By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell Book
BBC - Honduras - CIA Trial Book - NY Mag
SDNY COURTHOUSE, August 30 – Two defendants from Soundview in the Bronx have the same lawyer; a hearing on the possible conflicts of interest was held on August 30.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge John P. Cronan held an in-person Curcio hearing. Inner City Press went and covered it.
The US Attorney's Office had requested the hearing, soon after it learned that CJA Panel attorney Lauren Di Chiara, who was already representing Brandon Robinson before Judge Cronan, was also appointed to represent Kai Johnson, also of Soundview, before SDNY Judge Lewis J. Liman.
Judge Cronan's Curcio hearing was proceeding according to script when Robinson's lead counsel, Harvey Fishbein, spoke up to explain why he had deemed the Curcio hearing unnecessary at this point.
He said, as Robinson had, that his client had no intention of cooperating, and that Johnson had said the same.
Fishbein said that if either change, Ms. Di Chiara as a CJA Panel member would immediately withdraw from one or the other of the representations.
The government's inquiring into the hypothetical of cooperation served, he said, to drive a wedge between lawyer and client.
Judge Cronan reformulated his waiver of appeal question, and accepted the waiver of (potential) conflict of interest.
The case is US v. Robinson, 21-cr-762 (Cronan)
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