| Nerf Darts
and Secret Witnesses, The Trials of Josh
Schulte Move from One To Two, A Tale
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell
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Guardian - Honduras
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LITERARY SDNY,
June 12– During the first
trial of Josh Shulte, when the
courtroom was declared sealed
for CIA witnessed, Kurt
Wheelock had stood outside by
the elevators on the 14th
floor of the U.S. District
Court for the Southern
District of New York, live
tweeting as much as he could
about those who walked in or
out.
Now for
the retrial, additional
precautions were being taken.
The new judge referred
obliquely to some other
courtroom where they had been
meeting about classified
information.
And during
the CIA witnesses testimony in
the second the trial, which
Wheelock's colleague Michael
Randall Long had applied unsuccessfully
to unseal, even the jurors
would be asked to step out in
advance.
Just the
previous month during the We
Build the Wall trial of Tim
Shea, Kurt has live tweeted a
jury note that Judge Analisa
Torres read out in open court.
The jurors, 11 of them, called
out a twelfth and named him: Roberto,
Juror Number Four.
Kurt tweeted
that, then heard Judge Torres
say, I want that stricken from
the transcript. But live
tweeting was a form of
transcript, and now it was too
late.
Kurt didn't like
taking down articles or tweets
(although he had done so, only
once,
when the prosecutors in the
Larry Ray trial asked for the
list
of Claudia Drury's
prostitution clients to
come down).
Now as the
second trial approached, Kurt
resolved not to cover jury
selection, so as to not be
tempted. He wasn't much
interested in the opening
statements either. It was the
CIA witnesses that attracted,
the forbidden or seal fruit.
How would he approach it
differently than the first
time around?
A first
step was to look back at how
the first trial had been. Even
with the sealing orders, Judge
Crotty had allowed pool
reporters into the courtroom
for the CIA witnesses. And why
not here? Why no public
hearing?
Then there was
the juror who had been kicked
off, just before the verdict,
for reading news about the
case. Kurt had run down to the
courthouse lobby to hear her
out, then back up to live
tweet some more. Would that be
possible this time? When the
testimony began in earnest?
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