Thread: Ramos/Compean Senate Judiciary Hearing (hunter/rohrabacher )

Committee on the Judiciary image- panel 1

"Hearing to Examine the Prosecution of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean"
Senate Judiciary Committee
Full Committee

DATE: July 17, 2007
TIME: 10:00 AM EASTERN TIME
ROOM: Dirksen-226
OFFICIAL HEARING NOTICE / WITNESS LIST:

July 10, 2007

NOTICE OF COMMITTEE HEARING

The Senate Committee on the Judiciary has scheduled a “Hearing to Examine the Prosecution of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compeanâ€

We are in a little trouble with Fienstien in there. They need to boot her out. That one needs to be tried for treason. She has ruined California.

I just don't see why, if Libby can get out of jail and Bush can make sure he does not spend anytime in there then

WHY DOES BUSH WASTE OUR TAX PAYERS DOLLARS ON STUPID FIENSTIIEN OFFICATING OVER A TRIAL THAT SHOULD HAVE NEVER HAPPENED IN THE FIRST PLACE?

THE BUSH AGENDA (LET GOVERNMENT FRIENDS AND LEADERS WHO ARE IN CONTEMPT OF COURT OUT OF JAIL AND PUT TWO BORDER AGENTS IN THE SLAMMER TO GET BEATEN UP BECAUSE THEY SHOT AN ILLEGAL DRUG RUNNER IN THE BUTT)

Didn't Lou Dobbs report tonight that Duncan Hunter was on the witness list?

MW that is what i thought i heard on the show this evening

I wonder if they mean the House hearings in two weeks on the 31st

as i see this five person list, i see three against the agents,
two for them. Bonner and the lawyer fighting the appeal


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbVRywkN ... F&index=18

this is barker and Bonner confrontation on the Lou Dobbs special from Mississippi a few months ago

jamesw62 wrote:

MW that is what i thought i heard on the show this evening

I wonder if they mean the House hearings in two weeks on the 31st

Maybe so.

Well, tomorrow, former Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean will finally have a hearing in Washington. Tonight, both men have already spent six months in prison for shooting and wounding an illegal alien -- a Mexican drug smuggler whom the Justice Department gave immunity so that he could testify against those two agents. Lisa Sylvester has our report.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: (voice-over): The National Border Patrol Council says Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean are political scapegoats, serving 11- and 12-year sentences for doing their jobs.

T.J. BONNER, NATIONAL BORDER PATROL COUNCIL: There never should have been a prosecution over this because they committed no crime. Now, the drug smuggler, on the other hand, brought in 743 pounds of marijuana into the United States. That is a felony.

SYLVESTER: Compean and Ramos said they shot drug dealer Aldrete Davila in the buttocks after they pointed what they believed was a gun. The man who prosecuted the case, the district attorney from Texas, Johnny Sutton, will testify before Congress about the case for the first time.

In an advanced copy of Sutton's testimony obtained by LOU DOBBS TONIGHT, he says: "I believe, as the jury concluded, that the agents shot at and struck an unarmed fleeing drug smuggler, that they deliberately failed to report the shooting, as they were required to do, and that they destroyed evidence to cover up their actions."

The federal government has not made it easy unraveling what happened.

Watchdog group Judicial Watch is suing three government agencies over unanswered Freedom of Information requests.

CHRIS FARRELL, JUDICIAL WATCH: The government has gone to such extraordinary lengths to -- to stonewall in this. They have dragged their feet and filed court pleadings saying that, you know, they can't get the information. It isn't readily available. They can't find it.

SYLVESTER: The Senate hearing will focus on why did the U.S. government give a known drug dealer immunity?

And why did the case end up in criminal court instead of being handled administratively?

REP. WALTER JONES (R), NORTH CAROLINA: Why did this need to be -- these two agents need to be charged with a federal crime for doing their job of trying to protect the American people by trying to apprehend a known drug smuggler?

SYLVESTER: The witness list, in addition to the lead prosecutor, Sutton, and the Border Patrol counsel's T.J. Bonner, includes Border Patrol chief David Aguilar, his deputy chief and a lawyer for Agent Ramos.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

SYLVESTER: House members are planning their own hearing later in the month. One hundred representatives have co-sponsored a bill seeking a Congressional pardon for the Agents Ramos and Compean. They've also written to the president seeking a presidential pardon.

Now, a number of Republican lawmakers have said if the president can commute the sentence of White House aide "Scooter" Libby, who did not spend a day behind bars, then he should grant the agents a pardon -- Lou.

DOBBS: Lisa, thank you very much.

Lisa Sylvester reporting from Washington.

Lisa will be covering that hearing tomorrow.

Tomorrow, one of Ramos and Compean's biggest supporters, Congressman Duncan Hunter, will be testifying before that Senate Judiciary hearing. And so far, 95 Republicans have signed onto or are co-sponsoring Congressman Hunter's legislation calling for a Congressional pardon for Agents Ramos and Compean. Congressman Hunter joins us tonight from Capitol Hill.

Congressman, tomorrow -- let's start straightforwardly.

Is this going to be a hearing that gets to the issues and to the facts of the case, do you think?

REP. DUNCAN HUNTER (R), CALIFORNIA: Yes, Lou, I think it will get to the facts of the case. And I think it will get to the basic injustice of this case.

The interesting thing about this case is even if you take the drug dealer's testimony that at as he was -- after he had run this load of drugs across the country and he'd -- he'd had a -- he'd had a little wrestling match with Compean, or Compean was on the ground, Ramos was running past him, the drug dealer claims he was running away unarmed. Although he was never frisked, so nobody really knows if he was unarmed. That couldn't be established by Johnny Sutton.

But the facts are these guys were given -- for wounding a drug dealer who went right back into business smuggling drugs -- they were given, basically, murder sentences by the United States of America. They were given 11 and 12 years in the federal penitentiary.

DOBBS: Right.

HUNTER: The average murder in America does eight-and-a-half years in custody.

DOBBS: Yes.

HUNTER: So this is -- I've seen a ton of cases under the UCMJ, Lou. You know, I've been on the Armed Services Committee for 26 years. I've never seen an Army or a Marine --

DOBBS: Code of Military Justice, for those who have not -- who are not familiar with your work on the Senate Armed Services Committee or haven't been in the military.

HUNTER: (INAUDIBLE).

I've never seen -- I've never seen a uniformed officer in the services treated as unjustly as Compean and Ramos.

DOBBS: Congressman, let me turn this back to -- to one other thing, too.

The -- one of the issues here is obviously Johnny Sutton's prosecution; the question of Mexican involvement; the question of sealed evidence; a number of the issues.

And as you have said on the House Armed Services Committee, you also represent the district in San Diego.

You're -- there are all sorts of allegations here that the reasons that evidence has been sealed is to protect the prosecutors from charges of undue influence on the part of the government of Mexico.

What is your reaction to all of that?

HUNTER: Well, I think it's clear that the government of Mexico has put pressure on the United States to push back on the Border Patrol when they get tough on these people that are crossing illegally, especially the drug smugglers. I've seen the communications that say we want to have prosecutions when -- when people come in across illegally are treated in the least way in an untoward manner by agents.

So I think there's been pressure on the administration.

But, you know, Lou, this thing cries out for basic fairness. You don't have to find a conspiracy theory to say that this -- this jury and this judge together have delivered this incredibly hard sentence, a murder sentence on two guys for wounding a drug dealer who went right back to moving drugs.

DOBBS: And, you know, you were talking about the average sentence. In point of fact, a couple of interesting elements -- as we have the wrap up here, Congressman.

But the fact is Ramos and Compean were both offered plea bargains with significant reductions in their -- the potential jail term they faced. They're -- they believe themselves innocent and resisted those offers. A lot of questions to be answered. Hopefully those answers will begin tomorrow.

We'll look forward to seeing you at that hearing.

Congressman Duncan Hunter, thanks for being with us.

HUNTER: All right.

Many thanks, Lou. See you.

DOBBS: And please join us here tomorrow for a special edition of LOU DOBBS TONIGHT. We'll be coming to you live from Washington, D.C. We'll be reporting on new evidence in this case and the testimony of Congressman Hunter, U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, the man who prosecuted the case, and Border Patrol chiefs, as well.

Here is another question. When are we going to start holding those responsible for this kind of thing? I think we need to start with the Attorney's who prosecuted this. Then go on up the ladder till every damn person involved in jailing these two men are in jail themselves.

Originally Posted by Paige

Here is another question. When are we going to start holding those responsible for this kind of thing? I think we need to start with the Attorney's who prosecuted this. Then go on up the ladder till every damn person involved in jailing these two men are in jail themselves.

Sounds good to me.
I wonder if anyone on this committee has thought about calling Brooke Army Hospital in San Antonio and asked for the paperwork and documents of the doper since the trial was postponed in October of 05 because the prosecutor said he needed more surgery. about the same time he was caught a second time bringing and even BIGGER load of pot into this country. IF he went there, that would surely justify a postponment, but if there are no papers. hmmmmm makes ya wonder.

Panel I

The Honorable Duncan Hunter
United States Member of Congress [R-CA]

The Honorable Dana Rohrabacher
United States Member of Congress [R-CA]

Panel II

T. J. Bonner
President
National Border Patrol Council
Campo, CA

Luis Barker
Deputy Chief
Office of Border Patrol
U.S. Customs and Border Protection
Washington, DC

David L. Botsford
Appellate Counsel for Mr. Ramos
Austin, TX

Panel III

David V. Aguilar
Chief
Office of Border Patrol
U.S. Customs and Border Protection
Washington, DC

Johnny Sutton
United States Attorney
Western District of Texas
San Antonio, TX

go to the judiciary page on senate.gov.
click on hearings,
click on ramos and compean hearings,
then click LIVE for an internet video feed