Today's Sacramento Bee, 1/16/11 has a lengthy piece about Harrison Jack and the government's dismissal of all charges against him and the other 11 defendants last week. With an exclusive interview with Harrison Jack, I'm disappointed in the very short video clip in the online article. Here's what else EDCA U.S. Attorney Ben Wagner had to say about the reasons his office dismissed the case:
Wagner, the U.S. attorney, said, "This case started because somebody was shopping for arms."
The government decided to drop all charges, he said, following "a lengthy reassessment of the case."
In court, a Justice Department attorney faced a tongue-lashing from Damrell three months ago, for what he called vague and contradictory aspects of the government's accusations. Then, two months ago, Damrell threw out much of the case, saying it was not supported.
Wagner said there were two major considerations to the decision to drop charges. One was Damrell's dismissal of a major portion of the case, including much of the conspiracy charge.
In addition, "At the time the arrests were made, we did not have full translation of 100 percent of the data we had," he said.