Thread by @Amy_K_Nelson

When I went to law school, I knew a law degree would be helpful no matter what I chose to do in life.

Never did I imagine that I would use my skills & training to "prove" my husband's innocence to federal prosecutors after @jeffbezos & @amazon tried to imprison him. A 🧵 /1

My husband worked at @awscloud. His offer letter said it contained ALL the terms of his employment. ALL OF THEM. You can see it here. Here are pages 1 & 2. /2

@awscloud And here are pages 3 & 4. Employment offer incorporates Amazon's non-compete, but NO other policies (like, say, a code of conduct). And it says: this letter makes up terms of employment, ANY chances must be in writing & signed by parties. /3

Okay, go to the non-compete. It's a strange contract, sure. But @jeffbezos wrote it. It says you have to give ALL of your "time & attention" to @amazon EXCEPT for what Amazon allows you to do - while you work at Amazon - in "section 3." /4

And in Section 3, Amazon allows its employees to do all SORTS of things while working at Amazon & *with* people working with Amazon. A federal judge explained the limits of what employees could do per the contract. /5

But within those limits Amazon gave employees the right to, for example, enter into arrangements with business entities that Amazon was doing biz with - so long as the arrangement wasn't the same arrangement Amazon had with the biz. Here is Section 3 of the contract. /6

The contract says NOTHING about Amazon's code of conduct & Amazon expressly denies that it is a contract + has won court cases arguing that employees can't sue the company for violating the code b/c it contains no legal duties. A judge explains: /7

So when my husband worked at AWS, he took investment to start a new co to work on real estate development. He then left Amazon & got to work. Generated millions in revenue for company in year 1 & was pitching deals TO Amazon. /8

Then on April 2, 2020, FBI shows up at our door & tells him he is the target of a federal criminal investigation. A month later, DOJ seizes all of our bank accounts on allegations of "honest services fraud" - that is depriving Amazon of his "honest services." FBI raids home. /9

Somehow - as they said in civil forfeiture complaints & probable cause affidavits & guilty pleas from alleged co-conspirators - federal prosecutors believed my husband was "not authorized" to work w/ ANYONE doing biz w/ Amazon in any way during/after employment. They said: /10

We told prosecutors and FBI agents that this was wrong. We learned Amazon had NEVER given DOJ my husband's contract before DOJ seized our $$, raided our home, targeted my husband. Amazon just "told" DOJ what the "honest services" owed were & DOJ said okay, Jeff! /11

The ONLY thing the federal prosecutor in charge of the investigation would ever say to us - over FOUR YEARS - was: "we don't believe the employment contract allowed what happened here."

That's it.

And, ALSO.... it gets worse. /12

After Amazon FINALLY gave DOJ my husband's contract - at our demand - their top 2 ethics lawyers, Yousri Omar & Matt Doden, gave DOJ a written presentation where they said, hey, man, let's ignore that pesky employment contract. Look at the code of conduct! It contains employee "obligations" & "prohibits" conflicts of interest. /13

But (a) the code of conduct allows conflicts of interest so long as they're ALSO in Amazon's best interests; (b) per Amazon, the code contains NO civil legal duties, so how could violation be a FEDERAL CRIME; (c) a conflict of interest isn't a crime per the Supreme Court. /13

But, hey, Yousri & Matt seemed to have forgotten to tell prosecutors about Amazon's successful arguments in courts in Washington & NJ re: the code of conduct containing no binding legal obligations, so prosecutors ran with it. And then they convinced 4 men to plead guilty ... /14

To helping my husband "violate" his "honest services" under the contract & the code of conduct.

Services my husband didn't owe.

The men testified under oath in a civil case that they had no idea what Amazon's employment duties were. But ... /15

The 2 plea agreements we've seen lay out that same lie: that my husband wasn't "authorized" to receive any financial compensation from anyone who'd done work with Amazon.

So who the hell told these guys this? Why didn't their LAWYERS confirm? This is from a plea:/16

Even WORSE, a federal prosecutor told Judge Rossie Alston in a plea hearing that if they guy hadn't plead, DOJ would've been able to PROVE that my husband wasn't authorized to work with anyone doing biz with Amazon. THIS IS REMARKABLE. /17

So how did we convince prosecutors of the simple truth that my husband's employment terms gave him the contractual right to do the thing Amazon was TRYING TO PUT HIM IN PRISON over?

Well, Amazon also sued my husband. We fought. And the FIRST time the judge got to review the evidence was when we filed for summary judgment. And he said that the "explicit terms" of the contract allowed my husband to do what Amazon said was a crime - just like we'd said. FOR YEARS. You can read it here: /18

After that summary judgment ruling came out, I've learned that prosecutors received an email asking them if or when they planned to change the statement of facts for the criminal pleas - given that ... the duties the purported felons said they violated DID NOT EXIST. /19

But even after that, it took prosecutors another SEVEN MONTHS to vacate the pleas at issue. Eventually, US Attorney Jessica Aber wrote that they DOJ couldn't let the men plead guilty to aiding my husband in *anything* because prosecution wasn't "in the interests of justice." /20

But here's the thing: Amazon still won. They destroyed my family. We lost our home, careers & reputations. The DOJ still holds onto hundreds of thousands of dollars seized from my husband & his businesses.

Why? Tell me why. /21

Amazon led prosecutors and FBI agents to spend thousands of man hours over 4 years hunting my husband. Diverting our law enforcement from investigating true harm to Americans.

Amazon didn't do it, actually. PEOPLE at Amazon did. Companies can't do things. People can. There are WRITTEN PRESENTATIONS with the lies.

Have those people been held accountable by DOJ? Nope. /22

Lying to the FBI is a federal crime.

But prosecutors selectively enforce the law. They choose winners & losers.

So forgive me if I think it's empty when AG Garland says DOJ enforces law "without fear or favor." /22 apnews.com/video/u-s-depa…

By allowing @amazon to do this, @DOJCrimDiv is telling big companies & billionaires: okay, lie to us to try to imprison competitors, biz partners, etc. We'll seize their $ & destroy their businesses & if we can't get them to plead .. no big deal. No punishment for you! /23

@amazon @DOJCrimDiv But where do we go to get our lives back?

Can you imagine being a mom of 4 and learning on a random Tuesday in May that your bank accounts were empty? EMPTY.

Do you understand the terror of an FBI raid?

Who will help us? Who polices the police? / 24

You probably haven't read about this in the corporate media. Don't be surprised. First, I guess the occasional sacrifice of an American family is acceptable to everyone. But also, remember, Amazon buys more news advertisements than any entity in the world & the news relies on @jeffbezos to survive.

Have you EVER seen a deep investigation into Amazon or Bezos that's highly critical and personal? Yeah, you haven't. Now @elonmusk? ALL THE TIME. Think about it. /25

@amazon @DOJCrimDiv I have 230,000 followers on TikTok who listen to the legal ins and outs every day. Amazon's lawyers once sent me a cease & desist saying that if I didn't shut down the TikTok, they'd accused me of witness tampering to prosecutors.

The threats have been endless./26

@amazon @DOJCrimDiv My husband was "lucky" to use the civil case to exonerate himself. But how many people have a spouse, like me, who has legal training + the ability to earn a lot of $$ to pay lawyers? Without that, we would have been screwed. /27

And, also, speaking of threats: Right before civil discovery started in the civil case, federal prosecutors (with Amazon's @KMSheepeople & Yousri Omar) called my husband & told him that if he continued to defend himself in Amazon's civil case he would "get what he deserved" and that he was "fighting a war he could not win."

I can prove this happened, if anyone cares. Word for word. But what if my husband hadn't been willing to stand up to this additional threat? And what in the hell were prosecutors doing threatening my husband regarding a civil case that he didn't start?

This was written about in the Washington Post. DOJ officials read it. No. One. Cares. /28

washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/…

But maybe someone will start to care. One of the men who plead guilty recently reached out to me and told me he was threatened. This was what he wrote, but he said SO much more.

I know prosecutors are allowed to threaten Americans to secure guilty pleas - but last I looked, private parties weren't legally allowed to do so.

I've told Amazon executives about this. No response. They don't care.

Is @jeffbezos above the law? It really feels like it, doesn't it? /29

Anyway, this is my family's story. Thank god for my legal training. I knew my husband's contract & what it said. I found Amazon's prior statements on the code of conduct. And my husband had remarkable lawyers willing to fight and willing to write off some bills.

How many Americans have been crushed by this system? Is this justice? It doesn't feel like it. And it has to stop. /30

And ... since I have your attention. The documents produced in the civil litigation show that Amazon lobbied DOJ to charge my husband in OVER 100 meetings. Who ... what alleged victim has that kind of access, to just go in and literally LOBBY for charges? Did the Epstein victims receive 100 meetings? The Olympic gymnasts? I've never even heard of such a thing.

And one more thing: this is made all the more complicated for so many because the federal prosecutor who ran the investigation is now a federal judge in EDVa. I mean … it’s just so much.

Thank you for caring - and asking. What I wish more than anything is someone with a shred of integrity would say: Enough. I doubt I’ll ever get to be a mother to my children before they leave home without this defining our lives. I hope I can afford to send them to college - I certainly can’t give them the life I worked so hard for because I’ve spent millions on lawyers.

@dvassallo But also, my husband always says that we are probably some of the only people in the world that could take this on and so we have a duty to see it through and try to make sure @ajassy can’t do this to anyone else. So we will try.