The Courts Never Allowed a Hearing on the Alleged DOJ Misconduct.
Seven post-conviction experts — including four former FBI examiners — found that key evidence in the case had been falsified and planted with government involvement.
Their findings were verified by an independent expert retained by Newsweek.
The seven experts jointly wrote:
“[T]he camera card and the hard drive were extensively tampered with. Hundreds of files were planted, staged, and manipulated across both devices… the involvement of government personnel in this evidentiary fraud is inescapable — an unprecedented finding in our combined 150+ years of forensic experience.” — 7 experts, Joint Forensic Report
Yet the courts refused even an evidentiary hearing. Instead, the denial relied entirely on a single FBI rebuttal report that:
- was undated,
- contained no underlying proof,
- misidentified the evidence,
- and came from an FBI examiner, David Loveall II, who never testified and was never cross-examined.
That same FBI expert later appeared in Jack Smith’s prosecution of President Trump.
See the point-by-point breakdown of the Loveall report →
All of the Judges Who Blocked Review Have Personally Ruled Against President Trump or His Administration.
Every judge in the chain that blocked review of the DOJ misconduct here has personally delivered a courtroom defeat to President Trump or his administration in another major case:
- Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis (EDNY, trial court) later overturned President Trump on DACA, forcing the administration to fully reinstate the program nationwide.
- Judge Maria Araújo Kahn (2d Circuit) later affirmed the $83.3 million E. Jean Carroll verdict against President Trump.
- Judge Pierre Leval (2d Circuit) revived the emoluments lawsuit against President Trump.
- Judge Richard J. Sullivan (2d Circuit) blocked the Trump administration on immigrant deportation in Blanche v. Lau, now before the Supreme Court. He is also an adjunct professor at Columbia Law School.
The Second Circuit Didn’t Just Affirm the Denial. They Commended Judge Garaufis.
The unanimous Second Circuit panel that affirmed the denial of an evidentiary hearing into the documented evidence fabrication went further: it commended Judge Garaufis for his conduct of the case as
“skill, patience, and restraint.” — Second Circuit panel, U.S. v. Raniere
But What Were They Commending?
At a restitution hearing in this case, Judge Garaufis mocked defense attorney Marc Fernich shortly after Fernich’s mentor had died of pancreatic cancer. Motioning toward a tissue box, the judge told the clerk:
“Give him this to go cry on.”
He also threatened to arrest Fernich during the proceeding.
A reporter covering the case described it in real time as “one of the most bizarre moments in court I’ve ever seen.”
And Another Moment from the Same Judge.
At a pre-trial conference on June 12, 2018, Judge Garaufis stated on the record that his knowledge of the case came from the New York Times Magazine and the Albany Times Union.
The Albany Times Union belonged to media companies whose corporate IP addresses later appeared in criminal hacking logs tied to breaches of NXIVM servers — confirmed by New York State Police. The New York Times helped generate the public outrage that set the stage for the prosecution.
Every quote, document, and image above is independently verifiable in the linked sources.