[Mpls] Z bribe allegation based on fabricated evidence

[Michael Atherton]

Doug Mann responded:

> In a message dated 9/23/2005 "Michael Atherton" wrote,
> 
> > Just for the sake of fairness, before calling for Mr. Hefflefinger's
> > resignation, shouldn't we ask Mr. Zimmermann to make a public
> > declaration of his innocence and provide us with his version of
> > events?
> 
> Is it really fair to demand that Dean Zimmermann prove his innocence?

This is a Straw Mann argument (pun intended).  I never demanded that
Mr. Zimmermann *prove* his innocence.  It's my personal opinion
that Mr. Zimmermann's silence is hurting both his campaign and
the Minneapolis Green Party and their other candidates as well.
As a Green Party candidate I would hope that Mr. Zimmermann would take
the higher moral ground here.  After all, he's not a DFLer. :-|
I certainly hope he doesn't follow Mr. Biernat's example.

> What Dean reportedly told Wizard Marks in an interview concerning 
> a meeting with the cooperating witness can be introduced as evidence 
> in a court of law. According to Marks, Dean said that the FBI's witness 
> accurately quoted him saying "Money, money, money" in response to a 
> question about what he wanted, but the context was a birthday party 
> attended by about 100 people. The FBI's affidavit quoted him out of 
> context. That's an example of how evidence can be fabricated. If the 
> FBI is willing to fabricate evidence to obtain a search warrant 
> from a judge, why wouldn't the FBI fabricate evidence to obtain a 
> conviction from a jury?

Boy, this just never stops spinning.  The, "Money, money, money,"
remark may have just been used to show motivation and intent.  In
and of itself it wouldn't have been sufficient to justify a warrant.
There had to be more (fabricated or not).

> Just for the sake of argument, let us say that Dean Zimmermann 
> is innocent, that he is being falsely accused of wrongdoing by 
> the FBI's cooperating witness, and that Mr. Zimmermann's lawyer 
> is competent and believes that his client is innocent. Dean's 
> lawyer will almost certainly advise him to not provide us, 
> and the FBI, with his version of events, because the FBI can use 
> that  information to build its case, coach its witnesses, etc.

Mr. Zimmermann is facing tradeoff, he can run out the best strategy
to defend himself in court and lose the election.  Or, he can
take the slight risk that as an innocent person he might be falsely
convicted and instead maximize his chances for reelection.  From my
perspective Mr. Zimmermann's current strategy isn't very Green.

Michael Atherton
Prospect Park