18 September—So Kosta Diamantis, former Connecticut lawyer, elected state legislator, and appointed state official, easily convicted a year ago by a federal jury on 21 counts of bribery, extortion, and lying to fuzz, did what was clearly a well-planned and brilliantly executed runner to Greece this month. We wonder, then, among many ponderables and in no specific order:

How was Kosta able to collect $355,000 in pension funds from the state by last year, especially what he got after his conviction?

Why and how was Kosta able to delay his sentencing for a year?

Pending actual surrender of both Kosta’s American and Greek passports, why didn’t Federal District Judge Stefan Underhill throw the convicted criminal and obvious flight risk in the slammer immediately after his conviction or at the very least make him wear an ankle monitor? Silly question, on second thought, because Kosta didn’t even apply for his Greek passport until after his conviction.

Is Kosta’s girlfriend joining him in Greece?

Were state, federal, and international fuzz so wound up in their daisy chain that they didn’t know Kosta had skipped? Or is it just that they didn’t care?

Are state and federal fuzz serious about extraditing Kosta from Greece? If so, lots luck.

Earlier this year Kosta formally applied to Donald Trump’s pardon attorney for a “Pardon After Completion of Sentence” (case #P336763) presumably so he could keep or reinstate his pension. But why didn’t he apply for a full, unconditional pre-sentence pardon? Or didn’t he offer Trump’s pardon attorney and Trump enough of an incentive for the whole schmear? Given Trump’s history of indiscriminately pardoning criminals of all varieties, it’s likely he’d have pardoned Kosta—and given him a job in his corrupt administration.

And to be fair, remember when Willie Clinton on his very last day as president in 2001 pardoned Mark Rich, a fugitive who had been indicted in 1983 on 65 counts of tax evasion, fraud, racketeering, and illegal oil trading (with Iran during that embargo) but skipped to Switzerland and Israel before he could be tried? Not that it mattered, but Rich’s ex was a Clinton friend and generous donor to Democrat causes . . .