# Colleen McMahon

Colleen McMahon (born July 18, 1951) is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

## Education and career

Born in Columbus, Ohio, McMahon received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Ohio State University in 1973 and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School in 1976. She was in private practice in New York City from 1976 to 1995, except for a period from 1979 to 1980 when she was a speechwriter and special assistant to Donald McHenry, the United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations. She was a Judge of the New York Court of Claims, New York Supreme Court, from 1995 to 1998.

## Federal judicial service

On May 21, 1998, McMahon was nominated by President Bill Clinton to a seat on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York vacated by John F. Keenan. McMahon was confirmed by the United States Senate on October 21, 1998, and received her commission on October 22, 1998. She was the Chief Judge from June 1, 2016, to April 10, 2021. On April 1, 2021, McMahon announced her intention to assume senior status on April 10, 2021.

## Notable cases

Among the cases over which she has presided is a defamation case brought by Drug Enforcement Administration agents against the makers of the 2007 film American Gangster, which was alleged to have portrayed such agents as being corrupt.
In 2011, she was the judge in the case of the "Newburgh four," who were accused of planning a 2009 bombing in the Bronx, New York. The suspects were Onta Williams, Laguerre, David Williams, and James Cromitie. This terrorism case involved FBI agent Robert Fuller as the handler of informant Shahed Hussain. At sentencing she pointed out that the FBI played a key role in creating the crimes of which the defendants were convicted. She said: "It [the FBI] created acts of terrorism out of his [Cromitie's] fantasies of bravado and bigotry, and then made those fantasies come true." And she added: "Only the government could have made a terrorist out of Mr. Cromitie, whose buffoonery is positively Shakespearean in scope."$^{:142}$ In July 2023, McMahon ordered the release of three of the four defendants, ruling that the FBI had employed unscrupulous methods to manipulate them into committing illegal acts, including using Hussain, whom McMahon described as "unsavory."
In 2019, McMahon rejected a bid for compassionate early release by convicted fraudster Samuel Israel III, agreeing he had serious health problems but also stating early released would "make a mockery of the sentencing statue" given Israel's serious crimes and privileged background.
McMahon ruled in December 2021 that a bankruptcy judge did not have authority to give the Sackler family immunity in civil liability cases related to their involvement in Purdue Pharma.
In February 2023, Judge McMahon criticized the New York City Department of Corrections for failing to promptly provide information on the identities of staffers who may have been involved in activities described in a class action lawsuit over substandard conditions and illegal detentions at Rikers Island. ""There is no agency that ... has been a more troublesome litigant in terms of, and you will excuse my language, 'F--- you, judge, I'll do what I want' in that period than DOC,” McMahon said in open court.""