| In Trial of
Manafort Lender Calk US Opposes His Videos
Citing Precedent of UN Briber Ho
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
Podcast
II III
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
July 5 – After months of preliminaries,
the trial of Stephen Calk for
conspiracy to trade his bank's
loans to Paul Manafort for the
Secretary of the Army position
began on June 23. Inner City
Press live tweeted, here,
previous coverage here,
podcast here
Then the defense
opening statement and first
witness, here,
and Inner City Press question
to Calk on Scaramucci, here
(& Alamy photo here)
Now on July
5, a court holiday, the US has
filed opposition to Calk
getting before the jury a
compilation video of his TV
appearances for Trump, citing
SDNY Judge Loretta A. Preska
disallowing such a compilation
from UN briber Patrick Ho:
"The Government respectfully
submits this motion to exclude
Defense Exhibit 50, a
compilation video excerpting
portions of the defendant’s
television appearances
advocating for the election of
Donald J. Trump, as irrelevant
under Federal Rule of Evidence
402, and as confusing and
unfairly prejudicial under
Rule 403. DX 50, which the
defense first provided to the
Government on July 1, 2021, is
approximately 8:21 minutes
long.1 The first part
consists of very short clips
of news anchors describing the
defendant as “a” or “the”
senior economic advisor to
then-candidate Trump, often
running just long enough to
show the defendant, made up
for television, offering his
best smile to the camera. The
remainder is Calk delivering a
series of talking points
designed to appeal to a broad
audience—as political sound
bites typically do—such as:
Showing gratitude for the
sacrifice... This Court should
thus follow the district court
in United States v. Ho, which
rejected a similar effort by a
defendant to offer a
self-serving video compilation
of his prior speeches,
purportedly to show his state
of mind. 17 Cr. 779, Dkt. 193,
at 58-61. There, Judge Preska
excluded the video, explaining
that the defendant could not
“testify without swearing an
oath, facing
cross-examination, or having
his attitude and demeanor
scrutinized by the jury.” Ho
was convicted. Watch this
site.
On June 29 came
the cross examination of
Anthony Scaramucci, which
Inner City Press live tweeted
here and below, (podcast
here)
Song I here.
On July 1, there
was testimony from immunized
witness James Brennan. Inner
City Press tweeted, here:
Q: So Mr Yohai
was cut out of the deal after
that? Brennan: Yes... Q:
Though Mr Manafort had no
income, he has this political
consulting business, right?
Brennan: Yes. Q: And your
policy was to look at the
trend of 3 to 5 years?
Brennan: Yes.
Q: Put the
loan memo for the Summer
Breeze transaction on the
screen. GX 2. This is your
work? Brennan: Yes. Q: Let's
turn to page 9, the personal
financial statement of Paul
Manafort. You wrote he had
$11.9 million in cash?
Brennan: That is
what it says.
Judge
Schofield (to jurors) Let's
take a break for lunch. I know
it's hard to stay awake in the
afternoon. That has to do with
carbs and sugar. Just noting
that, before your lunch.
Then there were
John Day and Jack Gomgaware
Witness being
asked about Calk claiming he's
a combat veteran.
Calk's lawyer
asks How can you remember this
conversation from four years
ago?
The case is US v. Calk, 19-cr-366
(Schofield)
***
Your
support means a lot. As little as $5 a month
helps keep us going and grants you access to
exclusive bonus material on our Patreon
page. Click
here to become a patron.
Feedback:
Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
SDNY Press Room 480, front cubicle
500 Pearl Street, NY NY 10007 USA
Mail: Box 20047, Dag
Hammarskjold Station NY NY 10017
Reporter's mobile (and weekends):
718-716-3540
Other, earlier Inner City Press are
listed here,
and some are available in the ProQuest
service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright 2006-2021 Inner City
Press, Inc. To request reprint or other
permission, e-contact Editorial [at]
innercitypress.com
|
,
