The great pigout - Marco Travaglio
(40:08)

New P2, same old P2-ists
Flavio Carboni is 78 years old and I think he has more arrests under his belt than he has hairs on his head. In fact, he wears a toupee and he’s had a triple bypass, yet, according to the investigators, he is still up to all his old criminal tricks.
But today we’re not here to discuss crime, after all, who actually gives a damn about crime anyway? What is important, however, is to take a look at the behaviours that emerge from some wiretapped telephone calls, which could very well be the last that the investigators will be permitted to wiretap before the sword of Damocles that is the new Gagging Law descends on the Magistrature. The matter is extremely interesting precisely because Flavio Carboni is a repeat offender, indeed a multiple offender as everyone is only too well aware. We all know his face, right back from when we were still in short pants and went to nursery school, we heard about this wheeler-dealer called Carboni who had landed up in jail for Calvi’s murder, for Calvi’s case, for this fraud and for that bit of nonsense, etc.
He was sentenced to eight years for the fraudulent bankruptcy of the Ambrosiano, the biggest case of fraudulent bankruptcy in the history of Europe, before the collapse of Parmalat that is, a bankruptcy that ruined tens of thousands of families. In any other country, a man like him would still be sitting in prison, so it would be necessary to send him back in every now and again. He certainly wouldn’t be invited into the high political circles because once a man is burned, he is burned forever, or at least that’s what the rules say. Here by us, instead, every time someone is arrested or convicted, they accumulate brownie points to include in their CVs, so this time we find Flavio Carboni together with a bunch of other “wheeler-dealers”, holding meetings at the private home of the “Popolo delle Libertà” party co-ordinator, one of the Verdini triumvirate, which also includes Bondi and La Russa, with Verdini as the majority shareholder. What the hell were they doing at Verdini’s house? They were attempting, sometimes successfully and sometimes not, to steer certain legal cases, to rig legal cases, they dealt with the appointment, promotion and punishment of magistrates that refused to toe the line, and with ministerial inspections. Often, the head of the Ministry of Justice Inspectorate, the very talkative Neapolitan Arcibaldo Miller, also attended these symposiums, as well as Justice Undersecretary Caliendo, a former magistrate and staunch ally of so-called Justice Minister Alfano, who therefore favours judges that toe the line, punishes those who don’t and influences the verdicts of the Court of Cassation, for example, the one that annulled the arrest warrant issued by the Preliminary Investigations Magistrate of Naples against Undersecretary Cosentino who was due to face charges relating to collusion with the Camorra. This merry band also decided who would be appointed as President of the Appeal Court of Milan, the choice being between a highly experienced magistrate with democratic demeanour, a man by the name of Rordorf, or a so-so magistrate preferred by the clan, a certain Marra. Naturally Marra won. Marra won because the Deputy Chairman of the Upper Council of the Magistrature, Mancino, who was apparently contacted by these wheeler-dealers, as revealed in certain wiretapped telephone conversations, changed his mind at the last minute and voted for Marra instead of supporting Rordorf as expected.
These are the kind of activities that were discovered tank to the wiretapping of this gang’s telephone conversations. I’m going to stick my neck out here. What’s the bet that sooner or later it’s going to come out that this same gang of individuals, or other people using the same tactics, wheeled and dealed in order to get rid of Clementina Forleo, Luigi De Magistris, Salerno Public Prosecutor Apicella and his assistants Gabriella Nuzi and Dionigio Verasani, because that’s the way they work. It seems to me that, in anticipation of finding out if it is indeed true that there is a new P2 or whether it is merely the old P2, or a P3, or whether or not there are any crimes involved, the most interesting part of this entire affair is that the affair has shattered the long held belief that have doggedly remained in place for 15 years, namely that Italy has a highly politicised Magistrature, which I agree it has, and that it shouldn’t be so politicised, but who are these politicised Magistrates exactly? If someone were to ask a question in passing, namely, who are these politicised magistrates, without fail the answer will be that they are the magistrates from the “Mani Pulite” (Clean Hands) pool, those that handled the “Mani Pulite” investigation, one of whom later resigned from the Magistrature and went into politics. You will hear people saying that that the politicised magistrates are the Public Prosecutors of the Palermo pool that prosecuted numerous politicians of the First Republic, as well as a number of politicians of the Second Republic and who are now investigating the suspected masterminds behind the killings. The politicised magistrates are those that investigated the kidnapping of Abu Omar by members of the Italian and American Secret Services, those that wanted to nail poor D’Alema and poor Consorte at the time of the bank takeover bids, those magistrates that investigate politicians. It would appear that these are the politicised magistrates and, just like politicians come in a range of different colours and flavours, equally these politicised magistrates are sometimes labelled as left-wingers or right-wingers, depending on the leanings of the individuals that they happen to be investigating at the time, and when they are investigating both left-wingers and right-wingers, then they have been sent in by the CIA or the KGB, or by the powers that be, or by SPECTRE to de-legitimise the politicians and take over power like the revolutionaries did in Greece, in Turkey or in South America. Fortunately, these wiretapped telephone conversations emerge at some later stage and we begin to realise that the problem lies with the politicised judges and politicised Public Prosecutors, but who are they? They are those people that take orders from, or receive favours from, or are intimidated by the politicians and the clans and then proceed to act as lynchpins between the world of political and economic-financial power and the Magistrature, namely the Carbonis. Carboni himself said so in an interview: I propose certain transactions, I connect people, I – he says at a certain point in an interview published in yesterday morning’s edition of the “Corriere della Sera”, naturally hidden away at bottom left and under the headline “Carboni reads Schopenhauer and writes to relatives and politicians”, or so he says – am anti-clerical but also religious. Politics is made up of compromises and I’m the one that helps others to reach that compromise. I deal exclusively in affairs of State, with matters involving the State and a month wouldn’t be enough if I were to tell you my life story so, for the time being, you will have to be satisfied with this. I’m the one that covered Silvio Berlusconi’s head (back?) and I even gave him one of the houses that the currently lives in”. The house in question is Villa Certosa, which previously belonged to Carboni before being sold to Berlusconi, who was Caroni’s partner in many business dealings in Sardinia. But what precisely does he mean by “covering Silvio Berlusconi’s head (back?)”? Putting a wig on him? Can’t be, because Carboni is the one with the wig while Berlusconi’s head is covered in bitumen, so covering Berlusconi’s head can only mean one thing then, namely, that Carboni is one of Silvio Berlusconi’s protectors. After all, they were members of the same P2 Masonic Lodge, so we don’t have to imagine any P3 to realise that there is a mutual Masonic brotherhood between them that goes back a number of decades, so much so, in fact, that 30 years have passed – next year it will be 30 years since the P2 scandal of 1982 – and there is still this strong bond. So we find this same P2-ist Carboni who was finally convicted for the Ambrosiano crash in the lounge of the Verdini home, together with the co-ordinator of the relative majority, none other than Verdini himself, but what were they doing there? Ensuring the appointment of a preferably friendly judge to the Milan Appeal Court where Berlusconi’s cases are heard. To influence the Constitutional Court to block the majority that wanted to reject the Alfano Bill as unconstitutional, once again to protect Berlusconi. They wanted to prevent the arrest of Undersecretary Cosentino. They wanted to commit slander against Caldoro, Cosentino’s opponent in the Campania Region, using a fake dossier on the man who was subsequently elected as Regional Governor of Campania. Because Cosentino had been sidelined, mainly due to the pressure exerted by the Fini supporters, and Caldoro had got through, they now wanted to destroy him too, but why? Because when the Camorra needs to prove that they control the territory, they cannot permit the election of an individual that has taken the place of a Camorra man and so Caldoro had to pay the price, he had to pay the price even if it meant helping the left-wing to win. They played against their own party rather than give credit to Cosentino’s rival, so they had a dossier ready and waiting, containing allegations of transsexuals and all sorts of other affairs, modelled on what had happened to Marrazzo.

The politicised Magistrature
So this is what they were up to. The interesting thing is that every time these gentlemen made a phone call to ensure a favourable ruling, in other words, one that was the exact opposite of the right or proper ruling, but why? Well, because there is no need to phone if the judges indeed make a good or proper ruling. If someone phones it’s precisely because the judges are about to make a good and proper ruling. If a judge is indeed dispensing justice then the only reason for putting pressure on him is to try to get an unjust ruling, so what do you think happened every time these gentlemen exerted any pressure? What happened every time is that they found someone who was willing to listen, be it the former President of the Constitutional Court, the President of the Court of Cassation, candidates for the Milan Court of Appeals, who would then take the call from this bunch of would be wheeler-dealers who are a total embarrassment because of their seniority and fluency. It’s enough to read a few extracts from the wiretapped call records to realise that they are speaking in an unbelievable kind of Italian that seems to have come from one of Bombolo, Cannavale and Lino Banfi’s films, except for the fact that Lino Banfi was far too smart for these guys. These guys immediately found willing ears and thus they spoke with senior magistrates who are, needless to say, members of the plenum of the Upper Council of the Magistrature, sitting alongside the State President and the Deputy Chairman Mancino. Then they would speak to the Gennarinis and the Peppiniellis with the kind of familiarity that is truly disturbing!
So this is the problem, this politicised Magistrature. In past wiretapped conversations, you won’t ever hear the voices of the Di Pietros, the Davigos, the Colombos, the Grecos, the Borrellis, the D'Ambrosios, just as in the current ones you won’t ever hear the voices of those depicted as politicised magistrates, like the De Magistris’, the Woodcocks, the Forleos, the Spataros, the Casellis, the Ingroias, the Scarpinatos, the Tescarolis and many others. You will never hear their voices. You will only hear those of the people from the Roman underbrush, where you will find bigwigs from the Court of Cassation, from the Upper Council of the Magistrature, from the National Association of Magistrates, politicians, and wheeler-dealers. In a country where the controllers and their victims are used to being hand in glove, living in the same houses and sitting in the same lounges, anyone needing any further proof of what it means to have power in Italy only need to examine the guest list for Thursday night’s dinner at Vespa’s house. In that house belonging to Propaganda Fide and given to Bruno Vespa by Cardinal Sepe himself, for which Vespa claims to be paying 10-thousand Euro in rent, a splendid home with a terrace overlooking Trinità dei Monti, the following people met: Vespa, Vespa’s wife Augusta Iannini, a Rome judge who has for many years now been a manager in the Ministry of Justice, head of the Legislation Department and the person that is responsible for taking all of the laws that Alfano has drafted in his usual Visigoth and translating them into proper Italian. The dinner guests also included Gianni Letta, Undersecretary in the Prime Minister’s Office and former Deputy Chairman of Mediaset, Gianni Letta’s wife, the author of that famous hotchpotch that formed the basis for the Bi-cameral hotchpotch of 1997, as well as Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Pierferdinando Casini, coerced by Berlusconi to replace the potential vacuum left by the possible departure of the Fini supporters that would result in the event of a divorce between Berlusconi and Fini, and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, owner of Mediaset and everything else we can think of, accompanied by his daughter who, in addition to being Chairperson of the Mondadori publishing group, is also involved in MedioBanca, which in turn has a finger in the pie at the “Corriere della Sera”. This merry band consisting of a RAI journalist, a judge and, oh, I almost forgot to mention the other person that was there, namely the banker Geronzi, who is currently Chairman of Assicurazioni Generali and accused of involvement in the collapse of Parmalat and Cirio.
So, a judge, a journalist, politicians, a Cardinal, a financier, another amphibious businessman politician like Letta and, I almost forgot, Bank of Italy Governor Draghi. Officially, the dinner was organised to celebrate Bruno Vespa’s 50 year in the journalism field, yes indeed, he calls the rubbish he dishes up “journalism”, but unofficially, the purpose of the dinner was to attempt to re-unite two lovers who lost each other in the cold, namely Pierferdinando Casini and Silvio Berlusconi, all organised by a journalist surrounded by cardinals, criminal suspects, a judge, financiers and the Comptroller of Italian Finance, namely Draghi. So that’s how things are done over here and, unfortunately, there is always some or other magistrate also involved, usually a Roman one, selling the blessings of the marvellous “porto delle nebbie” and that’s the real problem. When we talk about the politicised Magistrature, we should immediately think local and think of the fact that the closer one get’s to the corridors of power, like here in Rome, the more one will find magistrates that have obviously lost all sense of mission and are therefore deemed to be approachable for favours. It’s not even necessary to bribe them, as was the case once upon a time in the Previti era. There is no money changing hands here to bribe judges , all there is, is a gelatinous system whereby someone phones someone else, someone is friendly with someone else, someone asks for a favour for someone else and, the most interesting thing of all, is how the centre-right’s newspapers deal with this whole affair. Instead of saying: you see, there are certain judges that are politicised, they’re friends of ours, they’re friends of the government, they are the regime’s judges, they come out with articles that attempt to downplay this new P2, depicting it as a Totò and Peppino story, an honest Gang. In last Wednesday’s edition of “Libero” there is a fantastic article written by Gianluigi Nuzi, in which he states that they are even attempting to credit Berlusconi with a murder, but why? Well, because there is simply no way. Berlusconi may well have millions of faults, but he is not the type to accept bribes, after all, he is extremely wealthy in his own right! Just imagine that! Berlusconi, who has spent his entire life paying bribes, now being depicted by his own newspapers as someone who may indeed be guilty of many things, but bribery, no way!
Then there are the words that have emerged from these wiretapped conversations. The are other players in this affair in addition to Verdini, the Tuscan proprietor of Credito Fiorentino Bank and political party co-ordinator. Instead of resolving the conflict of interests of Berlusconi, who believes that it there is nothing even vaguely unusual about a man who owns his very own bank and also happens to be involved in politics without leaving the bank, the very same bank through which it is alleged that the money collected by Carboni from a group of businessmen involved in the construction of wind farms. Now this is not merely another power generation business venture, but one that is designed to suck up European Union funding for every wind turbine generator erected. Then, however, there is no problem when these wind turbine generators never turn, but why? Well, because these guys have already grabbed the money and done a duck, so this wheeler-dealer put together this consortium to build wind farms in Sardinia, but what happened then? Well, what happened was that then politics got involved because, as you know, the political wheels have to be oiled and so a part of the Carboni consortium money was diverted to Verdini’s Credito Fiorentino Bank in the form of a deal to purchase shares in the Tuscan newspaper, a subsidiary of Berlusconi’s newspapers in Florence and Tuscany, established by Verdini and sailing in rough waters, probably also due to the fact that it is illegible! That’s Verdini for you!.
So, after the initial arrest, Verdini is under investigation for corruption and illegal secret association for having somehow re-established the P2, thereby violating the law that prohibits secret associations. The first of the individuals arrested, a certain Pasqualino Lombardi, a long-serving Avellino politician with certain highly ranking friends that include Upper Council of the Magistrature Vice President Mancino, and Arcangelo Martino, a former socialist convicted, I think of collusion, a Neapolitan who, I’m sure some you remember, rushed in to defend Berlusconi last summer when Berlusconi was having some problems coming up with a credible explanation for how come a man in his position took a helicopter or a plane from Milan to Casoria, which is a place where only members of the Camorra usually go to shoot each other or get married, to attend a party for a young lady, the 18-year-old Noemi Letizia, who had been very definitely underage until just the day before. Berlusconi and the young lady continued to make contradictory statements that didn’t hold water, until a certain Martino popped up, saying that: Berlusconi is right, as I can confirm. Berlusconi met Noemi Letizia’s father at the Hotel Raphael in Rome during a meeting with Craxi and they immediately became firm friends with this well-dressed public servant from the Vesuvio area, to the extent that Noemi’s father would phone Berlusconi from time to time on his private cell phone, Berlusconi would take the call and, abracadabra, he even went to the daughter’s party with a gold jewel in hand. It was obviously an out and out lie, one of the many designed to put that embarrassing matter to bed. Imagine that, a Prime Minister dallying with underage girls, as confirmed by his wife! Martino provided a fake alibi for Berlusconi, so they arrested him (Martino), as well as Pasqualino Lombardi and, obviously also Flavio Carboni.

But what was this secret association working on
As we have already said, this business involving the exchange of favours was in fact part and parcel of 3 or 4 different affairs. The first of these is the case of the Constitutional Court, which was due to hand down a ruling regarding the Alfano Bill on 6 October 2009. There was great consternation because everyone knew that the Alfano Bill was in fact unconstitutional and that, therefore, it would be necessary to entice a couple of judges to vote both against their conscience and against the Constitution. Thus began the bartering involving a variety of exchangeable goods. For example, there was Pasqualino Lombardi, the Christian Democrat from Avellino, who spoke to Treasury Undersecretary Cosentino, saying: “he is quite happy with what we’re doing about the 6th, namely the Constitutional Council hearing concerning the Bill so, quite obviously, what Arcangelo was saying was that he has to give us something in return, he must give us you, without busting our chops, don’t you agree?” This “he” that was apparently quite happy with this group putting pressure on the Constitutional Court was none other than Verdini, who had met with Lombardi, with Martino, the man who provided the false alibi in the Noemi case, Justice Undersecretary Caliendo, Ministerial Inspectorate Chief Miller and the ever-present Marcello Dell’Utri, who is also involved in this scandal because he apparently moves in these circles and indeed, the Rome judges are assessing his involvement and also because, fortunately, there are also a number of excellent public prosecutors and judges in Rome. When I spoke about the “porto delle nebbie” earlier, I was talking about bigwigs in the Rome Court of Justice, some of whom are indeed crooked, but certainly not all of them, so much so that the Rome Public Prosecutors Office is responsible for this investigation.
So that’s the secret organisation set up by these gentlemen, but what were they hoping to do? Well, on the one hand they were wanting to back Cosentino with regard to the arrest warrant, while on the other hand they were putting pressure on the Constitutional Court to overthrow the then majority and thereby ensure the confirmation and approval of the Alfano Bill. This Lombardi fellow spoke to Martino on the 28th September last year, they were only doing what had to be done, and they’re still doing so, however, very quietly and without exposing themselves because they’re involving thousands of people and not just one. They call all the politicians that they know in order to find out whether perhaps these politicians know any of the Constitutional Court judges. They even contact the same old Renzo Lusetti, formerly of the Democratic Party and now a member of Ruttelli’s Ap, once charged in Naples for his involvement in the Romeo scandal, and ask him “Do you have any friends in the Constitutional Court? Then there is an incredible telephone call made by this Pasqualino Lombardi to the President Emeritus of the Constitutional Court, Cesare Mirabelli, a man covered in lace, ermine and what have you …, because Lombardi wants to know whether one of the judges who was apparently undecided with regard to the Bill, namely Maria Rita Saulle, was a friend of his. Now listen to what this wheeler-dealer from Avellino, in fact Irpino, says over the phone to a President Emeritus of the Constitutional Court: “that woman on the Council who says she’s a friend of yours, can we at least convince her?”. Initially at least, Mirabelli tries to protect himself by saying “I don’t know that convincing will do any good”, at which point Lombardi snaps back, saying “we have done all we can, we have in any event tried to ensure that we have got to almost everyone and at the moment, I’m telling you it looks like 4 are against, 5 are in favour and 3 remain undecided. So you try and find out whether we could have any luck with the lady”. In other words, so much for a Totò and Peppino’s band of honest men. These guys had already succeeded in convincing 5 Constitutional Court judges out of 15, and some of them they didn’t even need to bother with because, if you remember, Judge Napolitano and Judge Mazzella had already had dinner and discussions with Berlusconi, Alfano and Gianni Letta on the eve of the ruling on the Alfano Bill.
Mirabelli again tries to keep himself out of it, but then this Lombardi, a surveyor from Avellino who also worked as a contributions judge, says “what is needed is a final push. We’ll talk again tomorrow Professor, but these friends of mine, who are also friends of yours by the way, are putting pressure on me!”, that’s friendship for you. Then there are also a number of other calls in which the vernacular is used. In one of these, Pasquale tells Martino: “call whoever you need to call and tell him that the mustn’t bust our chops. They must just do what they’re told and when the time comes, they must just tell whoever they have to tell”, and then, just a few days prior to the Consultative Council verdict, : “we have to speak to him today, I’ll speak to him, where the hell is he? He’s out, see to it because we can’t afford to catch butterflies”, you understand? Butterflies don’t exist, all that does indeed exist are strong, heavy elephants and they’re not at all pretty. At the end of the day there’s a fuck off because he doesn’t bring in any votes but he still comes to us!
This would be extremely funny if it weren’t for the fact that we are dealing with conversations concerning decisions that are crucial to our democracy, such as the decision regarding the Alfano Bill or the one regarding the arrest of an Undersecretary that refuses to step down and involving a Senator who also refuses to step down even after having been recently re-convicted for mafia activities, namely Dell’Utri, as well as national co-ordinator of a relative majority party, what’s his name, who has stepped down, for the time being that is? One of the judges that was party to these meetings also stepped down today, namely judge Martone who is just some mushroom or reject, but a past President of the National Association of Magistrates, as did Naples Councillor who was busy creating a dossier on behalf of Cosentino’s friends, aimed at depicting newly elected Governor Caldoro as a man who kept company with transsexuals . He was a member of the Caldoro Junta and was obliged to resign because how could Caldoro have a councillor working with him that had, inter alia, created a dossier of lies against him? Can you believe that things have degenerated to such a point?

"Be good "
The final thing that is particularly disturbing involves the man who was the President of the Supreme Court of Cassation until just a month ago, namely, Vincenzo Carbone. The same Pasqualino Lombardi, the surveyor, called him and said: “When Mr. President?” and the man on the other side already knew what it was about. Instead of saying something like: “what are you saying? Who are you? You must have got through to the wrong number!”, he responds to the question “When, Mr. President?”, he answers “28 January”. Lombardi says: “Oh, 28 January? Can’t we make it any sooner?” This to Carbone, Senior President of the Court of Cassation, ermine, lace, purple robe, badges, knotted hair and all. Carbone says “be good”, yet this is the top man and President of the Court of Cassation, so can you guess what they were talking about? Well, about the Court of Cassation appeal regarding the arrest warrant issued against Cosentino, and they were even discussing the date and even wanted to bring it forward. On 26 January, in other words just two days prior to the scheduled date of the hearing on the 28th, Lombardi once again called Carbone, actually no, he called him on the 17th, ten days before the scheduled date of the hearing, Lombardi called the President of the Court of Cassation and tells him: yesterday I was with a bunch of good friends. Again on the 25th, 3 days prior to the hearing, he tells Cosentino: “Tomorrow morning you must pay a visit to Gianni Letta, di you understand?” The next day, the 26th in other words, two full days prior to the official ruling, Lombardi again called Carbone and said: “Listen to me, has Letta called you at all?” Carboni answered: “no, why do you ask?”. Lombardi answers: “he was supposed to call you!” They had told Carbone that since he was due to retire, they would extend his term of office as President of the Court of Cassation for a further two years, but who? The Berlusconi government of course, and indeed in another telephone conversation we hear Carbone saying: “What am I supposed to do once I go on pension?” The Government was working on a solution, namely to keep him on board for another two years. If you read the papers just the other day, you will have read that Carbone has recently retired as President of the Court of Cassation and is to stand for election as President of Consob or one of the other Authorities that are currently in the process of being restructured. He was the man that asked “What am I supposed to do once I go on pension?”. Please note that magistrates normally go on pension at 75 years of age, but this man didn’t know what he was going to do with himself, so they had to find him some other job, after all, this was the 78 year-old Carboni, the man who set up the P3, and now they’ve gone and arrested him again.
Then there is the matter of Marra, the current President of the Appeal Court of Milan, nicknamed Fofò by his friends. His real name is Alfonso and there is a whole operation afoot, involving Lombardi, etc, to get him appointed ahead of his better qualified opponent, a man by the name of Rordorf. At a certain point, Lombardi and Co. ensured that Mancino would make a last-minute turnaround and, just when everyone was fully expecting him to opt for Rordorf, he would instead opt for Marra, which is precisely what he did, he voted for Marra. This is an episode that reminds one of the case in which the Upper Council of the Magistrature was expected to appoint Falcone as Examining Magistrate in Palermo, until they made a number of last minute about-turns and appointed Meli. In a now famous public meeting, Borsellino spoke of a “Judas” that had touted Falcone’s election and then voted the other way.
So, when you hear any talk of politicised magistrates, think of these guys. When you hear any talk about political abuse of the justice system, think of the dossier that was built up by the centre-right Cosentino buddies against the centre right Caldoro circle and when anyone talks about De Magistris or about the case involving Clementina Forleo, or the case involving the Salerno Public Prosecutors that were thrown out of the Region, out of Campania, not to mention Chief Public Prosecutor Apicella who was dismissed completely from the Magistrature, while De Magristris was sent to Naples and prohibited from ever again working as a Public Prosecutor, which is precisely what also happened to Nuzi and Verasani, remember that the investigations against these magistrates were led by none other than Arcibaldo Miller, a member of this jolly band, and that the disciplinary hearings were handled by a Chief Prosecutor from the Court of Cassation in which one of the kingpins was Martone, the same man that resigned from the United Section of the Court of Cassation that heard these magistrates’ appeals against the unjust penalties handed down to them. The Chairman of this United Section was none other than Carbone, the wheeler-dealer surveyor from Avellino that Lombardi referred to as Mr. President and spoke to on an informal basis, the same Carbone that, at that time, was asking what the powers that be had in store for him when he retired at age 75.

When the troublesome magistrates land up in this kind of situation, then you begin to understand why the troublesome members are chucked out of the Upper Council of the Magistrature and why Carbone’s Court of Cassation then confirms this nonsense while, instead, the genuinely politicised magistrates never leave, except when they’re caught red handed with their hand in the cookie jar. Spread the word and continue to follow these stories in “Il Fatto Quotidiano”. Have a great week!