By Matthew Russell Lee, Author on Patreon Song Ruling
BBC - Decrypt - LightRead - Radio - Podcast
SDNY COURTHOUSE, Dec 21 -- The day or days for decision had arrived.
To deliberate the juror were to arrive on December 21 at 9 am. So Kurt went in earlier. On Foley Square there were more TV camera tripods set up than before, all wanting to be first to do a stand-up about the verdict.
Kurt stood next to the forest of sticks, as the tripods were called, and did a curtain-raiser live-stream. He was probably sideways. It was a work in progress.
Up in Courtroom 318 it was empty. But just after 10 am first the lawyer then Ghislaine Maxwell then Judge Nathan appeared. I have received a note from the jurors, Judge Nathan said. They want the transcripts of the testimony of Annie, Carolyn and Jane.
What about Kate, Kurt thought. Under her real name she was apparently quite well known in the UK.
Maxwell was escorted back into the holding cell, through the door to the right of the judge's raised bench. The lawyers remained for a time, arguing off the record about how to make the redactions. Transcripts came with the whispered sidebars included, minus the parts that Judge Nathan had gone even further and sealed.
It took hours to agree on just taking out all sidebars. By then Judge Nathan returned with another notc. The jurors wanted FBI 3505-005 about Carolyn.
It's not in evidence, the prosecutors protested. Just tell them that.
Team Maxwell couldn't claim it was in evidence. But they wanted Judge Nathan to remind the jurors that they had the testimony where Carolyn was cross examined about this document not in evidence.
Judge Nathan said she would tell the jurors, You have all of the admitted exhibits -- then added, including the testimony that accompanied 3505-005.
Kurt was live-tweeting it all, stopping to reply to questions about how this process worked (and why, for example, "they don't just string her up"), but it was unclear when or if it would give rise to a story, even on a blog or Substack, or a fire staircase podcast.
The next note made the process look absurd, at least to Kurt. Judge Nathan emerged around 4 pm and said, The jurors write that they will stop today at 5 pm, and work tomorrow from 9 to 4:30, having their lunch at 12.
"All they care about it lunch," someone tweeted at Kurt. He would acknowledge, he was the one who included Judge Nathan's asides about snacks and lunches in his live tweeted threads, finding them funny. Maybe it had given the wrong impression.
But if the jury was already capping how long they would work on Full Day 2, and not even including the qualification, Unless we have reached a verdict by then, this could be long one. Maybe that was or would be the story.
The defense seemed to like this note. Bobbi Sternheim, who had spent some of the lull between notes lounging at the defense table with Leah Saffian who came up from the front row of the gallery, now asked Judge Nathan if the jury couldn't also work on Thursday, a day Judge Nathan had said they would have off.
That schedule was before Judge Nathan decide to cancel three days of the trial to go down to Washington pursuing a 51-50 vote of confirmation to the Second Circuit (or something similarly razor-thin and partisan, it hadn't happened yet).
Now Judge Nathan said she would tell the jurors, you can work Thursday. The defense liked it; the prosecution, it seemed, not so much.
Then near 5 pm thing changed again. Judge Nathan had another note, this time not a request for exhibits or pronouncement about lunch. The jury wants to know, she said, if they can use the testimony of Annie to find guilty under Counts 1 and 3, the conspiracy counts.
Yes, said the AUSA.
The defense wanted to add more. But Nathan said, I'll tell then, Yes you may.
Kurt ran into the fire stairs and recorded a breathless and clanking podcast. He copied and pasted the day's tweeted thread, such as it was, and put it into a story, on his website and Substack.
When Judge Nathan let the jurors go at 5:01 pm, Kurt uploaded the stories and ran out into Foley Square. This might be the last pre-verdict evening. And he wanted to hear about Maxwell's brother - or sister - has to say.
Outside on Pearl Street the photographers were peering in the curtained window of the security check point, and turned their bright lights on. It was Maxwell's sister, accompanied by Saffian. Live streaming Kurt jogged after them and asked, What did you think about the jury's question about using Annie's testimony?
No comment, Saffian replied. Kurt stopped as as the circus moved further away looked into his live-streaming flip phone and said, "OK then. Answered and answered." #MaximumMaxwell.
Note: On October 29, 2021 and again on November 12 Ghislaine Maxwell and the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York filed a flurry of motions in limine, heavily redacted; the Government argued that trial exhibits are not public and will be withheld. Inner City Press opposed and opposes the continued secrecy.
Inner City Press will cover the trial, and all the comes before and after it; #CourtCaseCast and song I, Song 2, Song 3, fifth song and now Nov 27 song
The underlying case is US v. Maxwell, 20-cr-330 (Nathan).
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