TicketMonster

US v Live Nation I

By: Matthew Russell Lee

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

It was the first day of witnesses in the US v. Live Nation trial when text messages between Patti Kim and John Abbamondi of Barclays Center were discussed but deemed sealed.

Later on March 4, I filed a motion to unseal that exhibit, and others in the case. Judge Arun Subramanian granted it:

"The Court received the attached communication from Matthew Lee of Inner City Press. It is ORDERED that the text exchange between John Abbamondi and Patti Kim, marked and admitted as Plaintiff Exhibit 654 be unsealed and filed on ECF for public access. It is further ORDERED that Plaintiff Exhibit 230 be unsealed and filed on ECF. Separately, the party that moves for any exhibit to be admitted is responsible for filing the exhibit (if necessary, with approved redactions) on the Docket on the week that it is used during trial. SO ORDERED"

It was appreciated, but did it apply to the demonstratives as well? And, allowing a week between offering an exhibit and making it available to the public seemed too long. In a previous case I'd won access within 24 hours: United States v. Akhavan, 532 F.Supp. 181, 188 (S.D.N.Y. 2021) (ordering the parties to make all exhibits received into evidence at trial accessible to the public and press “by posting the exhibits on a publicly accessible website” or by other reasonable means by 11:59 p.m. the following day).

So on March 6 I rushed into the SDNY courthouse just after 8 am, picked up my old suit jacket from the press room and headed up to the 23rd floor.

The courtroom gallery was full of corporate types. I asked myself, where are the fans? Where are the musicians?

After Judge Subramanian first summoned the DOJ and Live Nation lawyers into his robing room - I didn't see any court reporter go in - then emerged to set out a faster docketed process, 24 hours like in Akhavan, I got up to speak.

I asked, Does this apply to the demonstratives as well?

Judge Subramanian said Yes. I began live tweeting again, as the day's first witness Jack Groetzinger of SeatGeek took the stand. It would be a long trial. This is the first in a series.