United States v. Zwillman, 108 F.2d 802 (2d Cir. 1940)

Circuit Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, No. 177, January 15, 1940, before Judges Swan, Augustus N. Hand and Clark; Judge Hand wrote the opinion. Arthur Garfield Hays appeared for the appellant, whom the caption names only as Zwillman.

“In the month of August, 1939, the defendant-appellant appeared before a grand jury in the Southern District of New York.” Asked “who were your business associates in 1928?” and the same for each year to 1932, he answered each time, “I refuse to answer on the ground it may tend to incriminate me.” He was adjudged in contempt and “sentenced to six months’ imprisonment.” The court held “that the judgment was erroneous and should be reversed.” His counsel had told the court that “his client had been in the liquor business up to 1933,” and the court reasoned that the names of his associates “might tend to establish a conspiracy to violate the revenue laws,” a conspiracy that would continue “unless abandoned.” It also held that the trial court should have let him offer evidence on the point.

Defense counsel had asked leave to call “a man named Baldwin, who he said had been making income tax investigations for the years involved,” and a witness who had testified in United States v. Torrio “that six men, of whom the defendant was one, had been engaged in illegal liquor activities.” Those are offers of proof described by the court, not findings. The Treasury agent Edwin A. Baldwin later described the same contempt case to the Kefauver Committee (testimony). The opinion prints no first name; the identification with Abner Zwillman rests on that testimony and on the FBI file (Part 01).