In 2000,

September 14th.

New York, sunny.

On this day, Robert Morgenthau was the same as usual.

Arrived at his office in Upper Manhattan at nine o'clock in the morning.

As soon as he arrived at the office, he saw his granddaughter coming over with a few newspapers with a bad face.

“ Greatpapa。”

She whispered, "You should take a look at these newspapers." ”

"Okay." Robert's face was calm and he took the newspaper from his granddaughter.

"Honey, go make me a cup of coffee, what I like, you know."

Peggy nodded.

Robert continued to walk briskly, not affected by his granddaughter's abrupt performance.

He went to the third floor, in his private office.

Sitting in his place, Robert spread out the few newspapers that Peggy had just taken to him.

At the top, there is a copy of the Los Angeles Times.

In the United States, there are relatively serious antagonistic cities.

There's New York and Los Angeles.

Of the two cities, one is on the east coast and the other is on the west coast.

They are equally economically developed, and they are equally populous.

They are equally attractive to Americans, to people around the world.

Among them, Los Angeles is the upstart, which has only developed in recent decades.

New York, on the other hand, is old money, which has existed even longer than the country.

New Yorkers have never looked down on Americans elsewhere.

The New Yorker magazine once published a cartoon "America Through the Eyes of New Yorkers" -

West of the Hudson River in Manhattan, New York, there is a narrow strip of New Jersey, and then to the west coast of the United States, all of which are vaguely "big rural areas".

The arrogant and narcissistic ambitions of New Yorkers are laid bare at a glance.

Well. It's a bit of an old Shanghainese.

This is inherently the inferiority of human beings.

Later, Los Angeles rose to prominence in the twentieth century thanks to high technology, Hollywood, and industrial prowess.

By the end of this century, the Los Angeles metropolitan area has been inferior to the New York metropolitan area.

Then the residents of the two cities began to look at each other's unhappiness.

New Yorkers call Los Angeles "rednecks" and Los Angeles is a big rural area.

The Bronze-born dramatist Neil Simon said:

"Temperatures in New York are at 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37 degrees Celsius) and Los Angeles is 72 degrees (22 degrees Celsius).

While the temperature in New York is 30 degrees Fahrenheit (-1°C), Los Angeles is still 72 degrees (22°C).

However, there are 6 million interesting people in New York, while only 72 interesting people can be found in Los Angeles. ”

New Yorkers are like that, and Los Angelespeople certainly won't be polite.

Los Angelesians say that New York is rude and uncivilized, and that it is a big pigsty.

It is for this reason that New York newspapers such as the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, when covering Los Angeles and California.

often likes to add oil and vinegar, and there is some discrimination in it.

In turn, the Los Angeles Times, a local newspaper in Los Angeles.

When reporting scandals or bad news in New York, I also prefer to fall into the well and gloat.

Flip through the Los Angeles Times' Robert and it's on its front page.

I saw a sensational headline - "On the Injustice and Darkness of Justice in New York".

“FXXK！ Redneck newspapers, what nonsense! ”

Robert Morgenthau, an old East Coaster, an old New Yorker, is a little bit of a defense just by seeing this headline.

Robert now understands why Peggy's face was so bad just now.

Robert, nausea and anger, flipped through the article that the Los Angeles Times used as a front-page headline.

New Yorkers are notoriously impatient and rude and uncivilized. But they are all Americans, our compatriots. ”

And now, unfortunately, these of our fellow New Yorkers. They have endured years of miscarriages of justice. ”

Why do you say that, the author has data. Readers, please take a look at the following. ”

“.”

Robert frowned, and the follow-up content was all published in some unjust cases and entangled criminal cases in New York in the past ten years.

The prosecutorial system in the United States is very different from that in Huaxia.

In U.S. criminal proceedings, prosecutors play a leading role, mainly in the two systems of "selective prosecution" and "plea bargaining".

The "selective prosecution" system means that prosecutors are like a scale, and personal discretion is extremely great.

As a result, the prosecutors on the side of Lao Mei have great power.

In many cases, you don't even need to go to court.

They can settle the case early through plea bargaining.

A plea bargain is a way in which a defendant can obtain a reduced sentence by making a deal between a lawyer and an assistant prosecutor to voluntarily confess to the crime or confess to being an accomplice.

According to statistics, about 90% of criminal cases in the United States are closed through plea bargaining.

One can imagine how much gray area there will be in order to reduce the punishment.

Most of these unjust and tangled cases like those reported by the Los Angeles Times this time were resolved at the plea bargaining stage.

A "selective prosecution", and a "plea bargain".

This, coupled with the unique federal system and separation of powers, gives prosecutors like Robert great power in their own fields.

The greater the power, the deeper the corruption.

With so much power, no one can stay clear forever.

The same goes for Robert.

The data and cases given by the Los Angeles Times this time are basically Robert's misjudgment, or there are some unspeakable transactions.

It's not like there hasn't been some media, or those defendants who have sued Robert before.

But this time, it was the Los Angeles Times that came to an end.

While Robert was angry, he began to worry a little again.

He immediately put the Los Angeles Times aside and picked up the newspaper below.

He hoped it wasn't the Washington Post or the Chicago Tribune.

Fortunately, underneath the Los Angeles Times, there is the Boston Journal.

Although it is also a large newspaper, it is obviously much less influential than the first two.

The front page of the Boston Journal, Robert was not interested at a glance.

"One dead and four injured in a shooting at Quincy Market yesterday, but the suspect is still on the run."

Fuss, everyday only.

Robert flipped through it directly, and looked for a while, in a relatively remote corner of the newspaper.

A story titled "Manhattan District Attorney Alleged Miscarriage of Justice" was found.

Compared to the Los Angeles Times's downfall, and that kind of schadenfreude.

The Boston Daily News report was much more modest.

The title is sensational, but the content is relatively peaceful and very neutral.

Robert put down the Boston Journal and flipped through the paper below.

He found that the more the newspaper was below, the smaller it became.

Peggy has apparently done the sorting.

Most of the reports were mild, and although there were accusations, they were acceptable.

The main thing is that there are a lot of them, and there are almost a dozen newspapers in this stack.

Among them, the "Los Angeles Times" was more fierce, and as soon as it came up, it pointed at the prosecutor system in New York and scolded it.

He was almost scolded by Robert Morgenthau for the miscarriage of justice in New York.

Robert put down all the newspapers, just as there was a knock on the door.

"Come in." Robert said calmly.

Coming in was his granddaughter, Peggy, who was carrying a tray with coffee on it.

She walked in.

"You've seen it all, haven't you?" Putting coffee on her grandfather's table, Peggy whispered.

Rob nodded and said a name, "Abel Smith." ”

Peggy nodded repeatedly, and she said, "I'm also guessing, it should be him." ”

"Grandfather, what should we do now?"

At this moment, there was another knock on the door of Robert's private office.

"Come in." Robert's voice was as calm as ever.

The door was pushed open again, and this time it was Cyrus, the head of the Financial Crimes Investigation Team.

Cyrus, who came in, looked a little bad and held an envelope in his hand.

Peggy's eyes were good, and she could see at once that it was an encapsulation of a lawyer's letter.

"Cyrus, what's the matter?" Robert said with a smile.

"Sir, look at this letter first. This is a letter that has just arrived, just delivered. Cyrus handed the envelope to Robert.

Robert took it and glanced at the envelope.

It was found to be a lawyer's letter envelope from Caroline's law firm.

"Caroline sued us? It's normal, it's her job. ”

As he spoke, Robert opened the envelope.

As Robert thought, this is Caroline acting as legal counsel to Smith Capital, representing Smith Capital

No, Robert noted, though it was Caroline's lawyer's letter.

But in the lawyer's letter, Caroline claims to represent a client who is not Smith Capital.

It's a guy named Reddy Jefes, a name Robert has never heard of.

Robert frowned, who is this Reddy Jefes?

I can please Caroline, the New York lawyer Satan.

At the very least, he should be a rich man, right?

"Let's find out who Reddy Jeffies is." Putting down the envelope, Robert said calmly.

Cyrus and Paige nodded, and Cyrus left the room first.

After Cyrus left, Peggy said, "What the hell is this Abel Smith trying to do?"

It's the newspaper that publishes these news, and this Reddy Jefes, it should also be related to him, right? ”

Robert replied, "Probably yes." I didn't expect this young man to be so narrow-minded, and I have already said that I will not continue to attack him. ”

Peggy nodded repeatedly, apparently thinking that her grandfather was right.

What made the grandfather and grandson start to feel troublesome was that a number of lawyer's letters came one after another.

When it was time for lunch.

On Robert's desk, exactly 30 lawyer's letters were already on the table.

In the office, Robert, Peggy, and Cyrus were all looking at the lawyers' letters.

"Whew~"

Robert, who still feels indifferent in the morning, is relaxed.

Now looking at these lawyers' letters, I have a little headache.

What is a headache for Robert is not the number of these lawyers.

The Manhattan District Attorney's Office receives at least 100 lawyer's letters every month.

There are a lot of them, and there is nothing to give Robert a headache.

What gave Robert a headache was what his granddaughter Peggy said just now.

Each of these 30 lawyers' letters is different from the law firm.

And their names happen to be in the top 30 of the latest Vault rankings released this year.

The Vault list is a ranking of law firms in the United States, and is one of the most authoritative lists in the industry.

The Vault rankings are based on an annual survey of thousands of lawyers practicing law firms in the United States.

It can be said that it is selected by the American lawyer community itself, so it more accurately reflects the recognition of a law firm in the legal profession.

In other words, the top 30 law firms in the perception of American lawyers.

All sent a lawyer's letter to the Manhattan District Attorney's Office.

Cyrus said, "I have called to confirm that the thirty lawyer's letters are all true. ”

And none of the customers they represent have the same name. I also found out the identity of Reddy Jefes. ”

"Who the hell is Reddy Jefes?" Peggy asked.

"Mr. Morgenthau, you may still have some memories." Cyrus said to Robert:

"In the New York subway shooting the year before last, the name of the person indicted was Reddy Jerves."

Robert wants to say that there are at least twenty subway shootings in New York every year.

How can you remember them all?

No matter how energetic Robert is, Robert is in his eighties this year.

Memory loss was inevitable, but Robert nodded:

"Some impressions, tell me what is going on."

"Now this Reddy Jeffies is going to sue us.

Prosecute the Manhattan District Attorney's Office for miscarriage of justice, perjury, going against the suspect's will, and more. ”

"The lawyer who sued was Caroline."

Cyrus said helplessly:

"It's also obvious. The remaining 29 lawyers' letters, as well as the plaintiff and lawyer, are in a similar situation to this one. ”

"In other words." Peggy's voice was low, "It's likely that Abel Smith, who paid so many lawyers and found so many people, came to sue us?" ”

"What is he for? What's in it for him? ”

"To know that the appearance fee of these people will definitely be an astronomical amount."

"What the hell did he think?"

In the face of Peggy's incomprehension, Cyrus also understands that he can't.

"Maybe it's for gas? Revenge on us? Cyrus said uncertainly.

"This is not a realistic answer, but it may be the real answer."

Robert said with a headache, "Hell knows what we provoked." ”

Just as Cyrus and Robert guessed.

Abel's purpose really has the meaning of being angry.

Robert felt a headache when he was in the office of Smith Capital.

David Mellon is also helpless.

"The 30 best law firms in the United States ask for their appearance fees, which currently average about $200,000 each."

David Mellon was holding a bill, which Caroline had submitted to him.

"But if you really want them, go to court with Robert."

"This number will increase at least tenfold.

Multiply that by thirty, and that's a minimum of tens of millions of dollars. ”

"Is this really necessary? Abel, this will take our relationship with Robert to the extreme. ”

It's also very expensive.

David thought.

(End of chapter)