| Coronavirus Concern in
Federal Court Moves Trial on Iran Sanctions
Jury Not Told Why Initially
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Thread,
Patreon
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
March 5 – A prospective juror
in Manhattan Federal court has
been contacted by the Center
for Disease Control about
possible exposure to the
Coronavirus COVID-19, and a an
Iran sanctions trial has been
forced to pause, and
move.
In the
case of US v. Nejad, Judge
Alison Nathan decided to tell
jurors to take a break and
return to a different
courtroom while hers is
cleansed.
The
prospective juror due to a
religious institution
connection was contacted by
the CDC. The District
Executive emphasized that it
precautionary. But the jurors
were not initially told the
reason, only to return to
Courtroom 110 in an hour's
time, after an "early lunch."
Then Judge Nathan proposed
telling them why; defense
lawyer Reid Weingarten
suggested it be done in the
jury room, not in public.
Developing.
Iranian banker
Ali Sadr Hashemi Nejad began
his trial on March 3, charged
with money laundering and
violating US sanctions
including through a Venezuelan
infrastructure project. He is
represented by lawyer Reid
Weingarten of Steptoe &
Johnson and, on November 25 as
reported
by Inner City Press by Brian
M. Heberlig
before U.S. District Court for
the Southern District of New
York Judge Alison J. Nathan.
After jury
selection on March 2, the
opening arguments took place
on March 3, and Inner City
Press live tweeted them,
thread here.
In sum, while the government
said it will show that Ali
Sadr intentionally evaded
sanctions, Weingarten
portrayed Ali Sadr as hating
the Mullahs and having a "pure
heart," only want to help his
father.
A witness
speaking in Farsi was
laboriously questioned by
Assistant US Attorney Michael
Krause about the Venezuela
project. More on Patreon here.
Back
on November 25, Heberlig
argued at length for the
suppression and return of
emails seized, saying that
looking for emails about money
laundering was too broad. He
insisted that his clients
project in Venezuela was pure
business, and that the
government should have have
been looking into his trips to
Iran.
As a civil
libertarian, the arguments
were attractive. In a
courthouse where less affluent
defendants are processed
through in much different
ways, less so.
The
government has two weeks to go
page by page through their May
2018 420 PDFs; the defense got
the same two weeks to pick out
their seven or so worst
examples of overreach. Two
senior AUSA who sat through
most of the argument left
before Heberlig's
final barrage.
For those
keeping score,
the government
ceded
most ground
in this
hearing.
Meanwhile in
the
Magistrates
Court on less
fancy crimes
they are
requesting
detention in
nearly every
case. Inner
City Press
will have more
on this.
At
the earlier Curcio hearing
while adding prior Steptoe
clients Citibank, UBS and
Commerzbank to Steptoe's
script, Nathan found the Sadr
knowingly waived all conflicts
of interest.
Then a
surprise: Assistant US
Attorney Michael K. Krouse
acknowledged that yet to be
turned over are e-mails from
seven custodian other than
Sadr, somehow lost in the
cracks of the case. Judge
Nathan gave Krouse a week to
provide a status update, with
full production to be
completed in two weeks and a
response by Steptoe a week
after that. They will be
seeking to exclude these
e-mails.
On the
bracelet removal request,
Judge Nathan said she saw no
reason to do it. Weingarten
replied that Pre-Trial favors
it, and that he wants to meet
with Sadr until midnight. The
government's position will be
known in a week and more from
Steptoe if the government
opposes either. It's good to
have money, in essence. This
is not how lower income
defendants are often treated
in the SDNY. The case is USA v.
Nejad, 18-cr-00224
(Nathan). More on Patreon here
O
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