Lying lawyers catch hell from PO’d judges

The front page of Friday’s Inquirer had two stories side by side that had something in common. I am pretty sure the placement was coincidental.

One story concerned the disbarment in federal courts of one of Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner’s top prosecutors.

Next door, the other story reported that a federal judge freed illegal immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia from detention. 

What was the commonality between the stories?

You might be shocked: Government lawyers lied to judges. And lied like Tommy Flanagan. (For younger readers, Flanagan was a pathological liar, a character created by comedian Jon Lovitz.)

So the people we “trust” to obey the law, enforce it, and to color inside the lines, break the law, and our trust. It attacks Justice.

And in this duet of do-badders, one is led by a Democrat, Krasner, while the other is led by a Republican, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Neither Krasner nor Noem were directly involved, but they are where the buck stops. They are responsible.

Knowing Krasner’s antipathy toward law enforcement, I doubt he had great differences with Paul George, the disgraced prosecutor. Knowing Noem’s disinterest in legal norms, I doubt she had much of an issue with fibbing to a judge, whose decision DHS claimed was “naked judicial activism.” 

You remember the case of Garcia, who was unlawfully deported to El Salvdor’s notorious CECOT prison despite the 2019 order of an immigration judge that he could not be deported to El Salvador. 

This is not to say he should not be deported. He can be, after due process. This isn’t about his guilt or innocence, it is about government misconduct.

After Garcia was returned to the states, DHS held him in a Pennsylvania prison. He was recently ordered released by U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, who found that government lawyers “did not just stonewall” the court, “They affirmatively misled the tribunal.”

They lied. 

In the Philadelphia case, U.S. District Judge Mitchell Goldberg found that the D.A.’s office had provided incomplete and misleading information in an effort to reverse a death penalty sentence imposed on Robert Wharton.

Three federal judges concluded earlier this year, according to the Inquirer, that George’s actions were “misleading and dishonest,” saying he had lied to Goldberg about key facts, “flouted the interests of the public and the victims’ families."

This was all part of an effort by the D.A. to undo or undermine all death penalty cases.

George’s conduct, the Inquirer reported, was the result of a “selfish or dishonest motive — placing the DAO’s policy priorities above its responsibilities,” wrote U.S. District Judges Paul S. Diamond, Gerald J. Pappert, and John M. Gallagher.

Their recommendation was that he be disbarred.

George has filed an appeal. His attorneys acknowledge he had made “mistakes” in his handling of Wharton’s case.

A mistake is ordering a sweater that’s the wrong size, not lying to the court.

Here’s something else the two cases have in common, in my opinion: All of the liars may have been motivated by a belief that they were doing the “right” thing.

That’s wrong thinking, and it seems like a growing stain in our culture.

I know Krasner believes the death penalty is immoral, and pledged to never seek it as D.A. George is one of his disciples. The way they see it, if the law is wrong, they are free to undermine it.

I’m equally sure that Noem and her disciples believe people like Garcia are an actual threat to America and must be disposed of, regardless of what the courts say.

Both sides are wrong and help undermine institutions that are already under attack from both Left and Right.

Nullifying or undermining the rule of law brings us one step closer to a society in which people obey only laws they agree with. That leads to chaos.

Some of you probably disagree with immigration law and choose to ignore it, such as is done in Sanctuary Cities.

How would you feel about others who feel, just as righteously, that fair housing laws restrict the rights of landlords who refuse to rent Blacks or gays?

Oh, I can hear you say, but discrimination is wrong.

So is illegal immigration.

In a democracy, when you disagree with a law, there are proper ways to change it — through the legal system, or through legislation.

The improper way is to ignore it, or lie to get around it.