Chapter 9 - My mistake before I arrived
I had given Michael ammunition.
Not criminal ammunition.
Family ammunition.
Three months before the confrontation, Mom called me after an argument over the deed.
I sent Michael a text.
It said:
Do not pressure Mom into signing anything she does not understand. If I come home and find out you did, I will make sure every appropriate authority looks at how it happened.
Terrible sentence.
Michael replied:
There she is. General Amanda threatening federal power because her mother disagrees with her.
I wrote:
Try me.
Worse.
I was angry.
I also did not have authority to summon “every appropriate authority” over an ordinary marital-property disagreement.
My rank did not make me a prosecutor.
Later, Michael’s defense used those messages to argue I had arrived intending to weaponize federal influence.
Fair target.
I apologized to Mom for sending them.
Also to investigators because the messages complicated the facts.
The answer to someone using authority badly is not to speak as though your own authority is limitless.
May you like
I knew that professionally.
Family made me forget.
