The Langford Trial: Week One

After a week it appears the Langford defense team is trying to paint a picture of a seamy but not criminal political culture that the Mayor operated in. In short it was business as usual as favors were traded between powerful people in regards to the direction of public policy and the hiring of certain groups over others. In other words they have decided they can't disprove many of the allegations but have opted instead to soften the jury in hope that they can get just a couple hold outs or even an acquittal. As part of their defense they have decided to paint Blount as a informant who sold out the Mayor in hopes of getting a lighter sentence. Of course they have a point in that Blount along with 2 other key witnesses did cut deals with the Fed. Like any trial it will be up to the jury to make the decision, but the tawdry details of shopping excursions to New York City for the Mayor surely will hurt any attempt to paint Langford as some "victim". So far this week there has only been a modest look at the role of the financial institutions who actually put together the the swap deals that destroyed the county, but in a very damaging way the admission that JP Morgan Chase poured 225,000 dollars into Blount Parrish and Co even though that bank had no precious knowledge of swap deals leaves open the question as to why? The prosecutor hopes to prove that Blunt then moved some of that money to Langford who was President of the Jefferson County Commission at the time in exchange for a 112 million swap transaction. It was these deals that later led to financial Armageddon for Jefferson County. These sewer deals are the heart of the collapse in the county and are to this day devastating the residents. Next week more testimony from government wittnesses and the case should be wrapped up by Friday.