obviously, when that takes place, without the defense being allowed to present a comprehensive defense against these charges (and the blackening of his image), then it doesn’t have any semblance of a fair trial.
3) The government dropped the immigration charges after the bank fraud trial
So we could think: Okay, but eventually he’ll have his day in court, he’ll have the opportunity to present his side of the story with the immigration issue, and it should follow that the results of that case (when he is found not guilty) would inevitably force the courts to re-hear the fraud case (since the 2 turned out to be so closely intertwined, besides the indirect impact one has on the other).
Well, guess what the government did? After the verdict in the bank fraud trial was delivered, they went ahead and dropped the immigration charges! Why on earth did they do something like that? The whole basis for the raid, for the 2 year long investigation that ultimately wreaked havoc on an entire city and destroyed thousands of lives, were the immigration violation allegations. That was what got them started, and that was the reason for everything. How could they drop that case?
They have a ready explanation. They want to save the costs of another trial (since he has already been found guilty of the more serious charges). Which costs exactly are they trying to save? Do you think for a second that they’re trying to save R’ Sholom Mordechai the costs of his defense lawyers?! You want to tell me that they want to save the costs of the case, of the prosecution lawyers. Well, I’ve got news for you. You know who’s paying the costs of the prosecution, who’s footing the bill for this case? You are! The taxpayers are, that’s who! You want to convince yourself for a second that the government will ever back down from its’ agenda in order to save taxpayer money?! Dream on! Especially when you consider the astronomical amount that the 2 year investigation and raid already cost, compared to the expenses of another trial (especially if they have such an ironclad case as they would have us believe).
Then what did happen here? It seems simple. The government doesn’t want the immigration case to take place, because that would afford R’ Sholom Mordechai the justice that they’re trying to deny him. The immigration case would raise many embarrassing questions to the government (something that already came out during the first trial), as well as overturn many of the truisms that the first case was based on. And that is something that the government wants to avoid at all costs.
So we have this ludicrous decision to never try the case that everything was supposedly about in the first case, as long as that will help further the ultimate goal of suppressing the truth (as well as saving the government from having to justify some inexplicable decisions that they made along the way).
4) The defense was denied crucial information and witnesses
As a matter of fact, much of the information and witnesses that the defense lawyers wanted to present were denied by the judge on account of various technicalities. The whole way of running the case was contrary to the whole structure of the justice system. Many rules are in place, particularly with regards to the admissibility of evidence, to go to great lengths to avoid the possibility of someone getting wrongfully found guilty.
In this case everything was backwards. The defense was prevented from presenting various witnesses and information, crucial to a proper understanding of the particulars of the case, while the prosecution had no limitations.
5) R’ Sholom Mordechai is denied bail
Okay, the jury reached a verdict, but now, in the months until sentencing, R’ Sholom Mordechai is denied bail. The real reason for that is known; in the beginning of the trial, when the machshefa judge didn’t know that she had to be careful, she let it slip (in her written decision) that one of the factors in her denying bail was the fact that, as a Jew, Sholom Mordechai is a de facto dual citizen. In other words, being a Jew, and what’s more—a Jew with a beard, he’s not eligible for the rights of every American citizen. That was enough of an indication of exactly where she stands (imagine someone saying that the US president is not a full-fledged American citizen because he’s black). But that caused somewhat of an outcry, and she has since learned to couch her true feelings in more politically acceptable explanations.
So the explanation this time is–because he was found guilty of so many counts. Right, 86 to be exact (begimatria shem Elokim, that is maalim umastir on shem Havaya). One second; even according the prosecution, there’s only one thing he did wrong, he misled the bank with regards to the earnings of the company, thus possibly causing them to offer him a larger loan than they would have. How did this become 86 violations?! Because he wrote down numbers, and then used the phone and the mail etc., okay, according to the prosecution, what was done wrong other than allegedly mislead the bank?
From what I’m told, the defense lawyers raised this obvious point, and were once again prevented from presenting it to the jury due to a technicality (that they didn’t think about it before the case started)! Was anyone making even a pretense of fairness and justice?!
[If OJ Simpson (remember him?) would not have been the colour that he is, and would therefore have been found guilty of murder, would the charge be murder (20 years in jail with a chance of probation after 10), or 20 stabs, 50 kicks, 32 punches, a total of 102 counts and a sentence of 15000 years].
Ve’od ve’od.
And the main thing: even according to the allegations of the prosecution, no one even accuses anyone of any intention to steal, or to borrow and not pay back (it’s not even as bad as someone who cheats on their taxes), in the worse case scenario he presented exaggerated information to the bank (who had the option of either trusting him, because they were themselves extremely familiar with the company, or doing better research on their own).
And for this–a thousand years! 1200 years! Are they normal?! The Russian court systems would be proud of the way machshefa judge Linda Reade ran this case.
So what did happen then? The plain old fashioned Esav Soneh l’Yaakov!
I know there are those who are very uncomfortable with these suggestions: ‘You’re paranoid, you’re always seeing conspiracies where none exist, and imagining agendas. These things don’t happen in America in the twentieth century, there’s gotta be another side to the story’. Right [Those are the guys who, if I were to suggest that the shvartze in Washington is preventing Jews from living in their own country because he’s a Jew-hating Arab, would say I’m paranoid and a racist].
Those of you won’t be convinced by anything. But those who see what’s happening, why isn’t there an outcry?! If those mock court cases would be taking place in Russia in today’s day and age, why there would be massive demonstrations that would bring cities to a standstill. [If such justice would be meted out to a black, or to an Arab terrorist for that matter, we can imagine the uproar and furor that would erupt].
Why isn’t there a similar reaction to the Russian justice practiced in an American court?! This is blatant anti-Semitism rearing it’s ugly head. And if they get away with it, this will be just a beginning. Where is the voice of protest of world Jewry?!
