This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Friday, July 3rd, 2020.

I'm Caleb Brown.

Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots, isn't going away quietly.

He stands accused of soliciting prostitution in Florida, and he's challenging the case to the fullest extent of the law.

What it reveals about prosecutors' dealings with people who don't have massive piles of cash lying around is telling.

Elizabeth Nolan Brown of Reason magazine has been following the story.

She details some of the galling civil liberties implications

for prosecutors engaging in business as usual.

It's been about a year and a half since the initial bust.

And there's never been, you know, any charges for human trafficking. There's never been any charges for human trafficking.

There's never been any further evidence

that has come out since that initially,

the case initially,

much fell apart at anything more

was going on there than, you know, licensed business, licensed

Massachusetts, also some of them sometimes would perform sex acts at the end of massages.

And so, yeah, it's never really panned out,

like the prosecutors have said.

Robert Kraft's lawyer just said in court this week, you know, they knew this was never human

trafficking case law enforcement knew it and I think law enforcement is sort of

almost conceded that point.

So why persist?

...