So I got this in the mail yesterday from Jeff Ciccone AFPD:
I am in receipt of your most recent letter dated September 16, 2025, inquiring about records relating to your prior federal case. Specifically, you asked whether I redacted code from an e-mail or if that code was already redacted. You also asked me to confirm that other e-mails were deleted by your prior attorney. I can tel you that I did not redact code or delete any emails. My previous letter to you contained all of the documents in the Federal Public Defender’s Office’s file that were responsive to your original request.
There are missing e-mails, the most crucial ones are from July 30, 2015 to December 2015. I mean it’s clear several emails are missing from the chain I posted. I think the times are messed up because the two lawyers were in different time zones. Steven’s in EST, and Joe is an hour behind him in CST. So I think the first email on the pages was actually received at the time indicated EST, but Joe sent it at 2:53pm. That’s the only way it makes sense for him to meet with the Judge and be back at 4pm CST, 5pm EST…
So the first e-mail in this chain is actually the last e-mail on the two pages. Joe sent it to Steven @ 2:08pm CST (which was 3:08 EST). Steven then replied to that message @ 2:11pm CST and then the last message in this chain occurred at 2:53 CST.
So, the subject of the first message (confirmed by the absence of RE:) is “Petition to Plead Guilty”. As I pointed out yesterday, Joe didn’t have permission to negotiate any plea deal and he alludes to this fact in the contents of this first missive. Joe also attached a pdf of the petition, that Steven deleted (see bottom of missive). Note that Joe is replying to an unasked question by begining with: I have not yet received the Plea Agreement. I suppose any time now, but in our district we must also file a Petition to Enter a Plea of Guilty. This trend of answering unasked questions will continue in this chain…
At 2:11 CST (or after having the petition for 3 minutes) Steven replies “It looks good … I’ll conference you in when he gets here”. My recollection of the events of that day contradict this narrative as I remember Steven e-mailed me around 4pm EST asking if I’d come to his office to discuss the case at 5pm EST, so he couldn’t have anticipated my 5pm arrival at 3:11pm EST… The last e-mail in this chain occurs 42 minutes later and we are clearly missing some communications between Steven & Joe; because, Joe answers an unasked question from Steven, “I have heard nothing…” and then asks Steven a question and he deleted his reply or answered Joe by phone…
One thing I noticed – during this ordeal – is that when lawyers are doing something illegal or unethical, they always do it verbally, either in person or on the phone…