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| RET RM aT SEP nrpe Under our adversary system constitutional questions can ultimately be tested in the quiet reflection of a court- room under established procedures and the rigors of cross- examination. While a prosecutor must always be alert to and protective of defendants! rights, his or her primary function is to investigate and bring to trial those whose conduct transgresses the law. If all federal prosecutors | were as hesitant to proceed in the uncharted Abscam waters as was the New Jersey office, federal law enforcement in this country would be about as effective as was New Jersey's °- with the New Jersey Abscam people -- i.e., there would be few, if any, indictments. There is no perfect case. Claimed due process violations have rarely required dismissal either of indict- ments or of convictions that were obtained on sound and convincing evidence. The usual consequence of' a due process violation has been an adjustment in what evidence can be presented at trial, reflected in the redaction of documents - or. testimony, or sometimes in the total suppression of illegally acquired evidence. Plaza's attitude toward Abscam was perhaps best expressed when just before Abscam went public he told a member of the Eastern District Strike Force, "I hope the whole thing blows up in your face". D.P. Tr at 2892-93. eae ae meget me OREN RE NR Bt TAA FRAGT OLAS NS . carpe ‘ ener ney He mk tore emnmmemnnER aN