ALERT: 10-1-13
Message from CJA Director Elena Sassower:
SPREAD THE WORD!
UPDATE:
The Commission to Investigate Public Corruption is Afraid
of What the People Have to Say – & Their Evidence Backing It Up!
We
did it! Thanks to your response to our “SPREAD THE
WORD” e-mail alerts, we exposed the ruse of the Commission to Investigate
Public Corruption, whose so-called “public hearings” were intended to take
place “under the radar”, with few people aware of the opportunity to testify
about the corruption that infests New York’s judiciary – and our other two branches
of New York’s government.
That is why the Commission announced the
hearings two months before they were to be held – so that the public would have
forgotten about them by the time they took place. It is also why the hearings were venued in modest-sized rooms, with no RSVP or registration
required – so that the public could be easily turned away, at the door, because
the hearings were filled to capacity. Indeed,
the hearings were to be essentially staged – the testimony primarily that of invited
witnesses.
We
blew their charade! Within a week of our first “SPREAD THE WORD”
e-mail, which was on August 28th, so many victims of judicial
corruption were contacting the Commission to testify, it had no choice but to set
up a registration requirement for the September 17th Manhattan
hearing – and then, with so many registrants, it had no choice but to call and
e-mail all but a handful that they should not even try to come to the hearing
because it was at capacity and they would not be able to even be seated as
spectators, let alone scheduled to testify – further purporting, to some, as an
excuse for why they were not being allowed to testify, that the written statements
submitted as part of the registration requirement were not germane, which was false.
At the September 17th hearing,
I protested the outrage that had occurred – identifying that as far back as
July 19th I had called up the Commission and warned that it needed
to have proper procedures in place for its hearings and that I had followed
this up with written correspondence, to which the Commission had not responded.
Here’s the video of my bruising testimony at
the September 17th hearing (at 2:14:44 –
2:28:04) – and that of other witnesses,
most of whom testified as to the corruption of our state’s judiciary and the
worthlessness of all agencies and offices for investigating complaints of fraud
infecting the judicial process (beginning at 1:52:50 -
1:58:54). It is posted on our webpage “The People Have
Something to Say – & the Evidence to Back It Up”: http://www.judgewatch.org/web-pages/searching-nys/commission-to-investigate-public-corruption/people-evidence/menu-people-evidence.htm
. To watch it is to be convinced that
the Commission concluded it would have to avoid more such testimony from the
public.
How would the Commission accomplish this? By a press release – five days before the
September 24th Albany hearing, limiting its scope to “campaign
finance, outside income of state elected officials or political party
housekeeping accounts” – areas the public would predictably not be able to
testify about. The result was that
members of the public who had not yet registered to testify were deterred from
doing so – and those who had already registered or who registered nonetheless
were informed that their testimony was not germane – as, indeed, it was not
germane to the limited scope of the hearing.
Not surprisingly then, the last witness at
the topic-limited Albany hearing finished more than half an hour before
the scheduled 9:00 pm close. But did the
Commission use that last half hour to open the hearing to those wishing to
testify on other areas? No, it did
not. Instead, and without even asking
whether there were audience members who wished to testify – whose answer it
already knew – and without announcing when the next hearing would be held, or identifying
whether it was to be limited in scope, as the Albany hearing had been, the
Commission abruptly closed the hearing.
Nor did the Commission respond when I then
rushed forward to ask when it would be holding further hearings at which the
public would be able to testify about corruption beyond the limited scope of
that evening hearing.
Tellingly, the Commission’s September 24th
Albany hearing did not have the backdrop banner “Restoring the Public Trust”,
which had been used at the Manhattan hearing.
Nor did it have the sign with the Commission’s name “Commission to
Investigate Public Corruption”, but, rather, “Moreland Commission” – which is
not its name, according to the Executive Order creating it – both of which I
noted, without response from the Commissioners.
Friends, we have achieved great success. We
have seen that the Commission is afraid of what the public has to say – because
when the public presents publicly, it exposes that the Commission is not being
true to its name and announced purpose: to investigate public corruption. What it is doing, instead, is pretending that
the sum total of public corruption can be rectified through public campaign
financing and certain electoral reforms – which is utter nonsense. These will not change the massive and
systemic corruption that pervades our state’s judiciary and other government
branches – to which we can attest from direct, first-hand experience and with
substantiating documents.
The Commission wants us to go away –
because when we do and fail to furnish it with our written statements and
documentary evidence, it doesn’t have to confront the corruption that has not
been furnished it. Therefore, our
strategy is to do the opposite. Our
action agenda must be to inundate the Commission with our statements and
evidence – and to do so publicly – as
publicly as if we were testifying at hearings.
WE
MUST NOT LET UP! It is imperative that as many people as
possible submit written statements and documentation to the Commission – and that
I post them on our webpage: “The People Have Something to Say – and the
Evidence to Back It Up”. Our goal is to list
hundreds – if not thousands – of names of people who have furnished the
Commission with written statements in support of requests to testify at public
hearings – and to create for each person a hyperlinked webpage containing
his/her statement and substantiating evidence.
If, faced with this public
outpouring for unrestricted public hearings, the Commission does not hold
further hearings at which the public can testify as to the huge sweep of public
corruption in this state, we will hold our own hearings. These we will video, post on our “People Have
Something to Say” webpages and provide to the Commission. Additionally, for those who would like to video
their own testimony, we will post the clip – and also provide it to the
Commission.
Remember, 2014 is an important election
year: Governor Cuomo and Attorney
General Schneiderman, who created the Commission to
Investigate Public Corruption to boost their poll numbers so that they could
appear as corruption-fighters, will be up for re-election. So, too, every member of
the Legislature. All that we are
presenting to the Commission, we will furnish to them for responsive action –
and we will hold them all accountable.
Please contact me if your name is not
listed on our “People Have Something to Say – & Evidence to Back It Up”
webpage – so that I can add it and create a webpage for you, on which to post
your written requests to testify before the Commission and written statements,
etc. I am happy to assist you in
drafting your statements so that they can be most effective. All statements should describe the worthlessness of the purported safeguards you
utilized: the Commission on Judicial Conduct, the attorney disciplinary system,
the Attorney General, the District Attorneys, the U.S. Attorneys, the Inspector
General, the Governor, your state legislators.
This, in addition to recusal motions, reargument
motions, motions to vacate for fraud, appellate review, Article 78 proceedings,
federal lawsuits, etc.
Again, this is a HUGE
opportunity – and not
just for victims of judicial corruption.
All persons knowledgeable of public corruption must be alerted and invited
to join the Center for Judicial Accountability’s “People’s Campaign to Hold the
Commission to Investigate Public Corruption True to its Name & Announced
Purpose”. It is now even easier to find,
as our People’s Campaign is emblazoned on our homepage, www.judgewatch.org . SPREAD THE WORD!
Elena Sassower, Director
Center for Judicial
Accountability, Inc. (CJA)
914-455-4373