What's Good For The Goose...
I’m watching an old (2011-2019) 9 season series on Netflix now, Suits (which includes Meghan Markle, now Prince Harry’s wife). Last night a distraught father talks about his 28 year old son who hd been busted with an ounce of pot and confined in a private prison where he died under suspicious circumstances. It’s cases like that that make we furious at our justice system and that makes me an advocate for justice reform. However… cases like the Trump RICO mobsters sends me in the exact opposite direction— firing squads.
Wednesday, the NY Times described Atlanta’s notorious jail, “Rice Street,” where the Trump mobsters will be processed over the next week as both unsafe and unsanitary. If it was up to me Mark Meadows, John Eastman, Rudy G and the rest of the gang would have to make it less unsanitary by licking every surface with their tongues while they are being held. Instead, they will all “undergo a medical screening, be fingerprinted and have mug shots taken, and could spend time in a holding cell at the jail… by noon on Aug. 25.”
The Rice street jail is not a place for the faint of heart, said Robert Rubin, a veteran defense lawyer who has had many clients booked there. In recent weeks, two inmates have been found dead at the jail. Last year, a detainee was found dead in his cell, his body covered in bites from bed bugs and other insects, according to his lawyer.
At least two songs on Spotify are titled “901 Rice Street,” the jail’s address. The popular rapper Latto has a song whose title refers to Rice Street with an expletive. And a line from a Killer Mike rap goes, “Locked in like Rice Street without a bond.”
Typically, as soon as a defendant surrenders to the police, they go to a holding area with other detainees, Mr. Rubin said. “It’s miserable. It’s cold. It smells. It’s just generally unpleasant,” he said, relying on his clients’ past descriptions. “Plus, there’s a high degree of anxiety for any defendant that’s in that position.”
At some point after that comes the booking process, which includes checking to see if the detainee has outstanding warrants. Rubin says that the computer systems used for such checks sometimes fail, causing delays.
Gerald Griggs, another Atlanta-area trial lawyer, said the booking process could take “four hours or four days,” although a matter of hours at Rice Street is the most likely scenario for the defendants in the Trump case. That is because their lawyers will have probably negotiated their bond with prosecutors before turning themselves in, obviating the need for a bond hearing before a judge.
…Rubin says that he advises his clients to prepare for the experience by showing up at Rice Street in comfortable clothes with minimal personal belongings, which will likely be confiscated for the duration of their stay.
Maybe Rudy can hire Rubin or Griggs. I bet they don’t cost nearly as much as the fancy lawyers from New York he has working for him— that he can’t afford. He’s trying to sell his 3-bedroom Upper East Side apartment for $6.5 million… but it’s been on the market for a while and he’s going to have to bring down the price (by about half). Although maybe Trump could buy it as a way of helping his old pal out. Probably not though. A couple days ago, CNN reported that Rudy and one of the fancy attorneys, Robert Costello, went down to Mar-a-Lago in April, hats in hand, to beg Trump to take care of his 7-figure legal bills. Señor T, “who is notoriously strict about dipping into his own coffers, didn’t seem very interested. After Costello made his pitch, Trump verbally agreed to help with some of Giuliani’s legal bills without committing to any specific amount or timeline. Trump also agreed to stop by two fundraisers for Giuliani… Trump only agreed to cover a small fee from a data vendor hosting Giuliani’s records. And months later, Trump’s Save America PAC paid $340,000 to that vendor, Trustpoint, federal campaign filings show. CNN has now confirmed the payment was intended to settle Giuliani’s outstanding bill with the company.”
Rudy G is under a lot of financial stress “as his legal troubles have continued to pile up. But what has surprised those in Trump’s inner circle is the former president’s unwillingness to pay for Giuliani’s bills, given Giuliani could find himself under intense pressure to cooperate with the federal and state prosecutors who have charged Trump. Giuliani sat down voluntarily with special counsel Jack Smith’s investigators this summer, and he was indicted this week in Georgia by the Fulton County district attorney. ‘It’s not a smart idea’ for Trump to refuse to pay Giuliani’s legal fees, one person close to the situation told CNN, referencing how Trump’s relationship with Michael Cohen famously deteriorated while he was investigated by special counsel Robert Mueller.”