Lisa Rubin
π€ PersonPodcast Appearances
No, it's all been right and it's all terrifying, Rachel. Thank you for having me.
There's not always a process, but if there are circumstances where the judge feels that he or she needs to get to the bottom of a nali prosequi motion, and that's what this is, this is a motion to dismiss after prosecution has already been brought, that judge has some latitude to call for... hearings or other processes that allow them to understand what happened.
The most recent example I can think of in the Southern District itself involves a case in 2020 and 2021, where after the defendant was convicted, it came out that the prosecutors had essentially buried a piece of evidence that would have been exculpatory for the defendant. And the judge in that case actually asked for affidavits and evidence from the U.S.
Attorney's Office trying to understand how did this happen? Was this purposeful? Did this constitute prosecutorial misconduct? And while she determined that none of it was intentional, she did refer all of the attorneys who were involved to the Office of Professional Responsibility at the Department of Justice.
Those are the sorts of things that are within the power of a judge facing a motion like this, Rachel.
I think it's entirely within Judge Ho's discretion to decide who, what, when, how, and why. But I would expect, knowing himβand I will, in full disclosure, Judge Ho is a law school classmate of mineβI expect that he'll move fairly expeditiously and ask everyone to come to the table. And he may even tell them in advance, these are the sort of questions I have around this request.
And around some of the communications that have gone back and forth. You know, you referred to the memo that Danielle Sassoon wrote when she was trying to explain to the attorney general why she couldn't do this. That's a memo that many people have said to me that was written for a court. But there may be much more behind the scenes that Judge Ho wants to see, including.
correspondence or communications between the lawyers for Eric Adams and the Department of Justice that the New York Times reported on yesterday, essentially saying that the Department of Justice was feeding Eric Adams' lawyers, hey, tell us more about how this is an impediment to your boss or your client, I'm sorry, doing his job.
That might be the sort of thing that Judge Ho wants to understand to determine whether or not there was a quid pro quo here, Rachel.
Thank you.