Free Republic

An innocent man is freed.  Alan Dershowitz and numerous congressmen, senators and former US attorneys general spanning the entire political spectrum all put their names and reputations on the line for him.  Hundreds of thousands of Jews, and many Righteous Gentiles, celebrate around the world.  As usual, that doesn't stop the social justice warriors (what a complete misnomer if ever their were one).  And if that were all that happen, who would care?  If PETA wants to go around smearing the kindest and greatest we have, that's between them and the bird brains they represent.  But when people who know...

At the end of a meeting with President Donald Trump this fall about the Middle East peace process, attorney Alan Dershowitz turned the conversation to a matter closer to home: The prison sentence of Sholom Rubashkin, the Kosher meatpacking executive then serving a 27-year prison sentence for bank fraud. Rubashkin, whose kosher meat firm AgriProcessors was the subject of a Forward expose in 2006 over the mistreatment of its workers, has been a case célèbre in some circles since his conviction in 2010. Dershowitz is among Rubashkin’s most prominent supporters — and was probably the first to bring the matter...

The judge, Linda Reade, handed down an unusually long sentence that critics suspected had been motivated by antisemitism. Critics pressed President Barack Obama for clemency, without success...In the cheering crowds, a few red “MAGA” hats could be seen among the traditional black fedoras. Speaking to the throngs at 770 in English, Yiddish, and Hebrew, Rubashkin thanked Trump effusively: “God bless him,” he said, prompting loud cheers. Rubashkin also noted Trump’s recent decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

In May 2008, more than 500 federal immigration agents raided the plant and arrested hundreds of undocumented workers. The raid resulted in the company declaring bankruptcy. Rubashkin was arrested a short time later and charged with bank fraud. And this is where things went terribly wrong. The sentence for bank fraud depends on the amount of the loss to creditors. In this case, the prosecution deliberately increased the amount of the loss — and thus the length of Rubashkin’s sentence.

US rabbinical organization The Coalition for Jewish Values welcomed news that US President Donald Trump had commuted the sentence of Sholom Rubashkin, former head of the country’s largest kosher meat-processing company, who had been sentenced to 27 years in prison for fraud and money laundering. snip Rubashkin is a 57-year-old father of 10 children. He previously ran the Iowa headquarters of a family business that was the country’s largest kosher meat-processing company. In 2009, he was convicted of bank fraud and later sentenced to 27 years in prison. He was charged with defaulting on loans after his funds were frozen...

Yes Sholom Rubashkin Is FACTUALLY Innocent For my dear friends who have embraced darkness at a time of great joy, understand that your scary swan song is reminiscent of one who greets the news that a 95 year old has survived a quadruple heart attack (may Hashem protect all) with a loud “he's not worth celebrating. I remember him when he was six months old and he once spat up on his grandmother.” The only difference here is that the only vomit in this case are the lies and negativity themselves. Before jumping head first into the mud (we will,...

President Trump issued his first prison commutation Wednesday to a man whose business was caught employing 389 illegal immigrants in a single shift, dismaying anti-illegal immigration advocates and a former prosecutor on the case. With Trump's rare use of clemency, Sholom Rubashkin left prison seven years into a 27-year sentence. "He was up to his hips in illegal immigration," said Robert Teig, a former assistant U.S. attorney involved in prosecuting Rubashkin. Before his conviction, Rubashkin oversaw operations at Agriprocessors, his father's company and once one of the nation's largest kosher meat producers.

President Trump on Wednesday commuted the prison sentence of Sholom Rubashkin, whose Iowa meatpacking plant was the target of a huge immigration raid in 2008, and whose 27-year prison sentence angered many Orthodox Jews. Mr. Rubashkin made national headlines nine years ago after federal agents arrived by helicopter at the Agriprocessors plant in Postville, Iowa, and detained nearly 400 undocumented immigrants, including several children, who were working there. Mr. Rubashkin was the company’s chief executive, and the plant had been the largest kosher meatpacking operation in the country. He was later convicted of bank fraud in federal court.

A former U.S. Attorney appointed by President Obama who previously came under scrutiny by the Jewish Orthodox community may soon be confirmed by the U.S. Senate for a federal judgeship, after she received a majority vote from the Senate Judiciary Committee. Stephanie Rose, 39, was recently nominated for a lifetime appointment by President Obama in the Southern District of Iowa. Rose’s appointment is controversial within the Orthodox Jewish community because of her previous involvement in the prosecution of Sholom Rubashkin, the former CEO of a now-bankrupt, Iowa-based Kosher meatpacking company that was accused of employing hundreds of illegal immigrants and...

Rubashkin lawyers look into judge's work Postville, Ia. - Sholom Rubashkin's legal team argued Wednesday that they still don't know how involved his trial judge was in the raid at his former Iowa slaughterhouse. Defense lawyers said they have yet to learn the extent of Judge Linda Reade's role in planning the raid at Agriprocessors Inc. in Postville. Rubashkin's lawyers say prosecutors have not disclosed the number of times they met with Reade, the exact discussion topics, or what the judge heard, said and saw. Such information could raise questions about her partiality in Rubashkin's financial fraud trial, the lawyers...

ednesday, September 01, 2010 By Debbie Maimon, Yated The nation’s most prestigious authority in legal and judicial ethics has issued a scathing indictment of Judge Linda Reade’s conduct in the Rubashkin case. In a written legal opinion addressed to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, Professor Mark Harrison, one of the key architects of the Code of Judicial Conduct - the country’s standard judicial ethics guidebook - asserts that Judge Reade repeatedly violated the Code’s provisions. Harrison’s affidavit accompanies a new motion, filed this week by Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin’s lawyers, for a stay [postponement] of the September 7 deadline for...

Sholom Rubashkin was the vice president of America's largest kosher meat plant, Agriprocessors, ­located in Iowa. Rubashkin provided kosher meat to Jews throughout much of the country seeking to comply with biblical dietary rules. In 2008, after Rubashkin contacted U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and offered to cooperate, several hundred federal agents raided Agriprocessors. During the raid, 389 illegal aliens were arrested. Rubashkin was later charged with one violation of immigration law. On the day following Rubashkin's release on bail, federal prosecutors Matt Dummermuth and Peter Deegan Jr. yet again had him arrested. This time, they asserted various financial...

Sholom Rubashkin, sentenced to more than the 25 years sought by prosecutors, says Judge Reade worked together on the case, pre-trial, with the prosecution team. Rubashkin, who was sentenced in June 2010 to 27 years in prison for bank fraud and related charges – two years more than the sentence sought by the prosecutors – now seems to understand why sentencing Judge Linda Reade seemed so partial against him. New documents produced in response to a Freedom of Information Act request show that Reade met frequently, well before the trial, with the very law-enforcement team that was actively planning the...

Originally, some people said they wouldn’t mind if kosher butcher Sholom Rubashkin got life in prison and rot behind bars until he dies. Yesterday, June 22, 2010, their wish was fulfilled by U.S. District Chief Judge Linda Reade in a northern Iowa courtroom. Under the stiff sentence, Rubashkin rots in jail essentially until he dies, a 27 year sentence supplemented by five years of probation to the 51-year man—and then he pays $27 million in restitution. Judge Reade’s sentence exceeded even the government’s request of 25 years. Now many people are outraged at the harsh treatment being meted out to...

Associated Press - June 7, 2010 2:44 PM ET WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) - A manager of the Agriprocessors Inc. meatpacking plant has been found innocent of child labor violations uncovered during a 2008 immigration raid has been . Sholom Rubashkin was charged with 67 counts of child labor violations involving teenagers from Guatemala and Mexico who worked at Agriprocessors Inc.'s plant in Postville in 2007 and 2008. Rubashkin, whose father owned the operation, was described as the CEO and co-vice president of the company. The Black Hawk County District Court jury, which found Rubashkin not guilty Monday, began deliberations Friday...

The state trial of former Agriprocessors executive Sholom Rubashkin will move forward, a judge said, despite concerns from defense attorneys about the local jail not meeting their client’s religious needs. Black Hawk County District Associate Judge Nathan Callahan also denied a defense motion Tuesday to delay Rubashkin’s trial on 83 misdemeanor child labor charges until July because of pre-trial publicity and new evidence presented to the defense.

It's hard to feel any sympathy for Sholom Rubashkin, who will be sentenced April 28 for his part in a multimillion-dollar bank fraud scheme. He stands convicted of some very serious federal crimes, and deserves to spend time behind bars. But if you believe that the punishment should fit the crime, you might find yourself arguing for a little compassion instead when it comes to prosecutors recommending Rubashkin should spend life in prison.

Yes, we Jews unfortunately have our criminals. Yes, we Orthodox Jews unfortunately have our felons. We’re human, too. At middle age I have come to accept my limitations. Although I like to have an opinion on almost everything, I am conscious of the fact that I am not a legal scholar and do not understand all the complexities of the criminal case against Sholom Rubashkin, former CEO of America’s largest kosher meat plant, Agriprocessors of Postville, Iowa. But I am not a stupid man either. And I and a heck of a lot of other fairly intelligent and educated people...

Agriprocessors' former CEO Sholom Rubashkin pleaded not guilty today in U.S. District Court to 12-counts involving illegal immigrants, identity theft and bank fraud. Rubashkin, 49, of Postville, was charged with two additional charges in this second superseding indictment of harboring undocumented aliens for profit and conspiracy to commit document fraud. He was previously charged with conspiracy to harbor undocumented aliens for profit, aiding and abetting document fraud, six counts of aiding and abetting aggravated identity theft and two counts of bank fraud. -Operations manager Brent Beebe, 51, and poultry managers Hosam Amara, 44, and Zeev Levi, all of Postville, are...

For months, CBS News has been following the deepening troubles of tiny Postville, Iowa, population 2,200. Now the shutdown of the town's main employer following a federal immigration raid has Postville at the point of desperation... Postville, Iowa was just decorated with holiday cheer. But looks can be deceiving. "In the last few weeks - it's really gone downhill dramatically," says Mayor Bob Penrod. With empty streets - and shuttered shops - this small town is facing economic calamity. Penrod is taking steps this weekend to declare a state of emergency here - but not a natural disaster - rather...