In
Vault 7 Leak Trial Schulte Cites Comey
Fiasco Then CIA Leonis In Sealed Courtroom
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Thread Song
BBC
- Decrypt
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SDNY COURTHOUSE,
June 16 – 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:
Jury entering!
Judge Furman: Juror 15, I take
it that my deputy conveyed to
you... [A nod] Judge Furman:
Very good. Proceed, Mr.
Schulte. Schulte: Good
morning. Yesterday you
testified about the search of
my Manhattan apartment. How
many agents? Evanchec: 8 to
15.
Schulte: How long
did you take? FBI Agent
Evanchec: 14 to 15 hours.
Schulte: For a one bedroom
apartment? Evanchec: Yes.
Schulte: You
seized all the electronics -
how many? Evanchec: Two
servers, desk tops, thumb
drives, hard drives...
Schulte:
There was no National Defense
Information discovered on my
mp3 players, correct?
Evanchec: Not
that I recall.
Judge Furman:
Jurors, National Defense
Information is a legal term.
You'll decide it is or isn't.
Schulte: Was
there any classification
review by the CIA of the IRC
chats?
Evanchec: I don't
recall.
Schulte: You
seized 20 terabytes of data to
try to find anything on me,
correct? Evanchec: That is not
the goal of our
investigations.
Schulte: Your
search warrants for GitHub and
Reddit, you found no National
Defense Information, correct?
Evanchec: No we
did not. Schulte: And here you
found a movie, Robin Hood with
Kevin Costner, correct?
Evanchec: Correct.
Schulte:
You said you found documents
in the headboard of my bed,
right? All my CIA documents?
Evanchec: Most
of them. Schulte: Like my CIA
pay stubs. A: Yes. Schulte:
And just because an email has
full names doesn't mean it's
classified, right? A: It might
be.
Schulte: Your
notes here, they contain the
last names of covert
operatives of the CIA,
correct? Evanchec: Well, just
one. Schulte: But that's a
violation, isn't it? Evanchec:
I'm not a classification
authority. Schulte: Did you
purposefully disclose NDI?
AUSA
Lockard: Objection! Judge
Furman: Sustained.
Schulte: But the
government never charged you
with a crime, correct? AUSA:
Objection. Judge: Sustained.
Schulte: Let's talk about
Google searches.
Schulte:
During this time period,
Wikileaks released the DNC
emails, right? Evanchec: Yes.
Schulte: And there was a
fiasco with your director,
Comey, right?
There was
Guccifer 2.0, right?
Judge Furman: Do
you know what Guccifer 2.0 is?
Evanchec: No, sir.
Schulte: There
were also the Shadow
Brokers... Is it your
understanding that Wikileaks
has NSA code?
Evanchec: I do
not know about that. Schulte:
Did you know that 80% of the
searches you claim I made
about Wikileaks were not in
fact searches at all?
Evanchec: No.
Schulte:
Are you aware of Google News?
Evanchec: I do not not
regularly use Google - so, no.
Schulte: Did you know Google
makes a special log in your
search history when you're
using Google News? Evanchec:
No.
Interim update 1:
the FBI surveilled Schulte
family vacation in San Diego.
Jurors look interested.
Interim
update 2: Schulte went
overtime with his cross and
re-cross. Here's some of it
(trial resumes with "sealed"
session at 12:20 pm, so
this'll be supplemented later)
The FBI found people to wear
wires and talk to Schulte
about Wikileaks.
The FBI had
people "bump" into Schulte at
a bachelor party and just, oh
by the way, bring up Wikileaks
and record him. Schulte made a
point of asking, did the FBI
surveil my mother and me going
to Starbucks? Yes. Jurors
looked interested, like it was
a tennis match
OK -
"sealed" session about to
begin - thread will continue
later, watch this feed
Whew - out
of sealed courtroom after 2
1/2 hours. "Now it can be
told" - well, sort of --
The witness, who cannot be
physically described under the
order, is Anthony Leonis. He
was Schulte's
supervisor. He
identified Schulte as "the man
with the shaved head"
Leonis: On March
7, 2017 I was supposed to
drive my boss, I was looking
forward to the time to talk -
but the Vault 7 leak came out
on Wikileaks and they said,
everyone to the office! There,
the conference room was full.
Brutal Kangaroo could no
longer be usedAUSA Denton
showed on the screen the
Brutal Kangaroo / Drifting
Deadline users' guide.
AUSA Denton: What
is air gap jumping? Leonis: A
thumb drive infects one
computer, and it spreads onto
another thumb drive. On the
screen: EZCheese LinkFiles /
Giraffe Links
Questioning
turns back to the decision to
relocate Schulte after
restraining order against
Amol. Email to Schulte: "As
discussed, please move to your
cubicle." Josh = 9W53-020
Emails involved Debra, Bonnie
B. Smith, Frank Stedman,
Leonard Small, Patrick
Schaffer
Then moving
cubicles deemed not enough.
Josh to AED/RDB (under
Leonis), Amol AED/MDB. Schulte
responds with emails that he
assumes this is punishment for
reporting Amol and getting the
protective order. He gets no
written answer; writes again.
Schulte was
allowed to contribute to, but
not administer, OSB Libraries.
But, Leonis complains, he
still did - & told Jeremy
he'd been authorized. Alert!
Leonis says he began to
consider stripping all of
Schulte's access. [A
bureaucratic stations of the
Cross]
Schulte did not
get to start cross examination
of Leonis today. AUSA Denton
said he has an hour more of
direct. So, 10 am tomorrow,
the cross.
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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