CommentsONE MAN’S OPINION-Shall we blame the Liar in Chief whose regard for the truth is less than the null set? Shall we blame former Donald Trump attorney Michael Cohen, who testified before the U.S. Congress on February 27, 2019 that every day when he and other Trump employees came to work, they knew they would be lying to advance Donald Trump’s interest?
Shall we inquire about the bankruptcy judges before whom Donald Trump’s companies would appear and tell outrageous lies to evade paying workers and suppliers? Is not a judge’s ruling which he knowingly bases on lies also a lie?
If billionaires lie, if their lawyers lie, if judges lie, who else is lying?
Let’s look closer to home.
(1) The Hollywood Sign Bait and Switch Fraud
When Eric Garcetti and Tom LaBonge were councilmembers for Hollywood, they perpetrated a Bait in Switch criminal fraud. When the city could not raise the $12 million to pay off Fox River Financial to get the Cahuenga Peak, Councilmember LaBonge and City Council President Garcetti ran a massive criminal fraud.
The worldwide scam was the big lie that the Hollywood Sign was in danger of destruction by real estate developers. Garcetti and LaBonge solicited donations from around the entire world to SAVE the PEAK.
Here’s the Trumpian size lie: The Hollywood Sign was in no danger since the Hollywood Sign is not located on the Cahuenga Peak! People who contributed millions of dollars from around the world to save the Hollywood Sign did not know the Cahuenga Peak from Mt. Lee, where the Hollywood Sign actually sits.
Every member of the LA City Council supported the criminal fraud. The Los Angeles Times supported the fraud. Tom La Bonge held press conferences where he would use the Hollywood Sign on Mt. Lee as a backdrop to raise money to Save the (Cahuenga) Peak. Are the LA Times reporters so dumb that they did not know that the Hollywood Sign is on Mr. Lee?
Did the Parents Care?
When La Bonge and Garcetti got the Hollywood High school students to participate in the Save the Peak campaign, did a single parent care that the city leaders were teaching their children that criminal fraud is OK when your goal is to cheat people out of their money?
Did the District Attorney Care?
He knew that a massive criminal fraud was taking place but did nothing.
(2) Let’s Look at the State Supreme Court’s Support for Lying
In 1992, the California Supreme Court sanctified lying in the case of Moncharsh v. Heily & Blase (1992) 3 Cal. 4th 1. The Supreme Court ruled that an arbitration award based on material lies and deceit had to be enforced by the court despite the fact it would cause substantial harm to the innocent party. In her dissenting opinion, Justice Kennard wrote:
“I will not agree to a decision inflicting upon this state's trial courts a duty to promote injustice by confirming arbitration awards they know to be manifestly wrong and substantially unjust.” 3 Cal.4th at 33-34
To this date, twenty-seven years later, Moncharsh is still controlling law so that the California Supreme Court continues to protect liars who victimize innocent people.
(3) “No New Taxes,” Garcetti style
Garcetti promised that the Olympics would not cost the taxpayer one cent. Yet, he now pushes a $4 billion tax so that his developer buddies can finish the build out of the METRO system for the Olympics. Mayor Garcetti and the LA City Council have de facto control over METRO.
The Uber tax which Garcetti wants to impose on Angelenos is a complicated web of lies and corruption. Like his 2012 Hollywood Community Plan which Judge Allan Goodman rejected as being based on Lies and Myths (“fatally flawed data and wishful thinking”), the proposed Uber tax is based on Lies and Myths. However, Judge Richard Fruin has ruled that the Los Angeles City Council’s is above all laws including the criminal provisions of the California Penal Code. Judge Fruin’s decision is like an advance Trump-pardon.
(4) Liars and Cheats Reap Huge Rewards
From sea to shining sea, lying, cheating, and abusing people bring huge rewards. We have sunk to a level of degradation and immorality that we refuse to face. Governor Gavin Newsom and his relative and political ally Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi support the state policy that California constitution Art. VI, Sec 6 gives judges the constitutional right to rule against a party if he or his Jewish attorney “refuses Jesus Christ.”
The attorney, yours truly, whom Judge Torribio hated for being a Jew, was one of the attorneys who prevailed in having Garcetti’s Hollywood Community Plan rejected. (BTW, this attorney does not pay kickbacks.)
(5) What’s the FBI up to?
We know for a fact that during the Obama Administration, the FBI looked the other way when provided irrefutable evidence of massive corruption at Los Angeles City Hall. The FBI stood by while private citizens were driven into bankruptcy and jailed to silence them from speaking about ubiquitous judicial corruption. As reported before, when Attorney Richard I. Fine uncovered the millions of dollars in illegal compensation Los Angeles County Judges were receiving, he was disbarred, forced into bankruptcy and thrown in to jail for 14 months.
When the massive frauds behind the Garcetti-CRA Cesspool at Vine were uncovered and Councilmember Garcetti’s role in the fraud was revealed, the FBI did nothing.
When Juri Ripinsky, one of Garcetti’s fundraisers (who had served two years in federal prison for real estate and bank fraud) was handed the lucrative Paseo Plaza Project in Hollywood, the FBI was blind. Later when Ripinsky had built nothing, the Paseo Plaza project was given to Garcetti’s favorite developer, CIM Group, and the FBI remained blind. The Israeli government was not blind when it 86ed CIM Group due to its connection to illegal behavior at Los Angeles City Hall. How is it that government officials in Jerusalem have a clearer understanding of LA corruption than the FBI?
The FBI stood by when Garcetti funneled millions of federal dollars for his developer buddies to make their projects disabled-accessible. Garcetti’s developers pocketed the cash but did not make their projects disabled-accessible. How many of those developers had made contributions to Garcetti’s charity?
Why doesn’t the FBI investigate California judges and justices right up to and including members of the State Supreme Court for corrupt mortgages? Wouldn’t you like to know whether the judge on your case is having his or her mortgaged paid by your opponent? Does the FBI even care that judges and justices have “free” mortgages?
Who is to Blame?
“The fault, Dear Brutus, rests not in our stars, but in ourselves.” (Julius Caesar, Act I, Scene III, L. 140-141). We the People have encouraged a national culture in which lying, cheating and stealing have become the highest civil virtues.
(Richard Lee Abrams is a Los Angeles attorney and a CityWatch contributor. He can be reached at: [email protected]. Abrams’ views are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of CityWatch.) Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.