When Ayers said “weather underground had nothing to do with xxx bombing.” Kelly should have asked how did you know, “were all bombing operations approved by you prior to going hot?”
He implied it.
Prosecutors? hello? prosecutors!
The feds blew their case against Ayers and Dorn by use of an illegal wiretap to gather evidence. When the two of them surrendered to authorities, they fulled expected to spend decades in jail, but (instead) discovered they would never be punished. “Guilty as sin, free as a bird,” was Ayers’ famous comment.
An important footnote: while the feds had to drop their case, the state of Illinois still had the authority to prosecute Ayers and Dorn for Weather Underground crimes committed in that state. The state’s attorney who decided not to file charges? None other than Richard M. Daley, son of “Da Mare” and a future Chicago mayor himself. Daley’s father and Ayer’s father (chairman of Commonwealth Edison) were close.
The elder Daley turned to Ayers to negotiate with black radicals in the wake of race riots in the late 60s, promising fair housing laws without really delivering. Mayor Daley famously remarked that Tom Ayers could talk out of both sides of his mouth and make both groups believe he was working in their interest. So, the Daley family owed Tom Ayers a favor, and they returned it by not prosecuting his terrorist son and daughter-in-law.
From there, it was just a hop, skip and jump to Columbia University where Bill Ayers knocked out a master’s and PhD
in education, at the same time Barry Soerto was an undergrad. Then on to a state school in Illinois and a professorship, while Dorn joined the law faculty at Northwestern. Meanwhile, Tom Ayers was providing a boost to a former community organizer who would launch his political career in Bill Ayers’s living room.
Just connect the dots. Pretty amazing for two 60s’ radicals who should still be in prison.