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Case 1:20-cr-00330-PAE Document 161 Filed 02/24/22 Page 63 of 117 A-5909 7
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1 should have done as lawyers. And then after that, I've always
2 thought, partly because they dropped the ball, they were less
3 than candid in what they said to the Court going forward.
4 THE COURT: That last point is really another part of
5 the analysis, isn't it, that, why shouldn't this Court view
6 Brune & Richard's lack of candor with the Court in making their
7 motion as circumstantial evidence that they were in fact trying
8 to conceal from the Court a strategic decision they made?
9 MR. SHECHTMAN: Look, I think, and the Court does in
10 its opinion consider it as circumstantial evidence and it's not
11 a pretty picture. But the question to me has always been what
12 is it circumstantial evidence of? And I think it is
13 circumstantial evidence of a realization that they had a
14 responsibility to tell the Court, and they walked away that
15 night and really left the Court in an untenable position such
16 that at least two, and I hope three, defendants may be on trial
17 again in the spring.
18 So, I don't have any doubt that you can take that
19 conduct and look back. The question is, do you look back and
20 say to yourself, these are people who knew they dropped the
21 ball and were careless and inattentive and didn't fulfill their
22 obligations to the Court? Or do you go back and say these are
23 people who made a strategic decision to game the system at an
24 earlier time. I don't think there is any evidence to support
25 that. As I've said before, there is nothing in that plaza
SOUTHERN DISTRICT REPORTERS, P.C.
(212) 805-0300
DOJ-OGR-00009485