In the last week, I have been writing about the federal prosecution of a group named the African People’s Socialist Party and its related Uhuru movement:
A Federal Prosecution in Florida Is Keeping Us Safe from the Russkies
First They Came for the Communists
Tampa Trial on Free Speech Exposes U.S. Hypocrisy
The group has long criticized the U.S. national-security state and its foreign policy, including with respect to Ukraine, and the feds retaliated by prosecuting the group for failing to register as agents of the Russian government. The feds alleged that the defendants were doing the bidding of the Russian government by “sowing discord” in America’s political process by promoting political views that were contrary to those of the U.S. government and favorable to those of the Russian government.
Yesterday, the jury returned with a truly bizarre verdict — (1) not guilty of failing to register with the U.S. government as Russian agents but (2) guilty of conspiring to fail to register with the U.S. government as Russian agents.
The second charge — the conspiracy charge — arises out of a catchall federal offense that is always added to every federal criminal indictment. The conspiracy offense makes it a crime for people to agree to commit another offense. (I’ve sometimes wondered whether it’s a federal crime to conspire to conspire to commit an offense.)
The main benefit of the conspiracy charge is that it enables federal prosecutors to offer a plea bargain to the people who are indicted. The conspiracy charge carries a maximum penalty of 5 years, which is oftentimes less than the penalty for the substantive charges. For example, the penalty for not registering as a Russian agent is 10 years.
Yesterday, the jury acquitted the defendants of the substantive charge. That is, they found them not guilty of failing to register as agents of the Russian government. But that necessarily means that the jury found that the defendants were not agents of the Russian government. If the jury had found that they were agents of the Russian government, they would have had to convict them for failing to register as agents of the Russian government.
Yet, at the same time, the jury convicted the defendants of conspiring to fail to register as agents of the Russian government. That’s ridiculous. The jury essentially said that the defendants agreed to become unregistered agents of the Russian government but did not actually become agents of the Russian government and, therefore, didn’t have to register themselves with the federal government.
My hunch is that this was a compromised or negotiated verdict, one in which some wanted to convict and others wanted to acquit. I think that there is a good possibility that they ended up settling their differences by acquitting on the substantive charge and convicting on the conspiracy charge.
Given the acquittal on the substantive charge, in my opinion the judge should simply throw out the conspiracy conviction. If he fails to do that, the defendants plan to appeal and I think they will have a good chance of having the appellate court throw out the conspiracy conviction.
Two questions naturally arise:
First, should there even be a conspiracy offense? After all, a conspiracy involves nothing more than talking (plus what the law calls the commission of an “overt act”). Why should people be punished for talking? Why not simply punish them for actually committing a criminal act?
Second, how can a registration law be reconciled with the principles of a free society? It can’t be. In a free society, no one is required to register himself or his political beliefs or political activities with the government. In fact, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that Russia has the same type of registration law that the United States has.
Our American ancestors didn’t want to have anything to do with a registration law. They knew that such a law was contrary to the principles of a genuinely free society. That’s why there was no such law in America for more than 150 years. It wasn’t until the regime of President Franklin Roosevelt — the president who converted America to a welfare state (without even the semblance of a constitutional amendment), nationalized gold coins (which the Constitution established as the nation’s official money), enacted the NIRA (which was straight out of Benito Mussolini’s fascist playbook), and who promoted a Supreme Court-packing scheme — that the registration law was enacted. That’s right — the defendants in the Tampa trial were charged with violating a registration law enacted by the FDR regime in 1938.
Freedom entails the right of everyone to work for whomever he wants, including the Russian government, the Swiss government, the Chinese government, the British government, the U.S. government, and any other government. Freedom also entails the right to promote, advocate, and support whatever political positions and beliefs one wants, including the positions and beliefs of foreign regimes. Freedom also entails the right not to have to register one’s name, address, beliefs, positions, and activities with the federal government, even when one is serving as an agent of a regime that is designated as an official enemy of the U.S. national-security establishment. Finally, freedom entails the right to disagree with, criticize, or condemn the actions of one’s own government without being criminally prosecuted for it.
Reminder: Our online Zoom conference on open borders kicks off on Monday, September 30, at 7 p.m.-8 p.m. Eastern Time. Register here.
Reminder: I’ll be speaking at the JFK Lancer Conference in Dallas, which is being held on November 22-24 at the Dallas Marriott Downtown. I hope to see you there!