Adam Klasfeld Profile picture
Aug 31, 2020 13 tweets 3 min read Read on X
Today's proceedings in the prosecution of We Build the Wall's leaders, including Steve Bannon, will begin at 1 p.m. Eastern Time.

I will be covering the hearing for @CourthouseNews.

Background from the indictment unsealed Aug. 20: courthousenews.com/steve-bannon-i…
The conference is about to begin.

On the line are:

* Lead defendant Brian Kolfage and his lawyer Harvey Steinberg

* Steve Bannon ("present," he says) and his lawyer William Burck

* Andrew Badolato and his lawyer Daniel Stein

* Timothy Shea, and his lawyer John Meringolo
Also representing Bannon are attorneys Daniel Koffmann and Allison McGuire, also from the firm Quinn Emanuel

U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres is presiding.
Judge Torres notes that the defendants have waived physical presence at their arraignment.

Bannon already pleaded not guilty earlier this month.

The judge is moving onto the other three defendants.
All three remaining defendants plead "Not guilty," appearing for the first time in SDNY.
Prosecutors expect that discovery in the case will be "voluminous."

Judge Torres expects a protective order will be finalized Sept. 9.

The first wave of evidence production slated for Sept. 29.
Next status conference will be Oct. 26th at 1 p.m.

Now Judge Torres turns to prosecutors' complaints that We Build the Wall's founder Brian Kolfage has called his case a "witch hunt."

The judge reads the rules designed to protect against tainting a jury.
Judge Torres says that she has authority to issue a gag order if a party makes statement that risks tainting a jury or calling the fairness of the proceedings into question.

If needed, the judge says, she will "exercise that authority."
Kolfage's attorney Harvey Steinberg claims that the rule the judge read does not apply to his client, but that prosecutors violated the rule in a press release.

"We take exception to the government's conduct," Steinberg says.
Steinberg depicts the government as a bully who hits the weakest kid, and "when the weakest hits him back, he runs to the teacher."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Alison Moe emphasizes that the government has not asked for a gag order at this point.
Moe calls the government's press release "standard" and "commonplace in this district."

There was no press conference, she notes.

What concerns the government, she adds, is Kolfage posting about WBTW donors.
Judge Torres notes that she can hold a hearing to see whether she needs to investigate potential violations of local rules on pretrial publicity. (She schedules none for now, just notes her power to do so.)
Today's proceeding are adjourned, with a trial date on the horizon for next spring.

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More from @KlasfeldReports

Mar 26
News

The judge presiding over Trump's NY criminal case REFUSES to budge from his order forcing lawyers to ask his okay to file any more motions.

He also WARNS Trump's lawyers to obey that order, citing his "power to punish for a criminal contempt."

Doc nycourts.gov/LegacyPDFS/pre…
Image
Trump's lawyers claimed that the order seeking permission to file violated his Sixth Amendment rights.

But the judge noted they agreed the court has the authority to "manage its docket and prevent 'dilatory tactics' right up until the eve of trial." Image
"[Trump], either directly or through counsel, has repeatedly stated publicly that the defense goal is to delay these proceedings, if possible, past the 2024 presidential election."

#AlwaysReadtheFootnotes Image
Read 4 tweets
Mar 25
Good morning from New York.

Trump is gearing up for another hearing today in his criminal case, sorting out how the late-breaking discovery may affect the looming trial.

I'll be covering live @Just_Security, where we have this hush-money explainer.
justsecurity.org/93876/trump-hu…
Image
Special credit to @Just_Security's Pooja Shah for the great graphic.

The linked article at the top of the thread maps out the journey from a $130,000 payment to 34 felony charges.
Trump's defense team, Todd Blanche, Emil Bove, and Cliff Robert, just briefly entered and left the courtroom.
Read 32 tweets
Mar 21
News

After reviewing ~31K pages of documents from SDNY, the Manhattan DA claims that Trump already has the "overwhelming majority" of them.

Fewer than "an estimated 270 documents" haven't been disclosed to the defense — and they're mostly "inculpatory." Indeed, in just the last few days, the People have conducted a more thorough review of the March 13 production. Although that review is still ongoing, the People now have good reason to believe that this production contains only limited materials relevant to the subject matter of this case and that have not previously been disclosed to defendant: fewer than an estimated 270 documents, most of which are inculpatory and corroborative of existing evidence. The overwhelming majority of the production is entirely immaterial, duplicative or substantially duplicative of previously disclosed materi...
"Our review is ongoing and the People are still in the process of determining how many relevant, undisclosed documents were within the information sources the USAO previously declined to provide," the DA says in a footnote. Image
As widely suspected, the discovery in question appears to relate to Michael Cohen — including phone data that SDNY declined to provide because it was "unduly burdensome" and the DA obtained his phones by consent. "The USAO did not provide DANY with data from Cohen's phones in response to our requests. In the course of the USAO's productions, DANY followed up, including on January 31, 2023 and February 6, 2023, to repeat our requests for data from Cohen's phones that the USAO obtained pursuant to search warrant. [...] The USAO declined to provide that information because it would be unduly burdensome and because DANY had obtained the phones by consent."
Read 4 tweets
Mar 18
NEWS

A Manhattan judge DENIES Trump's bid to block testimony by Michael Cohen, Stormy Daniels, and Karen McDougal.

Lots decided in a pair of limine rulings.

Thread with highlights and docs:

On the People's motion

On Trump's nycourts.gov/LegacyPDFS/pre…
nycourts.gov/LegacyPDFS/pre…
Trump wanted to preclude prosecutors from arguing that the hush-money scheme sought to influence the 2016 presidential election.

The defense also wanted to block even the mention of "catch and kill."

DENIED Image
Some nuance on the ruling as to Daniels, McDougal and Dino Sajudin.

Prosecutor CANNOT introduce lie detector evidence for Daniels — and there may be limitations to the testimony for the other two witnesses. Image
Read 7 tweets
Mar 15
News:

There's probably not going to be a Trump criminal trial on March 25—but there may be a hearing that week, as that's when former president's legal team requests one.

The defense wants to discuss scheduling and a pending discovery motion.

Doc nycourts.gov/LegacyPDFS/pre…
Image
Note:

Theoretically, Justice Merchan could press on ahead with the March 25 trial date, but don't hold your breath now that both sides consent to an adjournment.
The Trump legal team's latest letter to be made public flags a potential complication of a 30-day trial adjournment: Passover, which falls this year between April 22 and April 30.

If the judge pushes beyond the DA's request, that may adjourn trial until at least May.

(Trump wants 90 days, which would push back until late June.)Image
Read 4 tweets
Mar 5
Update

Manhattan prosecutors defend intent to call @MichaelCohen212, saying Trump's lawyers' bid to exclude his testimony "reads more like a press release than a legal filing."

They note the civil fraud trial judge found he "told the truth" there. Image
Context:

The above screenshot is the opening of the Manhattan DA's answer to Trump's motion in limine, broadly seeking to exclude key witnesses and arguments.

The full 41-page document can be found here. documentcloud.org/documents/2445…
Among the arguments:

"There is nothing inherently prejudicial, much less unduly or unfairly so, about the phrase 'catch and kill' when referencing the term of art used in some sectors of the publishing industry."

Trump's defense wants to keep the phrase out of the trial.
Read 5 tweets

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