Talk:Brian Cogan

Bot-created subpage

A temporary subpage at User:Polbot/fjc/Brian Mark Cogan was automatically created by a perl script, based on this article at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges. The subpage should either be merged into this article, or moved and disambiguated. Polbot (talk) 17:47, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Proposed Changes

The following changes are proposed at the request of the subject of the article, Judge Brian Cogan. I am an employee of his. Each source references the subject cited for along with Judge Cogan himself.

*******

Brian M. Cogan (born April 22, 1954) is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. He was appointed in 2006 by President George W. Bush, and assumed senior status in 2020. [comment: sources can stay the same]

Education and career

Cogan was born in 1954 in Chicago. He graduated from the  University of Illinois with a Bachelor of Arts in 1975 and received his Juris Doctor from Cornell Law School in 1979, where he was an editor of the Cornell Law Review. Following graduation, Cogan clerked for Judge Sidney Aronovitz of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Prior to his appointment to the federal bench, Cogan was a partner of Stroock & Stroock & Lavan in New York City.[comment: sources can stay the same]

Federal judicial service

Cogan was nominated by President Bush on January 25, 2006, to a seat vacated by Frederic Block. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on May 4, 2006, and received his commission on June 7, 2006. Cogan  continues to manage a full caseload notwithstanding his senior status.[comment: sources can stay the same. There is probably not a "source" to back up that he manages a full caseload notwithstanding his senior status (which would allow him to take a lighter case load), but this does appear on other Judge's articles (e.g. Jed Rakoff) and I can assure you it is true]

Notable cases

United States v. Guzmán

Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, a Mexican drug lord and former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, was extradited from Mexico to the United States in January 2017, on charges including drug trafficking, money laundering, and murder.  The trial began on November 5, 2018, and lasted until February 12, 2019, when the jury returned a guilty verdict on all counts.  Guzmán was sentenced to life in prison on July 17, 2019.

[comment: sources can stay the same]

United States v. Harun  

Ibrahim Adnan “Spin Ghul” Harun, an al Qaeda operative, was extradited from Italy to the United States in October 2012 on charges including conspiracy to murder U.S. nationals, conspiracy to bomb a U.S. government facility, conspiracy to provide, and providing material support to al Qaeda, and use of explosives in connection with a felony offense. Harun was sentenced to life in prison on February 16, 2018. The case is the subject of the non-fiction book “Race Against Terror,” by Jake Tapper.

[comment: this is a notable case as it is one of few federal trials for overseas terrorism; source 1: https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/al-qaeda-operative-sentenced-life-prison-terrorism-offenses-targeting-americans-overseas; source 2: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/a-person-of-murderous-zeal-al-qaeda-operative-given-life-sentence-for-killing-us-troops/2018/02/16/4184d968-1346-11e8-9065-e55346f6de81_story.html; source 3: https://nypost.com/2016/06/21/judge-grants-request-for-anonymous-jury-in-al-qaeda-terrorists-trial/

Lawson v. Rubin

Howard Rubin, a former Wall Street investment banker, was sued by six women for violations of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.  The plaintiffs alleged that Rubin subjected them to beatings, rape, and non-consensual BDSM acts in exchange for payments.  After a week-long trial, a jury found Rubin liable, and he was ordered to pay $3.85 million to the plaintiffs.

[comment: this is a notable civil case in a similar vein as Jeffrey Epstein, where a wealthy defendant was trafficking victims in plain sight, and subsequently led to the ongoing criminal prosecution of Rubin. source 1: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-nyed-1_17-cv-06404/pdf/USCOURTS-nyed-1_17-cv-06404-0.pdf; source 2: https://www.aol.com/articles/wife-accused-sex-trafficker-howard-181752765.html; source 3 https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/new-york/nyedce/1:2017cv06404/409003/425/

United States v. Sun

Linda Sun, a former aide to New York Governors Cuomo and Hochul, and her husband, Chris Hu, were indicted in 2024 on charges including violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, visa fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, money laundering, and tax evasion.  After a five-week trial and two weeks of deliberations, the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict, and a mistrial was declared.

[comment: this is a notable case as it is a federal prosecution of alleged foreign interference with state government, that presents novel issues of law; source 1:https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trial-ex-new-york-governors-aide-accused-selling-influence-china-ends-rcna250597 ; source 2: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/nyregion/linda-sun-mistrial.html; source 3: https://aellaw.com/ael-wins-mistrial-in-federal-fara-fraud-and-money-laundering-trial-jury-deadlocked-on-all-counts/ JREDNY2026 (talk) 11:30, 3 February 2026 (UTC)

Thanks for providing the sources! I made most of the changes, but:

I left out the bit about his caseload because unfortunately we do need a source for that, even if it's unsourced in other articles. I do know enough about the federal judiciary to know that it's an important distinction, so if you find a source that supports it please ping me and I'll add it.

I left out the Lawson v Rubin case because the documents are mostly primary sources (which we do not use for things like this without secondary sources) plus a somewhat puff-piece written pre-trial. Therefore, the notability of the case and the information in the paragraph are not supported and so I didn't add it to the article. If you find other sources please post them here.

Personally, I wanted to say how much I appreciate that you're following the appropriate COI process and how neutral your writing is - you've been very easy to work with! Let me know if you have any questions. EasyAsPai (talk) 01:05, 4 February 2026 (UTC)

Thanks so much for your help! I have obtained a letter from the chief administrator of the court reflecting the Judge’s caseload. Is there a way I can submit that to you? ~2026-66083-6 (talk) 19:49, 4 February 2026 (UTC)

Unfortunately, no - Wikipedia's reliable source policy requires that sources be published. In Judge Rakoff's case, there is a published source for his caseload. If his federal judical profile (https://www.fjc.gov/node/1392391) could be updated with a comment on it, then we could use that, but otherwise unless someone writes something about how many cases he's taken on, we will have to leave it out of the article. EasyAsPai (talk) 13:52, 5 February 2026 (UTC)

Got it. I found this source that I think should do the trick! It includes a bio of Judge Cogan and synopsis of some cases he’s overseen, and notes “Not every senior judge decides to cut back on his or her workload; there are many who continue full-steam ahead. . . . As statistics show EDNY’s senior judges clearly as a group fall into this category, currently maintaining on average a larger caseload than the court’s active judges.”

https://www.nycla.org/resource/committee-report/the-new-york-county-lawyers-association-committee-on-the-federal-courts/ ~2026-66083-6 (talk) 12:31, 6 February 2026 (UTC)

There's a little bit of a logical leap required, since Judge Cogan isn't mentioned by name in the section about EDNY's senior judges and their caseloads, but I think it should do. I'll add it to the article, but as a heads up if someone challenges it for not explicitly mentioning the judge then it will be removed. EasyAsPai (talk) 18:59, 7 February 2026 (UTC)

Actually, I cannot add it to the article, because it was written before Judge Cogan achieved senior status and therefore explicitly does not include him in the generalization about EDNY senior judges. My apologies. EasyAsPai (talk) 19:01, 7 February 2026 (UTC)

Enrique diaz

con chip cerebral ~2026-14562-44 (talk) 21:21, 6 March 2026 (UTC)