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Document 120366006380

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The Honorable Alison J. Nathan August 24, 2020 Page 2 The government's ad hominem suggestion that Ms. Maxwell has "cherry-pick[ed] materials" to seek an "advantage in their efforts to defend against accusations of abuse" or "delay court-ordered disclosure of previously sealed materials" reveals a fundamental (or feigned) lack of understanding . It also begs the question, to be fleshed out at a later time, . Ms. Maxwell simply seeks to alert the judicial officers in the related Civil Litigation to facts about which her adversary is already aware. Issuance of the Subpoenas Not "Standard Practice": Second, the government tries to normalize, without citation to authority, its conduct as "standard practice." Resp. at 2. To the contrary, the controlling case in this Circuit, Martindell v. Int'l Telephone & Telegraph Corp., 594 F.2d 291, 293 (2d Cir. 1979), mandates a wholly different procedure: the use of a non-ex parte subpoena with an opportunity for the aggrieved party to move to quash. Similar cases in this district demonstrate the "non-standard" nature of the government's conduct regarding these subpoenas. For example, Judge Koeltl observed when considering whether to release a single deposition transcript to the government: "the Second Circuit has made clear that the Government may not use its 'awesome' investigative powers to seek modification of a protective order merely to compare the fruits of the plaintiff's discovery in a civil action with the results of a prosecutorial investigation in a criminal action." Botha v. Don King Prods., Inc., No. 97 CIV. 7587 (JGK), 1998 WL 88745, at *3 (S.D.N.Y. Feb. 27, 1998) (citing Minpeco S.A. v. Conticommodity Servs., Inc., 832 F.2d 739, 743 (2d Cir. 1987) and Martindell, 594 F.2d at 297). App.116 DOJ-OGR-00019575