US Judge Ann Donnelly of US District Court in Brooklyn, New York on Tuesday disqualified James Cole, a Washington lawyer for China’s Huawei from defending the big tech from the charges against bank fraud and sanctions violations.
Judge Donnelly issued the order after federal prosecutors argued that Cole’s previous work at the Department of Justice created conflicts of interest from his prior position. He served as a deputy attorney general from 2010 to 2015 in the Obama administration. He is currently a partner at Sidley Austin, which declined commenting on the matter.
The prosecutors argue that Cole’s defence of Huawei, a Chinese tech “creates the real risk that he will breach his duty of confidentiality to the Department of Justice by relying on information he obtained while representing the department.” They said further that “there is a risk that Cole will breach his duty of loyalty to the department by making arguments on behalf of the defendants that contradict positions he previously took while representing the DOJ.”
The US-China case has attracted much publicity as it is taking place against the backdrop of the Trump led administration making effort to seal a trade deal with China and an obvious attempt to keep Huawei out of the global 5G wireless networks citing national security.
The Chinese was indicted in January on account of bank fraud, wire fraud, violations of Iran sanctions and conspiracy to launder money and to obstruct justice. The case accuses Huawei of conspiring to defraud HSBC holdings Plc and to other banks by misrepresenting its relationship with a company that had its operations in Iran.
Cole on behalf of Huawei pleaded not guilty to all the charges in March.
Meng Wanzhou, the company’s chief financial officer and daughter of Huawei’s founder was arrested last December for her alleged role in the crime. She is currently fighting extradition from Canada.
Meng says she is innocent of the alleged crimes.
Michael Levy, another lawyer for the company argued that the effort to disqualify Cole from standing for Huawei is a tactical step from the US government’s campaign against China.
Cole on his part said he can hardly recollect the matters cited as the basis for his disqualification, but declined to comment on the judge’s decision.
“We are disappointed in the court’s decision, which we believe violates Huawei’s Sixth Amendment right to counsel of its choice. We reserve our right to appeal this decision when appropriate,” Huawei spokesperson said in a statement.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
