A federal judge on Tuesday lashed into the lawyer for indicted ex-Councilman Dan Halloran, ripping him for revising his defense playbook at the 11th-hour by dragging former Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s 2009 campaign into his client’s bribery trial.
White Plains federal Judge Kenneth Karas accused lawyer Vinoo Varghese of trying to further delay the Queens Republican’s two-month-long trial by waiting until 3:22 am Tuesday to electronically file legal papers seeking a court order for 637 pages of Bloomberg’s 2009 campaign finance records to be entered as evidence.
“We are going to lose this jury,” the judge said. “I already told you not to sandbag. You have a problem with credibility.”
Karas reluctantly allowed the documents to be entered as evidence but barred Varghese from using the Bloomberg campaign as an excuse for his client’s actions when Halloran takes the stand for a fourth day on Wednesday.
Varghese has claimed Bloomberg used campaign funds to legally hire “consultants” for the political maneuvering needed to get him the 2009 Republican line and that the former mayor’s actions were no different than what Halloran did while masterminding a failed plan to get Democratic state Sen. Malcolm Smith the GOP line in the 2013 mayoral race — for which he is charged with accepting bribes.
Bloomberg legitimately hired consultants to help get GOP support because he’d turned his back on the party by registering as an Independent in 2007 while considering a presidential run. However, the feds say Smith’s potential mayoral candidacy was aided through a $200,000 bribery scheme that Halloran headed.
Halloran claims he and others who’ve been charged with accepting bribes to help support Smith were actually paid for legitimate political-consulting work. He says he relied on Bloomberg’s campaign-expense filings to determine fees operatives should receive.
“Mr. Halloran had a good-faith belief that his actions, those of a political consultant to help Senator Smith, were legal and consistent with those of Mayor Bloomberg, who publicly disclosed the amount he spent for political operators/consultants,” Varghese wrote in the early Tuesday morning letter to the judge. “Consequently, the [Bloomberg] records should be admitted into evidence as relevant to Mr. Halloran’s then-existing state-of-mind.”
It’s unclear whether the government will need additional time to review the new evidence, further delaying the already drawn-out trial. However, Karas cautioned that Halloran testifying about the Bloomberg filings could extend his eventual cross-examination by prosecutors.
Assistant US Attorney Douglas Bloom objected to the documents being entered as evidence, saying they are “irrelevant” to the case.
Since Halloran claims he reviewed the Bloomberg filings in February 2013, Karas chastised Varghese for not trying to submit them as evidence much earlier.
The lawyer defended his actions, saying, “This isn’t anything related to sand-bagging the government.”
Halloran is accused of pocketing $20,500 in cash bribes for masterminding cross-party negotiations to help fix the Republican mayoral primary for Smith.
Halloran is also facing charges of allegedly pocketing $18,300 in cash bribes and $6,500 in straw-donor campaign donations for agreeing to steer $80,000 of council discretionary funding for his district to a company he believed was controlled by those who paid him the bribes.
Halloran, if convicted, faces up to 45 years behind bars. Smith heads back for a retrial in January.