{"id":135456,"date":"2017-11-28T09:15:27","date_gmt":"2017-11-28T16:15:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=135456"},"modified":"2017-11-28T11:42:25","modified_gmt":"2017-11-28T18:42:25","slug":"attorney-general-jeff-sessions-inspiration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/11\/28\/attorney-general-jeff-sessions-inspiration.html","title":{"rendered":"Attorney General Jeff Sessions is an inspiration!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unfortunately for federal law enforcement, he’s becoming an inspiration for defense attorneys.<\/i><\/p>\n

Sessions proclaimed before the House Judiciary Committee earlier this month that his ever-evolving story on involvement between the Trump campaign and Russia was completely legit. He asserted that he hasn’t been lying, that “my story has never changed,” that he’s “always told the truth” each time he’s been put under oath or or signed sworn affidavits — it’s just that what he’s recalled<\/i> has changed changed over time, and he can’t be held accountable for faulty memory of stressful times.<\/p>\n

That assertion is being put to interesting use.<\/p>\n

Federal prosecutors in South Carolina are asking that a police officer convicted of killing an unarmed black man (firing eight rounds into his back) be given an enhanced sentence for “obstruction of justice,” due to a series of excuses and denials and misleading testimony that changed dramatically over time as he was presented with new evidence that contradicted his previous assertions. (Emphasis mine.)<\/p>\n

In a federal court filing last week, Slager\u2019s attorneys said the former officer had not, in fact, lied when he gave an ever-shifting account of the shooting during two years of investigations and court proceedings, at times contradicted by cellphone footage of the incident. Rather, they said, his memory had faltered under pressure.<\/p>\n

\u201cA Swiss cheese memory is a symptom of stress, not an indicator of lying,\u201d Slager\u2019s attorneys wrote, citing testimony from a medical expert. To further illustrate the point, they quoted at length from Sessions\u2019s testimony.<\/b><\/p>\n

[…] \u201cUnlike Slager, who had been in what he perceived as a life and death struggle before he made his statements, Sessions had time to prepare for his Congressional testimony, yet still often got it wrong,\u201d they wrote in their filing. […] \u201cLike Sessions, Slager never lied or misled anyone,\u201d the defense attorneys\u2019 filing reads. \u201cLike Sessions, he answered the questions that were asked. When he had his memory refreshed, he added the refreshed recollection to his testimony. When he failed to remember certain items, it can be attributed to the stress or chaos of the event during which the memory should have been formed.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This puts federal prosecutors in the uncomfortable position of either accepting the excuse during the penalty phase of the trial, or suggesting that their boss’ declarations of utter and complete honesty aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.<\/p>\n


\n
\n<\/a>
\nJeff Sessions\u2019s \u2018failure to recall\u2019 gives defense lawyers new argument in police shooting case – The Washington Post<\/a><\/span>
\n“A Swiss cheese memory is a symptom of stress, not an indicator of lying,\u201d Michael Slager’s attorneys wrote.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unfortunately for federal law enforcement, he’s becoming an inspiration for defense attorneys. Sessions proclaimed before the House Judiciary Committee earlier this month that his ever-evolving story on involvement between the Trump campaign and Russia was completely legit. He asserted that he hasn’t been lying, that “my story has never changed,” that he’s “always told the … Continue reading “Attorney General Jeff Sessions is an inspiration!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135460,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,715,532,358],"tags":[1334],"class_list":["post-135456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-plusposts","category-crime-punishment","category-elections-2016","category-poor-citizenship","tag-lying"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/jeff-sessions-testifying.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":132060,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/11\/18\/trump-nominates-alabama-senator-jeff-sessions-as-ag.html","url_meta":{"origin":135456,"position":0},"title":"Trump nominates Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions as AG","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 18-Nov-16 7:22am","format":false,"excerpt":"The best thing I can say for Jeff Sessions as a nominee for Attorney General is that he's not Rudy Giuliani. The second best is that it would remove a senior GOP leader from the Senate (not that I expect Alabama to flip blue any time soon).That said, there are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":132813,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/02\/08\/too-racist-to-be-a-federal-judge-not-too-racist-to-be-attorney-general.html","url_meta":{"origin":135456,"position":1},"title":"Too racist to be a Federal Judge, not too racist to be Attorney General","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 8-Feb-17 6:40pm","format":false,"excerpt":"So Jeff Sessions is our new Attorney General. He was confirmed today on a 52-48 vote; Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.) was the only crossover.The article is interesting as it notes quite clearly the difference between 1986 and today -- Sessions' long service in the US Senate bought him loyalty\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":132458,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/12\/28\/yeah-another-reason-jeff-sessions-would-be-an-awful-attorney-general.html","url_meta":{"origin":135456,"position":2},"title":"Yeah, another reason Jeff Sessions would be an awful Attorney General","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 28-Dec-16 11:02am","format":false,"excerpt":"In addition to being ultra-conservative about gays and women, and having some dubious racial opinions, he's a big believer in civil asset forfeiture (a\/k\/a \"the police think you maybe are a drug dealer, or at least you have a really nice car, so they take your money and your car\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":132423,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/12\/23\/so-who-is-donald-trumps-most-dangerous-cabinet-pick.html","url_meta":{"origin":135456,"position":3},"title":"So, who is Donald Trump's most dangerous cabinet pick?","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 23-Dec-16 9:58am","format":false,"excerpt":"Trump keeps a lot of the spotlight on himself, and there's been a lot of focus on his national security team, esp. Mike Flynn as National Security Advisor.Now, don't get me wrong -- Flynn, who always looks like he's about fifteen seconds from a brain aneurysm from scowling so hard,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133853,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/07\/14\/no-grandparents-for-you-promises-jeff-sessions.html","url_meta":{"origin":135456,"position":4},"title":""No Grandparents for You!" promises Jeff Sessions","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 14-Jul-17 8:23pm","format":false,"excerpt":"A federal judge in Hawaii has ruled that the US government improperly excluded grandparents as \"close\" family members under the Trump Muslim-ish Travel Ban. Attorney General Jeff Sessions says he will appeal back to the Supreme Court. Because grandparents are way, way too dangerous to let into the United States,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":132965,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/03\/02\/the-unconvincing-denial.html","url_meta":{"origin":135456,"position":5},"title":"The Unconvincing Denial","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 2-Mar-17 11:31am","format":false,"excerpt":"So let me put it this way: if I were a perfectly innocent, active supporter of Donald Trump during his campaign, even being deemed a surrogate in the campaign, and if I were then nominated as Attorney General, and was going up before the Senate, I would ...1. Be very\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135456"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135461,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135456\/revisions\/135461"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}