Kerry Picket has taken notice of some disturbing realities surrounding the Innocence of Muslims filmmaker Nakoula Basseley Nakoula (aka Mark Basseley Yousef). In her latest piece, she notices that the Assistant U.S. Attorney who was involved in prosecuting Nakoula’s bank fraud case is conspicuously absent in the case of his probation violations.
Via the Washington Times:
What is curious, though, is the fact that the original Asst. U.S. Atty. Jennifer Williams, who helped prosecute Mr. Yousef’s bank fraud conviction, is not the attorney Mr. Yousef’s lawyers would eventually deal with. Mr. Yousef’s probation violation case, for no explained reason, was kicked up to Chief Criminal Division prosecutor Asst. U.S. Atty. Robert Dugdale. Dugdale is second in the chain of command below U.S. Atty. Andre Birotte of the Central District of California.
California’s Central District office spokesman Thom Mrozek wrote in an e-mail that AUSA Williams “was one of at least two prosecutors who worked on that [bank fraud] case. She only handled the latter stages of the case, including the sentencing.”
When I pointed out that AUSA Dugdale was not part of the team of attorneys who did prosecute Yousef’s case and asked why the case was kicked up the chain to AUSA Dugdale, Mr. Mrozek responded, “I don’t comment on staffing decisions.”
It should not be forgotten that Mr. Yousef was also a federal snitch. One must wonder if this case has anything to do the with the U.S. Attorneys office unusual silence and staff shifts with Mr. Yousef’s current case. Unfortunately, the US Attorney’s Office California’s Central District is not talking much.
So the question about why AUSA Williams is not involved in Nakoula’s probation case remains unanswered. On top of that, a Criminal Division prosecutor has been assigned to the case without having any history with Nakoula. Why is Dugdale on the probation case while having no history with the fraud case? Was it done to put tighter controls on Nakoula?
Let’s not forget, one of the reasons Nakoula became a “federal snitch” was to help the Feds catch his partner in crime / head of the banking fraud scheme – Eiad Salameh (Walid’s first cousin).
As Walid has reported several times, Salameh was in the custody of Canadian authorities in 2011 and the Feds wouldn’t take him.
We have another question for Ms. Picket.