"He sat on the Information and did Nothing" Senator Jonathan Wehner Blasts PM's Judicial Bribery Claims, Demands Investigation

Senator Jonathan Wehner, acting public relations officer of the United Progressive Party, delivered a blistering critique of PM Browne's latest attack on the judiciary. On Monday afternoon during an appearance on Observer Radio's Connecting with Dave Lester Payne, Senator Wehner replayed and dissected remarks made by the Prime Minister on his Saturday radio programme.

In that broadcast, PM Browne lashed out at what he called "judicial people," accusing them of "mashing up our country," before going further: "We have had magistrates and judges who have been crooks, thieves… take money from the crooks. If y'all think I made a mistake when I threatened deportation before, me dead serious."

"Those are not my words," Senator Wehner stressed. "We are reporting the words of the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister of this nation said that the judicial people — and if there was any ambiguity, he himself went on to say magistrates and judges — are crooks and criminals… the ones that we go before to get blind, independent, impartial, fair justice."

"He Sat on the Information and did Nothing"

For Senator Wehner, the gravest implication of the Prime Minister's statement is not the insult to the bench, but the admission it contains. The head of government claims to know of judicial bribery and has done nothing to resolve it. "He is negligent. He has failed to carry out his duties and responsibilities. He has been an accessory, in my mind, after the fact. Why? He sat on the information and did nothing."

Senator Wehner noted that PM Browne is not merely Prime Minister but has been Minister of National Security for the past twelve years — the minister directly responsible for the Office of National Drug and Money Laundering Control Policy (ONDCP), the agency whose remit covers precisely the kind of illicit payments the Prime Minister is alleging.

And he reminded listeners, a senior ONDCP supervisor revealed on Observer's Voice of the People just weeks ago that the agency cannot initiate investigations on its own. The ONDCP investigates based on case files submitted by its director or by the responsible minister — and it has received no such case file for years.

"Why is it the Prime Minister didn't give the ONDCP a case file? " Senator Wehner asked. "How long has the Prime Minister known that there were judges and magistrates in this country are taking bribes from crooks and criminals — according to him?"

The Senator pointed out that no magistrate or judge has been investigated, questioned, arrested or charged since the Prime Minister's declaration. "Have you heard in the news… that any magistrates and judges are being investigated, arrested, brought in for questioning for taking bribes? "

UPP considers writing DPP, Integrity Commission and Bar Associations

Senator Wehner stated the UPP is considering formally writing to the Director of Public Prosecutions, whose constitutional role includes investigating and prosecuting such matters, the Chairman Integrity Commission - an officer he derided as a "ghost worker" with a "whole ghost office", the Antigua and Barbuda Bar Association, the OECS Bar Association and the Commonwealth Magistrates' and Judges' Association.

He recalled that under the Integrity in Public Life Act - part of a trilogy of accountability legislation passed under the Baldwin Spencer administration - magistrates and judges are among the public officials required to declare their income and assets to the Integrity Commission. If judicial officers were "obtaining income from nefarious sources," he argued, "that ought to directly fall into the remit of the Integrity Commission."

The Senator also brushed aside an earlier statement from Minister Chet Greene that had sought to soften the Prime Minister's previous attacks on the judiciary. "The top dog barked and he fell in line," Senator Wehner said, noting that any such clarification was rendered meaningless on Saturday when PM Browne "doubled down" on his deportation threat with the words "me dead serious."

That threat first surfaced last month, when the Prime Minister publicly warned an unnamed judge with what he called a propensity for lenient sentencing to leave the country voluntarily or be deported and declared persona non grata. As Real News has reported, the remarks drew swift condemnation from the local Bar Association — which described them as a grave threat to judicial independence and an act of executive coercion — as well as from the Caribbean Heads of Judiciary and the Commonwealth Magistrates' and Judges' Association, which warned that democracy is gravely undermined when court judgments are not respected, particularly with Antigua and Barbuda set to host the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting later this year.

"All Three Branches Compromised"

Senator Wehner said Saturday's allegation completes a bleak picture of governance in Antigua and Barbuda. "Our executive is compromised — we know for a fact, according to the Prime Minister, there was the vehicle-gate and all the cabinet creepers, and how much millions spent without approval. Our legislature is compromised, because those same people who sit in Cabinet make up the majority in Parliament. And now we're hearing from the Prime Minister that the judiciary is also compromised."

He warned that the claims strike a fatal blow to the government's long-standing push to replace the Privy Council with the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) as the nation's final appellate court, since regional magistrates and judges - the same pool the Prime Minister has branded corrupt - will in time ascend to the CCJ bench.

Recalling former Senator Pearl Quinn-Williams' famous slogan from the CCJ referendum campaign — "Trust is a must" — Senator Wehner asked: "How can you trust that they are being impartial when you, as Prime Minister — not average Joe on the side of the road — are telling the whole nation, the world, that in our justice system in the OECS we have people who sit on the benches, magistrates and judges, who take bribes?"

"Defamation of the Highest Order"

The Senator was blunt about the alternative: if the Prime Minister is making these statements without evidence, "he should be in jail for defamation. That is defamation of the highest order. The integrity of the justice system is so sacrosanct, so sacred — you can't just call that into question for any frivolous matter."

In a sobering close, Senator Wehner suggested the failure to pursue the allegedly corrupt figures behind the country's crime problem carries a human cost, referencing the 2020 abduction and murder of Customs officer Nigel Christian and the shooting of fellow Customs officer Cornell Benjamin, who survived. "Some people in this country are untouchable," he said, "and those are conversations me and you are not supposed to have on radio."

Senator Wehner is scheduled to return to Connecting with Dave Lester Payne on Tuesday, 15th September, from 2 to 4 pm, where he has promised to lay out — Hansard in hand — the case that the Prime Minister's own March 30, 2016, amendments to the Citizenship by Investment legislation are responsible in part for the visa restrictions now confronting Antiguan and Barbudan passport holders.