The Orlando Sentinel newspaper is reporting that it appears as if no actual witnesses showed up for today’s Federal Grand Jury convened to determine if civil rights charges should be brought against George Zimmerman for his self-defense shooting of Trayvon Martin.

The DOJ had subpoenaed Frank Taaffe, a self-declared “friend” of Zimmerman’s, to testify before the Grand Jury. In the days following the shooting Taaffe told FBI investigators that based on phone discussions with Zimmerman he did not believe there was a racial motive for the shooting.

Earlier this year, however, nearly two years later, Taaffe changed his story and said he now believed that Zimmerman did have a racial motive for shooting Martin. We covered this change of story previously here: Key Witness for Zimmerman Grand Jury Changes Story, and the Grand Jury convening here: DOJ Convenes Grand Jury For Zimmerman Civil Rights Case.

In that latter story we had speculated that the sudden announcement of this Grand Jury, just days before elections likely (and ultimately) to prove troublesome for Democrats was merely a political stratagem seeking to draw greater numbers of African Americans to the polls.

The grounds for such speculation are certainly not diminished when reporters present for the proceedings say that they never saw Taaffe appear in any of the public areas of the federal courts building, not even the portions used by the grand jury members. Taaffe has developed a considerable reputation for enjoying the limelight of press coverage, and thus his failure to be seen by the press suggests that he may not have been present at all.

Also not visibly present were any other persons known to have any ties to the Zimmerman shooting of Martin.

Zimmerman himself was also not present.

Neither DOJ attorney Blumberg, nor FBI Special Agent John Weyrauch involved in the investigation and listed on the Taaffe subpeona, nor Dena Iverson, a spokesman for the DOJ’s infamous Civil Rights Division (which helped to organize and fund protests against Zimmerman following the shooting), were willing to comment.

The “pathetic political machination” fairy was, also, unavailable for comment.

–-Andrew, @LawSelfDefense

Andrew F. Branca is an MA lawyer and the author of the seminal book “The Law of Self Defense, 2nd Edition,” available at the Law of Self Defense blog (autographed copies available) and Amazon.com (paperback and Kindle). He also holds Law of Self Defense Seminars around the country, and provides free online self-defense law video lectures at the Law of Self Defense Institute and podcasts through iTunes, Stitcher, and elsewhere.



