A.G. Gancarski
The circus of the Corrine Brown trial resumes Tuesday at the federal courthouse in downtown Jacksonville, with a status conference set for 3 p.m.
In the balance: which attorney(s) will represent her through the duration of her federal trial on 22 counts related to the One Door for Education charity, as the Florida Times-Union reports.
Brown, being tried in tandem with her chief of staff, currently is slated for an October trial.
That timing was pushed back from September because of the 77,700 pages of discovery materials provided by the federal government.
How will new lawyers, coming to the case cold, conquer the mountain of discovery in a meaningful way in the next two months?
Other questions also remain.
It is by no means a sure thing that Brown and Chief of Staff Ronnie Simmons, despite being named as co-defendants, won’t turn on each other in the end.
In the media, Brown has set the table for a contention that she is “not on the board … and not an officer in the organization.”
What that potentially could mean: those who were on the board, and were officers, are really the culpable parties.
For her part, Brown has taken to having a copy of the Florida Star, a Jacksonville weekly paper, at the ready, with convenient articles detailing the personal charity Brown has committed to, including sending kids to China, Congressional Black Caucus scholarships, and giving away 1,000 computers in her district to help kids “conquer the digital divide.”
Media members are frustrated by this redirection, saying that Brown’s personal charity has nothing to do with the charges; Brown counters that an indictment does not mean guilt.
FloridaPolitics.com, along with many other media outlets, will be on hand at the federal courthouse this afternoon.
Expect developments.
