Why Should We Ever Believe Hal Turner?

This is a guy who was seriously planning on filling balloons with poison a la the Joker in 1989's Batman to sabotage President Obama's inauguration, gave detailed instructions on his blog for making ricin and threatened the life of virtually everyone in the country who ever laid their hand on a Bible if they didn't see things his way. Why should we believe Fat Harry now?

Because Firedoglake's emptywheel says we should this one time. Says Main Justice under Marcy's byline,

A subpoena has been issued for Gov.-elect Chris Christie to appear next month at the federal trial of North Bergen Internet radio host and blogger Hal Turner.

Michael Orozco, Turner’s lawyer, said in an affadavit supporting the subpoena, that Christie, as the U.S. Attorney, knew that Turner was working with the FBI, Christie gave legal advice to the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force regarding Turner, and issued a “Blanket Letter of Declination,” refusing to prosecute Turner.

New Jersey Gov.-elect Christie then went on to say, "...it would be hard to testify because of the internal deliberations and other legal issues that go into the decision-making process.

'It’s very difficult for a U.S. Attorney to testify,' he said. 'We’ll see what happens during the road.'"

Shorter Christie: I'm above the law even when I cover for a wild-eyed, conspiracy theory-spouting racist and thug like Hal Turner. What Hal did for us and the FBI is so super duper secret that we can't even talk about it.

Gee, sound familiar? Are we hearing "executive privilege" before Governor-elect Christie even becomes the chief executive of New Jersey?

It wouldn't be the first time the New Jersey USA's office has come under fire. Hell, just yesterday Zach Roth at TPMMuckraker ran this story about former NJ AUSA Paul Bergrin, who'd succumbed to Donnie Brasco Syndrome and became one of the criminals that he'd represented, including drug dealing, pimping and even murdering at least two witnesses.

Just remember, Christie was one of the US Attorneys who continued serving at the pleasure of George W. Bush, junior co-President of the United States. And he gave cover to a guy who's now up on several federal charges of threatening the lives of three judges and several state lawmakers, a guy who recently threatened the lives of 246 United States congressmen, as well as the lives of then-senator Barack Obama and sitting President George W. Bush.

Looks like The Sopranos, far from being a crime drama, was David Chase's attempt to show us the nicer, more ethical side of New Jersey.