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John
John Romano is a well known and controversial writer and champion of the Libertarian cause.  For 18 years he held the position of Senior Editor at Muscular Development magazine. He also contributed to Fitness Rx for Women magazine as well as Fitness RX for Men magazine.  He also authored and co-authored several books in the bodybuilding and fitness field.
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Government Prosecutions of the Rich & Famous: Can WE Afford Any More?

by: John Romano

“The prosecutor has more control over life, liberty, and reputation than any other person in America. His discretion is tremendous... While the prosecutor at his best is one of the most beneficent forces in our society, when he acts from malice or other base motives, he is one of the worst...  If the prosecutor is obliged to choose his cases, it follows that he can choose his defendants. Therein is the most dangerous power of the prosecutor: that he will pick people that he thinks he should get, rather than pick cases that need to be prosecuted.”— Attorney General Robert Jackson, 1940

With two of the nations most recent high profile federal prosecutions now done: the retrial of the greatest pitcher in the history of baseball and a candidate for president, the government stands, again, the loser. Unfortunately, while the government may have lost those battles, we, the taxpayers, are supporting this insane, inept, war on the rich and famous. It seems almost surreal that federal prosecutors would not only seek to imprison the greatest home run hitter in the world, the greatest pitcher, a candidate for president, and on deck, the greatest bike rider in the world, and end up crashing and burning on everyone of them (they are not going to get Lance either).

Losing is one thing, but footing the bill is another. That’s because it’s our bill. They go out and create this folly, rack up the bill, lose and mosey on over to the next charade leaving us to clean up the mess. When prosecutors use their power to try purely political cases, they become, in then Attorney General Jackson's words, "one of the worst" forces in our society. The Justice Department's priorities of late have been disastrously out of whack.

Let's start earlier this century with the misplaced Congressional hearings on steroids in baseball. In a time while we were at war, with trillions of dollars of debt, threatened everyday by the possibility of terrorists attacks, worldwide economic failure, what was Congress doing wasting millions of dollars and time having steroid hearings? To give you some perspective, Congress spent more time discussing steroids in baseball then they did the war in the middle east, The terror attacks of 9/11 and why the levies broke after Katrina, COMBINED! Clemens, Bonds, Lance Armstrong, even former presidential hopeful John Edwards are headline athletes and politicians who attract lots of media attention. Yet, when the seven tobacco company executives, known as “the Seven Dwarves,” testified before Congress to the egregious notion that nicotine was not addictive, no one batted an eye and those congressional hearings ended with not a single indictment for any of those who profited from selling lung cancer to America and lying about its nature.

Did Clemens take steroids? Who really cares? Yet the government showed the jury in his trial an enlarged photo of the country with all the sites where federal agents investigated the case. Clemens attorney, Rusty Hardin, pointed out it involved 103 law enforcement officers, five attorneys, 229 investigation reports and 72 investigation locations across the continental United States, Germany and Puerto Rico. And what did they give us for all that? Nothing but a $6MM bill. Let's also not forget that Clemens had five years of his life ruined, his family tormented, his finances devastated, his Baseball Hall of Fame chances probably dashed in spite of his six Cy Young awards, and he, like Barry Bonds, and the rest of those snared in BALCO and its subsequent investigations and congressional hearings, is forever tarnished with the accusations made by legal bureaucrats. Was anything learned?

Apparently not, they are still after Lance Armstrong. John Edwards’ prosecution was not for being a reprobate, not even for his questionable choice of adulteress. He was tried for violating campaign finance laws for allegedly using $900,000 in political donations to hide her. As one of his attorneys explained, Edwards was not trying to influence the election: he was simply trying to hide his pregnant girlfriend, Rielle Hunter, from his wife. Certainly many politicians get away with far worse with no reprisal. Barry Bonds, after a prosecution that reportedly cost more than $55 million, was sentenced to 30 days house arrest on a misdemeanor – which is under appeal and still won’t be heard until sometime in 2013 at yet more cost to the government and himself.



Even if he loses and gets house arrest is that really a punishment? Have you seen his house? It would take me 30 days just to find my way from the media room to the kitchen and back! The tens of millions spent to prosecute Bonds, Clemens, and Edwards and the continuing saga against Lance Armstrong could have done much more to help the economy and create jobs. Wouldn’t that be a much better use of federal dollars? The Roger Clemens prosecution debacle is just a couple of weeks cold and it already has ceased to exist. It's as if the near five-year investigation, near two-year-old indictment,one mistrial for prosecutorial  misconduct and the several months long trial never happened. Well, it shouldn’t have.

The real pisser here is that the feds don’t learn. The federal agent at the heart of this whole mess, the guy who started rooting around in the BALCO dumpsters in 2001, is a rogue agent named Jeff Novitzky. He is the common denominator in this whole extremely expensive prosecutorial disaster from BALCO to Bonds to Clemens (but not Edwards), and he’s still on the loose with Lance Armstrong in his crosshairs. Why is he still out there? Any corporate executive with a record as dismal as his would have been fired long ago and be mopping floors in a high school at midnight. But for some reason we still have Novitzky (who was promoted from IRS agent to FDA special agent) and his impossible price tag. Maybe after he loses his bid to bag Armstrong he will get his book deal and we can be done with him and this whole embarrassing chapter in prosecutorial zeal. But, I doubt it.





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