Franken Lawyer Gets Coleman Witness to Concede Having Bad Evidence
The Minnesota election trial just had a truly brutal moment, one that could undermine the credibility of Norm Coleman's whole case.
The Coleman campaign summoned political director Kristen Fuzer up to the stand to testify to the provenance of the photocopies of rejected absentee ballots that they've submitted in their efforts to get those ballots counted. You may recall that the Franken campaign last week pointed to some apparent alterations in the photocopied envelopes.
Coleman lawyer Joe Friedberg briefly interviewed Fuzer. Then it was Franken lawyer Marc Elias' turn.
Elias showed Fuzer a side-by-side comparison of an unaltered copy of one envelope and the version in the Coleman camp's filing, with the latter missing the section where the local official described why it was rejected. Fuzer said it looked like a photocopying problem -- as Coleman lawyer James Langdon said last week.
Then Elias showed her another comparison, and another, and another. In all, five altered ballot envelopes were shown, and in all five instances the obliterated information was the reason for the ballot to have been rejected. In some instances Fuzer said it was a photocopying error, while in other cases she said the Coleman camp probably thought the writing they were erasing was their own Post-It note, and not the local official's.
At one point Elias asked if it might be best for the campaign to go back and review their copies. Said Fuzer: "I agree."
Late Update: One more thing should be noted here. During her whole cross-examination, Fuzer looked really uncomfortable, and was frequently glancing back at the Coleman table with a nervous expression on her face. I can't say I blame her.
Josh
Elana
Matt
Eric
We know Republicans will go to any lengths to steal an election, so this is no shocker. If they were gonna fabricate "evidence", you'd think it wouldn't be so obvious.
January 26, 2009 4:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
"If they were gonna fabricate "evidence", you'd think it wouldn't be so obvious."
Given their history, I can't imagine why you'd think that.
January 26, 2009 4:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
I have just established the Eric Kleefeld Law School Scholarship Fund
Donations gratefully accepted
January 26, 2009 4:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
The world has enough lawyers, but not nearly enough good journalists. Don't do it, Eric!
January 26, 2009 5:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
This case is going from the comedically painful to the painfully comedic.
January 26, 2009 4:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
If they can not explain this in a complete and coherent manner, I would like to see criminal charges brought against the Coleman campaign, and even Quimby himself.
Conspiracy and obstruction of justice might be a good starting point.
January 26, 2009 5:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Acrually things just got a lot worse for Coleman. The second witness they called just contradicted Coleman's lawyer, and the first witness by saying that the omissions on the envelopes was through over zealous redaction of notes the Coleman camp thought Coleman workers had added to the envelopes.
Basically, the judges cannot tell what was and was not on the original envelopes -- and they just ruled that the copies cannot be admitted into evidence.
January 26, 2009 5:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
At what point do the judges rule that Norm Coleman is simply too incompetent to be a US Senator and throw the whole case out? These guys are making the prosecution in the OJ Simpson trial look good.
January 26, 2009 5:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Republicans have gotten away scott free even with egregriously obvious caging, fabrication, impossible statistical anomalies, tampering with evidence (removing machines and memory cards and replacing them in Ohio for one), simply shredding documents and evidence, "losing" emails, etc., and they haven't had a single consequence to pay, plus they've gained a whole lot of anti-democratic "benefit" for themselves. Why should they stop now? Nor has sloppiness ever been a disadvantage before. So why should that concern them now? "Oh wait, the dems are finally getting their collective wits together and anticipate these escapades. They're not simply caving when we call them conspiracy theorists and terrorists! Now whaddawe do?" Bumble forward and keep creatin' reality. Mazel tov! I think Al Franken will make a fine senator and a good hedge against Blue Dog conciliation if his legal strategy and success is any indication of his Senate office's competence.
January 26, 2009 6:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
How little respect does one have to have that they can erase notes made on court evidence? To me that smells of contempt of court. Obviously I'm not an attorney and it is more likely merely evidence tampering. I am disgusted at how cavalier the Coleman camp is in their handling of these documents, and how accomodating the court is to their misbehavior.
How can they have document and an eraser in the same room, even!?!?!
January 26, 2009 7:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
How soon does the court hear motions for Summary Dismissal. Hopefully at this time the court will end this sham and put Coleman out of his miserable attempt to steal an election.
January 26, 2009 7:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is VERY GOOD NEWS-for the lawyer who will earn a nice fee representing NORM COLEMAN in criminal charges of election fraud!!!!
January 26, 2009 9:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Adios Norm.
Good news for Minnesotans!
January 27, 2009 1:06 AM | Reply | Permalink
America is running amok. The imposter or non-natural born can be president, the comedian can run for senator.
Even if the imposter broke the US Constitution, his richest friends will make him one by amending the US Constitution to fit themselves.
If the imposter was realy a natural born, his friends would have not worked so hard to amend it.
http://lawreview.kentlaw.edu/articles/81-1/Herlihy.pdf
Libertarian
January 27, 2009 1:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
No, a non-natural born citizen can not become President. The constitution has not been amended and there is little or no likelihood that it will be in the near future. Most of the people proposing such ammendments in Congress are friends or supporters of Arnold Schwarzenegger who may be a jerk but is not an imposter.
If you are refering to President Obama, you are an idiot. The evidence is overwhelming that he was, in fact, born in the state of Hawaii.
As for the comedian who recently ran for an won a Senate race, we have a long history of electing celebrities to public office. When the comedian in question is also an astute political commentator and is running against an incompetent and corrupt incumbent, the only surprise is that the race was as close as it was.
January 27, 2009 6:01 AM | Reply | Permalink
Lady Bird, you are way off base.
First, President Obama IS a natural born citizen. He is not an imposter. The article you cite, which argues for amending the Constitution to allow naturalized citizens to become President, in no way implies that Obama is not a natural born citizen.
And of course a comedian can run for Senator. Why wouldn't a comedian be able to run? We had an actor as President (remember Ronald Regan?), and California has an actor as Governor again. Actors and comedians are very similar, wouldn't you agree?
A lot of comedians are very smart people. Al Franken is a very smart person. You probably know that he went to Harvard. Have you read any of his recent books? Ever listen to his radio program? The man knows what he's talking about.
In short, you don't make a very strong argument.
-- ARG
January 27, 2009 10:24 AM | Reply | Permalink
Not to gang up on Lady Bird, but frankly, she deserves it for such idiocy. One point the previous two commenters didn't note yet is that the Constitution is, uh, not exactly easy for "his richest friends" to amend willy-nilly, to put it mildly. Lady Bird, do you even have the slightest idea of how the Constitution is amended? Here's a hint: it's not easy, a few rich guys can't make it so, and some Republicans would have to go along. Look it up.
Of course, this is all trivia, since the point in question about Obama's citizenship is a bunch of 50-IQ blithering idiot Limbaugh-addict nonsense. But hey.
January 27, 2009 6:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Lady Bird,
The candidate that may have more of an issue with the Natural born clause would have been John McCain; born in panama.
To call Franken simply a comedian is lazy on your part. He's a Harvard graduate who is also a best selling author.
Now, lock yourself in a room and repeat 500 times, "President Obama", and "Senator Franken".
January 27, 2009 5:50 PM | Reply | Permalink