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Exclusive Interview by Matthew Russell Lee
SDNY Courthouse, Oct 16 – In September and October 2022 Trevor Milton, founder of Nikola Motor was put on trial for fraudulent claims about NKLA's hydrogen trucks.
On Friday, October 14, Milton was found guilty on three of four counts.
Published hours after the verdict was a book by Matthew Russell Lee, who live tweeted and reported on the trial daily, and put questions to Milton and his lawyers in Foley Square outside.
And the Sunday after the Friday verdict, Lee for Inner City Press conducted the following interview, and has the screen shots:
J: The Covid days I went to work and was at nycc we came back expecting to hear more witnesses... They are going to appeal The judge told us that We were hoping he would get sentenced quickly
MRL: It's set for January 27. Also, US asked that Milton not be able to use his private jet pending sentencing set for January 27 - denied
J: Disappointed to hear it’s all the way in January Well isn’t Milton the one flying it?
MRL: It's common to wait 90 days. The defendant, now convicted, gets interviewed by Probation. During the 9 day break, the jet flew to Turks & Caicos - presumably without Trevor, who's not supposed to leave the USA
J: I have a hard time believing that But the flight plans are on Twitter for us to see So if he flees we can see it Do you follow the Milton planes Twitter?
MRL: What I don't understand is why he's not guilty of the 2d securities fraud charge - what's the difference from the first securities fraud charge?
J: In the first one he had to meet one of the 3. In the second he has to meet all 3... We believed he didn’t intend to harm anyone Now I regret thinking better of him after watching American greed. Clout chasing idiot who wanted to be loved and praised like Elon.We understand people got hurt who bought his stock but we thought he did it in good faith. We thought he was trying to get rich and build a valuation and bring everyone wealth at the same time
MRL: There was a couple in Utah he promised 50 percent to - then reneged
J: Did he exaggerate? And lie? Yes but did he do it with the intent to say hey I’m going to screw these individuals over That wasn’t in the case
I really tried not to look at the family when they started crying I cried when I left the court room I felt terrible
MRL: It's hard to judge someone. But it seems some of Milton's behavior went too far - when I heard him on the podcasts, it's like you could tell when he just decided to lie Like, "No, these contracts are binding"
J: Yes. And we thought he was an idiot Pumping his ego and his company. But we never thought he was thinking of pulling the rug He did He sold 300m worth of shares if I’m not mistaken
MRL: What about the role of Kim Brady?
J: That’s something I’d like to know more about As it stands there are anonymous whistleblowers suing Trevor, from what I saw in American greed... I honestly believe Kim Brady is an anonymous whistleblower
Watch this site.
Lee was each day in the courtroom of U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Edgardo Ramos, and venturing farther afield to investigate leads exclusively give to him and Inner City Press and by Nikola whistleblowers.
As the trial wound down, Inner City Press published descriptions of documented destroyed within Nikola, and guilty knowledge by officials still at the company.
Material from those whistleblowers, the trial and even some more speculative and literary excursions featuring recurring characters Kurt Wheelock and Michael Randall Long, featured in the Ghislaine Maxwell book "Maximum Maxwell" as noted by New York Magazine, here, made its way at the speed of the Internet into the new book
"Hydrogen Heist: The Trial of Nikola's Trevor Milton: On Fraud, Guilty of 3 of 4 Counts; From Musk and Tesla Wannabe to Convict in SDNY, by Matthew Russell Lee
E-book here; paperbook forthcoming.
This review will leave it to others to find over-reaches and typos. For his reporting, Lee was banned from the United Nations in 2018 by SG Antonio Guterres, whose Media Accrediation chief Melissa Fleming has ignored appeals from a UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and, pro bono, the law firm of Quinn Emanuel.
One might surmise that history leads to some of the book's (over?) identification with the defendant.
A full scope instantaneous view of and taking off from trials like US v. Trevor Milton seems to be Inner City Press' project here.
And here it is.
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