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Valijagate Trial Update VIII: And Now, The End Is Near

October 27th 2008, by Revolter - BoRev.net

Can it be? This strange Miami suitcase trial has come to its last stage. The prosecution and the defense have made their closing arguments, and Friday the jury began deliberations on whether to send Franklin Duran to prison for "acting as an unregistered agent" of the government of Venezuela. Weeks of headlines, and still nobody knows what that means. Here are the different version of events, as told to the jury:

US Government (DOJ): Duran was sent by Chavez himself to threaten and/or bribe Guido Antonini to lie about the cash-filled suitcase he was caught with in the Buenos Aires airport. Don't believe what Argentine customs officers say, the money was not Guido's. It was a gift from Chavez for Cristina Kirchner's campaign. This prosecution is totally not politically motivated, but let's spend the case talking about unrelated corruption in Venezuela for some reason.

Frank Duran: I came to Miami to convince Antonini to return to Argentina and face charges because he was my business partner and, supposedly, my friend. He was being sketchy and was all like, "So I really want to get this Chavez guy involved in this. I'm gonna send him a letter asking for millions." It's clear that I was set up by the FBI and the fat man as part of some scheme to embarrass Chavez. "This is unprecedented, incredible. The sheer chutzpah of the FBI.'' Did I mention that Guido's a lying piece of shit who was trying to rip me off of millions everywhere from Florida to Uruguay?

So there you go.

Last week, Judge Joan Lenard finally made a major decision in Duran's favor. She allowed the jury to consider whether or not the FBI had entrapped the defendant. But then Lenard made a kind of legal make-up call by letting the DOJ put Duran's other ex-business partner turned enemy, Carlos Kauffman back up on the stand to counteract the entrapment claim. To the orgasmic delight of the Venezuelan opposition and the US State Department, Kauffman named names while talking specifically about kickbacks that he and Duran supposedly gave to Venezuelan officials over the last 10 years. There was a funny exchange during Kauffman's testimony when he told Duran's attorney, Ed Shohat, to "Handle the truth. Handle the truth," to which Shohat replied, "Are you Jack Nicholson?"

Here's a copy of the jury instructions that were approved by Judge Lenard. They explain what they can and cannot consider in determining the guilt or innocence of Franklin Duran.

It's unclear what facts will sway the jury one way or the other, but it does look pretty clear that the FBI did mount a "garbage operation" against the governments of Venezuela and Argentina. And then they tried to bribe Telpuk to change her testimony on Antonini (BTW - the pilot on the flight has also testified in Argentina that, contrary to what the DOJ and Guido have stated, there was no other suitcase on board that could have contained an additional $4.2 million).

The jury must come to a unanimous decision or a mistrial will be declared. They could find Duran innocent. Or guilty of conspiracy to act as an unregistered agent while finding him innocent of being an unregistered agent. Or they could find him guilty of both.

In the event that he is found guilty, the defense will surely appeal the decision to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. There, Duran will be able to revive the unconstituionality and Outrageous Goverment Actions defenses that Judge Lenard did not find convincing, and have a realistic shot at prevailing. No matter what, it's not going to be the last we've heard of Franklin Duran and valijagate. Hooray.

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