OUTSIDE EDNY
COURTHOUSE, Nov 9 – As I
covered two trials in the Federal courthouse in Brooklyn
on November 4, I was targeted by the DOJ prosecutors'
spokesman John Marzulli and then the office of EDNY
District Executive Eugene Corcoran and marched out of
the courthouse by three federal Court Security Officers.
Six days later I am still out, having
missed four day of the US v Huawei sanctions violation
trial and three days of the US v Clase baseball pitch
rigging trial. What gave the prosecutors' spokesman or
spox the supposed right and separately motive to get me
thrown out?
His credibility had already been
questioned: he had for example announced that
"David Gentile, CEO of GPB Capital, was sentenced by
United States District Judge Rachel P. Kovner to seven
years in prison. The government’s case is being handled by
the Office’s Business and Securities Fraud Section.
Assistant United States Attorneys Jessica K. Weigel, Nick
M. Axelrod, and Kate Mathews are in charge of the
prosecution with assistance from Paralegal Specialists
Madison Bates and Allison Henry. Assistant United
States Attorney Claire Kedeshian is handling forfeiture
matters."
But then Gentile was pardoned and released from
prison only seven days into his seven year sentence. No
new announcement from Marzulli. He just moved ahead,
pulling the levers in the closed world of EDNY to get the
Press that reported it ousted and excluded. Judge Kovner
docketed one of Inner City Press' emailed request to make
a case against ICE public - but said in the future it must
file at the EDNY Clerk's Office it can no longer reach
thanks to Marzulli. We'll have more on this.
What was my alleged 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.
Notably, this supposed crime, with which a full day
later I have not been charged in writing, was only
alleged by the US Attorney's Office's Marzulli, ignoring
those friendly to him using cell phones right next to
him.
It reflects poorly on
the US Attorney's Office and DOJ, to have personnel
falsely and selectively accusing people and having them
punished without due process. Is that what DOJ does not
want the Press to report it is doing in the friendly (to
it) confines of the EDNY? Is that why DOJ has at least
90 sealed
cases / deals with cooperators that Inner City Press has
had to appeal to the Second Circuit? Is this all just
retaliation?
Then, the cover-up. On
November 5, Inner City Press is informed from inside the
courthouse press corps, a "reminder" about phone use was
circulated, to cover their tracks. Not circulated to
Inner City Press - it was taken off the circulation
list. But perhaps to remind those had been using phones
in the courtroom just like Inner City Press on November
4, and before it, to cool it for a while, to justify
this ouster.
It seems, too, that I
have been removed from the EDNY US Attorney's Office
main exhibit distribution list for the Clase trial. On
November 5, a single exhibit uploaded, in a USAfx space
that is now only me and one Johnson Peao of EDNY. In the
Huawei trial - in which Marzulli and the Office have
still not given any transcript of an October 2 closed
court session I wrote to EDNY Judge Ann M. Donnelly
about - I have been on with twenty journalists. Now in
Clase I am all alone, so to speak. Marzulli and EDNY
made it so.
On November 6, EDNY
press passes to Clase and Huawei stripped without any
formal charge or due process, I called in to cover of a
case of the EDNY Chief Judge Margo K. Brodie. But it was
not her; instead Magistrate Judge Peggy Kuo. Story here.
Who will reverse this?
Without irony,
Marzulli's office tweeted
out this on November 5: "Earlier today, an
indictment was unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn
charging Andrew Reyes, a former Special Agent with the
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), with willfully
depriving an individual of his constitutional rights
while acting under color of law and making false
statements." But that's exactly what Marzulli has been
doing.
I uploaded a video,
specifically calling out the Reporters Committee for
Freedom of the Press, HRW, the New York Times.
Alert: Inner City Press was just escorted out of EDNY court at direction of District Executive Gene Corcoran as I covered Huawei & Clase trials. Prosecutors' spox Marzulli said I used cell phone - but many others were. Pass revoked, no phone even as EDNY attorney https://t.co/0fBXUzgqat
— Inner City Press (@innercitypress) November 4, 2026
