Franklin Nieves's Other Problem with Evidence
You'd think Franklin Nieves would've put together a little file with some irrefutable evidence of his allegations before he bolted. No such luck.
Surprising exactly no one, Diosdado Cabello has gone on the offensive, accusing Leopoldo López-case prosecutor Franklin Nieves of taking a large bribe in order to make up tall tales about having faked the evidence in that high-profile case. Other people he has claimed were witnesses to some of the shenanigans are now saying they’ve never met him.
The government’s denials and counter-allegations are wholly predictable, to the point that it’s impossible to imagine how Nieves might have failed to foresee them. So, of course, Nieves will have planned for this, right?
He’ll have some irrefutable proof close at hand that demonstrates clearly that he really was pressured into fabricating evidence against López, right? He is, after all, a prosecutor with two decades’ experience on the job: if anyone should be sensitive to the need for evidence it should be him, right?! RIGHT?!
Crickets…
To my knowledge, Franklin Nieves has produced nothing beyond his say-so to think his allegations are true. Not a document, not a recording, not a voice-mail message or an email or a corroborating anything at all. Nothing.
He has claimed to have evidence in a hard drive. And I do hope I’m proven wrong. But I just don’t believe him. If the last 16 years have taught me anything it’s to discount officials’ claims to currently possess evidence which they intend to show at some unspecifie future date. Think how often you’ve heard words to that effect, and how seldom such evidence ever turns up.
Guys, if Nieves had the goods, he would’ve showed them by now.
He hasn’t. Even though he must have realized that if there was ever to be a time when irrefutable corroboration would be needed, it would be this week. To me, what this means is obvious: he has nothing.
I find this both deeply enraging and entirely symptomatic of the caliber of the man. As it stands, Diosdado Cabello and Luisa Ortega can just claim he’s making this whole story about forged evidence up and it’s his word against theirs. As it stands, if I’m explaining this entire situation to a neutral and I’m pressed to present incontrovertible evidence that Nieves is telling the truth and Diosdado is lying, I can’t.
It’s maddening!
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