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By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Periscope

SDNY COURTHOUSE, Sept 22 – Whether any US government agency engaged in wiretapping not authorized by a court in connection with the prosecution of Lev Parnas, Igor Fruman, David Correia and Andrey Kukushkin came up near the end of a conference in the case on December 2, live-tweeted by Inner City Press here. More on Patreon, here.

 On April 15, amid Coronavirus, the entire trial was pushed back past the election, and into 2021: "as to Lev Parnas (1), Igor Fruman (2), David Correia (3), Andrey Kukushkin (4) granting [109] JOINT LETTER MOTION addressed to Judge J. Paul Oetken from AUSAs Douglas Zolkind, Nicolas Roos, and Rebekah Donaleski dated April 14, 2020 re: Proposed adjournment of pretrial schedule. ENDORSEMENT: The parties request to adjourn the trial date and pretrial deadlines is granted. Pretrial motions shall be filed by October 5, 2020; responses by November 2, 2020; and replies by November 16, 2020.... The trial date is hereby adjourned to February 1, 2021. The court hereby excludes time under the Speedy Trial Act, 18 U.s.C. 3161(h)(7)(A), through February 1, 2021, finding that the ends of justice outweigh the interests of the public and the defendants in a speedy trial for the reasons stated in this letter. (Signed by Judge J. Paul Oetken on 4/15/2020)."

 On September 17, a superseding indictment "LEV PARNAS and DAVID CORREIA were charged in a Superseding Indictment with conspiring to commit wire fraud in connection with their efforts to raise funds ostensibly for their business, “Fraud Guarantee.”  The Superseding Indictment also includes additional campaign finance charges against the defendants.  In October 2019, PARNAS, CORREIA, IGOR FRUMAN, and ANDREY KUKUSHKIN were charged in a four-count indictment alleging that each of the defendants conspired to violate the ban on political donations and contributions by foreign nationals.  In addition, PARNAS and FRUMAN were charged with conspiring to make contributions in connection with federal elections in the names of others, and with making false statements to and falsifying records to obstruct the administration of a matter within the jurisdiction of the Federal Election Commission (“FEC”).  The Superseding Indictment returned today – in addition to charging PARNAS and CORREIA with conspiracy to commit wire fraud – charges CORREIA with making false statements to and falsifying records to obstruct the administration of a matter within the jurisdiction of the FEC; charges PARNAS, FRUMAN, and CORREIA with soliciting a foreign national to make donations and contributions in connection with federal and state elections; and charges PARNAS, FRUMAN, and KUKUSHKIN with aiding and abetting the making of donations and contributions by a foreign national in connection with federal and state elections.  The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken in the Southern District of New York.  Trial is currently scheduled for February 1, 2021."

  Then, this: "On September 21, 2020, counsel for Defendant David Correia submitted to chambers a motion to withdraw as counsel for Mr. Correia, with declarations addressing the reasons for their motion to withdraw. They request that the declarations be filed under seal and ex parte, “as they pertain to Mr. Correia’s relationship with counsel.” Any redaction or sealing of a court filing must be narrowly tailored to serve whatever purpose justifies the redaction or sealing and must be otherwise consistent with the presumption in favor of public access to judicial documents. See Lugosch v. Pyramid Co. of Onondaga, 435 F.3d 110, 119-20 (2d Cir. 2006). Counsel’s representation that the declarations “pertain to Mr. Correia’s relationship with counsel” is insufficient to meet that standard. To the extent that the declarations include privileged or other confidential communications between counsel and Mr. Correia, they may properly be redacted. However, the facts that Mr. Correia has not paid his attorneys’ bills and that he may qualify for court-appointed counsel are not privileged and do not, in the Court’s view, meet the Lugosch standard. Accordingly, counsel for Mr. Correia (1) shall promptly file their motion to withdraw on the public docket, (2) shall, on or before September 25, 2020, submit to chambers proposed redactions of their declarations, together with a letter explaining how such redactions satisfy the Lugosch standard, and (3) shall promptly work with Mr. Correia on the retention of replacement  counsel and/or preparation of a financial affidavit in support of court-appointed counsel. The Court will then schedule a conference to address counsel’s motion to withdraw."

  Back on February 3 SDNY Judge Oetken began the scheduled conference by shooting down the FISA violation arguments, citing decisions by the Second Circuit and his fellow SDNY Judges Edgardo Ramos and Paul Engelmayer.  He asked the prosecutors about the progress of discovery.

  There are still 20 devices not "cracked," although it is complicated because with subpoenas for iCloud accounts, multiple devices' information is revealed.

  A trial date of October 5 was set, with another conference if necessary penciled in for July 16 at 2:30 pm. Afterward in front of 40 Foley Square Parnas' lawyer Bondy snarked at the impeachment trial as a trial by friends; Parnas said he's trying to get the truly about Trump and Giuliani and Ukraine out, but declined to answer if he is cooperating. Then he got into a big black car, saying he was glad to be back in New York. Inner City Press Periscope video here.

 Inner City Press said it would be there- and it was. The case is US v. Parnas, et al., 19-cr-00725 (Oetken).

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