 Sherman Skolnick,
who spearheaded the investigation into largest judicial bribery scandal
in U.S. history in 1969, is now back again to finger crooked judges on
the U.S. Supreme Court. Saying the Bush administration wants him arrested
as a domestic terrorist, Skolnick claims Bush and his cronies are in hot
water involving the Chicago grand jury investigation headed by Special
Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald.
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- Editor's Note: The following story appeared
in the Arctic Beacon on Aug. 10 2005. It is reprinted in honor of Sherman
H. Skolnick, a true American patriot, who was laid to rest Wednesday in
his hometown of Chicago.
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- Some people say Sherman Skolnick has
gone over the edge more than once during his 46 year career of investigating
judicial bribery, mafia payoffs, CIA hit squads, pedophilia in the Bush
administration and whatever else falls on the table in his self-imposed
quest to keep the corrupt honest.
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- And some people say Skolnick is falling
over the cliff once again with his recent article, pinning indictments
on Bush and his cronies based on what he calls credible sources, telling
him they have been nabbed for perjury and obstruction of justice in the
Chicago grand jury investigation about the Valerie Plame-CIA leak case.
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- "I knew I would be called a liar
for this one, but it won't be the first time or the last," said the
tough talking investigator, nicknamed the "judge buster," from
his home on Chicago's south side, a place he has called home for the last
54 years.
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- And, in the face of adversity and doubt,
Skolnick would be the first to crack a smile and scoff at his detractors,
saying "it goes with the territory" since dealing with dark,
back alley payoff type stories brings dark, back alley comments about most
anything he writes and investigates.
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- But, on the bright side, there are many
others who know his work well, swearing on a stack of holy bibles about
Skolnick's analytical approach, incredible energy and a 40 year data base
of sources he uses in order to finger the bad guys who are swimming like
sharks and feeding off the people's money.
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- And to those who know the 'judge buster"
even better, know him as a friend or colleague, he is considered nothing
less than a national treasure and a man who will stop at nothing to find
out the truth, even if it means stripping the robes off the country's most
powerful and corrupt judges, even if it means taking on the Bush administration
right square in the belly where it hurts with accusations of homosexuality
and pedophilia running rampant right in the halls of the White House.
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- In this shady world of backroom deals,
syndicate payoffs, and well-oiled corruption, Skolnick has somehow over
the years found his place, a place on the outside looking in, a place where
he is always staring in very closely with a watchful eye and a finely tuned
ear able to spot a crooked judge or a politician as quick as a dog can
sniff out a bone.
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- It would take several book volumes to
detail all the investigations Skolnick has been involved in and all the
judges and crooked politicians he's been responsible for putting behind
bars since the early 1960's. But like any good baseball hitter, only as
good as his last at bat, Skolnick prefers to talk about his last investigation
first, working his way back to when he was a young man in Chicago who represented
his parents before the Illinois Supreme Court for being bilked by a shady
broker for $7,000, the family's entire life savings.
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- Besides breaking the story about the
Bush indictments by the Chicago grand jury last week, Skolnick is in the
midst of a five-year investigation of corruption within the U.S. Supreme
Court regarding Bush v. Gore and the 2000 election. He said he initiated
his investigation over what he calls a ruling that is a travesty of justice
and a demonstration of corruption at the highest level of the judiciary.
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- But before rolling up his sleeves and
putting on his gloves to fight the likes of Chief Justice William Rehnquist
and Justice Antonin Scalia, who he calls the "go to hell' judge, Skolnick
took time out to recall the his parent's struggle with the Illinois Supreme
Court, the case that got Skolnick started along time ago in the tireless
and often-times thankless business of uncovering corruption among the rich
and powerful.
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- "I trained myself in the law,"
recalls Skolnick, who prepared all the legal documents and arguments every
legal step of the way, the case ending up in the state's high court. "I
told the judge right there in open court if my parents were not treated
fairly, I would one day come back and put every one of the crooked judges
on the high court in jail where they belonged.
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- "And that's what I did when they
came down with their crooked decision against my parents. Honest judges
are the most endangered species in our country and one rule of thumb I
have used over the years is to look for a the closest bank near the courthouse
to find the black-robed criminals.
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- "It's not in the back alleys with
a bag of money where the judges are bribed. It's usually right in the bank
owned by the judges, a bank owned also by underworld and criminal types.
This is where the bribing goes on and where all the dirty money is transferred.
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- "Not all the judges are corrupt,
mind you, there are some good ones. And I would also like to say that I
am always fair with who I am accusing. In fact, when I have the goods on
let's say a corrupt politician or judge, I usually tell them what I have
and that if they come clean to the public, admitting what they did, I'll
put in a good word to the DA in order that he go a little easier on him.
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- For rest of story go to www.arcticbeacon.com
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