In Trevor Milton Trial Private Jet Purchase Shown Then Harvard Prof at $1250 an Hour

 

By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell book
BBC - Honduras - CIA Trial book - NY Mag

SDNY COURTHOUSE, Sept 29 – The trial of Nikola founder Trevor Milton for wire and securities fraud moved, on September 30, through a US summary witness through Milton's summary Rule 29 motions and first defense witness, at $1250 an hour. Inner City Press was there, and live tweeted. Thread:

Assistant US Attorney Roos: So these are about the truck on a hill video. Can you read Government Exhibit 1006? Summary witness (SW): Jordon Rich responds, I am working on putting together a good video loop about the truck for you to post.

Jury is shown, again, the truck down the hill video. AUSA Roos: Let's go back to chart 1006. What Jordan Rich live to Trevor Milton? SW: That the video is up. Then it is posted to Facebook... Milton that offers it to another. AUSA: Let's play the video...

 SW: There was an interview with Maria Bartiromo at FOX on Avenue of the Americas... Also CNBC... Then CNN at 30 Hudson Yards. Then Trevor writes that he'd back in Phoenix after the interviews.

Now after a break the US is showing Trevor Milton's bank records. Summary Witness: Here he wired $4 million from his JPMorgan Chase account for the purchase of land in Wyoming... Here, he bought an aircraft.

Cross examination. Milton's lawyer Mukasey: You weren't the case agent on this, were you? Summary Witness: I was not. Mukasey: And you charts are partial, right?

SW: They do not show everything. Mukasey: Your chart about stock prices skips seven hours. There's no major trading then, right? Summary Witness: I don't know.

Mukasey: And Peter Hicks could have walked away from the Utah land deal, right? Summary witness: I don't know. Mukasey makes a point that if you change the scale of the stock movement chart, it looks different...

Re-direct. AUSA Roos: It's like if you zoom out on a map on your phone, New York City looks small like a dot - but it's kind of a big city, right? Summary witness: Yes. No further questions. Judge Ramos calls a break.

 Now before jury back, Rule 29 motions. Milton's lawyer Caruso: On count 1, the statements and omissions were not material, not made in connection with a sale of securities and don't merit a jury question.  Count 2, the statute is unconstitutionally vague.

Caruso: Counts 2 & 3, investors got what they paid for. On Court 4, Hicks not only was a lawyer, but had a lawyer, read the SEC filings. Trevor Milton had every reason to believe the quote unquote victims had access to all the facts. Also, venue.

AUSA: We oppose.

Mukasey: There is a "true crime" documentary set to air on October 4. We'd like an instruction. AUSA Roos: You could say, don't watch American Greed.

OK - with US having rested it case, Defense calls its first witness: Harvard Law School Professor Ferrell. He brags about a corporate social responsibility prize he won - and that he was once hired by the SDNY prosecutors.

Brad Bondi: How much are you getting paid? Ferrell: 412 hours at $1250 an hour. So, half a million dollars. And a cut of the billings for a research associate at a consulting firm. I don't have the number. I

Brad Bondi: What's the difference between a consumer and an investor? Ferrell: They are opposites. Consumption and investing.

[Deep thoughts at $1250 an hour]

The case is US v. Milton, 21-cr-478 (Ramos)

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In Trevor Milton Trial A 2d Robinhood Investor As Blogger Notes American Greed Timing

 

By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell book
BBC - Honduras - CIA Trial book - NY Mag

LITERARY SDNY, Sept 29 – The Trevor Milton trial was getting down to the small strokes: government summary charts, and one last retail investor, this one from Fort Lauderdale.

His name was Mark Schonberger and Milton's lawyer Caruso went after him hammer and tongs, as a fool who didn't read SEC statements. Schonberger said he listened to what the CEO said, figuring he wouldn't lie. Maybe this time he'd figured wrong.  

 Meanwhile in the docket there was a flurry of filings. The US Attorney's Office wanted to keep out Trevor's texts with Nikola general counsel Britton Worthen on June 9, 2022, with Worthen saying he'd understood Milton's Badger tweets.

Meanwhile Milton wanted in an expert named Professor Thomas Kurfess; the US said he was too late.   

It was possible the jury could get the case on Tuesday October 4 - on which day, as it happened, the American Green series was set to run an episode about Milton, called "Chasing Tesla." Wouldn't the show be better if it had news of the verdict? Wouldn't a book? More on Patreon here. 

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As Tom Barrack Is Shown Bragging of Feinstein Link Blogger Beseeches Bureaucrats for Access

 

By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell book
BBC - Honduras - CIA Trial book - NY Mag

LITERARY EDNY, Sept 29 – As the US v. Barrack trial progress, on Thursday up in Judge Cogan's courtroom the lights were on low. The prosecution was showing video clips of Barrack interviews, with Charlie Rose at the RNC, and others.

To view e-mail exhibits tweets after the court day (when phone back) by Inner City Press, click here and here and here - Feinstein's husband.  

  Then the lights would come up, and the FBI agent on the stand would do dramatic readings of Barrack's and Grimes' emails with Malik, about doing the bidding of MBZ and Sheikh Tahnoon.

   Before heading into the EDNY courthouse for the Tom Barrack trial, Kurt Wheelock stopped at the FedEx there and printed out another letter to the District Executive, Eugene J. Corcoran.

He printed out a current Google News search for Barrack and Grimes, with Inner City Press making up two of the first five hits. Here.

What was the basis for not yet giving him a press pass?   But at the entrance, the Court Security Officers took not only his phone, but also a four slot port he used with his laptop, which he'd left back in the SDNY Press Room, in front of the PACER terminal.

    The case(s) seemed pretty open and shut. But Barrack sat there impassively, as on the screen he said he was a Lebanese Catholic, an Arab American, and thought the UAE was a great ally. For how much money? More on Patreon here.

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Felon Who Ran Over then Beat a Woman Cites Seizures But Gets One Year Prison in EDNY

 

By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell book
BBC - Honduras - CIA Trial book - NY Mag

EDNY COURTHOUSE, Sept 29 – For almost running over, and then beating, a woman while out on supervised release, Rahshaun Greene was set to be sentenced on September 29 by U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York Judge Ann M. Donnelly. 

 Inner City Press, now covering EDNY, went to the sentencing. In the fourth floor courtroom, it was the only media.

  Judge Donnelly made a point of playing a video of the incident - as, for example, Judge Eric Komitee recently did after he docketed a request to unseal the video by Inner City Press (which is still awaiting a press pass from EDNY District Executive Eugene J. Corcoran, see here).

 She called it serious, noting that the victim, who spoke at sentencing, was less than half of Greene's size.  

 Greene's defense lawyer argued that seizures she said he has been having, and a medication taken, make him prone to outbursts.

The AUSA said keep him locked up, then. Judge Donnelly did, imposing a sentence of a year, with mental health evaluation and drug testing. She told him to think about his life.

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Man Who Mailed Some 500 Turtles to China and Killed Some Gets Year in Jail in EDNY

 

By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell book
BBC - Honduras - CIA Trial book - NY Mag

EDNY COURTHOUSE, Sept 29 – For smuggling over 500 Eastern Box Turtle from Queens to China and Hong Kong, and thereby killing some of them, Chu Sen Guan was set to be sentenced on September 29 by U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall.

 Inner City Press, now covering EDNY, went to the sentencing. When it walked into the fourth floor courtroom, there was no one there except a Court Security Office. At defense table, Chu Sen Guan has an interpreter, and his lawyer. 

 His brother, described as less culpable by the judge, was sentenced to a year and a day, which allow the term to be shorted for "good time."

Chu Sen Guan faced more time, as the organizer, who had $10,000 cash in his apartment at the time of arrest and a leased BMW with no visible means of (legitimate) support. 

  He was sentenced to a year - the "and a day" wasn't given, so a longer sentence than his brother.

The Probation officer stepped out into the hall to use her cell phone to call for an answer. Inner City Press, unlike other media on the EDNY courthouse covering the US v. Thomas Barrack trial, has to leave its phone in the lobby, though it has for more than a week applied to the Office of District Executive Eugene J. Corcoran to be treated equally, see here. 

 The surrender date is January 2, 2023.

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