Opinion ID: 793659
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Arguments Relevant to Quattrone's Challenges

Text: 87 Quattrone raises a number of challenges related to the jury instructions. He presses that the charges given for Counts 1 and 2 were deficient because they misled the jury into concluding that the nexus requirement was satisfied even if Quattrone was unaware that his conduct would affect the relevant proceedings. E.g., Reply Br. 22. He argues forcefully that the charge on Count 3 was insufficient in light of Arthur Andersen because the district court stated that no nexus element applied to that charge. Reply Br. 22-27. Quattrone also contends that the court's conscious avoidance charge was in error as there was insufficient evidence to support the conclusion that Quattrone deliberately remained ignorant of what documents the investigations sought. Reply Br. 27-28. 23 88 The government counters that the jury charge as a whole regarding the nexus element of Counts 1 and 2 effectively conveyed to the jury that they could not convict Quattrone unless they found that he knew his actions would obstruct justice by causing documents responsive to the subpoenas to be destroyed and that the district court's instruction complied with circuit precedent. Appellee Br. 65, 69 (citing United States v. Schwarz, 283 F.3d 76, 107 (2d Cir.2002); United States v. Solow, 138 F.Supp. 812, 816 (S.D.N.Y.1956)). Second, the government contends that the district court's failure to give a nexus charge for the witness tampering count was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. Gov. Supp. Br. 8-9. The government argues that there was sufficient evidence in the record to conclude that Quattrone deliberately avoided learning what documents were covered by the grand jury and SEC and that any error with regard to the conscious avoidance charge was harmless.