Thread by @alanfeuer

A thread about the ongoing secrecy in the Chapo case:
In January Judge Cogan, responding to lawyers from the NYT, ordered the defense and prosecution to unseal some of the many, many secret documents in the case. The two side created a schedule (see below.) The judge endorsed it.

On Feb 1, prosecutors unsealed several documents, albeit with redactions. They also asked Judge Cogan to have the clerk of the court fully unseal other documents.
That was six weeks ago. Those documents are still under seal.

This Thursday, prosecutors continued the process. They unsealed more documents w/redactions and asked Judge Cogan to have the clerk fully unseal the remainder of the new batch.
Two days later the judge still hasn't yet unsealed any of them essentially disregarding his own order.

On Friday, I called the judge's chambers and asked if the documents could be unsealed per the judge's order. I was assured that the court would unseal both the first tranche of documents from February and the more recent tranche from earlier this week.
It hasn't happened yet.

Chapo's lawyers have also neglected to either unseal their own secret documents or, as the order requires, file a public letter explaining why they should not be unsealed. Under the order, they were supposed to do that once in February and again this week.

Unsealing documents like this is tedious work, and it's not necessarily a priority for the lawyers who have other important stuff to do on the case.
But what is the point of a federal court order if no one--including the judge who issued it--just ignores it?