Meet the new federal judge who gets to sit on the london silver fix trial...
http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2013/09...federal-judge/
A former senior FBI official implicated in surveillance abuses is poised to become a federal judge in one of the US’s most important courts for terrorism cases.
Valerie Caproni, the FBI’s top lawyer from 2003 to 2011, is scheduled to receive a vote on Monday in the Senate for a seat on the southern district court of New York.
Caproni has come under bipartisan criticism over the years for enabling widespread surveillance later found to be inappropriate or illegal. During her tenure as the FBI’s general counsel, she clashed with Congress and even the Fisa surveillance court over the proper scope of the FBI’s surveillance powers.
“It is a shame that the White House has chosen to nominate former FBI general counsel Valerie Caproni to a lifelong position as a federal judge given her narrow views of Americans’ privacy rights as demonstrated by her actions in the George W Bush administration,” said Lisa Graves, a Justice Department official in the Clinton and early Bush administrations.
A representative of the defense company Northrop Grumman, where Caproni currently serves as an executive, said Caproni was not available for interviews.
Even before the Guardian’s phone records revelations, provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, lawmakers found Caproni to be complicit in surveillance abuses.
“The FBI broke the law on telephone records privacy and the general counsel’s office, headed by Valerie Caproni, sanctioned it and must face consequences,” said John Conyers, then the chairman of the House judiciary committee, in April 2010, who called for then-FBI director Robert Mueller to fire her.
At one meeting in 2007, Graves recalled, “Caproni said she thought civil libertarians were wasting their time complaining about the NSL [national security letter] powers because the government could just obtain all that information and more through a 215 order by the Fisa court or through a grand jury subpoena issued by a single federal prosecutor and because those orders are secret we would never know. When pressed about that, she insisted that going around the limits on the NSL powers by using 215 or grand jury subpoenas was no big deal and a perfectly permissible use of those powers.”
Graves said: “That may be technically true, but it also demonstrates her lack of regard for Americans’ countervailing interest not to have records about their communications or business transactions swept up in secret by government agencies without any indication that they themselves have done anything wrong.”
While Caproni’s nomination by President Obama has largely flown under the Washington radar, it has not been without controversy. Senator Chuck Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate judiciary committee, threatened in June to block Caproni’s impending judgeship when it goes for a vote on Monday.
“The southern district of New York has historically been the premier venue for terrorism cases. Today, many of the most high profile of these cases continue to find their way into this district court. Its historical memory, and the experience of its judges, are second to none,” said Karen Greenberg, director of Fordham University’s Center on National Security.
“For all of her virtues, you have to think twice about putting someone on the court with this level of concern about her role in surveillance abuses,” Greenberg said. “The symbolism of this is significant. The courts are torn over this issue.”
With judges like these…
http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...alerie-caproni
-----------------
Well, we can be very confident that the banks who participated in the silver price fix fraud will get slaps on the wrist with a wet noodle at best, or at worst, pay yet another "one-time, non-recurring fee" roughly equal to about .000002% of what was gained by the illegal action
Reply With Quote
