Robocall Defendant's Counsel Urges Judge to ‘Reconsider’ Not Delaying Aug. 7 Trial
Frustrations boiled over in the letter that David Schwartz, counsel for defendant Jacob Wohl, wrote Thursday (docket 1:20-cv-08668) to U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero for Southern New York in Manhattan. Schwartz urged the judge to “reconsider” his decision to hold firm on the Aug. 7 jury trial date for Wohl’s role in the robocall campaign to suppress Black citizens' mail-in votes in the 2020 election (see 2306050029).
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Marrero previously granted summary judgment against Wohl and co-defendant Jack Burkman on the robocall allegations (see 2303090003), and a jury will decide on the scope of relief sought, including damages, attorneys’ fees and costs. It will be “impossible” for Wohl to appear at the Aug. 7 trial in New York because he will be “defending criminal charges” in California “during that time period,” Schwartz told Marrero.
“As with every single ruling in this case from the very beginning, Schwartz told the judge, the court "has either ruled against the defendants or has denied every single application. We have never asked for an adjournment of these proceedings and denying us even a simple adjournment because my client will be on trial in a criminal matter in California is incomprehensible.”
Wohl’s right to be present at his trial “far outweighs any of the reasons the plaintiffs laid out to not adjourn this trial,” said Schwartz. The plaintiffs opposed Schwartz’s request to delay the trial to October on grounds that Wohl’s criminal trial, currently scheduled to start July 17, has been delayed six times since April 2022 and there’s no assurance it won’t be postponed again (see 2306020003).
In addition to the impending damages trial in New York and the criminal trial in California, the FCC fined Wohl and Burkman $5.1 million for making 1,141 unlawful robocalls during the run-up to the 2020 election, in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (see 2306060052).