Although, on the surface, it may seem like there has been little activity in the battle to restore the Rule of Law in America, I can assure you that Michael Ellis and I are working constantly behind the scenes.
Currently, we are working on the following:
Washington, D.C. - Five active cases in which the District and Appellate Courts have remained silent since late 2018
California - Melba Ford's case with active filings in both the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals (Opening Brief filed on July 26, 2019) and the Supreme Court (Petition for Writ of Mandamus/Prohibition filed August 16, 2019)
Colorado - Jeff Maehr's IRS case (IRS' FOIA response was received on August 15, 2019) + the latest filing in his passport case (18-cv-02948) was August 8, 2019 (Look for an upcoming blog about this)
Missouri - John Kurz's battle against IRS garnishment when no assessment was made
Rhode Island - Billie Schofield's criminal case (18-cr-00039)
In this email, I will focus on Billie's case because of the positive outcome of today's hearing. Here's the timeline:
April 10, 2018 - Billie Schofield was indicted for
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Count 1 - 26 U.S.C. §7212(a) Corruptly Endeavoring to Obstruct the IRS
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Count 2 - 26 U.S.C. §7201 Tax Evasion for 2005-2009
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Counts 3 thru 9 - 26 U.S.C. §7201 Tax Evasion for 2010-2016
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Count 10 - 18 U.S.C. §1623 False Declarations Before Grand Jury
The penalty for these violations carry a maximum sentence of 5 years in prison, if convicted.
April 13, 2018 - Billie was arraigned before a Magistrate and informed of his rights. Billie entered a plea of "not guilty", posted an unsecured bond, and was released with conditions.
April 20, 2018 - The Court appointed George J. West as Billie's attorney.
April 22, 2019 - On the recommendation of his court-appointed attorney, Billie signed a Plea Agreement in which he pleaded guilty to Count 2 and the Government agreed to dismiss Count 1 and Counts 3 thru 10. By signing this Agreement, Billie waived his right to a trial. Sentencing was scheduled for September 13, 2019.
May 7, 2019 - Upon recommendation from a friend, Billie contacted me on this website asking if Michael and I would talk to him about his case. Shortly thereafter, we held a teleconference, got up to speed on his case, and requested that he send us his IRS records to review, which he did. It didn't take long to determine that the IRS had falsified his IMF records, just as it had done to so many other innocent
Americans.
Over the next month or so, we educated Billie about how the IRS record falsification worked, providing him with evidence derived from the Internal Revenue Manual, multiple Government documents, and his own files. He passed this evidence to his attorney for the purpose of convincing George to enter a motion to withdraw his plea and move the court to dismiss the case,
based on newly discovered, exculpatory evidence, but George refused to do so.
So, at Billie's request, Michael and I helped him draft an "Emergency Motion to Release Council, Withdraw Plea, and Dismiss Case".
June 14, 2019 - Billie filed the Motion in person with the District Court Clerk in Providence, Rhode Island.
But, on that same day, District Chief Justice William E. Smith ordered the Clerk to return the Motion to Billie unfiled, saying that, because he was represented by counsel, Billie was prohibited from filing the document himself. "All documents must be filed by counsel", Judge Smith said.
After that, Billie continued to send George documents explaining the IRS record falsification scheme, but, instead of working to set Billie free, he chose to malign me and Michael saying things like: "McNeil and Ellis have been sanctioned by a judge in Washington, D.C.", "the allegations in their cases have been deemed frivolous", "all of their cases have been dismissed", etc. As a result, George continued to
try to convince Billie to abide by the Plea Agreement, go to the September 13, 2019 sentencing hearing, be contrite, and hope the judge would treat him leniently.
NOTE: It is important for everyone reading this to understand that, even though D.C. District Court Judges Cooper and Contreras have stated in their dismissals that our allegations have been thoroughly adjudicated, their statements are patently false. I say this because every DoJ attorney and every District Court and Appellate Court judge has stated that the Courts have no jurisdiction to even hear our cases because they are
barred by the 1867 Anti-Injunction Act (AIA). Therefore, lacking jurisdiction, it is impossible for them to have adjudicated our allegations of IRS record falsification on their merits.
But, knowing now that the DoJ's case against him was based on falsified IRS records, Billie held firm in his decision to withdraw his guilty plea.
Fast forward to August 14, 2019 - After requesting, multiple times, that George file the "Motion to Withdraw Plea and Dismiss Case", and George refused to do so, Billie asked George to resign as his attorney, citing "ineffective assistance of counsel".
So, on that same day, August 14, 2019, George filed with the Court his "Motion to Withdraw" as counsel.
August 19, 2019 - Having received George's "Motion", Judge Smith set a hearing for Tuesday August 27, 2019 to hear arguments and rule on the Motion.
August 23, 2019 - Convinced that he was now without counsel, Billie filed, in person, his Pro Se "Emergency Motion to Appoint Effective Assistance of Counsel and Stay Sentencing...." Based on Judge Smith's earlier ruling, however, the Clerk refused to allow Billie to file the Motion. Instead, she forwarded the
Motion to George West, which he did not file.
August 27, 2019 - Proceedings were held before Chief Judge William E. Smith to hear arguments regarding George's "Motion to Withdraw". During the hearing, George and Billie spoke, but, the junior DoJ attorney did not and, at one point, Judge Smith asked the DoJ counsel to leave the courtroom.
So, the outcome of the hearing is as follows:
1) By mutual agreement, George West will remain as Counsel for Billie Schofield,
2) George's "Motion to Withdraw" was deemed moot by the Court,
3) Billie's sentencing hearing was moved from September 13, 2019 to November 1, 2019 at 2:00pm EST, and
4) Judge Smith appropriated funds for George to hire additional help (another attorney, expert witnesses, etc.) to fully, and effectively, represent Billie going forward.
After the hearing, Michael and I held a teleconference with Billie and his wife, Brenda, and we were all thrilled with the outcome.
By any measure, this was a victory for Billie.
From here, we will continue to help Billie help George understand the origins of the IRS fraud; how the DoJ developed its case against Billie around the fraud; and how to develop strategic discovery motions to defeat the DoJ's case by having George request the exculpatory evidence that the DoJ suppressed (Note: IRS and DoJ already admitted that Substitute For
Returns "SFRs" do not exist).
As with all of our cases, the DoJ simply cannot defend the IRS' record falsification scheme without lying.
Time will tell if Judge Smith will hold them accountable.
Billie's case could very well be the landmark case we've all been waiting for.
Let us pray that it is.
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Now, a personal note:
As you can imagine, it takes a LOT of time and money to draft pleadings and pay for court filing fees, printing and mailing costs, printer paper, toner cartridges, and other miscellaneous expenses.
There are hundreds of you on this mailing list and I am fortunate to occasionally receive cash donations from a handful of you. To the others, please consider supporting our work by hitting the DONATE button. All amounts are welcome and appreciated and will help
continue this effort to restore the Rule of Law in America.
Thank you in advance.
