By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell book
SDNY COURTHOUSE, Feb 24 – With the disparities mounting in the Sam Bankman-Fried case, in which unlike for other defendants the Southern District of New York US Attorney's Office did not even seek detention, it seems important to know how the Office, and wider Department of Justice, work.
Damian Williams hasn't written a book on it, at least not yet, so Inner City Press has turned about to Geoffrey Berman's "Holding the Line."
There are many holes in it. Just a few examples: in recounting in detail the Michael Avenatti prosecutions, Berman mentions but does not explain not charging Mark Garagos, who was with Avenatti during the Nike shake-downs at Boies Schiller.
In expressing disgust at Tekashi 6ix9ine's music while saying how quickly he flipped, Berman does not mention the death threats again him at that time of flipping.
In fairness, Berman does add to nitty-gritty knowledge by describing 6ix9ine sleeping in the SDNY office walking to testify through the third floor bridge to 40 Foley Square. And here we were, waiting on Pearl Street to spot the transport from the GEO cooperators' private prison in Queens....
Also interesting are details in how prosecutions are doled out to various US Attorney's Office. Ultimately, Berman write, Main Justice decides, if the two or more US Attorney's cannot agree. So how did it go on Bankman-Fried?
Near the end of the book, Berman quotes his own answer on Lev Parnas at a press conference, on what he calls a racehorse drugging case. So US v. Navarro, et al. wasn't big enough to merit a Berman chapter? And not One Coin?
Rather than focusing on the holes, this mini-review will end with a vignette. Early in COVID, Inner City Press was in the SDNY Magistrates Court, as so often, the only media there. And who came in to see how it was working? Geoffrey Berman, alone.
Now that... was holding the line.
We'll wait for Damian Williams' book - as we write our own. The more the merrier, at and about the SDNY.
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