#TBT #1510 Avoiding Accountability: How the powerful in the US have almost always been allowed to skate by (Throwback)
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Jay Tomlinson
4.5 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 1 November 2023
⏱️ 84 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Original Air Date: 8/31/2022
Today, as the news of Trump's various trials continues to drop out, we take a look back at this episode covering the long and illustrious history of powerful people avoiding prosecution in the United States.
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SHOW NOTES
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Ch. 8: Justice Department Weighs Whether Or Not To Prosecute Trump - MSNBC - Air Date 8-29-22
New York Times Justice Department Reporter Katie Benner and former U.S. Attorney Harry Litman discuss how the inquiry into Trump’s handling of classified documents poses an unparalleled test for DOJ
MEMBERS-ONLY BONUS CLIP(S)
"Restoring the Brotherhood of Union: Confederate Pardon and Amnesty Records, 1865-1877" Archives specialist John Deeben provides a brief legislative history of amnesty activity during and after the Civil War.
Ch. 10: The power of presidential pardons - PBS NewsHour - Air Date 12-25-20
Pardons are among the most powerful tools a president has. While pardons can be politically motivated, drawing criticism, they can also change lives.
FINAL COMMENTS
Ch. 11: Final comments on the nature of pardons, accountability and hurt feelings
MUSIC (Blue Dot Sessions)
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, everyone. You're about to hear one of our excellent episodes handpicked from the archives. |
| 0:05.2 | Why? Because we believe in vacation time, and so do our members. |
| 0:09.2 | After more than 10 years of perpetually verging on burnout, |
| 0:14.0 | members voted to give me a French amount of time off each year. |
| 0:18.0 | So I thank them for that and use this as an opportunity to urge you |
| 0:22.9 | to agitate for better working conditions for yourself and across the board. |
| 0:27.6 | Now enjoy the fruits of our labor. |
| 0:34.2 | Welcome to this episode of the award-winning Best of the Left podcast in which, |
| 0:38.5 | as we wait to see if Trump will ever be indicted for any of his many, |
| 0:43.2 | many, many crimes, we take a look at the long and illustrious history of powerful people |
| 0:49.2 | avoiding prosecution in the United States. Clips today are from Pitchfork Economics, |
| 0:55.1 | Democracy Now, the Majority Report, This Week, Reveal, |
| 0:59.9 | Cape Up, and MSNBC with additional members' only clips from the U.S. National Archives |
| 1:06.0 | and PBS NewsHour. |
| 1:13.6 | We basically set out to find out why aren't rich people going to jail anymore? |
| 1:18.8 | Why does this feel like there's this avalanche of what's known as elite deviance in the |
| 1:24.6 | academic literature, and yet elites aren't going to jail the way that they used to be? |
| 1:29.6 | And when I was talking about this with my editor, he said, |
| 1:32.8 | I really want to get the sense of the cat and mouse game, |
| 1:36.0 | this kind of catch me if you can, chasing criminals across the world, |
| 1:39.8 | moving money around, and then the minute I started looking into this, |
| 1:43.5 | the first thing that I found was that there kind of isn't a cat and mouse game. |
... |
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