2020 Election Robocallers Seek July 7 Deadline to Respond to Plaintiffs’ Motions in Limine

respond to “the voluminous issues” raised in the plaintiffs’ two Thursday motions in limine, the lawyer, David Schwartz wrote U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero for Southern New York in Manhattan in a letter Friday (docket 1:20-cv-08668). Former co-defendants Message Communications and Robert Mahanian settled all claims against them before Marrero granted summary judgment in the plaintiffs’ favor, and Wohl and Burkman “have signaled that they may try to shift blame from themselves to Message and Mahanian in an attempt to limit their damages,” said one of the plaintiffs’ motions. They seek an order prohibiting Wohl and Burkman from introducing any evidence involving Message and Mahanian at trial. Their other motion seeks to bar the defendants from cross-examining at trial Gene Steinberg, one of eight consumer plaintiffs, about details of his 2002 conviction for a “nonviolent offense.” The fact of Steinberg’s 2002 conviction is important to his case because it shows the 2020 robocall campaign was particularly traumatic for him, and it demonstrates the “insidious nature” of the defendants’ voter suppression operation, said the motion. Though Steinberg isn't Black, the robocall falsely warned recipients not to participate in mail-in voting because doing so would expose them to old arrest warrants or investigations of their criminal records. The details of Steinberg's conviction “are wholly irrelevant, particularly in a trial concerning damages only,” it said.