Thread by @MarcellaBurke

The tide is turning against the @TheJusticeDept in @EithanHaim’s case. Thread 2 🧵:

1/ At the latest hearing, the court excoriated the prosecutors for making serious errors in its handling of the case and drafting of the indictment. I noted this in a thread last night.

https://x.com/marcellaburke/status/1859111138807431391?s=46

2/ The court started by laying out the many errors the prosecutors made and asked whether the prosecution would try to correct them, but the prosecutors refused. They charged ahead to have the judge correct errors on the fly so trial starts before a change in administration.

3/ The Court criticized the prosecution for adding the non-existent crime of “use” of personal health information, which is not in HIPAA, to the superseding indictment.  The prosecution responded flippantly and could not defend its own conduct.

4/ The prosecutors had also cited the wrong statute in the indictment, and again they refused to defend or explain themselves, simply hoping that the court would fix the errors so that the case could proceed to trial.

5/ The judge made clear that if simply bought the government’s arguments, the case would be reversed on appeal.

6/ Ultimately, the judge refused to fix the government’s errors and signaled that he would dismiss it if the government did not dismiss the case on its own. The government will be accountable for so sloppily stretching the criminal law to extreme lengths to charge @EithanHaim.