Hinckley freed for day trips. Hi Mom! Hi Dad! Seen any good movies lately? These kitchen knives are rather dull - I think I'll just sharpen them.
But to answer the question, what genius decided Johnny needed some R&R despite his continued "deceptive behavior"? It was a Clinton appointed judge, of course. Lowell Ponte has some more details on ole Judge Friedman. Like:
Clintonoid Judge Paul L. Friedman eagerly accepted the case of Democratic fundraiser Charlie Yah Lin Trie and threw out many charges against him. Trie later pled guilty after a federal appeals court overturned Friedman’s ruling.I guess ole Paulie's just a forgiving kind of guy!
Friedman’s involvement in this case, wrote Associated Press reporter Pete Yost of what expert observers thought, raised “an appearance problem at least” of “whether there has been impartial administration of justice.”
But Judge Friedman’s ideological reign of impropriety was only beginning. He gave only a feather-light slap on the wrist to Pauline Kanchanalak despite her illegal funneling of nearly $700,000 in illegal foreign contributions into Democratic coffers. He meted out even less punishment to Maria Hsia for her criminal role in Al Gore’s brown bag corrupt fundraising in 1996 at a Los Angeles Buddhist Temple. By arbitrarily dismissing virtually all charges against Hsia, Friedman made it almost impossible for prosecutors to plea bargain for her testimony against Clinton or Gore.
But while Judge Friedman found nothing wrong with Democrats raking in millions of foreign dollars in “soft money,” he in 1995 came down like a ton of bricks against Republican fundraising by Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich’s political action committee GOPAC.Hmm, I guess not.
“Can a judge be swayed by promises of future advancement, even to the Supreme Court if they rule correctly?” asked one commentator sardonically after observing Friedman’s rulings helpful to President Clinton and Vice President Gore.
Since then Judge Friedman has upheld the Internal Revenue Service selective removal of tax exempt status from a church that criticized then-President Bill Clinton. He has ordered Vice President Dick Cheney to turn over thousands of pages of documents from his confidential Energy Task Force for Democrat exploitation. He has continued to be one of America’s most relentlessly Democrat-friendly judges.
