So, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that a court aide to the judge in the trial of former OAO Yukos chairman and CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky has admitted that the judge was forced to render a verdict in the case that was different from the one that he had drafted.

As the WSJ article notes righteously:

“Everyone in the judicial community understands perfectly that this is a rigged case, a fixed trial,” said [the aide],adding that she had decided to go public with her allegations because she had become disillusioned with the judicial system.

[The aide’s] claims support the widespread view that the latest trial of Mr. Khodorkovsky, once Russia’s richest man and the former owner of oil giant OAO Yukos, was politically motivated. Kremlin officials have repeatedly denied those allegations.

But courts in several countries in Europe have ruled in related cases that the prosecution of Mr. Khodorkovsky and the court-ordered breakup of Yukos appeared driven by the Kremlin’s desire to scotch Mr. Khodorkovsky’s political ambitions and nationalize his company.

Bad stuff, indeed.

However, is what happened to Khodorkovsky really all that much different than what happened to former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling right here in the good ol’ USA? At least Khodorkovsky is scheduled to be released from prison in 2017. Skilling is currently scheduled to be released around 2030!

And let’s just say that the WSJ was a healthy tad less righteous in its reporting on the misconduct that took place in Skilling’s trial than it is with regard to the hijinks that went on in Khodorkovsky’s.

Frankly, I don’t know what is sadder. That the Skilling case makes the U.S. justice system look much like the kangaroo court that convicted Khodorkovsky in Russia, or that the U.S.’s leading business newspaper still doesn’t recognize the similarity.