Date: Saturday, 17 November 2007, 2:24 p.m.

This just arrived via email. Apparently an affidavit which prompted the warrant has mistakenly been made public. The Keystone Cops are alive and well:

Le Metropole Members,

Mistakenly disclosed affidavit outlines case against Liberty Dollar

Submitted by cpowell on 10:30AM ET Saturday, November 17, 2007.

Section: Daily Dispatches

1:26p ET Saturday, November 17, 2007

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

The federal raid on the Liberty Dollar organization was the product of an elaborate undercover operation and was based on a claim that Liberty Dollar's products were "intended for use as current money" in violation of Title 18, Section 486, of the United States Code. The government's complaint is outlined in the raid's seizure warrant affidavit, which was temporarily disclosed by accident in U.S. District Court in Charlotte, North Carolina, and then posted on the Internet by vigilant libertarians. The affidavit can be found here:

http://www.johnlocke.org/site-docs/meckdeck/pdfs/USAVLibdoll.pdf

The government's complaint also alleges that Liberty Dollar's marketing practices justify charges of mail fraud and money laundering.

But the government's main objection seems to be what it considers excessive similarity between government-issued coins and what Liberty Dollar calls its medallions, which, the government contends, causes the medallions to be mistaken for government currency.

This case will be important for its bearing on constitutional law and individual rights to possess and trade in gold, silver, and copper, even as it may turn on the issue of likeness. Liberty Dollar might be in a stronger position if it did not use the word "dollar" or the dollar sign on its medallions and instead denominated its medallions only by weight in metal. Still, it is hard to see how people could be deceived into thinking that the Liberty Dollar products are issued by the government and are legal tender "for all debts, public and private," rather than devices for barter.

In any event Bill King, editor of The King Report, may have had the most telling observation on the controversy: that the government would have had no problem with the Liberty Dollar organization if, like the wildly unregulated gangsters in the Wall Street financial houses, it had been pushing collateralized debt obligations instead of honest money.

A Washington Post Weblog story that disclosed the libertarians' posting of the Liberty Dollar raid affidavit is appended.

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.

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