In what TPM’s Eric Kleefeld describes as “a truly brutal moment, one that could undermine the credibility of Norm Coleman’s whole case,” the Republican fomer Senator’s political director was called to testify about doctored evidence, as revealed by Al Franken’s attorneys last week, which they’d submitted in their U.S. Senate election contest against the apparent-winner in Minnesota.
By the end of the day today, the first official day of the trial, the 3-judge panel threw out the tainted evidence — photocopies of rejected absentee ballots where the Coleman camp had either removed written comments from election officials as to why they were rejected, or left in text added by the campaign itself — and allowed Coleman’s team to subpoena and then re-submit the actual ballot envelopes.
Pretty nice of them, considering they could have fined Coleman and/or struck the claim entirely, as Kleefeld notes in his coverage this afternoon.
In a past life as an advocate I’d run into this kind of thing and call it to the referee’s attention and have the bogus ‘evidence’ thrown out. The referee would always throw it out. While having a referee cal the opposer a ‘lying dog’ in a decision to dismiss the case would have been nice, it never happened. What happened is the referee did his or her job and rendered a generally unassailable decision based on the merits and we won. “Merits” are facts supported by a preponderance of evidence. Throw out the the bogus evidence and the merits disappear. (And referee’s hate to be played, benefit’s of doubt DO NOT go to the liars.) It’s just a matter of waiting. Coleman is going to lose this and any disgruntlement over the Judge’s not throwing out the case is misplaced. That would just give the liars a good reason for further appeal as the referee not having decided the case on the FULL merits (if there are other arguments in the case).
Boy-o-boy, I’m loving this 😉
WHOO HOOO! news flash (for me anyway)… Franken is certified as winner- got the news on while I read the blog. WOO HOOOOO!!!
Isn’t the lawyer(s) handling the Coleman guilty of at the very least, contempt of court for knowingly presenting as prima facie “evidence” documents it knew was not “the best evidence”. It would seem to me that something this serious would call for disbarment. Can an attorney be disbarred if he knowingly allows his client in response to his direct examination,i.e., suborning perjury. Was not this attorney commiting a fraud on the court with his presenting as evisencea “different set of documents” than what was in the original envelope. Coleman had a right to “contest” the election under Minnesota law, but did he not break the law in the “contest” phase with this ‘doctored” evidence.Isn’t he just another Rehypocriticans
To The Skeptical Cynic,
If only it were a perfect world… You’re probably right, I’m not Esquire-ed so I don’t know. My opposers just wrote a reply that was a variant of ‘Shocked, I’m shocked!… presented what was given me in response to data requests… new clerks etc’. I would be surprised if there were not sanctions and penalty’s for it but how often they’re invoked and persued is, well, not often I suspect. I like your version of the law better than how I saw some lawyers practice it.
Good ol’ Norm baby and his crack legal team. Should be a big bonus to whoever spotted the doctored evidence at Frankens legal camp. Let’s hope it was an intern or paralegal who could really use a nice bonus.
Um, Chuck. It wasn’t the Franken camp that doctored those ballots. It was that weasel, Coleman. A liar since the day he took office.
I can’t believe the panel spotted it! I thought Franken’s attorneys were as dumb as I have been saying Franken is, maybe I overreached just a little, but the rest of my case is a doozy! Just wait till I prove the duplicated counts in the counties where the vote total didn’t exceed the total of signed voters. Wait until you hear my reasoning on that!
Are Republicans just inherently corrupt?
My momma always said Republican politicians are like a box of chocolates, they may look like sweet yummy candy offering flavoring goodness with every bite; but they are really just big fat liars.
@Byron
Yes.
This has got to Minnesota this is happening in, any other State where the GOP runs things and if this were a Dem they would have thrown the whole case out and Norm would have been installed already.
20 years ago when the State had some real Dems with sack , Franken would have been sitting by now.
Wasn’t that enough (tampering) evidence to throw the Coleman camp out of the courtroom on their asses?
Let’s just hope this doesn’t end up in the Supreme Court. The rethugs own that gas bag Scolia.
Hmm, at least five ballots misrepresented? Coleman’s team is lucky they get a second crack, but their credibility has taken a big hit.
FYI, since I had to look it up:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate
Democratic Party 56
Republican Party 41
Independent 2 (Both caucus with the Democrats)
Disputed Seats 1 The MN race remains disputed
Total 100
So in a very tough battle, if Franken wins and is eventually seated, 59 ‘dems’ and 41 repugs. Biden won’t probably play much of a role as a ‘decider’ in this senate, since I believe he can only vote if its 50-50 (or some other tie if some members aren’t present).
I can’t believe 1/2 the Minnesotans were stupid enough to think a Republican was of any value to them with all the corruption in that party in the last 8 years, or are they not an informed population?
What happened with the doctored evidence, they tried to push through, is enough to show you they will try anything, to not let a Democrat win.