Busy D.A.’s Office

It was FOUR MONTHS AGO today, on April 10, that the Lawyers’ Committee for 9/11 Inquiry filed a Grand Jury Petition with the U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York demanding that he present to a special grand jury evidence of unprosecuted federal crimes at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. (For background as presented by the Committee, click here.)

It seems like a long time, but in the overall scheme of things maybe it’s not. A lot goes on in that district: Two other cases were page one news yesterday, one in The Berkshire Eagle, the other in The New York Times:

* Of particular interest to some Pittsfield and Berkshires residents, biotech entrepreneur Patrick Muraca was convicted Wednesday by a jury in Manhattan’s Thurgood Marshall U.S. Courthouse of defrauding investors in two companies he founded and lying about it to federal investigators. At least one of the enterprises, MetaboRX or NanoMolecularDX, was seen as a possibility for Pittsfield’s William Stanley Business Park. Assistant U.S. Attorney David Abramowicz delivered closing arguments Monday. See Eagle reporter Haven Orecchio-Egresitz’s two stories here and here.

* Atop page one of yesterday’s Times, U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman is seen announcing the unsealing of the indictment of U.S. Representative Chris Collins, charged with insider trading and lying to federal investigators. The congressman’s son and his son’s fiancée’s father face related charges in connection with unloading shares of the publicly-traded Australian pharmaceutical manufacturer Innate Immunotheraputics Ltd. shortly after its only product failed a critical test.

Berman accused the congressman of “brazenly using his private information” as a director of the company “to help his son and others avoid financial disaster.” The case will draw national attention because Collins, an early and influential backer of Donald Trump’s presidential bid, was already the subject of an ethics investigation. See one of the two Times articles here.

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* On July 30, the Lawyers’ Committee for 9/11 Inquiry filed a First Amended Grand July Petition. According to the Committee, it references all of the same evidence presented in our original petition, but also has added three additional federal crimes that we allege the submitted evidence shows were committed related to the tragic events of 9/11.”

* On August 6, the Committee “submitted 2,092 names of supporters” to U.S. Attorney Berman.

Details on that and more are available through the Committee’s website, LCfor911.org/.

— Mark