Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

October 18 2012

Thanks to the sadistic creativity of federal prosecutor Wendy Olson,Nampa,Idahoresident Kurt Barnes will spend a year in prison and three years on probation. His offense did not involve violence, theft, or fraud. It didn?t consist of doing anything, but rather neglecting to do something: Barnes was charged with ?misprision of felony? ? that is, failure to report a crime to the police.

The problem here is that no crime was actually committed. Barnes was general manager of a used car company targeted in an IRS sting operation four years ago. Undercover IRS informants posing as drug dealers offered to buy cars with cash they described as proceeds from narcotics deals. The dealership?s finance manager, Joseph Monte Johnson, agreed to the sales, and promised to conceal the details of the transactions.

After Johnson was arrested and charged with money laundering, Olson offered him a deal in exchange for testifying against Barnes. To enhance Johnson?s credibility, Olson sought to prevent disclosure of Johnson?s prior felony convictions ? which is essentially the same act for which Barnes now faces a prison term. The difference here is that Olson, unlike Barnes, actually succeeded in stealing something ? in this case, a year of a man?s life.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.