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By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon, Thread, Video
Honduras - The Source - The Root - etc

SDNY COURTHOUSE, Oct 16 – The prosecution of the brother of Honduras' president for guns and drug running began with a bang on October 2 with the charge that already life imprisoned El Chapo Guzman gave the defendant $1 million for this brother, the president. The evidence closed on October 15, with closing arguments set for October 16. Inner City Press Periscope video here.

On October 8, sworn witness Alex Ardon described a meeting with both El Chapo and Tony Hernandez present and the cash in plastic bags, and then got cross examined about killing 56 people, see thread, Patreon and below.

The trial is before U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge P. Kevin Castel and Inner City Press is live tweeting it. See also Patreon here on the fast mention and shut-down of Nikki Haley's name.

 On the morning of October 16, AUSA Emil Bove delivered a more than two hour summation, ranging from Chapo's bribe to Juan Orlando Hernandez through his brother, the defendant, to guns, to the murder of Chino in jail. He concluded, do justice to this man untouchable in Honduras and find him guilty.

 In the afternoon defense lawyer Tein probed the evidence and the "liars, losers and murderer" the US had put on the stand: Chang, Rivera and Ardon. Tein asked if a narcotics trafficker buys pajamas in Target with a credit card. The answer seems to be, Perhaps.

 AUSA Houle in final rebuttal said even if Tony Hernandez had permits for his machine guns, he used them for drug trafficking.

Full thread here. Having covered the whole trial, the most damn evidence seems to be Tony Hernandez' own arrogant post-arrest statement. On October 17 the jury will begin deliberations. Watch this site.

 On Tuesday October 15 the government closed with cooperator Fernando Chang Monroy and an ATF gun expert named Cody Toy. Then after conferring with his lawyer Omar Malone in the holding cell, Tony Hernandez told Judge Castel he would not testify. The times for closing arguments were set -- government 2 and 1/2 to begin and 30 minutes in rebuttal, defense 2 hours maximum -- and Judge Castel told the jury they might get the case to deliberate late on October 16, or early on the 17th. It is getting to end game. Analysis here. And more on Patreon here.

  On Sunday October 13 Assistant US Attorney Emil Bove informed Judge Castel that a deal on evidence was reached with Tony Hernandez' lawyers, to modify and presumably expand how much of the defendant's post arrest statement will be seen by the jury; DEA Agent Gonzalez who conducted the interview with not be subject to more cross examination. Also on October 15 the prosecution will put on the stand another cooperator, a weapons expert and another DEA agent, not Gonzalez. More on Patreon, here.

 Here's the letter: "The Government writes to inform the Court that the parties have reached agreement regarding Government Exhibits 403 and 403-T, which contain excerpts of the defendant’s postarrest statement. (See Tr. 754). Although the Government believes that the defendant waived any argument under the Rule of Completeness by failing to timely object (see id. at 745-47), the Government has agreed in response to defense requests to modify certain segments of the recording (GX 403) and the corresponding transcript (GX 403-T). The Government will publish the modified segments to the jury on Tuesday, October 15. The parties are also in agreement that there will be no further cross-examination of Special Agent Gonzalez.  Respectfully submitted,  GEOFFREY S. BERMAN  United States Attorney By Emil J. Bove III."

 And here the post arrest statement as so far put in to the jury, as uploaded to YouTube by Inner City Press, here.

  On October 11 much of the direct and cross examination concerned a video filmed of Tony Hernandez in a Denny's in Tegucigalpa, which Inner City Press has put online here. Here from the thread is some of how it came up:

... The questioning turns to Los Cachiros, Devis Leonel Rivera Maradiaga ..AUSA: So this meeting in a restaurant in Tegucigalpa, how did you record it? [Referring to exhibit 401]. A: With a watch. AUSA: Where did you get the watch? A: I bought it. AUSA: And afterward you gave the recording to the DEA? A: Yes....

Tony H's lawyer asking a lot of questions about the watch-recording in Denny's: who decided when to turn on the camera and when to turn it off, did it use blue tooth... Q: How did you turn over the footage to the DEA? A: On a card

Tony H's lawyer: Weren't you afraid you would be followed?

A: No, I had just bribed the brother of the president...

  On October 10 there were arguments until the end of the day about whether larger portions of Tony Hernandez' post arrest statement than so far shown to the jury should come in to evidence. Judge Castel chided the defense for not objecting earlier, but gave them a chance. He said both sides should submit on the issue by Sunday and noon. And so they did - with a deal.

Inner City Press will continue to cover this and other SDNY and 2nd Circuit cases - watch this site, and there is more on Patreon, here.