"how the department of justice died (Marty Preib)

From: Martin Preib's crooked city <martinpreib@substack.com>
to: "add1dda@aol.com" <add1dda@aol.com>
sent: sunday, march 30, 2025 at 02:13:15 p.m. edt

"how the department of justice died

"Barack Obama [sic] and Eric Holder destroyed the doj chicago-style; can Trump, Pam Bondi bring it back to life?"

"news and commentary about chicago you won't get from the mainstream news

"how the department of justice died"

"Barack Obama and Eric Holder destroyed the doj chicago-style. can Trump, Pam Bondi bring it back to life?"

Martin Preib's Crooked City

mar 30

"the soil for the demise of America's federal justice system took shape in the years Barack Obama was a community organizer on the south side of chicago. at that time, Obama had much to learn about chicago's native political system.

"one source of Obama's political education almost certainly came from the white upper-middle-class radicals in the city's elite Hyde park neighborhood, home to the university of chicago. here is where Obama [sic] met with former terrorist bombers Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers, founding members of the weather underground.

"these were the seminal years of Obama's [sic] tutelage in a process now termed lawfare. in essence, it was the Saul Alinsky–style strategy of turning institutions inside out so that they became the opposite of their intended mandate, instead becoming an instrument with which to attack the system from the inside.

"in his years as a community organizer, Obama learned from the radical political movement fomenting on the South Side that criminalizing law enforcement as a way to take control of the justice system was a powerful weapon, more powerful than organizing workers into controlling the means of production or setting off bombs at police stations and federal buildings. This strategy, honed from criminalizing the FBI for their attempts to investigate and prevent terrorist bombers from what the FBI believed could have resulted in thousands killed, became the central modus operandi of the American left.

"after the left successfully convicted top fbi officials and allowed the terrorists to come out of hiding, many returned to chicago, where they waged a similar movement against the chicago police.

"it is quite likely that Obama's [sic] witnessing and embracing this movement in chicago from his brethren like Ayers and Dohrn paved the way for some of Obama's [sic] first actions after his 2008 election. one was the appointment of Eric Holder as the attorney general. one would think that a top official at the doj who would be held in contempt by Congress in 2012 would prohibit such a person from continuing to hold the highest position in law enforcement, but Obama's [sic] administration, not Donald Trump's, would, in truth, be the ascendance of radicalism at the federal level.

"Holder earned the ire of congress for his role in helping secure the release of several convicted terrorists belonging to the group faln that set off bombs all over the country. Obama [sic] selecting Holder as ag for a second term after this scandal is a compelling sign that the exoneration movement in chicago would be embraced and applied by Obama [sic] on a federal level. the exoneration movement declares war on the police at the same time it funds the coffers of the most radical activists in the country through the massive lawsuits filed in federal courts.

"the influence of the exoneration industry from chicago to the federal level puts a spotlight on one case in particular, a seminal moment in the rise of Obama [sic] that no journalist, particularly one in chicago, will ever willfully shine a light on.

"in 2003, five years before Obama would be elected president, George Ryan, the illinois republican governor facing his own 21-count indictment for corruption, released four men from death row. one of the men, Madison Hobley, had been convicted of setting a fire that killed seven people and left others jumping from the third floor of an apartment building. Ryan's pardons of these men on the claim that they were abused by police while in custody was a climactic moment for the exoneration movement and paved the way for the end of the death penalty not only in chicago, but throughout the country. lost in the media frenzy of Ryan's announcement was the troubling fact that no new evidence pointed to Hobley's innocence: the new york times wrote:

"mr. Hobley, who was convicted of killing his wife, infant child and five others in a 1987 arson, walked out of pontiac correctional center this afternoon, one of four death row inmates that governor Ryan pardoned three days before the end of his term. experts said it was the first time in memory that condemned men had been directly pardoned, as opposed to being released through a court proceeding, an extraordinary step governor Ryan took because, he said, he is convinced of their innocence.

"not everyone believed in Hobley's innocence and not everyone celebrated Hobley's release. federal investigators at the atf were so outraged by his pardon they initiated a criminal investigation of their own, doubling down on the evidence of Hobley's culpability. they brought this investigation to then U.S. attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, assuming Fitzgerald would charge Hobley. an eerie silence fell over the doj. agents began to wonder what was taking shape.

"to the shock of investigators, Fitzgerald announced he would not charge Hobley. one atf investigator, Jim Delorto, expressed his shock at the decision:

"'the evidence in the Hobley arson case is so overwhelming and of such specific detail and volume that no jury in any court would not have found him guilty beyond any doubt. in my eight years as supervisor of the atf federal bomb and arson task force, there has never been a clearer case of guilt. for the federal government not to have pursued this case, in which seven african americans were burned to death, was unconscionable and unprecedented.

"Hobley eventually received a multimillion-dollar settlement from the city of chicago. but the influence of his case went even deeper. it was his lawsuit against the infamous former police commander Jon Burge, claiming he was tortured by Burge, that ultimately paved the way for the criminal conviction of Burge and a four-year sentence in prison. at his sentencing, Burge told the judge he had never spoken to Hobley, never had any interaction with him at all, a risky claim by Burge to a judge after just having been found guilty of perjury.

"it is the Hobley case that most signifies the demise of the doj that took shape as the Obama campaign emerged and Obama was elected president. it is the criminal case that most cries out for review to iron out just what happened and why Fitzgerald let Hobley walk and then charged Burge based on Hobley's case. after Hobley got paid, an explosion of exoneration cases emerged in chicago, many of them as laughable as Hobley's claims against Burge. it was as if the radical left knew that as long as Obama and Holder were in power, no federal scrutiny would emerge on the exoneration movement in chicago. and of course, it hasn't.

"President Trump and Pam Bondi therefore have a long, but crucial road ahead of them in bringing justice back to the doj.

"Martin Preib is a retired Chicago Police officer. An author of three books, The Wagon and Other Stories From the City, Crooked City, and Burn Patterns, Mr. Preib's written work has also been published in Playboy, Virginia Quarterly Review, New City, and Tin House. For his essay appearing in Virginia Quarterly Review, Mr. Preib was awarded the Staige D. Blackford Award for Nonfiction in 2005. In addition to his role with the City of Chicago, Mr. Preib served as the Second Vice President of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7.