you know what it is time for? lessons in diversity hi, and welcome to lessons in diversity. i am your host mary lou breton. this is what she looks like. and in a perfect world, diversity would be awesome. who does not want to work with the different people? as opposed to this. [laughter] there is nothing more boring and on the same, and i should know. [laughter] i love different phases in different races all comingling in a melting pot i call greg s hot tub of the quality. but today s diversity seems to be only about looks and ideas, which is not how you make something funny unless you look like this. [laughter] it s a cheap shot, but see. there is a downside to diversity once you put it over other variables like talent or skill and poor hygiene. what if you find someone that is funnier than someone else, but that person is not black or female or lgbtq asap byob lol. the problem with diversity hiring as you may end up with something or someone like this. [laughter] yeah,
Heres how it came to be. In may of this year, may 22nd, the New York Times had a scoop that they probably only got because they are specifically the New York Times. They sent crack reporters to an otherwise sleepy courthouse in albany, new york, not a Federal Courthouse, a state court, because that day in that state court in new york, a longtime Business Partner of Michael Cohens, A Taxicab Mogul Named Gene Friedman Who everybody called the taxi king, he was in court. He had been facing really serious charges in new york, Tax Evasion Charges in new york more than 5 million and four criminal counts of tax fraud and facing a charge of grand larceny. A big stack of charges involving a large amount of money and potentially a large amount of jail time. The story they uncovered at the courthouse that day, for some reason, friedman had gotten this huge Criminal Liability he was facing winnowed down to almost
nothing. He was able to work out some sort of deal where all of that prison time and
Rachel Maddow takes a look at the days top political news stories. Charge of grand larceny, a big stack of charges involving a large amount of money and potentially a large amount of jail time. The story they uncovered at the courthouse that day, for some reason, friedman had gotten this huge Criminal Liability he was facing winnowed down to almost nothing. All the prison time and felonies evaporated. Instead of being tried for evading 5 million in taxes, prosecutors let him plead guilty to one count of evaluating 50,000 worth of taxes. Not 5 million, 50,000. Instead of decades in potential prison time the deal he cut with prosecutors got him zero prison time. People do plea deals all the time they offer their testimony for prosecutors letting them off the hook and going easier on
them. This was like the mother of all plea deals. The amount he offered must have been very very valuable to the government given how sweet the deal was he got from them in return. That happened in late may.