A Word on Words; 3911; Curtis Wilkie

liz from national television studio way celebrating offers literature and ideas for more than three decades this is word on workers with jobs welcome once again to warlords my guest today is curtis wilkie an acclaimed journalist well the national foreign correspondent the boston globe for twenty six years is your day to talk about the fallout of views the rise in one of america's most powerful trial lawyer so fascinating suspenseful patient angry bitterly of the dark underbelly of success and reading lol going to ok nice to have you say it then they were all this book i could not have i could not not have you on the heights at a memory and i call it a page turn and it is that i never ever

would've imagined the depth of corruption inside the legal fraternity the legal community in that a large chorus of yours presents state mississippi it is the hallowed walls of competition person allied troops home anytime one can do two we heard john paul coble paul it's not a pretty picture not traditional then it strikes me that this beginning with asbestos than moving to tobacco then moving to the hurricane class action lawsuits produced so much money and reid produced some incidental

a minute literally on the mind the administration just you know our puzzles not only case turns out there are a number of cases have cropped up and go there's a political aspect all this to end festive probable cause so you news as much a political story as a news story of white collar crime battles between legal community closer to you know at the bottom of this at least in mississippi or the remnants of war we always called the old eastland organization was a network of little political operatives have been running that state for years whether judges legislators or state officials from texas and i also know that drove going to have a

zoo says sue but coleman of others calling it leave libya where there is some organization named actors and jimmy fallon the all powerful senate judiciary committee chair for so many years alone and the people inside the only organization my head bonds and ties and connections that turned out to be corrupting and sure who was a lord acton said power corruption of food power corrupts absolutely and it certainly was a an organization with all sorts of two reports and an ability to fix cases have cases dismissed poor

prosecute your enemy is the people who didn't buy into your organization what your censored do experiments to manage here you are a journalist more than a journalist of frightened we're in we're truly every major major player in this saga of corruption gone confronted with the challenge to write about to fall out of those loose litigation successful careers talk about how it must have been to be in there nerds nerds nerds

journalists but once the men writing those oh it's a challenge on you would understand is an old newspaper man yourself can't there are plenty of people that we knew or friendly with that we've written about and anger and as you say i knew want to screw with a lot of the principal characters in this book went to college with them so much and if boyle's novel lives turned certain moderation and go home some big firms it is a friend so are a number of other people who were on opposing sides in the stores or a special challenge too play it is fairly and thirties and possibly could have placed it in the eu and probably none of peripheral characters who aren't particularly likeable

man do is charming smart very successful and what was so stunning is essentially well married everything together gonna blow is his actual human and matt return to boldness of two years and he was oh he was a close one millibar where now the governor of mississippi and that will question their views organization so on august first they've indicted and i began to figure or if something's wrong with this picture it can be as simple as so this multimillionaire are almost a billionaire

you know jeopardizing his entire career for forty thousand are brought to a country judge something else is going on so it was a challenge to try to figure out what's going on here because as you know and i know promote all my years susan his barber man he really only scratched the surface with those daily stories in really records were a commitment to dig deeply into stores or just that none of the reporters who work don't really have to turn on to do this sort of attack or their own i had no i'd do you want to get food talk to me and connection with people there were very very often do it but to get an indian girl maybe six months into the project as he was about going to prove them to begin to talk to me and talk to me at length as well as his sons at who also work

crews from home a number of the people who want to defend that there are moments when i think his son was more that political ad a victim of his own arrogance when you say they got the dessert was collateral damage in this case and quite frankly if our sitting on a jury and that our present it although that's that i know in the case of vocal quartet it's clear that one of the key witnesses live in the grand jury and implicated set on the coast this cat to both duty most were presented the conversation to have a debate recorded by the fbi and i have a copy of that recording in the conversation that he told the grand jury about never police never occurred

thus far from all about this obscure little country judge beyond i guess you could call this young italian american lawyer a protege of this country judge and orchestra becomes wonders and next week clear or proposition and they just take for most out by a friend and takes a few days and they thinking that with when i think of the hard part the warriors losing prof bruce who turned their back on ethical standards not only from and so to be corrupted but actually engage in the crushing lows

how guns n word comes from but so happy war drums that this one obscure lawyer was something of an animus toward dickie scruggs says unintelligible you know the other thing to understand and that approach the jumbo duty he would do the job he was doing in an attempt to ingratiate himself was quote because he's trying to start his own firm so why i would like to buy into some of scarves and if you tune flow scripted more worse i'll follow i'll trust him ok you go down and took over would just urge him get him to send it to up to arbitration the fun

and that's essentially what they were asking for and turns out that's what we're frightened anyway that's irony how screwed never standing there with the mandate or for money ah but clearly wasn't a nail to call our approach should never have been many scarves or acknowledge that zack would acknowledge that and to judges you say have a man i'm lost this world's he want to be a federal prosecutors and everyone that came out very excited about the prospect of closing a net along the most prominent followers in all of mississippi and it turns out as good at something of a liberal democrat i'm not suggesting it was a political prosecution because it was a book there's no reluctance part of the prosecutors too the

workers grow that goes into law married so says they are they are friends and their own talents one that issue of float away from the strip democratic partisan lines in supporting candidates for office and candidates for the judiciary i i was really a taken by the young the willingness of this judge when the moment comes for brusque you were you wear a wire country judge but a man with a great sense of humor also a great reason to write long without hesitation he says yes i'll do it and this was and typically like big issue have been like and then they didn't like what he was about what he stood for the ethical theory that he really believed in

iran we're surprised when you found out or you don't get to lieutenants show that we're it gets tricky have wonder or what the judge says his engine room actually has a gadget has a sterling reputation in that district but i wonder what would have happened if too if you'd been pampered too don't buy health of a conservative republican and clearly disturbed or cemetery mr corbett scruggs not excusing his own scruggs to it scruggs is guilty all but the judge and furloughed what really went out of their way to him staring school of the well for any money it took that you'd get to but here's the bia and geo thermal prosecute took him what's the value really an environment with the judge

asking for money for the southern border selves and our domestic from skirmishes that from belgium to bellucci produced the forty thousand and in his guess close to be reimbursed for the forest elephants close up how to install reimburse him forty thousand you know you tip you can take off half dozen orders food strikes me having read the book are caught up in this culture of corruption that's not to say they walk in the judge's office and throw money at it is to say at that they would but despite and been a nuance breaking the rules and to gain an advantage among wonder how you're at what your own

size of that is when you think about what it does to the administration just at the fair equitable justice ministry civil rights act that's why so many people in the legal profession and judges were angered by this case there's something new in our be angered and the journalistic profession when somebody glitter us are multiple story and make me mad as hell one jason blair of janet cooke costing stores in atlanta struck it our credibility as drama with them their so many attorneys in mississippi that were they really troubled locals no fish in the world it was so astonishing to me was being a non lawyer was to

see the level of hatred and inside the legal profession these girls are now a competitor church in the courtroom they truly a great spot where they despised each other women to do anything to destroy each other even if it meant going outside the law to do so so you're just joining us we talk with traditional give others book the fallout of american corporate controller and that disturbs was america's most powerful trial lawyer at the moment a fellow at the moment ten thousand is to find unknown bill minor greatness of the jury was all my life watched discovery's as the right moment to learn that his song with the gregorian or was painful you do more painful

to know that dickie scruggs appeared before a grand jury and freshly sold him under the bus knowing himself his own exposure his own vulnerability he went out of his way as you say has to be a level of hatred there hidden not spoken to they get the fallen grand jury under oath and just sucks of them know well from could feel you know he's trying to extricate himself from our his own problems are going to get a look at what exactly where it was going to enforce it here for in a man bill moyer the father paul meyer who's now imprisoned bill will continue and the girls too republican prosecutors and so their district in the city and the show gets girls was spared their goals for a lot of your own inhibiting frozen for my

job interviewing go from woody a lot more than that well that it might not even the necessary elements land was really was going to was to use federal prosecutor knows that then there was one step back before and that from prosecution that ultimately emerges was once the ability to know what you make of what you make of his jazz look at curtis of how you q the poisoning the system that exists when that many lawyers and non lawyers i mean they're people who got payouts thousands of dollars a month the film of the year nuttall is who just

using their political influence to affect the administration of justice what you make of it all you got in a number of problems in one go to electing judges in a narrow way you got a problem there were polls their own campaign contributions and contributions invariably come from other lawyers that's a problem i'll and we'll let our jujitsu moves to do that than not the subprime mortgages you got in some cases in on the consumer and no for a flavor some of the initiatives for orders to work in some cases they're up seeing on judgments that are made in and some of these were such incidents home that really distort the process one mobile enabled us open

four days turns into a judge ronald know billions of dollars from next american home suitable people or point it's a little bit and it's questionable were live he's a valley that don't sound like a republican tort reform or necessarily but clearly a this has gone out of control and the courts delayed electoral system as someone out of control because the judges are dependent upon a contribution from the people who appear before them i don't know what the solution is for applied for and what i'm used to try to eliminate politics as was much of boston one of a miserable cold before wells of jewish which helped expose corruption where it existed at all more credibility because you were from the key players in it there is a character in the book i'd like for him to talk about

pm really all the oil boys el blake fascinating character half had never heard a braille book until this story broke but all the insiders and the city no room how to now living in birmingham alabama was one of the original agent for john gleeson and organization who somehow were also from a poor background in mississippi flood foot boat that set at mississippi state political ball four wall came that suddenly he's got a multimillion dollar farming operation the citadel were to come from turns out he's one of the go between between known to gaza are trying to fix the roots and the ultimate

fix source for him indicted yet no no college degree and a political operative from way back for its long for political operative any one of thousands and downs and thousands of dollars ford justified as you're walking we know he gets four hundred and sixty eight thousand dollars every quarter out of the scrubs tobacco money still hitting it will come up in my head up to about fifty billion dollars by twenty twenty five the us po boy accorded those he says who are really the center of the provision that huh good news us indyk and mrs warner for dick would not global would

be acidic you are being too protective a po boy well what's the gerbil indyk says ali was my listening post he who was the girl told me the people to avoid the people here go through forty two million dollars a year we should we follow them or solace of faith is npr white but he strikes me you're missing any early any daylight it's a murder mystery period prosecutors assured me that at one point they came in their course ursin book it was likely to be indicted any day and that ever happened you know we went through a period where their last summer session in which there was several us attorneys who were saying that they were targeted by the justice department

a republican justice department because they would not politically prosecutor because they didn't prosecute in ways that would not be acceptable how much on both political science does politics influence the administration's us is in cases like this was so much more to get any question you know you know the justice department farmers the modern but it's changed so much i think from the time you were there i would have been politicized and no no question that some of dr actions taken by a certain us attorneys harpoon pool is snow or kipp schools case i don't think it was politically motivated at all but there's no question that in some cases

these federal prosecutors are motivated by politics to take a stick character somebody only over certain whether it's the direction of the white house who bowls but it fit the political i saw ugly thirties it's a ridge of journalism storytelling is all journalism is sybase it's revealing that is a great book on a great public service thank you for coming thank you for i remember and thanks all of you for watching and dancing and gone forward on words he really does