By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell Book
SDNY COURTHOUSE, Oct 27 – On May 20, 2022 DOJ announced that "JOHN COSTANZO JR., a Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent, and MANUEL RECIO, a former DEA Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge, were indicted in Manhattan federal court."
Costanzo appeared in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Magistrates Court that day and was released on $30,000 bond. His case was assigned to District Judge J. Paul Oekten, who held a conference in the case on June 6. Inner City Press attended and live tweeted, below.
In the run-up to the October 23 trial, Judge Oetken denied Recio's bid to quash a subpoena to his Global Legal Consulting (GLC), finding among other things that "Recio argues that the subpoena seeks testimonial information in violation of his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. The Court has already rejected this argument in connection with Recio’s previous argument to quash a grand jury subpoena. The Second Circuit has held that corporations cannot avail themselves of the Fifth Amendment’s protection against the compelled production of potentially incriminating testimonial communications, based on the “long-established” collective entity rule. In re Grand Jury Subpoena Issued June 18, 2009, 593 F.3d 155, 157 (2d Cir. 2010)." Watch this site.
On October 27, with the trial belatedly underway, Inner City Press was in the courtroom when Special Agent Brandon Jaycox testified. Audio tapes were being played. Behind the scenes there were dueling letters on the admissibility of recordings about Recio telling Costanzo about the impending arrest of Cesar Peralta. We will continue to cover the trial.
Back on July 15, Judge Oekten held a conference, which Inner City Press live tweeted here
US letter alleging conflict on Patreon here.
The case is US v. Costanzo, 22-cr-281 (Oetken)
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