Sunny boy

It seems the golden boy doesn’t shine like he used to.

Leandro Leviste, former wunderkid with the political pedigree and the Yale degree, known for capturing the sun and saving the earth, has fallen from grace.

Known for snagging a national franchise for solar power generation despite the objections of all the major players in the electric industry, known for making billions when he flipped a solar company to the power King Kong, and also known for winning a Congressional seat at his young age, it seemed Leviste could do no wrong. Life was a road paved all the way to god status before 40.

But that was so last year. This year, it’s been quite messy. The titans are gearing up against him, he has been fined billions more than he reportedly made, and his reputation is being shredded systematically by thought leaders and opinionated influencers. Where did he go wrong?

I was watching clips of his press conference just this morning, and the word “performative” (which I hate for its recent ubiquity) came to mind. Boo-hoo, he received death threats. Boo-hoo, he will release files that will damage powerful people if something happens to him. Boo-hoo, his national franchise automatically expired because two years lapsed, and that’s the period given him.

I would have thought a super boy would have been eating death threats for dessert. What should he have expected? He enters politics, makes enemies of powerful people, doesn’t live up to promises in his contracts/franchise, supposedly is in a crusade to expose corrupt politicians, and announces his possession of incriminating files (which, reportedly, was merely seized from another government official) --what did Leandro expect, exactly?

Not that death threats or violence should be condoned. I’m not saying they should be tolerated, even. But dearie, don’t they come with the territory you dove into?

The single most deafening thought I’ve had (and this is a conversation I had with a former assistant solicitor general): if they possess such a threat to his life, if it’s causing him such distress so as to make his lips tremble and eyes moisten, why doesn’t Leandro just release the files he’s holding?

Surely, that will take away the pressure? Because they’re not his files anyway. He didn’t create those files. He wasn’t responsible for entering the data there. He surely didn’t name the names in there. He doesn’t have to defend any single entry in said files. What does it cost him to let all the fact-finders and investigators have a go at the contents to see whether there’s anything really valuable?

Once he lets go of our equivalent of the Epstein files (probably not a lot of sex though, unfortunately), those guys threatening him will have a lot more things to worry about. Like defending themselves and doing damage control, or hiding their assets, or skipping the country. Their attentions will be somewhere else. Certainly, not on crucifying some lame-ass glory seeker.

And from my perspective as a non-governmental nosy busybody, he didn’t have to attract the attention of these death-threaters if he had simply turned over those files (government property, from what I understand) to the proper authorities in the very first instance. Quick question to my Law students: what is the crime for spiriting away government files and keeping them from those with custodial responsibility for them?

If Leviste had simply done what any other government official in possession of government files was obligated to do, then none of this would have occurred. He didn’t have to declare he had them. He didn’t have to go to the press and boast about what he had. He certainly wouldn’t be in this situation now, where some people are intent not just on “scaring” him, but turning the screws on him.

And what is his purpose anyway? Why does he want to keep them? As leverage for his continuing existence? Like, dare I say it, some form of blackmail? “If I die, you will suffer!” Since when did that become acceptable except in the plot of cheesy telenovelas?

If there was a situation where I needed to look askance at anything, this is certainly it.