After gaining limelight for concluding a number of Wall Street and Bitcoin cases, US Attorney Preet Bharara recently had a bitter work relationship with elevated authorities.
The incidence is drawn out from an opinion piece issued by Manhattan’s Federal District Court Judge Valerie E. Caproni, over Bharara’s recent public remarks on Assemblyman Sheldon Silver. According to the senior judge, Bharara was completely off his jurisdiction limits while making derogating remarks over a person who is currently facing a criminal trial related to fraud and extortion. She bashed the New York attorney for branding the accused as a convict even before the actual ruling, thereby ignoring the principles of law that demands fair trial for each and every person on the stand. A prosecutorial misconduct, clear and cut.
“In this case,” Caproni said, “the U.S. Attorney, while castigating politicians in Albany for playing fast and loose with the ethical rules that govern their conduct, strayed so close to the edge of the rules governing his own conduct that Defendant Sheldon Silver has a non-frivolous argument that he fell over the edge to the Defendant’s prejudice.”
Nevertheless, this is not the first time Bharara made the headlines for compromising with judicial ethics and abusing public opinion. Earlier this month, he was called by the Federal Court for distorting trading law books, a step that ultimately led the panel to overturn a few of his previous convictions.
Which brings us to Ross Ulbricht, the “alleged” operator of the underground drug marketplace Silk Road, who was recently convicted on the grounds of allegations made by Bharara. The man was indeed bashed publicly, as we all have seen, that helped the prosecutors create an abusive environment for him.
Moreover, the recent findings of two DEA agents involved in corruption point towards a cooked-up Silk Road investigation, which cannot be swallowed down well by the Ross Ulbricht supporters. It would still be difficult to say whether the jury’s mindset was tampered to convict the Bitcoin entrepreneur, but a demand of a fair trial can be asked on the grounds of Bharara’s style of justice.
Please provide your views whether Ross Ulbricht should be granted another trial in the comment section below.
