OPINION: BY SA BARKET
It’s starting to look more and more like it’s a good thing to call interim US Attorney for the District of Nevada Sigal Chattah a friend or colleague (you know, like Anthony “Tony / Nino” D’Anna, for example).
Any conflict of interest on this one, Sigal? Your legal buddy, Michele Fiore, who you accompanied to her arraignment back in September, avoided a potential 140-year sentence after her conviction on six counts of federal wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud thanks to a pardon from President Donald Trump. It came just a few days after her conviction. Before the public even had any time to digest the news. Before any outrage about the conviction burst forth from … wherever. (I don’t think anyone was really anticipating that.) We’ll be getting into more of the details surrounding this case in future write ups.
That’s a conviction on seven counts, each with a maximum sentence of 20 years. I’ll do the math: 7 counts X 20 years each = 140 years. Potentially. If Michele got the maximum and the sentences didn’t run concurrently.
No wonder Michele is thanking God she got pardoned. I would be, too.
Here’s the headline in the NY Post (see above), which sums it up perfectly:
“Trump pardons Nevada politician who used $70K from slain cop’s memorial funds to pay for plastic surgery, daughter’s wedding”
Michele Fiore was convicted of using money raised for a memorial for a cop who was killed in the line of duty for … plastic surgery and her daughter’s wedding?
Doesn’t this get you angry, Sigal, as the “top cop” in the state of Nevada — the interim US Attorney for the District of Nevada — watching someone like suspended and convicted Justice of the Peace Michele Fiore found guilty by a jury on all counts walk free before sentencing?
Or is it a sense of relief and joy because the two of you are legal running buddies here in Las Vegas and work (or at least had worked) in leadership roles in the Nevada state Republican Party?
I saw the photograph in the Las Vegas Review Journal (linked here: Sept. 9, 2024) of you and Michele leaving the Lloyd D. George United States Courthouse back on Sept. 9, 2024 — the date of Michele’s arraignment preceding her trial.
I would think you would have very conflicted emotions about her pardon. On the one hand, as a colleague feeling relief for her pardoning, juxtaposed against your role as Nevada’s interim US attorney wanting to see justice done.
Or did you perhaps have something to do with the pardon in any way? Just asking a question. Many other top law enforcement and government officials in Las Vegas and Nevada I’ve spoken with used the word “disgusting” when it came to Fiore’s pardon.
As the current interim US Attorney for the District of Nevada, I’d think you’d similarly offer some expression of anger at someone convicted of the crimes Fiore was tried for getting off the hook. I’m waiting … still waiting.
Shortly after Michele Fiore’s conviction and just before sentencing for a potential 140 years in jail — like Charlie Brown running up to kick that football that Lucy is holding, you saw that conviction and sentencing snatched away by President Trump’s pardon of her, just days after her conviction and before she even was sentenced.
Where is the press release coming from your office on this one, Sigal? That would be an interesting one to write. How would you frame that? Would it go something like this:
“Michele Fiore, pursued by federal prosecutors for misappropriating funds being raised for a police memorial and and instead using them for her own personal expenses and convicted on all seven counts against her, just before sentencing received a pardon from President Donald Trump.”
How’s that working for you? Oh, right. I forgot. You have different tiers of justice for people who you are closely associated with, like Tony “Nino“ D’Anna. This is all starting to make sense now.
I don’t doubt there’s much more to these Michele Fiore shenanigans than meets the eye. I will be doing some digging to see what I can find out this — you know, the Who, What, When, Where, Why & How of it. (At this point, I don’t think there’s a 6th W — Wiretap — involved.)
I’m beginning to wonder about my Republican Party. About you, I have no doubts, though, Sigal. You are unfit to continue in the role of US Attorney for the District of Nevada, in my opinion. Are you really ready for the verbal onslaught and beat-down you likely will receive at the hands of the Senate Judiciary Committee should you get to that confirmation hearing?
You wrote in an X post not too long ago when you congratulated Kash Patel for his appointment as FBI Director, “What a time to be alive.” Yes, indeed. I will revel in this time as I watch your interim appointment crash and burn. Just taking a page from your X protocol.
Stand by for further developments.
