by Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book Substack
SDNY COURTHOUSE, Feb 14 – For a criminal trial in January 2026 the US Attorney's Office asked U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Jessica G.L. Clarke to seal the courtroom for a main witness. She did, and Inner City Press which was covering or trying to cover the trial was told
Judge Clarke has aordered that the Government would make the daily transcript of the UC’s testimony available to the public through the court reporter’s office and publish redacted versions of the exhibits, including the Buy Videos, to the public.
Inner City Press immediately - January 29 - asked the Office for the exhibits. Nothing. The exhibits were not shown in the audio-only room. The trial ended, in a guilty verdict. Still no exhibits.
On February 13, after Judge Clarke had ordered the Office to explain by February 20, the AUSA filed a letter blaming Inner City Press, saying darkly that it reports on cooperating witnesses - in open court - and that it might publish the exhibits if provided. Well, yes, as we've done for example in an EDNY case before Judge Komitee
And on reporting on cooperating witnesses in open court, the reference, it seems, is to Inner City Press reporting what a cooperating witness in US v. Kevin Perez / Kay Flock(23-cr-99-LJL) said, such that the witness' sister who read Inner City Press came the next day to testify the from what she'd read, her brother was lying. Apparently the Office didn't like that, but its witness' testimony was in open court.
Or perhaps the unveiled anti-Press reference is to a recent guilty plea the Office moved from the Magistrates Court in 5A to another courtroom, apparently hoping that a proceeding required to be held in "open" court would in fact be noticed and covered by no one. Open courts are not a game.
Inner City Press immediately filed opposition into the docket, here.
After another round, finally some exhibits, here
Watch this site.
The case is USA v. Conyers, et al., 1:23-cr-457 (Clarke)
***
Your support means a lot. As little as $5 a month helps keep us going and grants you access to exclusive bonus material on our Patreon page. Click here to become a patron.
Feedback: Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
