To make a point about the conundrum facing Stephen Castor, U.S. House Intelligence Committee Counsel for the Republican minority, 22-year-prosecutor Patrick Frey snuck in a dig earlier today right here in these pages.
Defendants often have no real defense based on the facts and merits. So they and their lawyers try to make a simple, straightforward question seem very, very complicated. They attack the process. They scream that the prosecution is engaged in a witch hunt. They try to vilify law enforcement, whether it be the police or the prosecutors. The more unscrupulous defendants may intimidate witnesses, fabricate evidence, or tell falsehoods under oath. …
But all guilty defendants who go to trial try to deny the reality in front of everyone's face. They scream and yell and try to get the fact-finder upset, annoyed, distracted … anything but focused on the facts and evidence. And if they find jurors who are emotionally inclined to lean towards the defense, these tactics can work.
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