The decide overseeing Letitia James’ mortgage fraud case on Friday denied a movement from the New York legal professional normal trying to pressure federal prosecutors to maintain a log of all their communications with the media.
Protection legal professional Abbe Lowell filed the movement final week, when James was arraigned on financial institution fraud and false statements expenses, in response to a report that US Lawyer Lindsey Halligan despatched a flurry of encrypted Sign messages in regards to the case to a reporter.
“[T]he defendant doesn’t reveal that it’s obligatory for the Court docket to order the federal government to trace communications with the media in any explicit type,” US District Choose Jamar Walker wrote in his six-page order.
“The defendant’s request that the federal government be required to maintain a communication log is DENIED,” the Biden-appointed decide dominated.
Walker famous that Halligan’s Sign chat with Lawfare senior editor Anna Bower earlier this month was “uncommon” however he declined to supply an opinion “on whether or not they have been improper in any sense, both authorized or moral.”
The decide ordered federal prosecutors to adjust to all court docket guidelines, however didn’t recommend any had been damaged.
He additionally ordered a “litigation maintain stopping the deletion or destruction of any data or communications having to do with the investigation or prosecution of this case.”
Halligan’s Sign messages to the Bower have been set to vanish after eight hours.
The decide, nonetheless, didn’t rule on whether or not Halligan’s message — which forged doubt on a New York Occasions report disclosing that James’ grandniece testified to a grand jury that she by no means paid hire on the Norfolk, Va., property on the heart of the case — amounted to materials topic to discovery guidelines.
“[T]he Court docket is just not persuaded that preservation of proof associated to the federal government’s communications requires such proof be maintained in any explicit type,” Walker wrote. “The defendant doesn’t reveal {that a} communication log is critical, so the Court docket is not going to order the federal government to take care of one.”
“The Court docket trusts that counsel on each side will adjust to this Order with out additional handholding.”
In response to James’ movement, federal prosecutors had requested Walker to put a gag order on the New York legal professional normal, which he declined to take action.
James pleaded not responsible final week to 1 rely of financial institution fraud and one rely of constructing a false assertion to a monetary establishment.
The longtime Donald Trump foe purchased a three-bedroom, one-bathroom residence on Peronne Avenue in Norfolk with a $109,600 mortgage on Aug. 17, 2020, which was accomplished with a second residence rider designating James because the “sole borrower to occupy and use the property,” in keeping with the indictment.
That assertion netted the Empire State’s prime regulation enforcement officer extra favorable mortgage phrases that benefited her to the tune of almost $19,000.
Nevertheless, prosecutors say the house “was not occupied or used” by James, however “was as a substitute used as a rental funding property” to accommodate her grandniece, Nakia Thompson.
James faces as much as 60 years in jail and a fantastic of as much as $2 million if convicted of each counts.
