Stefani DID Give Kilpatrick texts to Freep

[SWMAP]

Stefani testifies he gave text messages to Free Press for 'safekeeping'

This is headline of moments ago. my apologies to Kraig who has said this nearly from the beginning. I dismissed it as a rant. Kraig was correct, it seems.

I do believe most of what he says however, especially about the Council candidates.

[kraig]

Stefani testifies he gave text messages to Free Press for 'safekeeping'

This is headline of moments ago. my apologies to Kraig who has said this nearly from the beginning. I dismissed it as a rant. Kraig was correct, it seems.

I do believe most of what he says however, especially about the Council candidates.

See. I to--------. Forget any I told you so's. I wonder if this is going to hurt Gary Brown in any way. I hope not. He's been one of the few candidates that has actually been campaigning on issues instead of simply campaigning on the public's dislike of the current council.

[exdetroiter]

I'm glad Stefani gave the messages to the Freepress and I hope he isn't charged with perjury.

[kraig]

I'm glad Stefani gave the messages to the Freepress and I hope he isn't charged with perjury.

Perjury charges are the least of his concerns. He may end up facing extortion charges.

[Ltdave]

i thought that this was old news...

[Buy American]

With all these lawyers being sanctioned for one thing or another, I'm wondering about thug KK's chance of getting his conviction thrown out of court on a technicality.

[agirlintheD]

Ltdave, I'm with you, I thought this was old news as well. I was surprised when I saw it on the news. I guess I thought "everyone" already knew Stefani was the delivery guy! Hmmm.

[kraig]

Ltdave, I'm with you, I thought this was old news as well. I was surprised when I saw it on the news. I guess I thought "everyone" already knew Stefani was the delivery guy! Hmmm.

It's not what you know, it's what you can prove. No one could prove it. But now that he's admitted to it, he may be in a lot of trouble.

[agirlintheD]

As far as I'm concerned, Stefani may be taking quite a personal hit, but what he did for the city is a pretty good thing. Would we know all this information without the texts? Would it be further speculation? This information [[along with so much more) got Kwame out of office. Yes, we have a long road ahead of us as a city, but for what it's worth, he's gone. I applaud Stefani for what he did [[even if he has dug himself quite a hole). I also applaud the Free Press writers who diligently pursued the "rumors" and found facts. Is it something I'd want to do, probably not, but my hat's off to them for getting the job done.

[Bloomfield Pills]

The Free Press has a lot to answer for, and I'm shocked that nobody has brought this up here.

First of all, they've been exposed as frauds. They made out like this whole thing started with a FOIA. I distinctly remember their chest-thumping special section they put out, and one of the stories was titled "The FOIA that started it all." Now, we find out that Stefani simply handed Jim Shaefer a CD with the text messages on them.

That's not exactly the way the Freep portrayed it. If you read the crap they put out, you'd think Elrick and Shaefer spent hours in City Hall, poring through dusty records like Woodward and Bernstein. Of course, it's not quite as good a story to just say "someone handed us the text messages, so we knew exactly what to FOIA beforehand to make it look like we'd forced the city's hand."

Aside from their sanctimony, though, the more important issue is: Why did the Free Press hold onto these messages for 3 months? Did they cut some kind of deal with Stefani? It sure appears to be the case, and that's unethical as hell. Holding onto those messages also may have cost the city of Detroit a lot of money [[when, ironically, the Freep painted themselves as heroes who brought down the mayor whose lies cost the city millions).

If Stefani gave the messages to the Freep when he says they did, and the Freep editors determined that they were newsworthy, it's completely unethical to hold onto them until the attorney uses them as a bargaining chip to basically blackmail Kwame into settling the case.

If the Free Press had printed those text messages when they got them, then Stefani doesn't have that bargaining chip, since the toothpaste would've already been out of the tube. If I have dirty pictures of you and I tell you to pay up or I'll spread them all over town, if someone else spreads them all over town first, then there's no reason for you to pay me, is there?

I don't know if it can ever be proven in a court of law that the Freep unethically cut a deal with Stefani to hold onto those messages until he got his settlement. But the curtain certainly has been pulled back, exposing them for the sanctimonious frauds they are. Of course, to anyone who has been paying attention to the way that paper handles All Things Mitch, that's old news.

And why are Elrick and Shaefer still covering this story? How can you have reporters reporting on what THEY'D done???? That, too, is unethical as hell.

One last thing: The Free Press's contention that it may not have been the Stefani messages they'd printed makes them look like complete fools -- and, even worse, assumes their readers must be a bunch of idiots. What, did Miguel Cabrera also drop off a copy of the text messages on his way to the Townsend Hotel? Seriously.

The Freep got caught with their pants down, big-time.

[Bloomfield Pills]

Joel Thurtell's take on this, from his "Joel on the Road" blog:

By Joel Thurtell

During the McCarthy period, spy-hunting journalist Whittaker Chambers hid rolls of film in a pumpkin.

In the most amazing Detroit Free Press story I’ve ever read, I learned today, October 8, 2009, how the two top sleuths at the Free Press, each owning a quarter of a Pulitzer Prize, got their big scoop that ousted Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and sent him to prison.

They were pumpkins!

In the weird Free Press story by M.L. Elrick and Jim Schaefer, we learn that attorney Mike Stefani gave the text messages that wound up making political mincemeat of Kwame to the two Freepsters writing today’s very story!

Like Chambers putting film in the pumpkin, apparently Stefani thought the two Freepsters were a sort of journalistic safe deposit box.

In spycraft, it’s called a “dead-drop” — a place where contraband can be put so giver and taker don’t have to be in the same place at the same time.

Stefani, defending his law license before the Michigan Attorney Discipline Board, said he gave the papers to the reporters for “safekeeping.”

So Stefani was the Free Press “deep throat.”

And the paper was his dead-drop.

Maybe the Freepsters were supposed to hold the text messages for somebody else. Stefani gives the text messages to Elrick/Schaefer to keep safe for…

Well, for what?

Did Stefani have some third party for whom the Freepsters were acting as a pipeline?

Not very journalistic of them, if so.

Did Stefani know his partners in subterfuge were going to put the messages on newsprint?

What kind of promises did they make in return for “safekeeping” those lurid texts?

Elrick, covering the hearing, declined to answer reporters’ questions, even though he was a subject of the hearing. Cute.

I’ve known people who honestly trusted media people with confidential information. That’s because there are reporters who are willing to keep such things to themselves. Others will out the facts.

Ethics?

As I say, depends partly on what the agreement was between Stefani and the Pulitzer-totin’ reporters.

Depends also on how forthcoming they are about how they got their Pulitzer-making transcripts.

I’m telling you, it does matter how they got this story.

Isn’t this interesting?

A couple times on JOTR I wondered how the Free Press got those text messages and I suggested it would make interesting reading. I found it hypocritical of the newspaper to go into court — and into print — claiming to be this great representative of the public good, insisting that courts and lawyers and public officials open their records to the Free Press, even while the newspaper contends it’s not subject to the same kind of scrutiny.

Why, the Free Press claims its employees don’t even enjoy First Amendment rights!

Now with this Discipline Board hearing, we’re starting to get somewhere.

But there’s more to know.

Problem is, the demi-Pulitzers have been entrusted by their editors with reporting their own story.

Note that the questions I’ve raised were not even mentioned by the reporters in their Free Press story.

Isn’t it curious that there was no comment from the bosses?

And isn’t it weird that the the Kwame-beaters are the ones asking their editors to comment on a story that has the Free Press and its two award-bedecked heroes as central characters, all of whom are keeping mum?

Doubly cute.

Time was when covering a story about yourself would have been a big no-no.

But now we know that what underlay the Free Press’s deflated Pulitzer was not gumshoe work, just a lucky connection.

And yet, maybe not. Maybe there was more to it.

If so, let’s hear about it!

Come on, you palladins of the people, tell us the whole story.

What’s this about editors having no comment?

Actually, that’s just what the reporter did, isn’t it?

But hey, drag those editors out of their holes!

Let’s hear from those creatures.

There has to be more to this yarn.

Has it occurred to anyone that these reporters might be called as witnesses?

Would they still cover themselves?

Time to yank those pumpkins off the story.

Drop me a line at joelthurtelL@gmail.com

http://joelontheroad.com/?p=2782

[Novine]

I think Bloomfield Pills is too quick to attack the messenger. The idea that once Elrick and Schaefer got the messages, they would dump those into the paper the next day is preposterous. Stefani gave them a gift. But the reporters then had to find out whether those were the real deal. Three months to track down all of the details and getting them confirmed doesn't seem unreasonable at all especially when you're target is the sitting Mayor of Detroit.

[Bloomfield Pills]

I think Bloomfield Pills is too quick to attack the messenger. The idea that once Elrick and Schaefer got the messages, they would dump those into the paper the next day is preposterous. Stefani gave them a gift. But the reporters then had to find out whether those were the real deal. Three months to track down all of the details and getting them confirmed doesn't seem unreasonable at all especially when you're target is the sitting Mayor of Detroit.

You offer me a false choice: Either sit on them for an entire fiscal quarter or print them the very next day.

Besides, you mean to tell me Stefani would give these messages to the Freep without having brokered a deal beforehand that they wouldn't print them until after he'd used them as leverage in the court case? Seriously?

Stefani is a smart lawyer. He knows if he gave those messages to the Freep in the absence of any kind of deal, they'd probably print them as soon as they could, thus removing his main bargaining chip in the Kwame case. And Stefani's job is to get the most money for his clients [[and himself).

Any honest appraisal of this situation leads to the logical conclusion that some kind of deal must have been cut; Stefani wouldn't have provided them to the Freep otherwise. And that is highly unethical on the paper's part -- especially when the result of their deal with Stefani was the $8 million cost to the taxpayers the Freep pretends to champion.

[Ltdave]

The Free Press has a lot to answer for...they've been exposed as frauds.

and i thought that THIS was old news as well...

there isnt much integrity in anything anymore...

[Bloomfield Pills]

and i thought that THIS was old news as well...

there isnt much integrity in anything anymore...

Sigh. Unfortunately, you're right.

[SWMAP]

Well done, Swingline. I will always be thankful that the Free Press published that story and revealed the corruption under the happy talk that the City was engaging in. As for Stefani, I believe him when he says that he was afraid that the texts would be "buried" - there are too many of Mayor Kilpatricks and Bernard Kilpatrick's friends and lovers in the local courts right now - many appointed by Jennifer Granholm originally [[the same one who appointed Art Blackwell). It will be years before the Kilpatricks are really gone.
Stefani may probably lose his law license for doing what he did, but not unlike a conscientious objector, he was maybe serving the spirit of the law but not the letter.