Comments | Eastern NC Now

You are clueless, Bob. One of the things that pressures defendants in criminal cases is the enormously high cost of criminal defense, which can ruin people financially from a major case. Sure Trump cannot be pressured on that because he is very wealthy, but neither can the poor because the taxpayers are paying for their appointed lawyers. It is the MIDDLE CLASS defendants that feels this pressure. They have neither the money of the wealthy nor the free lawyers of the poor.

It is the middle class targets of this partisan prosecutor who are vulnerable to this pressure. If they do not dance to her tune, they face financial ruin and potential heavy jail time. It not about truth, it is about conforming to her narrative. When this is going on in a political prosecution, as it is, then democracy in our country is hanging by a thread.

Commented: Tuesday, October 24th, 2023 @ 11:26 am By: Steven P. Rader

Yes the poor have it so much better than Mr. Trump. If there ever was victim, it's Mr. Trump. He's a poster boy for rich, fat, orange victims.

Commented: Tuesday, October 24th, 2023 @ 10:59 am By: Big Bob

Stan, having this wokester on your site, along with her woke husband, at least provides some entertainment. A little humor to go along with Babylon Bee, although this couple don't realize the humor in their righting.

The growing totalitarianism of woke is shown by proposals both here and in Europe to criminalize "misgendering" someone who is mixed up what gender they factually and biologically are. Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling has said she would not call a biological boy a "girl" and would go to jail if she had to for it.

The Campbells are far left fruitcakes, and I guess if the site has to have token lefties, these loony birds are as good as any.

Commented: Tuesday, October 24th, 2023 @ 10:33 am By: John Steed

Being Woke is just another process of being stupid, irrespective of one's faux education level. Case in point is that here, in this Representative Republic, the Woke were mathematically responsible for kind of "electing" America's First Idiot President.

Commented: Tuesday, October 24th, 2023 @ 10:21 am By: Stan Deatherage

The term "trumped up charges" has long been used for bogus criminal charges, but with the political witch hunt against President Trump, that meaning has been reinforced. The danger here is partisan prosecutors with political motives targeting a political opponent and strongarming others they charge to join their lynch mob, so that political target gets an ambush instead of a trial. Bringing charges in places they know that the jury pool will be politically hostile to their target also helps make the process an ambush rather than a trial. Without a change of venue, there will be no fair trial in any of these cases except the ones in Florida. Even that murder trial I refered to earlier had venue changed from Martin County to Pitt County to get a fair jury.

As to poor people, they are less intimidated by these DA tactics, since they have court appointed lawyers and therefore do not have the worry about being financially ruined by legal defense costs. They are insulated from some of the impacts that can be brought to bear on more well to do defendants.

The political targeting go on against Trump is what is scary for the future of American democracy. If Republicans win in 2024, there are now certain to be some making lists of Biden officials to indict when the shoe is on the other foot. In 200 years of our republic, no one has gone there until the Biden Democrats opened the door to it.

Commented: Tuesday, October 24th, 2023 @ 9:47 am By: Steven P. Rader

The MSM media did this to themselves when they decided they would rather do propaganda than journalism. Even though the propaganda is partisan in favor of the Democrats, it is amazing how many Democrats have managed to figure this out and don't like it. Even among Democrats, trust in media has declined from 75% to 58%.

Commented: Tuesday, October 24th, 2023 @ 8:40 am By: Conservative Voter

Carolyn, you just might need the whole bottle of ranch to get through this

Commented: Monday, October 23rd, 2023 @ 11:38 pm By: Big Bob

Steve: Thank-you for your analysis on the Democratic Socialist squeeze play, where these heartless "keepers of the law" could care less about what is true, only about the winning ... until it is overturned by appeal.

And what about the quality of the testimony after the deal is cut, just so that these American Citizens can get some relief from these sleezy Democratic Socialist lawyers (on the taxpayers dime), all Biden voters, so by the representative scheme of "you get the government you deserve," not too smart. What if their testimony is somewhat less than enthusiastic?

I just started watching "Billions," a series about this ruthless hedge-fund manager /owner pitted against a U.S. Attorney with a perfect record of convictions, and you will never guess who is winding up the sympathetic character.

Commented: Monday, October 23rd, 2023 @ 7:05 pm By: Stan Deatherage

The squeeze by the far left Democrat prosecutor in Georgia on other defendants is a huge danger to coercing questionable testimony against President Trump. It is a targeted version of the common prosecutor squeeze on co-defendants. Most prosecutors just want to bolster their conviction record, and having a co-defendant rat out other defendants helps them get convictions. When a co-defendant pleads to a lesser charge in return for "truthful testimony", truth is not measured by whether it would pass a polygraph, but whether it works with the prosecutor's theory of the case. Deviate from what the prosecutor wants, and one loses his or her plea deal.

In a run of the mill case, if the prosecutor gets one defendant to flip, they will go along with that defendants version of what the others did, which is often tilted. For example, in a four defendant capital murder case where I was first chair counsel for one of the defendants, another co-defendant flipped and told a version to minimize his role and portray much larger roles for the other three. The DA just wanted convictions, so he went with that. Four defense attorneys for other defendants concluded that based on other known facts, the "cooperating defendant" was almost certainly the triggerman and the instigator of the murder, but he put that off on others.

Now take a DA like the one in Georgia who has an agenda in the case, a particular defendant she is after. No other defendant is going to get a plea deal unless they tell the story the way that DA wants to go after that particular defendant. It doesn't matter what the actual truth is, they have to conform to the "truth" as that DA sees it.

Paul Manafort and Roger Stone both came forward to reveal that anti-Trump prosecutors offered them sweetheart deals if they would tell what the prosecutor wanted against Trump. They knew the prosecutor's version was a lie, so they accepted time in prison rather than lie for a crooked prosecutor.

The financial burden of contesting any of these cases would likely break most of the co-defendants financially, and enough charges are piled on that they would do significant jail time if found guilty. These defendants, especially the lawyers among them, also know they are facing a jury pool that will be highly unfavorable to President Trump or anyone associated with him. The places where these cases were brought were chosen for that very reason. These defendants want to survive this and have a life on the other side, and all of this creates an enormous pressure to just say whatever it is the DA considers "the truth" in order to save their own skins. Few have the stamina of Manafort and Stone to do what is right and stick to the actual factual truth.

Donald Trump is facing a kangaroo court in Georgia, and that is a threat to American democracy. Of course, the DC and Manhattan situations are not much better. At the very basic level, without a change of venue to get an unbiased jury, the Georgia, New York, and DC cases all present fairness problems in a big way and need a change of venue at a minimum but it is highly unlikely that will happen.

Welcome to the new American banana republic.

Commented: Monday, October 23rd, 2023 @ 6:34 pm By: Steven P. Rader

Stan, delow is one of your disclaimers:
Outgoing Links
beaufortcountynow.com may contain links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our visitors to be aware that when they leave beaufortcountynow.com to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by beaufortcountynow.com.

Commented: Monday, October 23rd, 2023 @ 4:38 pm By: Carolyn L Garris

Carolyn: The difference is very simple, and I saw it in about 40 seconds:

If electronically stored documents, as digital data, are to be treated as the primary point of stored documents, then there can be no Disclosure Statement to Remove Liability.

As the primary point of recordation in a Race to Record State, there is inescapable liability that will never go away, regardless of any disclosure.

To make my point even finer, please tell me where I can find the published Disclosure Statement in the Deed Vault for the recorded hardcopies?

Commented: Monday, October 23rd, 2023 @ 4:02 pm By: Stan Deatherage