MIAMI, UNITED STATES. –The federal prosecutors of New York have become the center of attention and controversy after recognizing one “Outright Lie” to lawyers in defense of a criminal suspect as they tried to downplay the misuse of evidence in the failed trial of a businessman accused of violating US sanctions against Iran.
This same prosecutor’s office is the one who has several charges Honduran capos and politicians, linked to drug cartels.
Media like Washington Post and ABC News they reflect what is considered a scandal showing the manipulation of a process. The journalistic story emerges after the AP news agency requests documents from a particular case.
According to these media outlets, “ the embarrassing revelations about what many consider to be the United States ‘premier criminal investigation agency were contained in dozens of private text messages, transcripts and correspondence delivered Monday, despite prosecutors’ objection, at the request of the Associated Press ”.
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The release of the data followed a ruling last week in which US District Judge Alison Nathan urged the Justice Department to open an internal investigation into possible misconduct by the accusers of the terrorism and narcotics unit. International Reports to the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Like him Washington Post como ABC News report that while Judge Nathan found no evidence that prosecutors deliberately withheld evidence from lawyers representing an Iranian banker, Ali Sadr Hashemi Nejad, said they had made a ‘deliberate attempt’ to conceal the truth and attempted to ‘bury’ an important document that could have helped the defense.
The errors were so serious that even after obtaining a conviction, prosecutors dropped all charges against Sadr.
Documents released Monday detail how the case against Sadr began to unravel last March in the time of a few turbulent hours, when the trial was nearing completion.
As explained on a Friday night, a bank record appeared that the line prosecutor, Assistant United States Attorney Jane Kim, wanted to present as evidence. But he realized he hadn’t yet shared it with Sadr’s lawyers, a possible violation of rules designed to ensure a fair trial.
Kim initially suggested handing him over to the defense immediately. But a colleague, Assistant United States Attorney Stephanie Lake, recommended that “wait until tomorrow and bury it in other documents,” according to the US media.
The trick didn’t work. Sadr’s lawyers identified the document as new within an hour. They filed a complaint with prosecutors, saying the document, a letter from Commerzbank to the US Treasury Department’s Sanctions Enforcement Office, would have helped them in their defense.
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Prosecutors, who believed the document had no exculpatory value to the defense, made up an excuse and told lawyers they believed the document had been filed earlier, he says.
Late Sunday night, the judge Nathan he had given prosecutors an hour to explain himself.
Unit supervisors, Emil Bove and Shawn Crowley, became involved. In a text message, Bove acknowledged that the first excuse the trial attorneys had given Sadr’s attorneys was a “plain lie.”
Crowley, aware of the seriousness of his subordinates’ fault and anticipating a harsh reprimand, trusts Above that instead of looking at the prosecutors’ closing arguments, she would “spend the rest of the night tidying my office.”
These poor boys. This is going to be a bloodbath, “he wrote in a moment of frustration early Monday before appearing in court.
Bove agrees, acknowledging that the testing team has “been doing some pretty aggressive things here in recent days”. “Yes, we lied in that letter,” Crowley replies.
Even the US media cites an ethicist who questions the actions of the prosecutors.
Stephen Gillers, a professor of ethics at New York University School of Law, said the prosecution’s conduct in the case, as described by the judge, was “alarming.”
“If it can happen in what many lawyers consider to be the highest prosecutor in the nation, where can’t it happen?” Gillers said. The behavior here is what you would expect from an overly aggressive attorney representing a private party.
President Hernández hopes Tony’s case will go to second instance in the US