Just six days into U.S. v. Samuel Bankman-Fried, a trial likely to last six weeks, Manhattan federal judge Lewis Kaplan expressed that he was growing tired of sidebars. Sidebars are talks between opposing counsels, off to the side of the judge’s bench, where each side hashes out their differences with the judge. The problem? They drag. White noise plays, to keep the jury from hearing what’s said. A few last minutes at a time and can jam up the questioning lawyer’s momentum. “Let’s try to hold the sidebars to a minimum from now on,” Judge Kaplan said late in the day.
But sidebars aren’t off the record. Court stenographers record what’s discussed, which then makes its way onto official transcripts. On Wednesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon called a sidebar, and it was an explosive one. This is what she said to the judge:
I’ve noticed several times since the lunch break that in response to things the witness has said, the defendant has laughed, visibly shaken his head, and scoffed, and obviously I’m not communicating with the witness, but it’s possible it’s having a visible effect on her, especially given the history of this relationship, the prior attempts to intimidate her, the power dynamic, their romantic relationship, and I would ask that defense counsel tell him to control his visible reactions to her testimony.
Remember, Bankman-Fried has been staying in jail since August 11 because he leaked portions of Caroline Ellison’s diary to the New York Times, which the prosecution has said was an instance of witness intimidation. On Tuesday, I wrote about how he appeared to be visibly oscillating in his chair while Ellison was in the witness box. (Liz Lopatto at the Verge noticed the same thing.)
Mark Cohen, SBF’s attorney, said he was “offended” by Sassoon’s implication and pointed out that Ellison had trouble even noticing him when she was first in the court. “The notion that someone who she couldn’t even pick out in the courtroom, after we stipulated to this, is trying to intimidate her is ridiculous. Let’s try the issues in this case, Your Honor,” he said.
Judge Kaplan opted not to take any action — he didn’t see any of the reactions himself — but did tell Cohen to keep his client’s reactions in check. Kaplan also said that he would be paying closer attention. “I’ll keep an eye on him, to the extent I can, because I’m taking copious notes too. And we’ll see what happens,” he said.
Most sidebars are, in reality, not very interesting — typically just the haggling of two lawyers over how to characterize testimony or whether to allow an exhibit, that kind of thing. And that has been the case for most of the Bankman-Fried trial. But it does appear that these are starting to get heated.
