Remember the Darwin Awards? They’re the awards that go to honor those who “ensure the long-term survival of the human race by removing themselves from the gene pool in a sublimely idiotic fashion.” If there were a Darwin Awards for politics, I suspect Larry Sinclair would be a big winner.
We talked a bit last week about Sinclair and his outlandish accusations (involving drugs, sex, and murder) about Barack Obama. There is, of course, no reason to take the poor man seriously. But that didn’t stop Sinclair from holding a press conference at the National Press Club yesterday, a decision which turned out to be rather foolish.
Yesterday morning, before the event, Ben Smith noted that Sinclair has “a 27-year criminal record, with a specialty in crimes involving deceit. The record includes forgery charges in two states, one of which drew Sinclair a 16-year jail sentence. The Pueblo County, Colo., Sheriff’s Office also has an outstanding warrant for Sinclair’s arrest for forging an acquaintance’s signature and stealing her tax refunds.” He has 13 known aliases, and when Sinclair voluntarily took a polygraph test to verify his claims, his results “indicated deception.”
Sinclair held his event anyway, after which he was promptly taken into custody.
He was arrested by Washington, D.C. police after his press conference there today, two officials at D.C.’s First District station confirmed to Politico.
Sinclair is wanted in Colorado on theft and forgery charges, but police officials I spoke to wouldn’t discuss the charges.
Die-hard supporters of Hillary Clinton appear to be the only folks who still hold Sinclair in high regard. One posted Sinclair’s statement online in full, and another was on hand for yesterday’s event, telling the Politico, “I don’t think he should be written off without consideration. I think [Sinclair’s story is] worth exploring.”
Given what we know, that’s a rather strange conclusion to reach.
The Huffington Post’s Seth Colter Walls was on hand and noted that Sinclair “admitted to suffering from a brain tumor,” after which his press conference went downhill.
Only slightly less mystifying were the several dozen assembled journalists who seemed to grant Mr. Sinclair some modicum of respect with their questions. They cross-examined his statement regarding his supposed meetings with the Illinois Democrat with a vigor and small-bore attention to detail that prosecutors reserve strictly for witnesses who are sane. Imagine if you were to encounter someone who had lit himself on fire, and then proceeded to ask which brand of gasoline he favored.
And so the inquiries came, most of which Mr. Sinclair easily batted back with the exhortation to investigate his claims more vigorously. As for the evidence he provided, it amounted to a few phone numbers — registered under different names and in different states — that Mr. Sinclair claimed he used to call, variously, a limousine driver, the deceased choir director of Trinity United Church of Christ, and others. Clearly, it is now the duty of the mobile phone companies to open up these records to court scrutiny. (Forgive me for not reprinting any of the “evidence” in full here. Should you care to see it, Sinclair promised a version would be made public on his website, one free of the several errors which vexed him during his public statement today.)
Of course, now that Sinclair has been taken into custody (again), there may be a delay in his posting schedule.
As for his arrest, why anyone who had outstanding warrants would publicly announce where and when he’s going to be is a bit of a mystery.