The VA and DoJ know what they did.
The VA and DoJ indicted and convicted an innocent Wisconsin Navy veteran who blew the whistle, in arguably obnoxious tones of voice, on the VA engaging in one instance of fraud, and the VA's general bureaucratic stall-and-let-the-veterans-die-before-collecting-on-their-claims-policy.
Now comes the latest exculpatory evidence on U.S. Navy Airman Keith Roberts (1968–71), a Wisconsin citizen who became a political and legal VA target because he would not keep his mouth shut.
While seeking a claim for his diagnosed PTSD condition, the honorably discharged veteran ultimately received a criminal conviction (on wire fraud) courtesy of the efforts of the U.S. Dept of Justice, through the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, Stephen Biskupic, that Roberts lied about his relationship with and his actions pertaining to a fellow Navy airman's, Gary Holland, death, crushed by a C-54 transport aircraft in a Feb. 1969 accident at a Naval airbase in Naples, Italy.
That's a thin reed on which to base a prosecution, but is typical of the basis of numerous U.S. Atty Biskupic's prosecutions.
Scott Horton, acclaimed human rights attorney of Harper's magazine, writes:
The prosecution smacks of retaliation and a plan to suppress veterans claims—Roberts was prosecuted for tenaciously pursuing a claim for benefits, which VA resisted and which is still in the benefits review process.
More corroborating evidence received here that Roberts, on line duty in 1969, a military position guiding flights on the ground, at the time that Airman Gary Holland was killed, further disconfirms the prosecution's case, a thin case already already discredited.
This new evidence comes from a veteran, and a distant relative of Roberts' in an e-mail, reading:
By the way, Keith had talked to me about the death of (Airman) Gary (Holland) a number of times in 1970 and 1971 when are Navy careers caused us to cross paths in Naples, Italy and in Norfolk, VA. Keith is my brother-in-law's nephew. I never thought this BS from the VA and the US attorney could have every actually led to a conviction and prison time.
Roberts has never varied from his account from 1969 of his actions during which a friend was killed (not even the Navy, VA and DoJ can deny the existence of a corpse), according to numerous intimates and relatives; though their testimony was never introduced at Roberts' 2006 trial.
Other veterans at the Italy airbase corroborate Roberts' account, but their accounts conflict with the government's, and therefore are narratives in which the VA and DoJ maintain an abiding disinterest.
The case remains under appeal at the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit at which oral arguments were addressed Oct. 25.; and at the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (CAVC), fully briefed.
Do not look for U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, Stephen Biskupic, to admit his travesty of justice in the Roberts' affair, anymore than he admitted his error in the prosecution of the innocent and decent Wisconsin woman, Georgia Thompson, whom he prosecuted for his selfish and appalling political motives.
Radio News: - Listen to the Lee Rayburn radio show for a full hour discussing the veteran Keith Roberts obscene prosecution by the U.S. government. [Give the radio show's file some time to load, long show.]
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