SDNY Judge
Pauley In
Ordering Release
Of Some Michael
Cohen Records
Stresses
Oversight of
Courts
By Matthew
Russell Lee
FEDERAL
COURTHOUSE, February 7 – Two
months after Michael Cohen
received a three year sentence
in the US District Court for
the Southern District of New
York, on February 7 Judge
William H. Pauley III issued
an order on how much
information gathered during
the investigation should be
made public.
While much
of the interest is in Cohen
and, behind him, President
Donald Trump, Pauley's order
addresses the need for public
oversight of Federal
authorities including judges.
From the SDNY decision in U.S.
v. Cohen, 18-cr-00602: "the
presumption of access is at
its core tethered to the need
for public monitoring of the
federal courts and their
exercise of judicial power.
Cf. SEC v. Van Waeyenberghe,
990 F.2d 845, 847 (5th Cir.
1993) (explaining that “[t]he
public’s right to information
does not protect the same
interests that the right of
access is designed to
protect”). As the Second
Circuit explained, Monitoring
both provides judges with
critical views of their work
and deters arbitrary judicial
behavior. Without monitoring,
moreover, the public could
have no confidence in the
conscientiousness,
reasonableness, or honesty of
judicial proceedings. Such
monitoring is not possible
without access to testimony
and documents that are used in
the performance of Article III
functions. Amodeo II, 71 F.3d
at 1050." While a fine basis,
this would militate not only
for the release of search
warrant records but more
transparency and accessibilty
day to day in the courts,
something lacking even the day
before in the presentment of Afghan
national Haji
Abdul Sattar
Barakzai a/k/a
Manaf for
allegedly
supporting the
Taliban with
heroin imports
and sales,
click here
for that.
Judge Pauley's February 7
order provides, "The
Government is directed to
submit a sealed, ex parte copy
of the Materials by February
28, 2019 with proposed
redactions in highlights
consistent with this Opinion
& Order. After reviewing
the proposed redactions, this
Court will direct the
Government to file the
redacted Materials on the
public docket in this action."
Previously from outside the
Court in the Cohen case on
December 12 surrounded by a
sea of cameras and tripods,
Inner City Press
live-streamed: see Periscope
broadcasts here
and here.
A week before that in
Courtroom 12A there was a guilty
verdict in the UN
bribery trial...
More
here
***
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