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By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Thread Song
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SDNY COURTHOUSE, June 30 – When jury selection was completed for the retrial of accused CIA Vault 7 leaker Joshua Schulte, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Jesse M. Furman told the jurors, Do not read or say anything about the case. Inner City Press was there, and live tweeted here.

Judge Furman: I'm going to announce the selected jurors. [He reads out 16 names. Inner City Press took fast notes - on on Patreon here]

Inner City Press has filed opposing the sealing of the courtroom for CIA witnesses, and once the witnesses begin anticipates making other filings.

The June 14, 2022 opening arguments, as live tweeted by Inner City Press, are here.

On June 15, Schulte in his own defense engaged in his first cross examination, of FBI Agent Evanchec. Inner City Press live tweeted it here.

On June 16, Schulte completed his cross of Evanchec - then the US put on CIA supervisor Anthony Leonis in a (mostly) sealed courtroom, Inner City Press which seeks to unseal was there then live tweeted here.

On June 17, Leonis finished his direct and was cross examined by Schulte, with a deadline to finish before the end of the trial day. Inner City Press live tweeted it here.

On June 21, MITRE's (and now Microsoft's) Patrick Leedom did direct and then some cross examination by Schulte. Inner City Press live tweeted here.

On June 24 the trial resumed and Inner City Press live tweeted here.

On June 27, FBI agent Michael Berger was cross examined, thread here.

On June 28, Day 8, the courtroom went sealed again, and without at least one of the feeds that was supposed to exist. Inside, "Jeremy Weber" was being cross-examined by Schulte. At day's end Schulte told Judge Furman he has ten more pages of questions for Weber, after finishing with 50 pages.  The next witness, too, is sealed. But Inner City Press is staying on the case, and the background (see a launch of sorts, here).

On June 29, Schulte cross examined Weber at the opening, and waited for cooperator Carlos, about use of cell phone(s) in MCC, at the end. Inner City Press live tweeted, here.

On June 30, Schulte cross examined Betances, then FBI Special Agent Schlessinger, thread here

OK - US v. Schulte #Wikileaks trial Day 10, with MCC / contraband phone cooperator Carlos Betances still on direct; Inner City Press is covering the trial(s) and writing a book(let) about it 

Assistant US Attorney: Mr. Betances, look at this message on the phone: "My case involves #Wikileaks and the #Vault7 disclosure." Did the defendant mention Wikileaks to you? Betances: I heard him talk about it once - Wikileaks. When I heard him talking, he stopped

AUSA: Did you hear him mention "Information War"? Betances: Yes. Informacion de guerra. Schulte: Objection. Judge Furman: Overruled. AUSA: Did you tell you about ProtonMail?

Betances: Yes, he said it was better, encrypted. AUSA: Was there a time they wanted to move the Samsung phone elsewhere in the jail? Betances: Yes. They were going to pay a guy called Flaco $200 to take the phone to the library. AUSA: Did they tell you why? Schulte: Objection! Hearsay.

 Judge Furman: How did you know? Betances: They told me. Judge Furman: Objection sustained. AUSA: Did you hear Mr. Schulte or Omar [Amanat] say why they wanted the phone there? Schulte: Objection! Judge Furman: Overruled. Betances: To send something out.

 AUSA: The video you took of Mr. Schulte, what did you do with them? Betances: I told my lawyer about them then we met with the government. AUSA: When you met with the government, were you given any instructions about the cell phones? Betances: Not to do anything.

AUSA: Then what happened? Betances: They searched my cell. They found a cell phone and put me in the SHU [Special Housing Unit]

AUSA: Did inmates pass messages in the SHU? Schulte: Objection! Judge Furman: Overruled. Betances: By the ventilator. [Interpreted: A/C]

AUSA: What were you told? Schulte: Objection! Judge Furman: I want to hear it then I'll rule. Betances: They told me to stay silent and Josh and Omar would pay me $5000 for my silence.

Judge Furman: Objection overruled. AUSA: No further questions. Schulte: Good morning. Betances: Buenos dias. Schulte: You came from the Dominican Republic illegally, right? Betances: Yes. Schulte: Your grandmother paid for you to get in, right? Betances: Yes.

Schulte: At first you worked in a restaurant, right? Betances: Yes. Schulte: And that money wasn't enough for you, correct? Betances: Right. Schulte: You sold drugs to make more, right? Betances: Yes.

 Schulte: You sold drugs in the Bronx with your brother in law? Betances: Yes. Schulte: You face live in prison if you don't cooperate, right? Betances: Yes, unless I get the [5k1] letter.

 Schulte: You were deported and re-entered illegal with fake documents in Texas, right? Betances: Yes, correct. Schulte: What names did you use? Betances: Arturo Vasquez. Schulte: You didn't have permission to use his name, right? Betances: I had no permission.

 Schulte: Your sentencing has been postponed, right? Betances: I don't think I was involved in that. Schulte: I withdraw the question. Your cooperation agreement on page 5 of 8 says the prosecutors will forward your cooperation to immigration, right? Betances: Yes.

 Schulte: You hope to get an S visa to stay in the country, right? Betances: Of course.  And you have asked me these type of questions twice now. Schulte: Pleading guilty to having an illegal cell phone was part of your cooperation deal, right? Betances: Yes. Schulte: Your wife smuggled the phone into the MCC, right?

Betances: Yes. Because the person who was supposed to meet her outside wasn't there. Schulte: You had your wife do something illegal  for $500, right? Betances: Yes. Chino deposited $100 in my commissary.

Schulte: Let's talk about the phone you used in the MCC. Betances: That WE used. Schulte: You stored multiple phones for Omar because he let you use them, right? Betances: Yes. And he promised to pay me, but he never ever paid me.

Schulte: And I never paid you anything, right? Betances: You did not. Schulte: In fact you knew I had no money, right? Betances: There's no way to know that.

Schulte: I move to enter this exhibit, to show that I did work for Omar [Amanat] and that the witness knows about it. AUSA: Objection. Hearsay.

Lengthy evidentiary fight ensues.

 Schulte: You never saw drugs in the MCC? Betances: Usually I never saw them. Schulte: Did you witness Chino take drugs? Betances: No.

 Schulte: No further questions. Judge Furman: Next witness.

Assistant US Attorney: The government calls [FBI] Special Agent Evan Schlessinger, was on counter-espionage squad.

Schlessinger: We searched Mr. Schulte's cell in the MCC in October 2018 with 50 agents. Schlessinger: MCC detainee Carlos Betances told us Mr. Schulte had a phone. He showed us video of Schulte using the phone, and activity that occurred on the phone.

AUSA: GX 420 and 820-419. Have you seen these? Schlessinger: Yes. Photos provided by Carlos Betances

 Schlessinger: It says, "My case involves #Wikileaks... CIA management had no idea what we did and could not possibly lead us." AUSA: Did you obtain additional search warrants to review Mr. Schulte's notebooks? Schlessinger: Yes. I recognize his handwriting

 Schlessinger: Schulte wrote how they uploaded the wrong articles and his mother got upset and he spent the whole call apologizing. [His mother and father have been at the trial] Schlessinger: Schulte wrote, CIA not the only agency against Trump.

Schlessinger: Schulte wrote, if this is the way the USG [government] treats one of its own, imagine how they treat allies. I will close embassies and end occupations and jingoism.

Schlessinger: Schulte wrote, "Give me a phone and a blog and I will change the world."

AUSA: Back to GX 809, page 4. Can you read it? Schulte: I texted my dad from WhatsApp and Signal and finally got a response at one percent battery.

 Schlessinger (continuing to read Schulte's notebook): Grow a pair and stand up to the b*astards. Judge Furman: These are in evidence, jurors. It's up to you to decide what weight to give them. Schlessinger testifies that Omar Amanat was helping Schulte, to reach out.

Also, that they two wanted a single phone brought to the MCC library.  Schlessinger (reading): China and Russia attacking US... Reality Winner... bartender for vendor...

 FBI's Schlessinger testifies that Josh Schulte's Twitter account was "FreeJasonBourne."

Just checked: Suspended

FBI's Schlessinger (reading) "Jeremy Weber hacked the Atlassian and set up Josh Schulte. Schulte is the scapegoat because he reported infrastructure issues."

Cross examination. Schulte: You testified about Twitter, right? FBI's Schlessinger: Yes. Schulte: What there anything on that page? Schlessinger: Nothing but the photo. Schulte: Of Matt Damon? Schlessinger: Yes.

Schlessinger (reading) The Yahoo hacks were started as a result of this business dispute... And now, an American gulag.  Schulte: Are you aware of this, written by Mr. Amanat? AUSA: Objection! Judge Furman: Sustained. Mr. Schulte, move on.

 Schlessinger: We weren't particularly interested in these documents because they didn't seem to be about your case. Schulte: I am not part of Omar Amanat's criminal case, right? Schlessinger: There is a forensic report. But no.

 Schulte: Let me ask you about the government's WordPress exhibit. Judge Furman: Mr. Schulte, to finish with this witness I'll ask you not to use him to go over an exhibit that is in evidence. You'll have an opportunity to make those arguments to the jury.

Schulte: This document had nothing about Russia, right? FBI's Schlessinger: It did not. Schulte: It was about the criminal justice system, yes? Schlessinger: Parts of it were. Schulte: And the notebooks show a plan to re-write Malware of the Mind, right?

Judge Furman: We'll leave it there for the day. [Jury leaves]

 Judge Furman: So let's talk about this proposed Defense Exhibit. It open for me, in Internet Explorer of all things. I didn't think Internet Explorer even existed any more. AUSA: We'll look into it.

Now AUSA says if Schulte tries to present into evidence his email to Federal Defenders, it will open up more waiver of privilege issues.

Schulte: It's that I sent it first to my lawyers, before sending it out more widely. Judge Furman: Doesn't make a difference.

Judge Furman: I'm expected a classified submission from the government. Adjourned.

The trial and this coverage will continue.

 Here's from Judge Furman June 13 Order: "as discussed on the record at the classified hearing held  on June 8, 2022, the Court concludes that the particular statement Defendant seeks to admit is  admissible. The Court further concludes that the information should likely be admitted as a  stipulation, which would give Defendant “substantially the same ability to make his defense as  would disclosure of ” a portion of the document itself, pursuant to CIPA Section 6(c). See 18.  U.S.C. app. 3 § 6(c). Accordingly, the parties shall propose an agreed upon stipulation or  competing stipulations for the Court’s approval no later than June 17, 2022."

Previously, in the conclusion of the month long trial of accused CIA leaker Joshua Schulte, on the morning of March 9, 2020 the jury returned guilty verdicts on Counts 8 and 10, with mistrial granted on all other counts. U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Paul A. Crotty set March 26 for the next date. 

Then it was moved to April 22 (then May 18). March 9 thread here. Song here.

  On November 9, 2021, a status conference was held before Judge Jesse M. Furman to whom the case was reassigned. Inner City Press live tweeted it here - the upshot was a May 23, 2022 trial date was set. Vlog here.

 That has since been moved to June, with the admonition that it will not be further moved. Schulte has raised issues of how his right to represent himself is possible with law library, turned off computers and printer paper issues in the MDC.

  This was was one of the issues at a May 18 pre-trial conference held on Courtroom 15A of 500 Pearl Street, where Judge Furman has been overseeing a drug trial Inner City Press is also covering, along with other criminal and civil trials. It stepped out - then found that a window had been opened to oppose courtroom sealing. It wrote in to Judge Furman, see below and The New Yorker of June 16: "Matthew Russell Lee, an independent journalist who covered the first trial, recently filed an objection to the government’s motion to seal the courtroom during testimony from C.I.A. officers, but it appears that that condition will again apply."

On June 8 there was a final pre-trial conference, also in courtroom 15A; Inner City Press live tweeted:

OK- at #CIA #Vault7 leak case of US v. Schulte, Inner City Press which has opposed sealing is here, with half dozen gov't reps.

Now US wants to quash subpoena on a witness.

Judge: I would like to avoid sidebars... esp due to Mr Schulte's US Marshals issue. [He has 2 Marshals sitting behind him]

 AUSA: When we move to sealed witnesses... Judge: We'll have the jury leave too, to make no one is in the courtroom who shouldn't be. Openings at earliest Tuesday [and probably later]. Four alternates.

 Judge: 10 peremptories for the defense.  6 for the US. I'll tell jurors Mr Schulte is charged with 9 crimes [incl with] Wikileaks. 

Schulte: Stress that I am presumed innocent.

 Judge: I intend to ask jurors if they are vaccinated and boosted.

AUSA: We want our experts and former case agent in the court during other witnesses' testimony. Judge: Experts yes, case agent no.

Judge: Witnesses cannot read transcripts or media. A/V dry run, you can do it when in the courtroom, Mr Schulte.

Schulte: I'll be here til 4 on my Friday SCIF day.

 Judge: We'll take up the rest in our classified setting. Adjourned.

 Then the prosecutors and Marshals stood around Schulte as he tried to charge his laptop. The continued session would be elsewhere in the courthouse, sealed.

 Back on April 13, 2022, Judge Furman held a conference with Schulte present. Inner City Press live tweeted it here....

Previously, Judge Crotty held another proceeding with Schulte and his stand-by counsel. Schulte was moved to the MDC: "JOSHUA ADAM SCHULTE Register Number: 79471-054 Age:     33 Race:     White Sex:     Male Located at: Brooklyn MDC Release Date: UNKNOWN." [And see its Oct 15 MCC video here]

  On March 2, 2021 were the closing arguments [in the first trial], which Inner City Press tweeted, thread here

 More on Patreon here.

See Inner City Press filing into the docket on Big Cases Bot, here. Watch this site. The case is US v. Schulte, 17-cr-548 (Furman).

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