And we know how thorough and accurate the fbi is with it's records. I just can't figure why they kept so much in reserve.
Also, when does client-attorney confidentiality end? Can your lawyer rat you out when you stop paying? As for the rest, we put up with a little of this and that but there is a limit. The boundary may be nebulous but the poles are well defined. We know that a line was crossed by sense of smell, and we know that when the fruit of a tree is consistently rotten there is something wrong with the tree. Why has our legal system become so labyrinthine and insular that laymen can't begin to comprehend it?
1) “And we know how thorough and accurate the fbi is with it’s records. I just can’t figure why they kept so much in reserve.”
Because they already had a guilty plea and considered the case over except for the sentencing. The law governing Brady is quite large and complicated, and every day prosecutors disagree with defense attorneys about what is “exculpatory” or what needs to be disclosed. I guarantee you, after a guilty plea EVERY prosecutor considers Brady to be a closed issue, and they have the law backing them up on that.
2) “Also, when does client-attorney confidentiality end? Can your lawyer rat you out when you stop paying? “
Part of Powell’s gross incompetence was putting Covington in a position where they were legally allowed to disclose attorney/client communications. She accused them of heinous wrongdoing and they are now allowed to answer her accusation. And IMO they will make Powell look foolish and reckless, if not outright deceptive. That is what she fears, and what has been driving her “strategy.”
3) “As for the rest, we put up with a little of this and that but there is a limit. The boundary may be nebulous but the poles are well defined. We know that a line was crossed by sense of smell, and we know that when the fruit of a tree is consistently rotten there is something wrong with the tree.”
Part of Powell’s gross incompetence is her relentless publicity campaign where she makes horrible public accusations against parties. Even if she were 100% correct in her accusations (she is not) she should not have been discussing the Flynn case as she did on TV every other night. And it is Powell and Powell alone who is responsible for smearing Sullivan. What attorney does that when the judge could be sentencing her client? Answer: only a blithering idiot.
The public has not the faintest idea what goes on in a case, any case. They just think they know because the TV or newspaper told them. But the TV or newspaper has zero interest in the true details of a case, and they are NEVER, and I mean NEVER, reported in a completely accurate or comprehensive way. So the public often does not know what they so confidently think they know.
4) “Why has our legal system become so labyrinthine and insular that laymen can’t begin to comprehend it?”
Because we follow the common law (roughly speaking) which means that millions of distinct legal issues have been contemplated, debated and decided for hundreds of years. And the amazing aspect of the law is how new legal issues arise even in very old areas of the law. People’s lives, liberties and fortunes hang on legal issues which are minute, but have to be decided one way or the other, often when the heart says one thing and the head says another.
It takes years of study AND experience to fully understand even “simple” concepts, like reasonable doubt. The “problem” for laymen is that they think of law as a battle of good and bad, just and unjust, when things are usually far more complicated and inconclusive, even unknowable.