Allen's Cell

[H2O Man]

https://actupny.org/reports/prisons_map.pdf


I can't say what Allen Weisselberg is thinking about this weekend. That would be mere speculation on my part. But I wonder if, for the first time in his life, he might be thinking about New York State's prison system. I will go out on a limb here, and say that he hasn't socialized with anyone who has spent time in the system of maximum, medium, and minimum security facilities who could tell him of their personal experiences.

Since visting a bud in one of those facilities isn't likely something Allen has done, he is perhaps dimly aware of two types of people in them: guards and inmates. Little people and losers. None in his elite social class. Not the type of people he would sit next to at a Yankee's game.

Through a combination of employment and personal life I've visited a number of these facilities. I've had friends employed at a variety of them, as well as friends who were incarcerated in them. I'm not going to focus on my thoughts about the state's prison system -- I'm just saying they are unpleasant at very best, and not the type of place Allen would do well in.

In times long since past, members of organized crime had an honor code that demanded that they serve their time with their lips sealed. I note that experience never resulted that, upon release, they were reformed, or even the same as the day they entered. For prisons are horrible places that either takes a person to a more intense level, or destroys them completely. And that level of intensity presents both good and bad potentials.

In the Trump era, only one man kept his mouth shut while incarcerated, Paul Manafort. By no coincident, the reulsive Manafort is clearly the most gangster of the Trump circle. Phone taps showed that Michael Cohen mistook himself for gangster while bullying people for Trump, but that weak shit melted under heat. There aren't any G. Gordon Liddy-types around Trump. No, these are house cats that rarely leave their pillowed lives, and never set foot in the wilderness.

Even the minimum security facilities are nothing that Allen's life experiences have prepared him for. Again, as I said, I have no idea what he is thinking about this weekend. I suspect that tomorrow, a lot of Americans will be thinking about the meaning of "freedom." Maybe Allen likes fireworks. But I think that at some point between today and sentencing, Allen will think about New York State's prisons.

Peace,
H2O Man

[Kali]

1. do you think he will go to prison at all?

[H2O Man]

2. Yes, unless

he turns on Trump.

[Kali]

4. I would like to see real consequences for these people

but confess that I am pretty jaded about the wealthy ever facing justice.

[Buns_of_Fire]

6. If it helps, think of Bernie Madoff.

The Trump Organization paid the tuition for two of Weisselberg’s family members at a private school in Manhattan, says the indictment. The Madoff firm paid the tuition of Bonventre’s sons at a private school in Manhattan. The Trump Organization paid many Weisselberg personal expenses at his request, the indictment alleges: new beds, flat-screen TVs, carpeting and furniture for his Florida home, for example. The Madoff firm paid many of Bonventre’s personal expenses at his discretion: country club dues, season tickets to the New Jersey Devils hockey team, for example.

The obvious question is why? These men were making a lot of money, and those expenses weren’t crushing. Why go through such financial contortions? Answer: It wasn’t about the money.

“What allegedly happened here and happened in the Madoff case is a white-collar equivalent of what goes on in a Mafia gangster case,” says Roland Riopelle, a defense attorney and former federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York who represented a Madoff employee, Annette Bongiorno, in that scandal’s aftermath. “Members of the conspiracy are encouraged to commit crimes, using the organization for their own benefit. That ultimately becomes the way in which the organization binds the individual to it and encourages loyalty.”

It’s what Riopelle calls “false generosity as a way of keeping people in place. It’s false generosity because with each gift, the recipient is sinking deeper into criminality.”

The striking parallels between the allegations in the Trump Organization indictment and routine practices at Bernie Madoff’s firm
https://fortune.com/2021/07/03/trump-organization-indictment-charges-bernie-madoff-financial-crimes/

[msfiddlestix]

11. Fascinating, and interesting perspective, explains a lot.

[we can do it]

12. This deserves its own OP.

[PatSeg]

19. Thank you, that makes it very clear

[H2O Man]

25. Outstanding!

Great call! Thank you!

[PatSeg]

20. Michael Cohen turned on Trump

and he still went to prison. It is hard to say what will happen to Allen Weisselberg.

[H2O Man]

23. Right.

I thought of that after I had posted my response. You are, of course, correct. I should also add that, despite the tone of the OP, I find Michael a likeable guy these days. His experience in the legal system transformed him.

Cohen spent time in the federal correctional institute in Otisville, NY. I've never been there, but do know one fellow who spent time incarcerated at that facility. Not a friend, but the father of a kid who used to attend the same school as my daughters. We discussed his experience one time, and my impression was that boredom and separation from his family were the worst parts.

I also had a friend who spent significant time in the state prison at Otisville. Cohen's experiences in the federal facility pale in comparison to those endured in the state facility.

[PatSeg]

26. Oh yes, I find Cohen likeable as well

Apparently his experiences had a very humbling effect on him, something we don't see too often. I was impressed with how honest he was about his own shortcomings and his blind devotion to Trump for many years.

Of course, there is a big difference with Weisselberg, his age. A man of 73 might not survive a prison term. You'd think that could be an incentive for him to cooperate and that if convicted, the courts would take his age into consideration.

[H2O Man]

28. I agree!

Even for a seasoned inmate who knows how to do time, 73 creates a whole set of problems. Prison is a whole different world, that even a relatively 'young" Michael Cohen found harsh. Heck, he even complains about how strict "house arrest" is.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. Another great essay, my dear H20 Man.

I found it compelling reading. You lay the facts and your thoughts out so very logically that I have to keep reading, to see where you're going.

Well done!

I am sure you're right that his thoughts will turn to New York State's prisons.

[H2O Man]

27. Thank you!

I hope that someone can explain to Allen that even the minimum security facilities are anything but the "country club" that some of the federal facilities are rumored to be. They are not. He would have literally zero in common with either the guards or inmates.

[grantcart]

5. Cohen mistook himself for a gangster and Weisselberg mistook himself for a CFO

Working for a real corporation.

Weisselberg's calculus will be getting more complicated as his relatives get dragged in toots serious charges.

He may see that he has a way forward with cooperation with an omnibus multi jurisdiction walk away free card and the possibility of a major book deal.

Wouldn't it be hilarious that Weisselberg ends up flipping because he sees how much Mary Trump made from her books.

[H2O Man]

29. One media source

did a story on Leonna Helmsley that I found interesting. I have to admit that I had plum forgotten about her! The attitude she made famous -- only "little people" pay taxes -- seems to define people like Weisselberg and the Trump family.

I'm no fan of our state prisons, but I will admit that I am hoping that Don, Jr., and Eric are awarded multi-year vacations in the system. It might be good for them.

[blogslug]

7. Well, he pled not guilty

So there's going to be the long process of waiting for a trial date, the trial and the inevitable sentencing.

I keep thinking about that thing cops and lawyers say to the accused: "You might beat the rap but can you beat the ride?"

[H2O Man]

30. Valid point.

The stress could kill him before it even gets to trial. That is definitely a real possibility.

After posting the OP yesterday, I was thinking about a series of letters I got from a kid in Attica. I've wrote about his case here before: a young non-white male given a life sentence for a non-violent crime, literally his first offense. His friends brought the case to me through my children, and it was unreal. I contacted Rubin's attorney Myron, and it took us 18 months to get him released. His letters from Attica documented the hell he was trying to survive.

[rampartc]

8. weasalberg will not live to stand trial.

[PsakiPswirli]

16. Epstine 101

First thing I thought. Especially if he implicates Russians.

[H2O Man]

32. Very important factor.

[H2O Man]

31. Very real possibility.

Very real.

[kentuck]

9. No G-Gordon Liddy-types...

We will see how far his loyalty will take him? Surely he knows it's a one-way street with his boss?

[H2O Man]

33. Good questions!

When I wrote the Liddy line, I was wondering how many community members under the age of 50 would know the reference. That seems like a very distant life-time ago! But for our generation, he was recognized as a dangerous man. Although he clearly was sick in the head, he was disciplined.

[panader0]

10. I spent a brief time for something that is now legal in Arizona.

Besides the horrible "accommodations" and "food", the main problem is simply the knowledge
that you are locked up. I had no window besides a small slit on the door that looked out at a
block wall. It hurt. But I wrote a pretty good song while I was locked up-"Cochise County Zoo",
a blues dirge.

[msfiddlestix]

14. is it uploaded somewhere?

love to hear it,

[panader0]

15. I have it recorded on one of the two CDs I made with my band at the time-'Tombstone Bound'.

But I don't know how to upload things or I would.
"Behind the walls, getting higher,
the steel doors, the razor wire,
there's a place where they'll torment you,
the down and dirty place they call--
the Cochise County Zoo."
In E minor.

[kentuck]

18. Sounds like a good song.

There is nothing like experience.

[msfiddlestix]

21. Em one of my favorite keys

I wish I could hear the melody..

like the lyrics, is that the chorus?

[H2O Man]

35. Yikes!

I'm glad that you used it to write a song!

A friend recently told my sons about when him and two friends were driving through rural Texas. A cop pulled them over for suspicion of hitting a jack rabbit. He found two joints. After laying face-down on a dirt road, and having a gun put to the back of their heads, they were taken to lock-up. Very early the next morning, the cop suggested that he could overlook their offenses for a sum of cash. It was a scary experience for them. It's legal now in NYS, and I'm glad that young people will not face the shit our generation did in days of old.

[malaise]

13. Great post - time will tell if Allen is going to light up the Slobfather like

fireworks or exit like a damp squib.
Happy 4th my brother

[H2O Man]

36. Happy 4th to you!

Bison steaks are on the grill here.

I know that Allen needs to spend some time incarcerated. But he'll be as out of place as if he were in the ring facing Mike Tyson.

[spanone]

17. 🇺🇸K&R🇺🇸

[H2O Man]

37. Thank you!

[JHB]

22. One factor that isn't really accounted for here, though

It mostly depends on who makes Allen sweat.

Fellow inmates, sure. But what about, say, some people he's worked with over the years, the modern versions of the "concrete galoshes" crowd, with international reach. Cohen tried to play one, but didn't actually have real ones looming over him. Manafort did, and kept quiet. Where does Allen fall in that spectrum?

[H2O Man]

38. Great point.

There might be a few of those gentlemen in the system, as well as those on the outside. The prison system is a jungle .....and as Malcolm X taught, in the jungle, there are hunters -- and those that hunt the hunters.

[Roisin Ni Fiachra]

24. Hope he is somewhere where agents of TFG can't murder him. nt

[H2O Man]

39. Likewise.

In my opinion, if someone wants to mess with you in prison, they are going to mess with you. I've seen a group of inmates in a minimum security facility inform one poor fool that he was assigned to polishing their sneakers daily. He didn't argue. And I recall an inmate being murdered in that facility, simply because another inmate said he wanted to watch someone die. Ugly, brutal places.

[sellitman]

34. I bet the cams in his upcoming jail cell don't work very well

I feel it in my bones.

[H2O Man]

40. Right.

Nothing surprises me coming from these places.