I don’t think that this article from August 13th, by Paul Craig Roberts, has had any mention here. If it has, apologies for not noticing. If not, better very late than never, I hope you agree.
Opening paragraphs:
When will the first lawyer be arrested, indicted and sent to prison for failing to help the government convict his client? You can bet it will be soon. Once the Securities and Exchange Commission, Internal Revenue Service and U.S. Department of Justice (sic) complete their assault on the attorney-client privilege, they will rush to make an example of a lawyer, lest any fail to understand that their new role in life is to serve as government informants on their clients.
Just as government bureaucrats used the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 to assault the Bill of Rights and our constitutional protections, they are now using “accounting scandals” and “tax evasion” to assault the attorney-client privilege, a key component of the Anglo-American legal system that enables a defendant, whether guilty or innocent, to mount a defense against the overwhelming power of the state.
This is the sort of thing that David Carr has been writing about in Britain, for some time now.
Just to update David Carr’s 2001 paper: White Rose readers should note we now have the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (already in force) which is more severe still.
See for example:This.
And this.
Two point the foregoing articles don’t note, but that are also new and dangerous (as far as I can tell): the Act appears to be both retrospective–and extra-territorial. To be “proceeds of crime”, and hence subject to the requirements of the Act, funds need only have been obtained by actions that would have been illegal if they had taken place in the UK.
…Retired from a licensed Australian brothel business? Sorry, can you sit there while I call the police? …
…. Did you bring documentation of your farm in Poland so I can check you didn’t deal in seeds not on our National List? Of course you understand I have to hand over your money to the authorities if I don’t think there’s enough proof. I don’t want to go to jail myself…