Georgia Thompson: The Real Story - Honor and Courage

The more I read about the Georgia Thompson case, the more I realize that the real story is Georgia Thompson. In this week's Isthmus, Bill Lueders writes:

Biskupic tried to 'squeeze' Georgia Thompson

The federal prosecutors who put Georgia Thompson in prison, on charges later overturned by an appeals court as lacking in merit, repeatedly offered to go easy on her if she were to implicate others in the administration of Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle...

... Did they specifically name Doyle?

"We knew what they were talking about," says Hurley, making his first public comments on the conduct of prosecutors in the Thompson case, which in recent weeks has become the subject of national media attention and congressional inquiry.

This is the Spanish Inquisition*, the Salem Witch Trials** and the Abusive HUAC***, all rolled into one. A lonely dedicated public employee, promised mercy if she will name names. Finger innocent people. Threatened with prison unless she implicated politicians.

In a Kafkaesque nightmare, Thompson stood fast, placing honor and justice before self-interest. She refused to name innocent people, though offered leniency if she lied.

That her prosecutors may have honestly believed that others were involved in a crime that never existed is irrelevant. They pursued and hounded her out of a job, into financial ruin and prison. An erroneous conviction does not absolve the federal government of its abusive power.

The irony is that Thompson and the real target of the Inquisitors, Governor Jim Doyle, never met, never discussed the matter of the travel contract, directly or through intermediaries.

The Governor's silence was mistakenly interpreted that he allowed Thompson to take the fall. But upon reflection, any contact, initiated by Thompson or Governor Doyle, during the period of the Travel Inquisition and the appeal would be interpreted by the prosecutors as a conspiracy and an attempted coverup. 

That is what an Inquisition can do. It silences free and honest people in a democratic society. It intimidates and it prevents us from arriving at the truth - neither justice or public protection are served.

Some noted that other prosecutors, Democrats, approved the handling of the case. That is the refuge of children, their honesty compromised, who explain that everyone else did it.

Georgia Thompson and the Governor of Wisconsin deserve our respect and an apology. An apology that comes from the prosecutors, but also from the rest of us, for Georgia Thompson choose the truth, courage, honor, and - prison.

*The promise of benevolence was effective, and many voluntarily presented themselves to the Inquisition. But self-incrimination was not sufficient, one also had to accuse all one's accomplices. As a result, the Inquisition had an unending supply of informants.

**By the time the witchhunt ended, nineteen convicted witches were executed, at least four accused witches had died in prison, and one man, Giles Corey, had been pressed to death. About one to two hundred other persons were arrested and imprisoned on witchcraft charges. Two dogs were executed as suspected accomplices of witches.

***During the communist witchhunts of the 1950 s, the House UnAmerican Activities Committee used informants in a similar manner:  to oppress an unpopular minority under the guise of law enforcement, which is not the same as using them to aid a legitimate criminal investigation. Thus, just as the almost reflexive sense of revulsion that informing generates obscures the divergent objectives that loyalty serves, it also overlooks the different sets of circumstances under which informants can be employed.

Comments

[Anonymous]

You have a lot of talent for writing and I couldn't agree with you more regarding what they did to Thompson. Everytime I think of it I get upset.

They ruined her life, cost her everything for nothing and now we see Ziegler, a judge, that really did something wrong is allowed to make a deal that is really a drop in the bucket for her.

Power corrupts...

Precisely correct, Ms. Thompson is a hero, for holding steady in the face of the silly charge of fraud.

I wish she would begin a fund for the innocent (her); a lot of folks would chip in to do her some measure of justice.

But what of Stephen Biskupic. Unfortunately, Thompson is but one of his witches: voter fraud cases, a Vietnam veteran imprisoned for wire fraud, who knows who else.

You're right about Biskupic's internal conceptions being irrelevant, but, as you note, the man has done a lot of damage to innocent people. So, how do we get rid of Biskupic and ensure that he never occupies a position as important as a prosecutor's office for the rest of his life?

[Anonymous]

Thank you. I am so weary of the wishy-washy coverage of this fine woman -- or worse, such as Mike Nichols' column in the Journal Sentinel that only recently described her as a "political animal." Nonsense; this woman is as apolitical as can be -- as her testimony and record clearly showed. She said she didn't vote; how can she be political at all?

It is past time that someone state, as you did, that this state employee withstood intense pressure from a federal employee. They all are supposed to be working for us, but only one did so -- Georgia Thompson.

The only fair resolution to this, in my mind, would be for Biskupic to also lose his home -- selling it and turning the proceeds over to her, so she can have a home again.

And then Mike Nichols and everyone else in the media, blogs included, who blew this story into a travesty ought to sell off Journal Sentinel stock or draw from their pensions to compensate her for the loss of her life savings.

And even all of that would not come close to restoring to this woman what was hers -- except for what she never lost, her dignity and integrity that no one could take from her.

Biskupic selling his home? Great idea.

The jerk has already sold his soul to Karl Rove, and sold out the people he is supposed to work for-that would be the American people of the Eastern District of Wisconsin.

By the way, did you hear that he launched investgations into the city of Madison for alleged voting fraud; that's from today's Capital Times. Why again is he going outside her jurisdiction for his witch-hunts? Madison is in the Western district of Wisconsin.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I wondered about his wandering ways in the Georgia Thompson case, too. Have the Madison media ever looked into why he moved in on what then was Van Hollen's territory? Has our current AG weighed in on why he wouldn't charge her, let Biskupic charge her? And let Biskupic go after so-called "voter fraud" cases outside his territory, too?

There's a story there. . . .