I drove up to NH today, gorgeous blue-skied day to go digging around the Court Clerk’s offices in Federal District Court, just to see what lawyers for convicted phone-jamming conspirator James Tobin are up to in exchange for the $2.3 million they’ve been paid (so far) by the Republican National Committee (RNC).
Tobin’s lawyers did their best work for the RNC during his trial, by convincing him that they would get him acquitted. Tobin chose not to make any plea bargain–and unknown numbers of unindicted co-conspirators breathed a sigh of relief. But despite “his” lawyers’ confidence, Mr. Tobin was convicted and shamed.
Now defense lawyers have filed three separate kinds of appeals. The boldest of these asks the district court to acquit Tobin, setting aside his jury’s verdict of guilty. Failing that, a different appeal demands that Tobin be given a second trial. A third appeal asks the court to “arrest judgment”. (Some relevant documents.)
Much of this effort is based on technicalities that have nothing to do with the conspirators’ attempt to disrupt a Federal election. Pages are spent complaining that phone calls don’t “harass” the recipient unless they are intended to cause fear. More pages are spent claiming that Tobin didn’t know that Democrats’ phone lines would be jammed with repeated phone calls–he might have thought they would be jammed by some different method.
Most if not all of these quibbles were already advanced during Tobin’s trial, to no avail. So what is the point of these scattershot appeals? Maybe the goal is to keep Mr. Tobin quiet until all his chances to swap information for mercy have passed him by. But what do I know–I am not a lawyer.
Interestingly, the defense’s motion for judgment of acquittal acknowledges that James Tobin did telephone Allen Raymond in order to promote the phone-jamming. During his trial they dramatically produced a witness who swore that Tobin’s phone call to Raymond was made at her behest, and on quite different business.
And I didn’t even tell you yet about my trip to Hillsborough County Courthouse in Manchester. Or my nominee for the coming-soon fourth indictment. Paul Kiel at TPMCafe thinks it’s Darryl Henry; I have a different idea. But for tonight, I’m getting too tired to type.