In SDNY Sayoc Pleads Guilty Mumbling A Question About Forfeiture and AA In Raspy Allocution

By Matthew Russell Lee, Periscope, Photos

SDNY COURTHOUSE, March 21 – When Cesar Sayoc was led into the courtroom of Judge Jed Rakoff in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on March 21 to plead guilty to 65 counts his raspy voice was barely audible, even from the front row where Inner City Press sat. The problem was more than volume. On the key point of whether he intended for the bombs he sent to people ranging from Joe Biden to Kamala Harris to Tom Steyer to explode, Sayoc was unclear. Afterward some said he was "crazy like a fox," ready to make this argument at his sentencing on September 12. 

But Sayoc also asked Judge Rakoff if the government will give him a list of the property of his that they are taking, when that is fully covered in the plea agreement that Sayoc ostensibly read and understood. At one point Sayoc began to ask Judge Rakoff a question and his Federal Defender lawyers cut him off, "conferred" with him and the question went away. Perhaps this is to help him. But it does not seem unreasonable to ask, Is Sayoc competent? Especially when he is pleading, or has pled, guilty to charges involving life imprison plus ten years. 

Judge Rakoff, in fine form, made fun of the government's assertion of its power even after death. But again the nagging question: is Sayoc competent? Early in the proceeding he said a sentence that no one understood. Then he referred to AA. Then his voice trailed off. How will he be at sentencing? Inner City Press will be there - in the front row or closer. More on this to follow. 

The day before there was another, lower profile change of plea to guilty on wire fraud charges  before SDNY Judge George B. Daniels. But when it was time to allocute there was a problem, or at least a long pause. Defendant Evaldas Rimasauskas read a statement how he set up bank accounts in Latvia and Cyprus and got Victim-1 and Victim-2 to wire money into them. But then Judge Daniels asked, "Why did the victims wire the money?" 

Rimasauskas conferred with his lawyer Paul D. Petrus, and with the interpreter. Finally they asked, Can you repeat the question? Judge Daniels did, including What were they promised? "I'm not 100% sure," Rimasauskas said. The government jumped in to say he was not charged with inducing, only with logistics. But he was described as being involved in false contracts to support transfers. Didn't he know what the Victims thought they were buying? The ritual of allocation had broken down. Afterward some said the indictment should have been read more closely. But shouldn't a defendant who is actually guilty of the charge being pled to be able to answer such a question? If not, why even hold these empty ceremonies? We'll have more on this - sentencing is set for July 24 at 10 am. The case is US v. Rimasauskas, 16 cr 841.

Another ceremony: back on March 18 when the marshals brought in another defendant, Ronald Johnson, he signed the change of plea. Then he it was time for him to allocute, he haltingly read out a generic statement written for him by his lawyer. That between January, no June, and October 2018 he "wittingly" sold firearms. Judge Crotty asked, Did your lawyer write your statement? Yes. Do you adopt it? No. No? Oh, yes. The guidelines suggested 97 to 121 months, but on the count pled to, the maximum if five years or sixty months. The case is US v. Johnson, 18 cr 907. Sentencing is set for June 12. Look for the straight five... For weeks the trial of US v. Latique Johnson et alhas plodded along across Pearl Street in SDNYCourtroom 318 in 40 Foley Square; by March 20 summations are set to begin. The case began with a sealed indictment, signed by Preet Bharara in 2016, alleging the use of a firearm for a drug dealing conspiracy in The Bronx. Preet has moved on, but the trial continues. On March 15 there was talk of sour diesel marijuana packed in vacuum sealed bags, BWM car keys and digital scales. SDNY Judge Paul G. Gardephe said he would not be comfortable with a witness saying he thought the Facebook photo showed marijuana; the relative attributability of Instagram and Facebook pages was discussed, although the companies are commonly owned. During the trial the jury has only sat 9:30 to 2:30; next week it will shift to a full shift to 5 pm if Judge Gardephe has his way. Inner City Press will be there - watch this site. Back on March 8 a shooting in The Bronx in October 2018 was the subject of an ill-attended SDNY conference. Jerome Jackson is described as in a white t-shirt with silver handgun on 2 October 2018 on Freeman Street - but in the SDNY courtroom of Judge Kevin Castel he was in jail house blues and shackles. His lawyer Julia Gatto questioned whether the NYPD detectives who questioned Jackson about the shooting were in fact part of a joint task force with the Feds - no, Karin Potlock for the government said, and on that basis no suppression - and questioned probable cause. There will be a hearing on that on April Fools Day and Inner City Press aims to be there. The case is US v. Jackson, 18 CR 760. A week before on March 1 when Statue of Liberty climber Patricia Okoumou appeared in the SDNY , it was to face revocation of bail for more recent climbs, all to protest the separation of immigrant families. SDNY Judge Gorenstein did not revoke bail but imposed house arrest. He jibed that it appeared Ms. Okoumou could only support herself by donations garnered by climbing. Afterward Inner City Press asked her lawyer Ron Kuby about this argument. He said the judge has it precisely wrong, or in reverse: she raised money because she is an activist, she is not an actively in order to make money. Ms. Okoumou raised her fist, and headed to Staten Island. Photos here. Inner City Press, which interviewed Okoumou on December 5 just after another SDNY decision, in the Patrick Ho / CEFC China Energy UN bribery case, headed out and streamed this Periscope, and this Q&A, with more to come, on this case and others. How guns eject shell casings was the subject of expert testimony in a Bronx gang trial on February 27 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Before Judge Robert W. Sweet, an ATF agent traced a bullet back to Illinois; under cross examination he said a shell casing might eject feet rather than yards unless it bounced on something. Then testimony went back to 2007, a 14-year old with a gun heading from the Millbrook projects to the Mitchell Houses. The defense asked for a mistrial when the name of a second gang was introduced; the prosecution shot back (so to speak) that it came from photos on the defendant's own Facebook page. And so it goes in trials these days. Back on February 25 a prison sentence of life plus five years was imposed for a Bronx murder by SDNY Chief Judge Colleen McMahon on February 25. She presided over the trial in which Stiven Siri-Reynoso was convicted of, among other things, murder in aid of racketeering for the death of Jessica White, a 28 year old mother of three, in the Bronx in 2016. Jessica White's mother was in the court room; she was greeted by Judge McMahon but declined to speak before sentencing. Siri-Reynoso was representing himself by this point, with a back-up counsel by his side. Judge McMahon told him, "You're a very smart man... a tough guy, a calculating person... You are a coward, sent a child to do it for you... Your emissary shot the wrong person, a lovely lady... It was a vicious, evil attack against the good people of that neighborhood." When she imposed the life plus five sentence, a woman on the Jessica White side of the courtroom cried out, yes Ma'am, put the animal away! Later, after Siri-Reynoso ended asking how he can get more documents about the case, a woman on his side of the courtroom said, "No te preocupes, muchacho, Dios sabe lo que hace" - don't worry, God knows what he is doing. But does He? Earlier on February 25 when the government tried to defend its 2018 change of policy or practice on Special Immigrant Juvenile status in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge John G. Koeltl had many questions about the change. He asked, are you saying that all the decisions before 2018 were just wrong, under a policy in place but not implemented at the time? In the overflow courtroom 15C the largely young audience laughed, as the government lawyer tried to say it wasn't a change of policy but rather an agency interpretation of the statute. Shouldn't there have been notice and comment rulemaking under the Administrative Procedure Act? The government said the argument proffered for this was about the Freedom of Information Act (on which, as Inner City Press has noted, the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has similarly reversed its policy 180 degrees without justification). SDNY Judge Koeltl demanded t know if the government is arguing that no juvenile court in New York, California (and maybe Texas for other reasons he said) is empowered to grant relief. The answer was far from clear - but where the ruling is going does seem so. Watch this site.

On Central African Republic Alleged Rapes, Inner City Press Asks Samantha Power of CAR Untold, Ladsous vs Whistleblower Kompass

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 8 -- French soldiers in the Central African Republic allegedly sexually abused children, as exposed in a UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights report leaked to the French government by longtime OHCHR staffer Anders Kompass. The UN did not, however, give the report to the host country authorities in CAR. And according to UN documents, UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous then urged that the whistleblower Kompass be made to resign. (Ladsous denied this.)

  On May 8, Inner City Press asked US Ambassador Samantha Power about both issues - the UN's failure to tell the CAR authorities, and Ladsous' "surprising" role, as High Commissioner Zeid put it earlier in the day. Video here and embedded below. 

From the US Mission transcript:

Inner City Press: One issue that has arisen that may not even need to wait for an investigation is that the Central African Republic says that they were never told of this, and given that these were their citizens, I wonder if you—does the U.S. think that when the UN system becomes aware of charges such as these, that the host country should be told? There’s also this issue, in the UN Dispute Tribunal ruling, that the Under Secretary General of Peacekeeping was reported, and the UN didn’t seem to dispute it, to have said that the whistleblower should resign or be suspended. And I wonder, this seems like a pretty serious charge. What do you think of that? Do you think that that is appropriate? What do you think of the treatment of the whistleblower who brought it to light?

Ambassador Power: "I think, on a lot of these issues, we’re all going to be better off if we allow an impartial investigation to take hold. And, I think, you raise a really, really important issue about host country involvement, and we’d want to, again, get the facts on that. Certainly, it is the case that the host country itself, of course, has the sovereign responsibility for the protection of its citizens, and so, looking at what role Central African Republic authorities played or didn’t play has to be part of this.

"And then, in terms of the individual who disclosed the allegations, who worked for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, again, it’s extremely important that any individual who comes into possession of allegations of this gravity acts swiftly. It is also extremely important that victim and witness safety be a very significant, a primary consideration as well. And so again, the impartial investigation will look at the handling and how both the issue of speed and the issue of victim and witness protection—how those issues were handled."

  It is an answer that may move things forward. Ladsous, it should be noted, just this week snubbed a Joe Biden-linked Hemispheric peacekeeping conference in Uruguay, wasting an $8,000 first class plane ticket and angering many troop contributing countries. He refuses to answer Press question, for example on rapes in Minova, DRC and Tabit in Darfur.

   As noted, on May 8, High Commissioner Zeid held a press conference, and twice refused to comment on why Ladsous was said to have pressured to fire or suspend the whistleblower.

  Inner City Press has covered Ladsous' role from the beginning, and highlighted his appearance in Paragraph 9 of the UN Dispute Tribunal ruling reinstating Kompass. On May 7, Ladsous told Inner City Press, "I deny that" - then refused to take questions.

 Zeid was asked, and first time said he should first give his view of the pressure to the investigator, not the media.

 The second time, he said he was surprised to read it -- his Office did not contest that part of the ruling, effectively admitting it -- and that the head of UN Peacekeeping should not have been intervening about a non-UN force.  Video here.

 Neither he nor the questioners in the room in Geneva said the obvious: Ladsous is a longtime French diplomat; it is not rocket science to read Paragraph 9 as him (inappropriately) still working for "his" country.

 Zeid said other things we'll report later; he alluded to the need for a Commission of Inquiry. Some ask, will Ladsous quit before then? Or after?

 For more than nine months, no action was taken -- no interviews of victims or alleged perpetrators were done -- other than the UN suspending Kompass for the leak, on which the UN Dispute Tribunal ruling recites that UN Peacekeeping chief Ladsous requested Kompass' resignation. (See Paragraph 9, here.) Ladsous told Inner City Press he denies it - then refused questions.

  Early on May 8, UN system staff complained to Inner City Press that UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Prince Zeid of Jordan, in a closed staff meeting on May 8, tried to downplay the scandal, going so far as to blame imams in Bangui for not playing their role.

  But it was OHCHR which didn't even give the report of the rape of CAR children to CAR authorities, only to the French.

  In places, Zeid appeared to try to use his record ten years ago on sexual abuse to shift the blame to imams.  Inner City Press has shown a failure by his Office to act on past leaking, to Morocco. We'll have more on this.

  On May 7, Inner City Press asked more questions about this - including to Herve Ladsous himself.

  After a long closed-door consultation meeting of the Security Council, Ladsous emerged. Inner City Press asked him, based on Paragraph 9 of the UNDT ruling, Why did you ask Kompass to resign?"

  Ladsous stopped and said, "I deny that." Inner City Press put the handheld video online, here.

   

UN's Herve Ladsous Snubbed Joe Biden-Linked Peacekeeping Conference in Uruguay, Losing $8000 Plane Ticket & Perhaps His Job

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, May 7 -- Embattled UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous, beyond being named in a UN Dispute Tribunal ruling as having urged the resignation of the whistleblower who revealed French Army rapes in the Central African Republic (Ladsous denied this, without taking questions), has run afoul of a number of Troop Contributing Countries, not onlyRwanda.

   Diplomats from a number of countries in the Americas have exclusively complained to Inner City Press that Ladsous, after the UN bought him an $8000 plane ticket to attend a “Hemispheric” meeting on peacekeeping this week in Uruguay, decided at the last minute not to go, sending a subordinate with, as one diplomat put it, “no information at all.”

   Ladsous had already shown a willingness to snub African Troop Contribution Countries like Rwanda. But his error here, as more than one country's diplomat put it, is that the Hemispheric UN Peacekeeping event in Uruguay which he snubbed was a follow-up to the event US Vice President Joe Biden chaired on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly last September.

   Openly speaking badly of Rwanda is one thing; refusing Press questions about rapes in the DR Congo, Darfur and now Central African Republic is another. But snubbing the United States, which hold much sway at the UN (click herefor Inner City Press' exclusive yesterday about Yemen) is “not smart,” as one diplomat put it, asking, “When is he going to quit, as he tried to make the CAR rape whistleblower quit?”

  Since the UN Peacekeeping top post is essentially owned by France since the election of Kofi Annan as Secretary General -- Ladsous was twice rejected as “the Frenchman” to hold it, then got in after the selected one, Jerome Bonnafont, bragged too early while in India, and Ladsous slipped in -- the better question is, why doesn't France ease him out and at least send someone better?

   Perhaps this French government's discomfort -- and dodging of questions about -- these French alleged child rapes in CAR, Ladsous being listed in the UNDT rulingand not answering if the alleged rapists remain in the French force his MINUSCA mission supports, will force France's hand.  Simple questions have not been answered. Watch this site.

   

In Iraq, UN Negotiates to Take Over USAID Site, Ditch Bunker, Malcorra Confirms

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, December 20 -- Contrary to previous UN plans to build a mega facility in Iraq, dubbed the bunker, the new plan is to take over a USAID site in Baghdad once the US leaves next year, UN official Susana Malcorra confirmed to Inner City Press on Monday.

Inner City Press reported last week, when US Vice President Joseph Biden was at the UN for an Iraq meeting, that the UN's Advisory Committee on Administrative & Budgetary Questions had urged that the UN stop paying on a $5 million contract with an architectural consultant hired for the bunker.

Ms. Malcorra on Monday said that negotiations to terminate the contract are ongoing with UN Procurement, and that she would not comment further on it. But she did answer Inner City Press's request for confirmation of the plan to switch to the USAID site. This was discussed in closed door ACABQ consultations, but not mentioned by USAID name in their report. Malcorra said yes, USAID.

Still unconfirmed by the UN are reports that US troops now provide security to SRSG Ad Melkert. Watch this site.

Footnote: Ms. Malcorra declined to answer Inner City Press' request for an update on the negotiations by Ibrahim Gambari in Darfur to turn over five sheikhs in Kalma camp supportive of Fur rebel Abdel Wahid Nur to the government of Omar al Bashir, indicted for war crimes. We will keep asking.

At UN, Oil for Food Resolution Kept Open by Iraqi Letter Delay, Nuke Doubts by 3

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 15 -- As US Vice President Joe Biden travels to the UN on Wednesday hoping to preside over the passage of three resolution on Iraq in the Security Council, well placed sources have told Inner City Press which of the three resolutions had still not been finalized late Tuesday, and which Council members opposed the other, nuclear resolution.

At 5:30 Tuesday afternoon, a self described “senior US official” told some of the UN press corps that two of the three resolutions were “in blue,” meaning with text to vote on finalized, and a third was still not ready.

The official also argued that despite Iraq's failure to yet ratify the International Atomic Energy Agency additional protocol, a resolution allowing nuclear imports should be adopted Wednesday.

From this, some assumed that it was the nuclear or Weapons of Mass Destruction resolution which was the one outstanding.

But later on Tuesday Inner City Press was informed that “the Oil for Food resolution was delayed, Iraq was supposed to turn in a letter but only turned it in late, let's see if the bureaucratic wheels turn fast enough for Biden to brag about its passage.”

Inner City Press was also informed that opposition in the Council to removing nuclear import restrictions on Iraq began with the United Kingdom, then Austria -- specifically objecting to Council action before Iraq ratifies the IAEA additional protocol -- and then, and perhaps still, China.

At UN, Biden Visit to Include 2 or 3 Iraq Resolutions, No Answers on Costs or Security

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 14 -- One of three Security Council resolution which the US would like adopted at the December 15 meeting chaired by Vice President Joe Biden has not yet been finalized for a vote, a self-described senior US official told the press on Tuesday.

Beyond ending the Oil for Food Program, the US would like to removing restrictions on Iraq's import of nuclear material, despite the country not yet having ratified the additional protocol of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The Chinese mission to the UN has indicated a preference to await full ratification by Iraq, but late Tuesday the senior US official was still talking about all three resolutions being passed.

The context of the remarks was a conference call. Inner City Press dialed in, and to ask a question pushed Star 1 as directed, giving name and affiliation again. But Inner City Press was never called on, even as the moderator said “it appears there are no more questions.”

Beyond asking for confirmation that it is the Weapons of Mass Destruction or nuclear resolution that is not yet finalized, Inner City Press had wanted ask, as it has the UN Spokesman, who is paying for the alternations in and around the Security Council for Joe Biden's visit.

On December 10, a large US delegation entered the Council chamber talking of Verizon and putting in new communications lines for Wednesday's session. A Council staffer told Inner City Press that Wednesday will be the first time a US Vice President chairs the Security Council since George H.W. Bush, as Reagans' VP, chaired a meeting. On the morning of December 14 new metal detectors were in place. At the noon briefing, Inner City Press asked UN Spokesman Martin Nesirky:

Inner City Press: for this Wednesday, tomorrow’s Security Council event featuring Vice-President Joe Biden, there have been a lot of, they’ve even installed metal detectors, but on Friday, there was people going into the Council to install new telephone lines. So, it all led me to wonder, who is paying for this? Is it… is it… does the US specifically reimburse the UN for these special security… particularly, let’s say the phone lines, or is it something that the UN absorbs the cost and, if so, what’s the basis of doing it for this meeting and not other similarly vice-presidential meetings?

Spokesperson Nesirky: Well, you’re making assumptions there before establishing the facts. So, let’s do that.

But five hours later, no answer had been given. Similarly, last month Inner City Press asked Nesirky's Office to confirm that the UN in Iraq, including SRSG Ad Melkert, is accepting security from the US forces. The UN refused to confirm it, despite a New Orleans Times Picayune report that:

“The soldiers of Alpha Battery, 1/141, started out providing armed troops and armored vehicles to protect the supply convoys. They now act as the quick reaction force, which includes providing ground medical evacuation to area helicopters that cannot reach and secure landing zones, Fernandez said. They also staff entries to the United Nations Villa, a compound where UN workers live, and specifically guard the residence for the special representative for the UN secretary-general in Iraq. While the UN officials have personal security personnel, they also are shadowed by Alpha Battery when they travel. “They’re not allowed to move without us,” Fernandez said. “They don’t want to move without us.”

Perhaps the US Mission to the UN or State Department will have an answer.

At UN, Obama Inauguration Causes Work Halt, Jokes, More Gaza Confusion

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un2obama012009.html

UNITED NATIONS, January 20 -- Much of the UN in New York came to a halt for the inauguration of Barack Obama. In the Delegates' Lounge around a big screen TV a crowd gathered, including the Ambassadors of Switzerland, Rwanda, the Netherlands and Mauritania, where the same Permanent Representative remains from before the coup d'etat.

As on the screen Joe Biden repeated lines from Justice John Paul Stevens, there was a smattering of applause in the UN Delegates' Lounge. It erupted when Obama, after stumbling, took the oath of office. "Finally," someone in the crowd exclaimed. Expectations in the UN are high, probably too high, as elsewhere.

"America is a friend of each nation," Obama intoned, "ready to lead once more." But of what will such leadership consist? Already his Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice has said the time is not right for UN Peacekeepers in Somalia, despite the chaos there. Obama's statements on Gaza have left many at the UN disappointed.

As Obama spoke, General Assembly President Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann and his entourage passed by in the hall. Inner City Press went out and asked the PGA Spokesman about the January 16 vote on Gaza, in which Nicaragua and nine nations, including Syria, Venezuela, Ecuador and Indonesia, voted to sideline an Egyptian and European Union resolution about Gaza. This happens when you are caught in the middle, the spokesman said, promising to get back with answers directly from d'Escoto.

Indonesia's Ambassador had stopped to speak with d'Escoto. Inner City Press stopped him as well, expressing surprising at seeing Indonesia in the Axis of Ten. He laughed and said his votes are not based on how others vote, but the situation on the ground. When asked about Obama, he laughed again. Previously he noted to Inner City Press how popular Obama is in his country, based on living their for a time as a child.

Walking by in the hall in the middle of Obama's speech were, among others, the Ambassadors of Ghana and Burkina Faso; arriving late were their counterparts from Costa Rica and Morocco. Down in the UN's basement in the NGO Committee -- which continued meeting during the inauguration -- a human rights NGO is under attack by Algeria for its human rights complaints. The US representative on the Committee told Inner City Press on January 19 that he is waiting from instructions from Washington, for what will now be a January 23 vote. Will the instructions change, based on Obama's entry?

Rwanda's Ambassador stayed past the end of the inauguration, the poem, the flash of Bill Clinton looking like Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler. A cynic from West Africa sidled up, commenting on the tableau of the Obama and Bush couples. "The Angels and the Devil," he said, "except this time the angel is black and the Devil is white."

Inner City Press asked Kigali's envoy about the current assault on the remaining Hutu rebels in the Congo. Is the UN Mission involved? Yes, he said, on the side of the Congolese government. At Tuesday's UN "noon" briefing, held early in deference to Obama, spokesperson Michele Montas had told Inner City Press the Mission, MONUC, is not involved at all.

The Bushes got on the helicopter which rose into the air. "Do you know where they're going?" the cynic asked. Inner City Press and the Rwandan Ambassador waited to hear. The answer came, "Guantanamo Bay."

Click here for Inner City Press' news analysis earlier on Tuesday about what the incoming Obama Administration may mean for top UN officials from the US, particularly UNICEF's Ann Veneman. A press conference by her would seem in order.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un2obama012009.html