United States v. Bi Anh Le

MEMORANDUM **

Bi Anh Le appeals the judgments entered by the district court after a jury verdict finding him guilty of conspiracy to distribute cocaine, and possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, and revoking his supervised release. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 .

At trial, over Bi Le’s objection, the district court permitted a government witness and an Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA) to read transcripts of recorded conversations between Bi Le’s co-defendant, Hung Nguyen, whose words were spoken by the AUSA, and a confidential government informant, Trinh Le, whose words were spoken by the government witness. 1 The recorded conversations between Bi Le’s co-defendant and the government informant primarily concerned the logistics of a cocaine sale. Although neither speaker mentioned Bi Le by name, the conversations implicated him in light of *210 other evidence presented at trial. Bi Le contends that allowing the government witness and AUSA to read this recorded dialogue to the jury violated his right to confront the witnesses against him, protected by the Sixth Amendment’s Confrontation Clause. 2 We disagree.

Under the Supreme Court’s ruling…