| SDNY
Jury Hears of Videos Of Honduras President
JOH Talking Trash With Narcos But Audio
Cut
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Song Filing
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
March 16 – Honduras President
Juan Orlando Hernandez took a
briefcase of cash and said he
would stuff drugs up the noses
of the gringos, a jury was
told on March 16. The audio
call-in line, at the demand of
the prosecutors was cut off.
But Inner City Press live
tweeted it, morning here
and then the afternoon, about
the video(s), here
and below:
AUSA: What were they talking about, at
the round table? Witness-1: Politics. The
defendant took more money out, in twenties. He
said, to help with your campaign. AUSA: How
much was there? W1: Diez mil. ($10,000)
AUSA: Who is this? (Showing exhibit)
Witness-1: Leonel Sauceda, head of the
national police... My boss was going to the US
for a medical check up, he took Sauceda's
number with him, and the defendant's.
AUSA: The time you were in the defendant's
car, why were you there? Witness-1: I needed
the payroll list, and there were no bodyguards
to take me there. AUSA: Why did you need
bodyguards? Witness-1: For the quantity of
money I had to pick up.
AUSA: Did you get into the car? Who else was
in it? Witness-1: The driver and the
defendant. I saw many weapons (muchas armas).
The driver had un escopeta. There was an
AK-47.
AUSA: What did the defendant say about
the weapon? Witness-1: He said, Ojala we get
the chance to use this, what my friends gave
me. AUSA: Who did you take him to mean?
Fuentes' lawyer: Objection! Judge Castel: I'll
allow it. Witness-1: Militares (military/ies)
AUSA: How did it come to be that you
made videos? Witness-1: The guy who usually
did it had to leave. So he gave me the key to
do it. AUSA: How many copies did you make?
Witness-1: Two. AUSA: We're talking about a
video of the second meeting between the
defendant and Juan Orlando Hernandez?
Witness-1: Yes. I looked for video of the
first meeting, but I could not find it.
AUSA: When you left Graneros, did the
defendant have an outstanding balance with the
company? Witness-1: Yes, over 400,000
lempiras, over several accounts. AUSA: Was
that a lot, or a little? W1: Era bastante
dinero (it was pretty much money)
AUSA: When did you last see the defendant?
Witness-1: 2015, en la semana santa. He was
with his yacht, big and bonito. He had
bodyguards armed with semi automatics.
[Microphone is cleaned] Judge Castel: We start
at 10:30 am (a juror is getting second vaccine
shot)
Now the cross examination, by Fuentes'
lawyer. Fuentes' lawyer: Good afternoon Mr.
Sanchez. We've never met? Witness-1: No, we
have not. Fuentes' lawyer: But you prepared
this testimony with the prosecutors, correct?
W1: Correcto.
Fuentes' lawyer: So Mr Jarufe let
National Party officials have meetings at
Graneros' offices? Witness-1: Yes. Fuentes'
lawyer: For example, Juan Orlando Hernandez,
when he was running for president, he'd come
to Graneros and meet businesspeople, yes? W1:
Yes.
Fuentes' lawyer: And Juan Orlando Hernandez
would solicit campaign contributions, yes?
Witness-1: Yes. Fuentes' lawyer: You did not
like Juan Orlando Hernandez, correct?
Witness-1: No, not after I heard him laughing
at the Honduran people. Fuentes' lawyer: So
when you met with the US agents in 2019, you
told them about a meeting you witnessed
between the defendant and Juan Orlando
Hernandez, correct? Witness-1: Yes. [If true,
the US has had this info since 2019]
Now Fuentes' lawyer is having Witness-1
read a piece of discovery, 3500 material; the
interpreter is translating it for the witness.
Fuentes' lawyer: Does this refresh your
recollection? Witness-1: No.
Fuentes' lawyer: You say you heard Juan
Orlando Hernandez talking about stealing from
the Honduran Social Security system, but the
defendant was not there? Witness-1: Right.
Fuentes' lawyer: And you say you gave Juan
Orlando Hernandez a check? W1: Yes.
Fuentes' lawyer: You called Juan Orlando
Hernandez a thief? Witness-1: Yes. In 2013.
Before he was President. Fuentes' lawyer: Who
was there? Witness-1: My boss, Juan Orlando,
& 2 more National Party officials.
Fuentes' lawyer: Do you know their names? W1:
No.
Witness-1: I was stopped from going into
the room by guards. They said, Do you know
who's in there? I said, yes, Un ladron.
Fuentes' lawyer: Did you say it to his face?
Witness-1: Yes. They asked and I told them
what I had said. Juan Orlando Hernandez
laughed.
Witness-1: Juan Orlando Hernandez held
out his hand but I did not shake it... In
Honduras some say they prefer that people say
"Ahi va el ladron que Ayi va el pendejo."
Fuentes' lawyer: You have told this jury you
saw the president of your country talking
about going into business with a drug
trafficker, correct? Witness-1: He wasn't
president yet.
Fuentes' lawyer: Let's talk about you.
No one directed you to lie on the form that
you completed at the bank, right? Witness-1:
Yes. Because I had to deposit the money. Inner
City Press @innercitypress · 2h Judge Castel:
Ladies and gentleman, let's take our afternoon
break. (Cross examination of Witness-1 will
continue) They're back. Fuentes' lawyer: ..
Saying it was the safest place in Chaloma
doesn't mean it was a safe place. Witness-1:
It was pretty safe. Fuentes' lawyer: You say
you learned about the raid on the finca on TV?
W1: Yes.
Fuentes' lawyer: You're not an expert on
how drug dealers talk? Witness-1: No, I am
not. Fuentes' lawyer: But you interpreted what
the worker of Mr. Fuentes said as being a
reference to a drug deal, right? Later you met
Santos Rivera Maradiaga at Graneros, right?
Witness-1: Yes. Fuentes' lawyer: For then, you
associated Los Cachiros with Leonel and Javier
- but not their youngest brother Santos
Isidro, right? W1: Correct.
Fuentes' lawyer: Now as to Juan Orlando
Hernandez - he had no idea of your views on
drug trafficking, right? And yet he spoke
right in front of you and didn't say, "Mr.
Sanchez, you better not disclose this," right?
Witness-1: Correct.
Fuentes' lawyer: Did you ever tell your
boss about what you heard Juan Orlando
Hernandez say? Witness-1: No. But I told
others.
Fuentes' lawyer: You say Mr. Fuentes Ramirez
took out $15,000 and gave it to Juan Orlando
Hernandez, right? W1: Correcto. Fuentes'
lawyer: You told us on direct that there came
a point in time that you went to the Graneros
video machines to look for the videos of the
meetings involving Juan Orlando Hernandez,
correct?
Witness-1: Yes. Fuentes' lawyer: And the first
meeting you searched for was the meeting in
which Juan Orlando Hernandez spoke of stealing
from the Social Security system? Witness-1: It
didn't allow me to search that way. Fuentes'
lawyer: But you knew when the meeting
happened.
Judge Castel: Ladies and gentlemen,
we'll pick up tomorrow morning, a bit later
than usual. You can fill out your menus for
lunch.
Yesterday after the jury left, Judge
Castel issued his oral order cutting the
public call-in line. (Again, he's been
pro-openness in NorthKorea crypto & Peter
Bright cases). Today he simply said, "Have a
good evening." Inner City Press will
have more on this
And, after the trial day, no exhibits
from the US Attorney's Office since March 11 -
to be contrasted to another trial in the
courthouse, US v. Weigand, where 1000 exhibits
were uploaded after Judge Jed S. Rakoff
ordered it in response to Inner City Press'
filing(s).
The question
remains: Does the right to
access to Federal court
proceedings extend to
listen-only telephone lines,
in the time of COVID and
beyond? Should it?
The
question has been further
raised in the ongoing Honduras
narco-trafficking case US v.
Geovanny Fuentes, which Inner
City Press has been covering
in-person in the U.S. District
Court for the Southern
District of New York, where it
is "in-house press."
On
the morning of March 13, Inner
City Press filed a challenge
to the cut-off of audio access
to the US v. Fuentes trial,
citing the First Amendment,
COVID and real-world politics,
see here
and below.
Late on
the evening of March 14, the
US Attorney's Office filed a
three page letter into the
docket, specifically arguing
the the call-in line be
eliminated for two entire
Witnesses and everything they
say. US Attorney's Office's
letter, now uploaded on Inner
City Press' DocumentCloud, here.
Inner City
Press has immediately
responded in opposition, here,
stating among other things
that "the US Attorney's Office
seeks to specifically ban
public access to two of their
Witnesses, while saying that a
transcript would be available
at some unspecified date
afterwards. Given that the
Office has yet to unseal
improperly redacted portions
of their filings, there is
little reason to have
confidence in the speed of
transcription, or that such
transcripts would not be too
expensive for the public or
media.
Inner City Press
after its first filing waited
nine hours, including this song,
here, to report about
it. Full first letter on Inner
City Press' DocumentCloud, here.
Inner City
Press itself obeys all
existing rules and is grateful
for the additional access as
in-house media (particularly
since it is banned
from covering the UN, which
now Constitutional rights such
as the First Amendment exist).
But others
have rights too - including
journalists and regular
citizens of Honduras. If the
SDNY prosecutors are going to
exercises essentially
universal jurisdiction for any
wire transfer that passes
through lower Manhattan, how
ever briefly, they should not
oppose access to their trials
by those impacted, for better
and worse.
Judge Castel is a
good judge, in Inner City
Press' experience. When
petitioned he has ordered the
unsealing of certain court
documents, in a North Korea crypto-currency
conference case and the tech /
child sex sentencing
of Peter Bright former of
ArsTechnica, both of which
Inner City Press covered and requested.
And Judge Castel is certainly
in the mainstream in his March
12 psoition. But should it be
rethought? Is there a right?
Should there be? Watch this
site.
The case is US v. Diaz, 15-cr-379
(Castel).
***
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
|
,
