🧵Update on DOJ's efforts to unseal Epstein and Maxwell grand jury material:
-DOJ has a filing due today answering 5 questions from Judge Berman (Epstein) and 3 questions from Judge Englemeyer (Maxwell).
-Letters from victims are beginning to hit the docket.
-One of Maxwell's attorneys has withdrawn from the case.
In Epstein, Judge Berman asked DOJ to
-Verify dates of the grand jury presentation(s)
-Provide all exhibits shown to grand jurors
-State whether DOJ seeks to unseal the exhibits as well as the transcripts (in an earlier filing they said they did)
-ID which exhibits are not public record
-Provide the court with analysis on how the Nolle Prosequi that ended this case when Epstein died may impact this current effort to unseal these materials.
Nolle prosequi means "not to wish to prosecute."
When Epstein died, the case needed to be dismissed, as it couldn't go forward without a defendant.
Here is that filing.
Judge Berman's July 22 order gave victims until Tuesday, August 5, to file letters.
Two letters just hit the docket.
The first letter purporting to be from a victim of Epstein is unsigned.
The second letter purporting to be from a victim of Epstein is signed Xxx-victim/survivor
I will assume these letters are genuinely from victims and, out of respect and consideration for them, refrain from commenting on their content.
I will highlight this portion of one of the letters, though.
In Maxwell, Judge Engelmayer ordered the DOJ to provide the court with answers to these three questions:
-State whether the DOJ is moving to unseal the exhibits as well as the transcripts
-ID the exhibits which are not already part of the public record, taking into account what was present to the grand jury, presented at trial, and what became public in other litigation (such as through Giuffre v. Maxwell)
- ID in the transcripts the information that is already public
So DOJ has homework due today in both cases. I'll update this thread with their filings once they turn them in.
Lastly, for now anyway, Maxwell's co-counsels, Christian R. Everdell and Mark Cohen of Cohen & Gresser LLP have withdrawn from the case.
Maxwell retained them back in July 2020 when she was indicted and arrested, and they represented her through the trial and sentencing.
But when Maxwell filed an appeal, she hired David Markus of Markus/Moss PLLC for that task.
And when DOJ made their motion to unseal the grand jury material, Markus filed as counsel of record in this case.
What's notable about all this is that David Markus is ALSO Hillary Clinton's counsel of record in Trump's civil RICO against Clinton et al.
"the facts reveal this new assessment was based on information that was known by those involved to be manufactured i.e. the Steele Dossier or deemed as not credible. This was politicized intelligence..."
"the FBI had no intelligence about Trump or others associated with the Trump campaign being in contact with Russian intelligence officers during the campaign"
"Moreover, significant intelligence information that first became available for the FBI to review in 2018 showed that the Russians had access to sensitive U.S. government information years earlier that would have allowed them to identify Steele's subsources."
"Indeed, an experienced FBI analyst assessed that as a result of their access to the information, Steele's subsources could have been compromised by the Russians at a point in time prior to the date of the first Steele dossier report."
Picture this: Russian hackers are reading emails exchanged between members of think tanks, Hillary Clinton’s campaign staff, and Democratic leadership.
These hackers must translate the emails into Russian, analyze them, and produce reports for the SVR/Moscow.
When drafting their analytical memoranda, they attach only the key emails that support their findings, avoiding the inclusion of dozens of emails or detailed explanations of who sent what to whom or each person’s role.
The Crossfire Hurricane investigation was opened based on this single paragraph, which was itself based on a conversation overheard at a bar between Papadopoulos and an Australian diplomat.
The conversations happened on May 6 and May 10, 2016.
Over two months later, ON THE EXACT SAME DAY THAT HILLARY CLINTON APPROVED THE PLAN, July 26, Australia gives the notes on this conversation to U.S. State Dept officials in the U.K. and then hand it off to the FBI official at the London Embassy.
That was enough to spark an FBI investigation, which led to a FISA warrant on @GeorgePapa19 and then FISAs on other people (Page, @GenFlynn ) associated with the Trump campaign, and the full-fledged Crossfire Hurricane investigation had "oil poured into the fire" from the Steele Dossier, Alfa Bank, Yotophone...
🧵Late last night, DOJ filed responses in both the Epstein and Maxwell cases, addressing each judge’s questions regarding the unsealing of grand jury materials.
DOJ also submitted the following ex parte and under seal:
-An index of the grand jury materials
-A complete set of unredacted grand jury transcripts
-A complete set of redacted grand jury transcripts
-A description of other grand jury materials (exhibits, etc.)
DOJ's effort to unseal the Epstein grand jury material in SDFL was recently denied due to the 11th Circuit's binding opinion in Pitch v. United States, which restricted the judge in that case from unsealing them.
DOJ knew this going in and conceded it in their filing. They made the filing, knowing it would be denied, for purposes of appeal later.
In the 2nd Circuit, where SDNY is, that court has held that “there are certain ‘special circumstances’ in which release of grand jury records is appropriate..."