UPDATE I today received a prison sentence of eight months for my reporting of the defence case in the Alex Salmond trial. I have a three week stay while we apply to this same court for permission to appeal to the Supreme Court. My appeal will be based on the simple fact that I did not identify anybody. It will also be based on the right to report the defence case being denied by an extraordinary, impossibly strict application of “jigsaw identification”, and on fair process not having been observed.
Should this court refuse permission to appeal, which seems not unlikely, I will in all probability be jailed while we apply direct to the Supreme Court for permission, which will take some months.
I am afraid I find myself once again obliged to ask you for funding for the appeal. We have raised about £70,000 but are likely to need, at the least, double that.
UPDATE The defence fund has received £46,520 in the 24 hours since it was relaunched to fund the appeal to the Supreme Court. That does not get us there, but it is a good start on our way as the appeal continues. Over 2,000 people have donated, with the smallest donation being 82p and the largest £1,000. Every penny is greatly appreciated. I should make plain that despite the astronomical costs, some members of our legal team have been working substantially below their normal rates and with time donated free.
One donation of £500 from a gentleman I know, came with a note that explained that Willie MacRae had lent him £100 shortly before his highly suspect death. He regarded the £500 as repaying that debt, and was sure Willie would approve of the use of his money. That brought tears to my eyes.
UPDATE ENDS
On Friday I shall be sentenced, very possibly to prison, for contempt of court by “jigsaw identification”. While I do not believe anybody has ever been imprisoned for “jigsaw identification” before, my entire prosecution has been so perverse that I cannot imagine why they have done it unless that is the intention.
With enormous diffidence and frankly embarrassment, I find myself yet again obliged to ask people to contribute towards my defence fund before my hearing next Friday, to enable us to move forward with an appeal to the Supreme Court. Legal bills actually paid to date amount to £161,000, with about eight thousand not billed yet. Non-legal costs, including the opinion poll, total around £9,000. The total raised by the defence fund to date is around £143,000 with the balance of around £18,000 paid so far having come from my personal pocket.
The practical result of the judgement against me is that it is virtually impossible to report the defence in any sexual allegation case; as witness the fact that I was ordered by the court to take down every single word of my articles covering the defence case and evidence.
The judges ruled that publishing any information that could theoretically assist not the public, but literally a colleague who worked in the same office, to identify a complainant, would constitute jigsaw identification. They also ruled that jigsaw identification was committed if you gave a piece of information which could identify a complainant in conjunction with information that could be found anywhere else, no matter how obscure. For example, if information from page 19 of the Inverurie Herald six years ago, combined with information from page 178 of a book, combined with something I published could lead to an identification, I am guilty regardless of whether or not anybody did in practice actually piece together these obscure sources of information.
In fact the court heard nothing that would pass as evidence in court that any individual had in fact identified anybody as a result of my articles. There was zero evidence of harm. What has been harmful is the gross censorship of my journalism, with my entire daily account of the defence case removed, and my critique of the Garavelli article removed. In consequence, it is once again virtually impossible for anybody to discover WHY Alex Salmond was acquitted, enabling the massive state and media led campaign to claim he was really guilty – which sadly appears, with the counter-narrative banned, to have acquired great traction.
You will recall that I commissioned a Panelbase opinion poll which proved that a significant 8% of the Scottish population – that is around 400,000 adults – believed they had been able to identify one or more of the complainants in the Salmond case from publication, but when asked stated that the source of this caption was overwhelmingly the mainstream media.
Well I decided to re-run the opinion poll to see if anything had changed. These were the results. 11% of the Scottish adult population – that is half a million adults – by now believe they know an identity. This is how they know:
It is perfectly clear and entirely consistent with the first poll. 54% of people who believe they know an identity got their information from the newspapers. 27% got it from TV and radio (there may be overlap between these groups).
Yet no newspaper or TV journalist or editor is being prosecuted.
Not even Dani Garavelli, who is overwhelmingly named as the source of information – by fifteen different people – is being prosecuted.
So let us be perfectly clear. The three top sources named for identification were
Dani Garavelli – by a country mile
Kirsty Wark
BBC
None of whom is being prosecuted. Garavelli has published an entire series of major articles amplifying the prosecution case against Salmond, in Tortoise media, twice in Scotland on Sunday and in the London Review of Books, plus many other well paid commissions. She has effectively made a fat living out of an entirely one-sided account that claims miscarriage of justice simply by omitting all the defence evidence. In so doing she has plainly been much more credibly guilty of jigsaw identification than I. On the other hand, my long critique of Garavelli’s first Scotland on Sunday article, which interpolated the defence evidence which contradicted her account and proved that the jury was right, has now been banned, censored and desroyed by the court, the 21st century equivalent of burning the manuscript in the public square.
Garavelli has gone on to become media-puppet-in-chief to the Scottish government, producing a stream of adulatory articles about Nicola Sturgeon like this one about what a great constituency MSP Sturgeon is, which is (ahem) somewhat contrary to received wisdom.
Garavelli is protected because she is part of the inner circle, while I am prosecuted, when the mainstream media is not, because I am an opponent of the corrupt nexus of power that governs Scotland today. The official line is that through enthusiasm for Salmond’s cause I revealed information to the public that the mainstream media did not. That is a fiction the Scottish legal system has chosen to adopt, and for which I will be sentenced on Friday.
All the real world evidence shows that is untrue. I revealed far less than the mainstream media revealed. This is a shameless and openly political prosecution of one of the very few platforms of any size which explained the truth about why Alex Salmond was acquitted by the jury. That is my “crime”.
We have to get this out of the foetid corruption of Edinburgh and into Strasbourg. That is only possible via the UK Supreme Court, and my legal team are now working on that appeal. I urge you to subscribe not only because of the particular injustice of my own case, but also because this ruling puts a huge power in the hands of the state by making it next to impossible to report the defence in cases of sexual allegation. As such allegations are the favoured tool of the state against perceived dissident threats (cf Julian Assange), this is very dangerous indeed.
You can contribute to my defence fund here. I am extremely grateful to those who have and I want to stress that I absolutely do not want anybody to contribute if it causes them even the slightest financial difficulty. I am afraid to say that the amounts we need to raise remain ridiculous; this fact is of course all part of the implementation of suppression, by “lawfare”.
Click HERE TO DONATE if you do not see the Donate button above
Alternatively:
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MURRAY CJ
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BIC NWBKGB2L
Bank address Natwest, PO Box 414, 38 Strand, London, WC2H 5JB
Bitcoin: bc1q3sdm60rshynxtvfnkhhqjn83vk3e3nyw78cjx9
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‘Difficult and anxious’ suggests to me “I don’t know how we got here, and I’m looking for a way to throw the whole thing in the bin without the judiciary losing face”
Here’s hoping anyway. Good luck Craig!
“it is once again virtually impossible for anybody to discover WHY Alex Salmond was acquitted, enabling the massive state and media led campaign to claim he was really guilty”
Political assassination by (sexual assault/antisemite/not Woke) allegation+MSM complicity:
Have been sickened to see this technique ‘trending’, especially in light of the fkn awful case launched against AS. Greenwald put up a good piece about its increasingly common use in US.
https://greenwald.substack.com/p/the-left-continues-to-destroy-itself
Don’t shit your pants. You won’t be bothered in Prison. Don’t show fear because you are right and they are wrong they must be treated as the sleazy corrupt buyable sad ones they have shown themselves to be. They should be arrested, refused bail and placed on remand until their trial in England. Scotland has always stunk to high heaven..they have just shown it to everyone like Trump showed freedom and democracy were a sham for invaded countries and was at least honest enough to show they were just there to rob the place and murder anyone who stood in the way. Like Bob said…. if someone wants to harm you, harm them before they can. We can cut down a very large tree, get it on wooden wheels, dress in braveheart clothing and ram the doors of the prison in. It’s better to be an anarchist that a coward.
Craig will be treated with the greatest of respect by the lags.
They know a innocent being subjected to injustice.
Every one of his fellow inmates will come out radicalised by having met him. That’s what I would call redemption.
I think so. Since the torture revelations surfaced he has been under attack – state-sanctioned torture, being the UK is one state. That’s what happens to whistle blowers as a warning to others. No one with any clout will speak up for him, they never do, while parroting this and that from other countries and how some old woman who got arrested in Syria for shoplifting should trigger a full military response.
That is such an encouraging thing to say….I hope you are right, I think you probably are right, but let’s hope and pray we don’t have to find out.
The donation page comes up ” this page does not exist” UK black arts again, possibly.
—
[ Mod: As you’re using a proxy server, it’s a fair bet you’ve also switched off javascript in your browser – which means the PayPal button won’t work for you.
Unfortunately the code on the ‘HERE TO DONATE’ text wrongly includes a token that can only be used once – and someone has already used it.
To generate the correct re-usable URL, access to the PayPal account is required – so only Craig can fix it.
UPDATE: Should be fixed now
]
Just to emphasise: the “Donate” button (as opposed to “Click HERE TO DONATE if you do not see the Donate button above”) always seems to work very straightforwardly (using one’s own PayPal account – assuming there to be one), and it has just done so again.
Your update does not work. There is a (fake?) PayPal message reading, “Your donation has already been completed”. It hasn’t.
—
[ Mod: Not quite. The link includes a single use token, which gets used up when someone clicks on it and donates. The mods then have to generate a new one, and update the post.
It would much simpler if readers could switch on javascript in their browser and use the PayPal button.
It would also have been better if the proper non-dynamic URL had been linked, but it has to be generated via the PayPal account, which only Craig has access to. ]
—
However, I hope Craig takes heart from this BTL post from a “regular” in The Herald:
“ This is an utterly shameful situation.
Even though I’m a unionist and mr murray is a staunch nationalist, I’ve just donated to his appeal fund.”
What do lawyers do over the course of a couple of weeks that can possibly cost 70K?
Booze,coke,hookers etc…?
The Law Society has shown that the cost of even one ordinary day in Court is a four-figure sum:
https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/en/topics/research/cost-of-day-in-court-new-analysis-by-law-society
A bit rich coming from the Law “Society” – whose almost sole purpose is to keep the ludicrous fees of all lawyers as eye wateringly high as possible.
“What do lawyers do over the course of a couple of weeks that can possibly cost 70K?”
good question. Governments around the world should be piling money into online services so that people can have full access to the law and the procedures to utilize it. Only in specialist cases should lawyers be used. In many civil cases the judge knows the lawyers involved and sits there like a school teacher marking their performance. Justice to the litigants is only secondary.
The internet should have changed the legal framework and that includes rip off fees. Sadly it still hasn’t.
Good question. Produce bills, mostly.
More than a whiff of ……give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest man, I would find something in them to have him hanged. About this.
‘jigsaw identification’ is a highly tenuous, subjective judgement that can be stretched to fit virtually any reporting. How will future reporters know where the boundaries are until they themselves face prosecution? One of the key principles of ‘natural justice’ is that the law should be absolutely clear. This isn’t, and the Supreme Court surely has clarify on the side of freedom of expression.
‘Contempt minefield’ in Scotland.
A place where seemingly arbitrary, ‘selective’ reporting rules apply. Not the Scottish judiciary’s finest hour and the relatively lengthy custodial sentence just adds insult to injury.
I’m afraid this yet another example of an over-promoted woman in debt to the powers.
Just like Barraitser and Arbuthnott.
Utterly corrupt.
For a purely fictional, satirical ‘Yes Minister’ style piece… 8 months in jail for a man in his sixties with various health conditions!
Just let that sink in.
Even Egypt’s el Sisi would probably blush.
I saw this reported elsewhere but sadly they didn’t report the case factually. Now that they have secured their conviction they can write the narrative on what it mean, especially with the ONLY report of Salmond’s defence now removed from public access permanently.
6033624
The exquisite art of spookery.
They make up fake allegations of sexual impropriety, which they publish in the MSM. Craig reports the defence case and gets imprisoned for not naming the proven perjurers whose anonymity as non victims still remains. Shpookee!
Last night I was sitting in a gathering in the mosque and the speaker said ‘ If any of you here are with MI5 , you get no reward from God, just your MI5 pay. I am one of two non Asians sitting in the mosque, so I presume this joke was aimed at me. The Actual MI5 agent who is Kurdish has told the mosque that i am an MI5 agent. Shpookee!
How could you know that a Kurd was an MI5 agent? Lots of Kurds would be against other Iraqis, especially Saddam Hussein and ISIS, and see the Americans as liberators and protectors.
I was speaking with man I think is Kurdish, or at least supports the Kurds, just last week. He knows the US sponsor the Gulf Monarchies and their jihadists, so he sees US Americans as neither liberators nor protectors. His position seemed considerably more subtle than simply “for or against”. I sensed a deep sadness and sense of injustice for others in his manner.
M.J.
The Kurdish CIA jihadist and now humble MI5 disposable agent warned me two years ago that Craig was going to be stitched up. Islamists detest whistle blowers. Humza Yousaf Scottish Justice Minister is an Islamist.
What is an Islamist? Somebody who thinks that collaborating with the enemies of Islam is a better way of helping Islam than opposing its enemies. Working as a double agent , they have to show that they are prepared to betray their closest friends and family. A bit like freemasonry where you have to commit a gross act to get invited in.
I have known for two years that Craig would be targeted. They couldn’t get anything on Alex Salmond so they made it all up and the case against Craig is complete fantasy.
I know this Kurdish double agent and all his crooked dealings intimately. He is full.if threats and blackmail like all the other NATO stooges. And like all the other NATO stooges he detests journalism and free speech.
Jacqueline Sutton R.I.P. Strangled in Istanbul Airport for reporting Islamic State’s crimes against women. Erdogan said she killed herself because she was depressed. Welcome to Nicola Sturgeoland, the land of NATO, the land of lies,, the land of zip… , the land of bought judges and bent advocates … the land of funny handshakes… The land of newspaper libel and the land of betrayal of Integrity.
Giyane
“The Kurdish CIA jihadist and now humble MI5 disposable agent warned me two years ago that Craig was going to be stitched up. “
There are a number of problems here.
(a) CIA and jihadis have been opposed since 9/11.
(b) Craig’s stitch up occurred in Uzbekistan over a decade ago.
(c) Why would MI5 be interested at all in CIA dropouts?
(d) The identity of members of CIA or MI5 is classified, so how could you know?
People portraying themselves as secret agents and trying to impress others with talk of conspiracies are most likely fantasists (and not so humble either), while real secret agents are (on the surface) ordinary people – that’s why they stay secret.
PS. (A bit of tongue in cheek to tell the truth) – how do I, a mere civilian, know that real secret agents should look like ordinary people?
1. Stella Rimington in a public lecture (when she was in MI5) said ‘We are ordinary people.’ There you go. From the horse’s mouth (not that she looks like a horse).
2. Lt-Col Oreste Pinto, The Boys’ Book of Secrets Agents (which I read in my secondary school library, too long ago).
What more proof could anyone want. 🙂
“Lots of Kurds would be against other Iraqis, especially Saddam Hussein and ISIS, and see the Americans as liberators and protectors.”
Which might motivate them to become MI5 agents.
Johnny Conspiranoid: you make a good point, but it would apply to a very small minority. A given Kurd would be no more likely to become a Western agent than any UK citizen. Which means that it wouldn’t apply to 99.9% of Kurds (or UK citizens) out there, and you probably need to add some more nines to that faction.
Respond to emails that offer help!
Shocked, Stunned, Outraged just about sums it up. Donating to Appeal Fund.
Small coin in the tin – good luck with your appeal to the UK Supreme Court.
Reassurance required. Craig didn’t write anything that revealed an accused’s name to me. The question is, was Craig aware that what he wrote would probably disclose an identity to unknowing others when taken with additional information he knew or guessed those others already possessed or could readily obtain. The judge clearly believed he was. If he can say he was not, and had no intention of, or tried to avoid, disclosing or confirming an identity, I will accept his assurance and contribute to the appeal fund.
The judge will believe whatever Sturgeon tells her to believe. And she will make sure that her actions also damage Julian Assange’s case while she is at it.
Arguing for her good faith at this point is intentionally obtuse.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2021/04/contempt-of-court/
Contempt of Court – Craig Murray [Fri 2 Apr 2021]
“I am still frankly stunned that I was found in contempt of court. I maintain that I carefully identified nobody and, as empirically proven, the MSM did far more than I in revealing identities. I also believe that the terms of the Opinion would make it simply impossible to report anything except the prosecution case in any sexual assault trial – and that MSM journalists are entirely sanguine about this because they believe that in practice the ruling would only be used against dissidents, and never against them.
It is very difficult for me to try to explain why, in my own case, what has happened has much wider bad consequences, because it simply looks like special pleading. I am therefore very pleased that legal analyst Alexander Mercouris has written this important piece at Consortium News, and I should be grateful to you for reading it.”
https://consortiumnews.com/2021/03/30/letter-from-london-a-troubling-decision/
LETTER FROM LONDON: A Troubling Decision – Consortiumnews
Extract from the latter article:
“The case against Murray was in three parts: (1) that his reporting of the case against Salmond might have influenced its outcome; (2) that he had improperly reported facts about the dismissal of one of the jurors; and (3) that his reporting had made possible the “jigsaw” identification of some of the witnesses who gave evidence against Salmond at his trial.
No evidence was produced at Murray’s trial that his reporting influenced the outcome of the case against Salmond. Nor was any evidence produced that anyone identified any of the witnesses because of anything that Murray wrote.
[…]
The Court acknowledged that there is no evidence that anyone did in fact identify any of the witnesses as a result of anything which Murray wrote. It also said that Murray’s intentions were irrelevant. Even if Murray had had no intention of writing anything which might have led to the identification of any one of the witnesses, and even if there were no evidence that anything he wrote did in fact result in anyone identifying any one of the witnesses, Murray would still be guilty of contempt of court if he failed what the Court called an “objective test” which decides whether something written might notionally identify a witness.
It is upon this reasoning that Murray has been convicted.
That may be a correct summary of the current law. However it seems that it sets the bar for court reporting extraordinarily high. I wonder whether the test is indeed as the Court supposes it to be, and if it is, whether the Court has applied it properly.
[…]
The concept of an “objective test,” entirely divorced from both intention and harm (whether that harm is actual or prospective) appears to be both arbitrary and contentious. One wonders how “objective” such a test can actually be and how court reporting of a case like Salmond’s would be possible on this basis?
I doubt that such a ruling would be possible in the United States. In the U.S., court reporting carried out in good faith, with no intention of breaking the law or of doing harm, and with no evidence of harm being committed, should — one would think — be protected by the First Amendment.”
I would like to see them right out what objective tests there were that could single out CM from the rest of the media reporting.
Thank you Twirlip. Exactly what I needed. I will donate.
Donated.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/may/11/former-ambassador-craig-murray-jailed-for-alex-salmond-case-blogposts
says:
Several of Murray’s followers said they had identified complainers as a result of his blogposts, yet he continued to keep them online.”
Is this true? (that they identified complainers)
If so, how was it shown that these followers *correctly* identified the complainers (who are still anonymous)?
Were these followers themselves identified?
gwp3
I believe it was a regular bot who has been banned for a long time, but popped up, using another name, posting that he had identified someone from.the alphabet ladies from Craig’s blog
YCNMIU.
That’s what I’m getting at. Anyone could claim to have identified the complainants, but how can that claim be verified?
gwp3
Smoke, to disguise the facts, and mirrors to deflect blame from the guilty parties like Gravytelli onto Craig.
Everybody in Scotland who knows or sleeps with or drinks with a lawyer or a journalist knows who (most of) these women are.
That’s a lot of folk.
Add to that anyone who read Garavellis hatchet jobs in the Scotsman or on line or watched Kirsty Warks BBC agitprop also knows, as does anyone who has spoken to me and thousands of others.
These were political prosecutions. Nothing more Nothing less.
This travesty of justice is a sign of things to come under Sturgeon the Betrayers rule. Along with the Lord Advocate and his COPFS and Police Scotland, the dawn of new more authoritarian Scotland is taking shape.
Craig Murray’s fit up and coming prison sentence is just the beginning, Mr Murray is unfortunately a very public casualty of what will become of you in Scotland if you dare pursue or try to reveal any truth that might compromise the Scottish government or individuals with in it especially Sturgeon the betrayers closest confidantes.
This is by no means the end of the persecutions, Alba and Salmond blog supporters are probably on their radar as well, political prisoners in Scotland may well become common place under Sturgeon the Betrayers reign
M.J.
In the world of politics all there is is secrecy..
That’s what political people enjoy about it, the exhilaration of knowing what others cannot know.
Everything in politics is bent, so if somebody inappropriately mentions MI5/6 you know lies are present. Nobody in their right mind brings up MI6 in a mosque when they are asking people to donate money. Weird.
The Law is systemically biased against those who are not white and middle class, usually.
If you are poor, expect little justice.
If you are black and poor, expect even less.
Data for fines, imprisonment, and even deaths in custody bear witness.
It is more than prejudice – those classes must be kept in place, lest they challenge for power.
This injustice is meted out for similar political reasons.
Unbelievable, 8 months for reporting the case while carefully not giving away their identities.
I can’t believe the supreme court will let this ruling stand as it means these trials can not be reported on properly. Though I am clearly too optimistic about UK law and politics.
Craig you should be proud that you have annoyed them so much by doing the right thing,.
Surely an 8-month sentence is going to be suspended anyway?
No. Sentence to begin in three weeks. It was going to be 48 hours, but was deferred for three weeks for an appeal to be lodged.
I have donated and wish you all the best Craig.
You ae a bonnie fechter for justice, freedom and Scotland
Craig , what a bunch of transparent rogues waiting till the day AFTER the Holyrood elections before sentencing . Another trivial amount on its way and the very best of health and welfare to you and family
With respect and for your defence I’ve sent £50.
Kind regards,
Scott
This is terrible.
Bought the book and donated as well.
This country really is a banana republic, except without the benefits of having bananas and being a republic.
Good luck with the appeal.
Mark Hirst tweets the thoughts of Noam Chomsky …
“Craig Murray has compiled a remarkable record of courage and integrity in exposing crimes of state and working to bring them to an end. He fully merits our deep respect and support for his achievements.” #FreeCraigMurray
It is because he exposed the state fit up of Salmond they are trying to jail him. Deep sociopaths like the Murrells can only operate with tame media. Anyone with the balls to shine a light on their crimes — like Craig and Julian — must be locked away.
After a donation if finished you get to the page that can be shared. Please do share on your social media. Also, there’s a hashtag #FreeCraigMurray to add to your postings.
A double Lagavulin is on its way to get you to the UK Supreme Court and have your wrongful conviction overturned.
When that happens, a quantum of financial compensation from the Scottish government must also be anticipated.
(https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Craig_Murray)
Once more: where is the ‘left’ on this? It’s outrageous!
Once more: where is the ‘left’ on this? It’s outrageous! And sent you some more dosh
“Once more: where is the ‘left’ on this? It’s outrageous!”
As Lenin said, “the best way to manage the opposition is to run it yourself”.
I encourage everyone to read this piece of “journalism” to help boost Craig’s defence fund: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/may/11/former-ambassador-craig-murray-jailed-for-alex-salmond-case-blogposts
It just made me double my donation. Possibly not Severin Carrell’s intention when he wrote it?
Yes I read it and it made me want to cry. I used to admire and trust the Guardian..but I despise it for its cowardice now.
Please please will anyone who still has tribal loyalty to the Guardian – STOP !!
Join the Dun Groanins.
It’s only cowardice if you think the Guardian was ever a ‘progressive’, truth-seeking newspaper.
I have despised and distrusted it for years – since and its sister title, the Observer, failed to take an unambiguous stand together against the illegal Iraq war.
Yeah man, what an outrageous piece! But par for the course for the Guardian. A real hatchet job and a sign of the times.
This is profoundly absurd, it is a gross violation of human rights and it reeks of a political trial and conviction. I am so, so sorry, Craig. I do hope you are able to appeal to a higher court and that they overturn this insane conviction and sentence. A shocking travesty. It most certainly will have a chilling effect on all oppositional reportage. Is one still permitted to suggest that some might question whether that might have been the original aim, or would even suggesting that someone might ask that question itself risk a criminal charge? George Orwell must be spinning in his grave.
Un-effing-believable.
The Independent’s reporting is no better.
You get the impression with this and so much else, “they” and their goons on the Right are really going for it now.
I’ve donated again Craig. I will keep doing so.
The f**kers.
Wow! Craig -I don’t always agree with you but have learned a lot from reading you. This is a nakedly political move by a corrupt body politic.
Donation on its way.