But Some Are More Equal Than Others
Posted on | July 4, 2007
Here’s the case of Victor Rita, who like Scooter Libby was convicted of multiple counts of perjury, obstruction of justice and making false statements despite an impressive record of government service (twenty-four years in the Marine Corps, in Rita’s case).
The basic crime in this case concerns two false statements which Victor Rita, the petitioner, made under oath to a federal grand jury. The jury was investigating a gun company called InterOrdnance. Prosecutors believed that buyers of an InterOrdnance kit, called a “PPSH 41 machinegun ‘parts kit,’ ” could assemble a machinegun from the kit, that those kits consequently amounted to machineguns, and that InterOrdnance had not secured proper registrations for the importation of the guns.
Rita had bought a PPSH 41 machinegun parts kit. Rita, when contacted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,and Firearms and Explosives (ATF), agreed to let a federal agent inspect the kit. . . .But before meeting with the agent, Rita called InterOrdnance and then sent back the kit. He subsequently turned over to ATF a different kit that apparently did not amount to a machinegun. . . .The investigating prosecutor brought Rita before the grand jury, placed him under oath, and asked him about these matters. Rita denied that the Government agent had asked him for the PPSH kit, and also denied that he had spoken soon thereafter about the PPSH kit to someone at InterOrdnance. The Government claimed these statements were false, charged Rita with perjury, making false statements, and obstructing justice, and, after a jury trial, obtained convictions on all counts.
Unlike the matter of Libby, President Bush won’t be stepping in to eliminate Rita’s jail term. Says Corpis Juris:
Considering all the factors the District Court sentenced Mr. Rita to 33 months. That decision was upheld by the United States Supreme Court just 11 days before the President commuted Scooter Libby’s sentence. The next time Tony Snow tries to argue Judge Walton’s sentence was excessive, you might want to remember that Joe Biden and Professor Berman over at the blog Sentencing Law and Policy, who has looked very hard at this matter, think Walton’s sentence was right on the money.
The difference? Rita wasn’t part of a White House cover-up.
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