printFrom Paul Craig Roberts comes the most important sentences you’ll read today. It encapsulates the fate of Paul Manafort and so many others:
Justice no longer exists in America as 97% of felony convictions result from self-incrimination—plea bargains in which the defendant, innocent or guilty, advised by his attorney that a fair trial is impossible, admits to some offense in exchange for a watered-down sentence.
AND:
Decades ago when there was still some semblance of justice in the American justice system, police had to provide sound evidence for their case in order for the prosecutor to take up the case. The reason was that prosecutorial budgets were limited, and the career interests of prosecutors was to get as many convictions out of their budget as possible. Today, however, when even the innocent prefer to admit a crime rather than run the risk of a trial, prosecutors have endless strings of “convictions” without having to spend days or weeks in trial.
Today prosecutors no longer have to prove a case before a jury. They only negotiate with the defendant’s attorney a crime, whether committed or not, that settles the case. …