As if that was not enough bad news, Aaron Hernandez, the former star tight end with the New England Patriots who was convicted of first-degree murder in 2015, hanged himself in prison on the same day his former teammates visited the White House.
Mr. Hernandez’s former agent, Brian Murphy raised serious doubts about the manner of his death. He was adamant on Twitter:
“Absolutely no chance he took his own life. Chico (Hernandez) was not a saint, but my family and I loved him and he would never take his own life.”
Regardless, the Souza-Baranowiski Correctional Centre (a maximum-security prison) where Hernandez was an inmate issued the following cryptic statement.
“Mr. Hernandez hanged himself using a bed sheet that he attached to his cell window. Mr. Hernandez also attempted to block his door from the inside by jamming the door with various items.”
According to the New York Times:
Mr. Hernandez’s death means his murder conviction is expected to be vacated under a centuries-old legal doctrine enshrined in Massachusetts’ criminal case law.
“Aaron Hernandez goes to his death an innocent man under the eyes of the law,” said Martin W. Healy, chief legal counsel for the Massachusetts Bar Association, adding, “It’s as if the case never existed.”
Under the doctrine, known as “abatement ab initio,” criminal convictions are essentially nullified if a person dies before they have a chance to complete the process of appealing it, Mr. Healy said. ”The principle behind this legal doctrine is, the individual has not had the ability to clear their name,” he said.
The little-known doctrine has erased several well-known criminal convictions over the years. When Kenneth L. Lay, the chief executive of Enron, died of a heart attack in 2006 before his sentencing for fraud, the doctrine erased his criminal record and meant the government lost access to $44 million he was supposed to forfeit for restitution.
As if Donald Trump did not have enough problems already, Allan Lichtman, a history professor at American University in Washington D.C. has released a bombshell by launching his new book: “The Case for Impeachment” with great fanfare. However, that is not the full story.
In September 2016, when virtually all the pollsters and politician pundits had written off Trump’s candidacy, Professor Lichtman was the only dissenting voice. He had crafted his own election prediction methodology over three decades and used it to correctly predict every presidential election since 1982. He is now predicting that Trump will become only the Third President of the United States to be impeached.
Here is a synopsis of the pre-launch leak by Julian Assange of Wikileaks and Edward Snowden, the fugitive CIA consultant:
“Throughout his career, Trump has avoided accountability. As president, though, you cannot walk away from accountability. You can’t declare bankruptcy, you can’t just abandon a deal. And the ultimate accountability is impeachment.”
Professor Alan Lichtman’s new book, The Case for Impeachment, outlines eight possible reasons to impeach Trump, including his business-related conflicts of interest, his team’s connections to Russia and his involvement in previous legal disputes, such as lawsuits against Trump University. In his “most edgy” argument, Lichtman says Trump could be impeached for a “crime against humanity” based on his refusal to take action on climate change.
“There are so many bases on which Trump can be impeached,” Lichtman said. “That’s one way in which he is more vulnerable to impeachment than any other figure who has been elected for the first time to the presidency of the United States.”
The book, which was released on Tuesday 18th of April, draws comparisons between Trump and the two U.S. presidents who have been impeached — Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998 — as well as Richard Nixon, who avoided inevitable impeachment when he resigned. Johnson and Clinton were both impeached by the House of Representatives but acquitted in the Senate.
“What might distinguish a Trump impeachment from that of Clinton and Johnson is that the transgressions could be more Nixonian — that is, more serious, more threatening to our constitutional order, our liberties, our freedoms and our national security,” Lichtman said.
But impeachment is a difficult process, and the act of actually removing a president from office is even harder. That’s especially true when the president’s own party has control of Congress — as Republicans do now. But Lichtman believes enough Republicans would support impeachment if any concrete evidence surfaced to show Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia to interfere in the election.
“I think the Russian connection would be the most likely source of impeachment,” Lichtman said. “There sure is a lot of smoke. And my own suspicion is there’s some kind of fire that’s producing this smoke. Whether it’s serious enough to warrant impeachment, we don’t know yet.”
“If the investigations do turn up some serious wrongdoing, I think even Republicans in Congress are not going to overlook it,” Lichtman added, while acknowledging “it’s a steep hill to climb.”
If a vote were to take place in the House today, all 193 Democrats and 23 Republicans would need to vote for impeachment in order for it to pass. In the Senate, 19 Republicans would have to side with all 46 Democrats and two independents in order to remove Trump from office.
While making the case for impeachment, Lichtman’s book also gives Trump a “blueprint for surviving as president” that includes fully divesting from his business interests, supporting measures to prevent climate change, hiring a fact-checker and firing chief strategist Steve Bannon. “I hope he reads this book, and I hope he does change,” Lichtman said. “I am rooting for Trump to some extent because I am a believer in American democracy, and I would much rather see our democracy cherished and protected than see President Trump being removed.”
It is self-evident that the United States of America is at war not just with itself but with the rest of the world, including its own allies. Regardless, Americans insist that just because they are at war does not make the President King or Emperor.
As for chartered accountants (especially the retired partners of KPMG), the more determined they are to remain apolitical, the more compelling it becomes for them to be politically savvy.
Indeed even though the retired partners of KPMG have been invited to the “Africa Week” in Cambridge, England as V.I.P’s they are imbued with sufficient humility to reciprocate the gesture with a deep sense of appreciation of an excellent opportunity to learn. No knowledge is ever wasted.
In essence, Cambridge University has been at the cutting edge of lateral thinking which was pioneered by Professor Edward de Bono whose disciples have expanded its philosophy and principles sufficiently to conclude that nothing happens in isolation. It is entirely up to us to discern the links and establish the linkages. Additionally, the brain is programmed to fight corruption, reject impunity and condemn injustice. This is precisely what Africa has been forcefully and vigorously attempting to suppress!
Aaron Hernandez was only twenty-seven years old but regardless of their grief, his family has according to District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr agreed to donate his brain in order to assist research into chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) which is a condition caused by repetitive brain trauma which has afflicted some boxers and football players.
However, none of the Cambridge scientists appears to be interested in researching into the brain of Abdullahi Shuaibu, a Nigerian who attempted to set a world record by robbing four banks in New York during his lunch breaks!!
J.K. Randle OFR, FCA
