by Tom Shields
June 16, 2008

I’m not an attorney, and I don’t play one on TV.

So I’m always a little leery about writing about legal issues. Every time I give my legal opinion, six attorneys tell me how wrong I am. Of course, they usually have different opinions themselves, but that’s beside the point. After all, they attended good law schools and trot out their diplomas to back their opinions.

They are all smart attorneys. And, that may be their problem.

It appears there may be no place for smart attorneys these days, at least not in Judge Borman’s U.S. District Court in eastern Michigan. That’s where ignorance is not only bliss, but also apparently a good enough excuse for breaking the law. I only hope I’m sent to Borman’s court for my next traffic ticket.

But, I’m not talking about anything to do with speeding. I’m talking about spending, and lots of it.

Geoff Fieger, along with his “partner-in-crime” lawyer Vernon Johnson (a.k.a. Mr. Dumb and Mr. Dumber), wished to contribute more than the mere $2,000 limit in personal campaign contributions federal law allows to presidential candidate John Edwards in the 2000 election. They rounded up their employees, friends and family and asked them to write checks — totaling $127,000 — that Fieger and Johnson reimbursed them for out of the company till. By the way, using corporate dollars to make political contributions is illegal.

By now, you all know how the story ends, but what is unsettling is how everyone just accepts it.

All I heard after the trial was, “I knew he’d get off.” “It’s just a Fieger thing, it has no precedent.” “You never expected them to convict Fieger did you?”

Yes! Yes I did.

Maybe I was naïve. Maybe it was just wishful thinking, but I really, really thought this guy was going to be breaking some rocks somewhere instead of sipping Grey Goose on the rocks in Bloomfield Hills.

Fieger broke the law. He admitted he broke the law. The judge even told the jury he broke the law.

But the judge also told the jury that Fieger and Johnson had to know they were breaking the law to convict them. The outrageousness of that ruling was only exceeded by the absurdity of Mr. Fieger’s defense arguments, as follows:

1. “Everyone is doing it.”

Let me just say, that argument didn’t ever work for me with my mother and father. Nor did it with that cop when I told him I was doing 85 “to keep up with traffic.” But, it worked for a U.S. District judge and 12 jurors in Detroit. I guess I should have taken my case to a higher authority.

2. “I didn’t know it was illegal.”

The attorney that one article calls “a brilliant trial lawyer, a well prepared and intelligent pit bull” actually took the “stupid lawyer” defense, as one of my smart lawyer friends called it. From now on, we should all look for an idiot that can’t tell a tort from a turd to give us the go ahead to break any law we didn’t know existed. Personally, I’m looking for the guy that says it’s unconstitutional to pay taxes.

If you think Mr. Fieger learned a lesson from this, you’re right. He turned right around four years later and disregarded state law by refusing to disclose his spending of over $400,000 in an attempt to defeat Supreme Court Justice Steve Markman. Fieger got away with it, as a special prosecutor ruled that there was nothing in the law with which to prosecute him.

These two Fieger cases scream for reforms of our state and national campaign laws. If people are going to abuse and corrupt one of our most fundamental freedoms, there should be severe penalties to pay.

Fieger stole from the voters by laundering illegal contributions to Edwards and not disclosing the money spent to defeat Mr. Markman. Who funds the candidates and who is paying for television ads are factors that voters take into consideration when choosing how to vote. While I’ve never been a big fan of contribution limits, I’m a strong believer in transparency. Fieger stole the voters’ right to know and to make up their own minds.

Good news is that voters are a lot smarter than Mr. Fieger gives them credit for, just like Mr. Fieger is a lot smarter than the jury gave him credit for.

We are only lucky that Fieger’s illegal tricks did not end up causing someone to be elected or defeated. How would we undo that?

Disclaimer: The views expressed by author Shields are not necessarily those of the Dome, nor does the Dome necessarily support, agree or condone any remarks in this column that may be offensive or be motive for a lawsuit. In fact, we don’t even know this guy. However, any attorney who knows absolutely nothing about libel law may want to contact Mr. Shields, as he may have need of legal assistance.

Tom Shields is founder and president of Marketing Resource Group, a Lansing-based political marketing and public relations firm.