Conflict Of Interest? (Elian's Attorney)
Q: As Jack Thompson has underscored so many times his voice is probably hoarse, Kendall Coffey, the lead attorney for the Miami family, had tremendous conflicts of interest. The first was he had been a close associate of Janet Reno for decades. He was even appointed by her to be U.S. Attorney for Miami! How could he honestly represent the interests of this boy against Reno? Coffey and the Cuban-American Democratic Party hacks who surrounded Uncle Lazaro demonstrated their real interests by failing to file the proper legal motions early on.
A: The ruling yesterday by the federal appeals court should have come as no surprise to NewsMax.com readers. On the day of the raid I was in Miami. In the hours afterward I explained to our readers in an article "Why Elian Lost." That piece was somewhat fatalistic about Elian’s future. It was based on my experiences with the media, the Cuban-American handlers and the Miami lawyers swarming around Uncle Lazaro and Elian’s Miami family. It was clear that several well-connected low lifes of Miami viewed Elian not so much as a boy who needed to be rescued, but as a commodity they could trade for political favors. The truth was that the freedom "movement" for Elian was controlled by Democratic Party hacks. Any chance they would really oppose Reno and Clinton? Not a prayer. After the April 22 raid, Miami attorney Jack Thompson wrote one report after another for NewsMax.com detailing how the lawyers around the Miami family were throwing the legal case. The lawyers, after the outrageous raid, didn’t even bother to file a motion with the court seeking to declare the raid illegal. One also would think they would have demanded to see their client Elian, since he was being held incommunicado from them. "Possession is 9/10 of the law" is an old common-law adage. It applies here. The longer the Castro crew controlled the boy, the greater the likelihood the boy would remain in their clutches forever. It appears that the 11th Circuit was at first very sympathetic to the Miami family and Elian’s plight. Early on they could have ordered the boy’s immediate return to Cuba, but they didn’t. The administration feared the court. This is why they launched that incredibly dangerous raid to gain control of the boy. The administration knew possession is 9/10 of the law. If they and the Castro crew controlled the boy, even if the court ruled against them, they could still drug the kid and get him to say he wanted to leave America for poverty-ridden Cuba. But the Clinton administration had other things working for them too. As Jack Thompson has underscored so many times his voice is probably hoarse, Kendall Coffey, the lead attorney for the Miami family, had tremendous conflicts of interest. The first was he had been a close associate of Janet Reno for decades. He was even appointed by her to be U.S. Attorney for Miami! How could he honestly represent the interests of this boy against Reno? Coffey and the Cuban-American Democratic Party hacks who surrounded Uncle Lazaro demonstrated their real interests by failing to file the proper legal motions early on. When Coffey finally had the opportunity to speak on behalf of Elian and the Miami family during oral arguments before the 11th Curcuit, Jack Thompson again pointed out on NewsMax.com just how weak and pathetic Coffey’s arguments were before the judges. Coffey gave the judges no specifics about what awaited Elian upon his return to Cuba, such as Castro’s statements he planned to "re-educate" the boy in his showcase "re-adapatation" center. The judges needed to be persuaded by overwhelming facts and evidence that proved Elian would be harmed by returning him to Castro’s Cuba. The judges were not persuaded by Coffey. In their opinion, they only said such treatment of Elian by the Castro government was simply "not outside the realm of possibility." Indeed, the 11th Circuit acted on the motions and information provided to them. It’s no surprise they didn’t act in Elian’s favor. One must also remember that the court, for all its claims of independence and impartiality, is still influenced by public opinion and media pressure. No doubt the judges saw how the full weight of the federal government and the establishment media machine had swung behind Castro and against the boy. Coffey and company gave the judges little "air support" that could have helped them take a position in the boy’s favor. I have no doubt that the judges knew their own opinion rejecting the asylum hearing is weak. For example, they acknowledged that since Juan Miguel lives in a totalitarian state, his stated opinions cannot be accepted at face value. Still, the judges claimed in their opinion that the INS had good reason to accept Juan Miguel’s claims and that his desire for the boy were not coerced by Castro. The judges wrote, "The INS official, after meeting with Juan Miguel face-to-face, concluded – based upon her observations of his demeanor – that Juan Miguel’s statement