By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell Book
Books - Guardian - Honduras - ESPN NY Mag
LITERARY SDNY, July 9 – In the endgame of the US v. Josh Schulte trial, with Friday morning being taken up with the legal instructions, a verdict seemed unlikely.
But Kurt Wheelock rushed to the courthouse, by way of the UN where he filmed a stand-up with his phone, and proceeded to live tweet the jury charge, especially on what could constitute National Defense Information.
Could it already be public? Yes. To Kurt, this seemed like a problem. Should there be a privilege, then, for publishing anything said in open court, even if my mistake? Schulte had put in a letter, docketed late, asking sarcastically if a hot chocolate recipe could be NDI.
Finally the jury came out with a note, but it was only for a black magic marker. Then more substantive, they asked for the testimony of Patrick Leedom, formerly of MITRE, now of Microsoft. Why hadn't Shulte actually put on his expert as a witness?
Meanwhile during Friday's jury deliberations Judge Furman was still considering Kurt's application to unseal Schulte's civil case.
One of those few following the trial asked Kurt, What civil trial? So by sealing, even that was hardly known. Kurt wondered, Would it get unsealed, or the request even docketed, in time?
Just before 5 o'clock on Friday, Judge Furman docketed and granted Kurt's Press application for unsealing in Schulte's civil case, except for one document still under review, Schulte's Habeus Corpus petition.
Among the documents unsealed was Schulte hammering former Attorney General Jeff Sessions' October 26, 2018 memo to the MCC accusing Schulte of including classified information in a bail application.
But where was Sessions' memo? More on Patreon here
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