Friday, November 6, 2026

Amid Huawei and Clase Trials I Was Escorted Out of EDNY Federal Court Despite Press Pass and Attorney Admission

OUTSIDE EDNY COURTHOUSE, Nov 4 –  As I covered two trials in the Federal courthouse in Brooklyn this morning, I was targeted by the DOJ prosecutors' spokesman and then the EDNY District Executive Eugene Corcoran and marched out of the courthouse by three federal Court Security Officers.

  What was my crime?

  Using a cell phone in the courtroom of EDNY Judge Kiyo Matsumoto to live tweet the opening arguments in the baseball bribery trial of US v. Clase.

  No matter that many others in that courtroom were using cell phones. No matter that I had four times specifically asked that the promised overflow courtroom be opened and the screen turned on. (The screen was dark on the morning of November 4).

  The US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York spokesman, John Marzulli, ordered me to follow him out of the courtroom. You can't use a phone in there, he said. I pointed out that others, including one sitting right beside him, also used phones.

  I also pointed out that I am an attorney admitted to EDNY, which gives me the right to bring laptop and cell phone into the courthouse, and use them.

  He said he was going to speak with EDNY courthouse District Executive Gene Corcoran, whose office previously refused to explain what the criteria are for being granted "in-house press" status in EDNY, which I have in SDNY.

   I went back into Judge Matsumoto's courtroom and took notes on what remained of the defense opening statements. Then I went up to the overflow courtroom, where the video feed was finally on.

  While it seemed there should be no reason phones and laptops could be used in the overflow where there is no judge or jury - in fact, it was empty but for a Court Security Officer, apparently there to ensure I wouldn't tweet - I went out into the hall and began to type up my notes.

  Just then District Executive Corcoran's assistant Michael Loguercio came to the 10th floor, with three Court Security Officers. "They are going to escort you out," he told me, and demanded my EDNY media credential, two separate badges for the US v Huawei trial and for US v. Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz.

 I told Loguercio and the CSOs that I am an EDNY admitted attorney. I was admitted to EDNY in August 2026 in order to litigate an unsealing case before EDNY Judge William F. Kuntz II, who ordered that I could not argue unless I was admitted. (I have appealed Judge Kuntz' total sealing of one of EDNY's criminal cases, to the 2d Circuit where I am also admitted)
  
   I showed Loguercio and the three Court Security Officers not only my NYS attorney's card but also my EDNY Certificate of Admission as an attorney, dated August 19, 2026.

   We're escorting you out of the building, Loguercio insisted, instructing the CSOs to pick up my belongings, laptop, Certificate of Admission, and notebooks.

  I asked the CSOs if they had ever before ordered that an EDNY admitted attorney could not have electronics in the courthouse. No, one said. But we are escorting you now. Take it up with the Chief Judge [Margo K. Brodie].

  I asked Loguercio if he had checked with her or any other judge before ordering an attorney out of the courthouse. I'm not talking about this anymore, he said, again telling the Court Security Officers to remove me.

  Outside, I uploaded a video, specifically calling out the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, HRW, the New York Times.


  But what about the until now uncontested right of attorneys to bring electronics into the EDNY courthouse, without being targeted and removed without any due process?

  I was missing - being restricted from - covering the continuing trial of Huawei (for sanctions violations involving Iran and North Korea, ironic in this instance), of Clase and Ortiz, and a terrorism trial before Judge Hector Gonzalez, who only last month granted my motion to make public the habeas corpus case filings of Oscar Belgal, shot by ICE in Marble Hill.

  The night before this ouster, I had written to seven other EDNY judges asking them to make public ICE habeas corpus cases they are presiding over.

   This is being written in and uploaded from the Brooklyn Public Library, the other side of Cadman Plaza from the EDNY courthouse. I will not cease pushing for free and fair public access to the EDNY courthouse - including as a lawyer, but also as a journalist and member of the public. Watch this site.  


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