A Court Clerk Indicates that Romney and Bain Capital are Above the Law

Last updated on February 8th, 2013 at 12:31 pm

A robust judicial system is necessary in a nation built on the rule of law that implies every citizen is subject to the law, and it stands in stark contrast to the idea the wealthy, business leaders, or politicians are above the law. Over the course of the past six months, there has been revelation after revelation of malfeasance connected to Willard Mitt Romney, and each time they are revealed, people ask why he is not investigated, and does he think he is above the law. Last week while investigating a recently re-opened case in bankruptcy court in Delaware, a clerk of the court indicated that where Romney and Bain Capital are concerned, they are above the law.

On October 24, 2012, an Emergency Motion in the recently re-opened eToys case was sent to the United States Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware, petitioning the court to pay an eToys employee and address issues of fraud on the Court and Additional Acts of Perjury. A U.S. Postal Service receipt showed the Emergency Motion was received and signed for at 1:08 p.m., 24 October 2012, and according to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Rule 79 says when a motion is received by the court, “The clerk must keep a record known as the “civil docket,” and must enter each civil action in the docket and assign consecutive file numbers, which must be noted in the docket where the first entry of the action is made.” The Motion should have been recorded into the public docket immediately when it was received by the clerk, but at the end of business on Wednesday it was absent.

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After monitoring the eToys case docket entries for two days and discovering the Emergency Motion was never recorded or filed by the clerk, at 4:45 p.m. EST on Friday, 26 October, this author called the clerk to learn why the Emergency Motion was not filed as required by Rule 79. For 5 minutes the clerk feigned ignorance of the motion until alerting her that a Postal Service receipt noted delivery on Wednesday afternoon, at which time she acknowledged receiving it, but did not enter it into the record.  Her excuse for not fulfilling her duty was that she sent it to the judge to review and approve before entering it into the public docket. At that time she was informed the judge received her own copy on Wednesday afternoon as per Postal Service delivery confirmation, and asked why the clerk needed the judge’s approval before entering it in the record. The clerk said in Delaware the judge often peruses documents prior to entering them into the record; she was promptly reminded that bankruptcy court is a federal entity and not beholden to arbitrary rules dictated by individual states or judges. At that point the conversation devolved into sharp retorts to further questions and when asked to give her full name for this report, she hung up the phone.

The judge on the case has been with the eToys bankruptcy since March 7, 2001, and it is not the first time she held up documents to benefit Bain Capital’s lawyers. In fact, the judge failed to remove lawyers despite mandated disqualification for failing to disclose conflict of interest and it is highly probable she has connections to Bain Capital’s lawyers who were on the Third Circuit bench that appoints bankruptcy judges. Apparently, being above the law is dependent on having friends in the judicial system and it begins to explain why Willard Romney escapes justice time and time again.

Over the past few months, public records demonstrate Romney stays just outside the law in spite of several cases in which he should be investigated and prosecuted. MoveOn.org appealed to the DOJ to investigate him for contradictory SEC and FEC filings claiming he was, or was not, still head of Bain Capital after February 1999, and Romney and his son still are being investigated for their extensive financial and political ties to three men in an $8.5 billion Ponzi scheme through Solamere Capital and Solamere Advisors. He also avoided conflict of interest charges in Stage Stores bankruptcy, and Bain Capital’s lawyer’s malfeasance in eToys bankruptcy as well as failing to file a Transfer of Authority in Massachusetts when he was governor and still running Bain Capital and Bain Capital Investors VI. Now he is being protected in Delaware bankruptcy court by a judge who will not allow an Emergency Motion entered into the public docket that specifically cites him as a beneficiary of fraud on the court and additional acts of perjury.

Last month when a coal mine owner contacted Romney about a complaint filed with the FEC alleging “extortion, money laundering, and racketeering” against his company, he said Romney told him not to worry about it because “We get a lot of charges, this will go away.” In September wealthy campaign donor Sheldon Adelson admitted the investigation into his casinos by the Justice Department is the top reason for backing Romney, and it begs the question; is Romney’s main impetus for seeking the White House to appoint an Attorney General who will guarantee that all charges against him “will go away?” After the preponderance of accusations, perjury, and fallacious SEC and FEC filings and no prosecution and conviction, it may seem Romney is above the law, but as the public becomes aware that he is the most corrupt candidate ever to seek the White House, his day of reckoning cannot be far off and this author, for one, cannot wait to see his vapid, soulless stare as federal law enforcement officials haul his handcuffed arrogant self off to jail.



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