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Comment by synctext | Hacker News Reader

The US Attorney Press release puts it nice:

"SHREM, who personally bought drugs on Silk Road, was fully aware that Silk Road was a drug-trafficking website, and through his communications with FAIELLA, SHREM also knew that FAIELLA was operating a Bitcoin exchange service for Silk Road users."

http://www.justice.gov/usao/nys/pressreleases/January14/Schr... (note the 14 Jan in URL and 27Jan release date; first draft Press release, then make arrests)

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It's not surprising at all that the press releases are written in advance of arrests. Preet Bharara, the US Attorney responsible for this, is a symbol of everything that is wrong with the US justice system. His every action is designed to maximize his PR and advance his political career. If on occasion he happens to perform his actual job in the process, that is only incidental. If you look closely you'll see that he actually has professionally applied makeup during his press conferences - these are manufactured dog and pony shows. He was looking for a case that would allow him to ride the PR coattails of Bitcoin, and he found one.

In my opinion, prosecutors like this are as despicable as many of the people they prosecute.

I am shocked, shocked to learn that someone had makeup applied professionally before a televised press conference.

I'm not sure why he needs to be on TV in the first place. His job is to prosecute whatever crimes happen to be occurring in his district. Instead, he cherry picks those that will make headlines in order to further his career. He is in the news vastly more often than any of his counterparts in other jurisdictions have ever been in the history of the DOJ. In short, he is abusing his office for personal gain.

Prosecutors are expected to look like zombies on TV?

(The comment I replied to was edited heavily after I replied to it)

I think its more that the application of professional makeup is indicative of a prosecutor overly concerned with appearance. Its not the touch up here and there to avoid looking like an overworked zombie, its the going to the extreme to look like a hero. The suggestion is that such vanity can get in the way of facts, truth and justice. I don't agree with this perspective, but I sympathise with it.

The implication that makeup and vanity have anything to do with one another in this context is suspect, though.

Apparently your comment is being derided because you criticized the guy for wearing makeup, but I think your overall point is quite valid. Prosecutors that are more interested in self promotion than justice are not a rare thing. I'm more curious in peoples' ideas for how we could disincentivize this type of behavior.

EVerything released in January has a url of "January14" which leads me to believe it just means "January 2014":

http://www.justice.gov/usao/nys/pressreleases/

>>> note the 14 Jan in URL and 27Jan release date; first draft Press release, then make arrests

2014 January?

Definitely. There are other January press releases with the same base URL.

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