Thursday, May 17, 2012

Updates related to Harvey's book Three Felonies a Day, a critical take on the Justice Department

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What to do if the FBI wants to interview you


One of the most shocking, and under-reported, Department of Justice practices is the FBI's express policy NOT to tape-record interrogations. Not recording interrogations allows the FBI to claim itself the sole arbiter of what is, and is not, true in a witness's testimony. Such a strategy gives clear, and unfair, advantage to the prosecution, and presents problems for witnesses, defendants, and defense lawyers alike.

But there is a simple, and effective, strategy which, if implemented, can get around the pesky problem: insist on recording the interview yourself. Recently, the Massachusetts ACLU asked me to discuss what to do if the FBI decides it needs your testimony. Here is how I responded:



I have been happy to see that the ACLU video has been catching on. In a recent article on alternet.org critiquing the "surveillance state", my interview was given as pragmatic advice to those who fear they might face an FBI interview. I sincerely hope my advice helps and that, eventually, the FBI decides to reform its harmful policy.

[End of post]

Constructing Truth: the FBI's (non)recording policy



President Obama today officially
 signed into law a bill allowing FBI Director Robert Mueller to be appointed two years beyond his original ten year posting. But what Obama neglects to confront, and all but a few citizens fail to notice, is a fundamental flaw in the FBI’s truth-gathering apparatus consistently defended by Mueller (and, to be fair, his predecessors): the Bureau-wide policy of deliberately not recording interrogations and interviews, a practice that allows the FBI to threaten/manipulate witnesses and manufacture convictions, and which brings into question basic notions of fairness and justice. In the latest installment to my Forbes.com blog, co-authored by my research assistant Daniel Schwartz, we explores the deeper implications of the non-recording policy, and exposes it as a means for the FBI, in the words of Sonny Corleone, to deliver to witnesses “offers they can’t refuse.”
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