I knew it.  Khayat had his bell rung.  Sayeth he . . .

“Throughout his adult life, he has been a model citizen . . .”

Yeah. Right up until the point where he bribed a judge.

An exec from 60 Minutes weighs in . . .

“I observed Mr. Scruggs demonstrate a humanity and largesse that frankly is rare in a profession that has become known for rapacious conduct.”

Largesse?  I guess $40K to a circuit judge displays incredible largesse.  And rapacious conduct?  Did he mean like bribing a judge?

There are 481 letters in the Scruggs file alone.

Are they only allowing a review of the actual letters?  They’re not providing copies?

Don’t know.  Judge’s order says “The movant herein may examine the requested information in the office ofthe court clerk on Wednesday, June 25, 2008.” Hopefully someone has a digital camera in there.  What one person may see as irrelevant---someone else may see something totally different.

I certainly have a lot of faith in Tom that he will pick up on what’s germane and get it out, but that’s not the point.  Where/how does Biggers draw the line between providing access to the data and just providing the data?  Can the letters be transcribed?  Could you take a picture of them?  Could you scan them?  Is there anything specifically that says they couldn’t be published?

It is a weird, slippery slope he has embarked down.

I think NMC will do a good job, didn’t mean to imply otherwise-my bad.  Judge order says--the court finds that no presumption of confidentiality attaches to pre-sentencing letters sent to the court.  Right there, it tells us that they are open records now.  Just imagine 500 requests coming in requesting clerk to copy all those letters.  Maybe judge said--they are public record, if you want to see them, come on down.  I doubt there would be any problem in scanning/copying those items if you had time and equipment to do so. 

Biggers wrote. “The court will allow testimony from a maximum of three persons for each defendant in the defendant’s discretion.” Wonder who those 3 people will be????

Can we just send in Sandy Berger to help get copies of all the letters?  He has a good track record at getting documents.

Somehow this all reminds me of the Christopher Walken movie “King of New York.”
Somehow a “bad guy” that steals and cheats to help the poor and disadvantaged is somehow a “good guy.”