Trump Commutes Carlos Watson’s Sentence Amid Judicial Conflict Allegations

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – President Donald Trump commuted the sentence of Carlos Watson, co-founder of Ozy Media, just hours before Watson was due to report to prison for a nearly ten-year sentence.
Watson was on a plane headed to prison when Trump granted clemency seemingly putting his foot down on the insane weaponizing of justice by the Department of Justice as epitomized by the Eastern District of NY.

The president’s remarkable move came amid reports which started in the Frank Report over whether Watson received a fair trial—whether he was innocent all along and whether Judge Eric Komitee was acting in a conspiracy to convict Watson to help his own financial interests.

Watson’s legal team had filed a motion before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, requesting the removal of U.S. District Judge Eric Komitee and the vacating of his conviction. At the center of the motion is an allegation that Judge Komitee failed to disclose enormous financial ties to Goldman Sachs, and JP Morgan Chase two of the alleged victims in the case.

The Frank Report was the first to reveal the judge’s conflict.

Komittee’s financial disclosures show that he holds millions in investments and financial interests directly or indirectly tied to Goldman Sachs.

Watson’s co-defendant Samir Rao impersonated a YouTube executive in a now-infamous 2021 phone call to Goldman Sachs seeking a loan.

Despite Komitee earning most of his $100 million net worth Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase through his business deals with them before he was a judge, Komitee chose not to recuse and presided over a trial in which he displayed obvious and reckless bias. He limited defense witnesses, restricted cross-examination of key cooperators, excluded accounting evidence and even made his own objections to defense questions when the prosecutors failed to object. Komitee even mocked Watson at the end of the trial saying “I guess Oprah isn’t coming.”

Prosecutors portrayed Watson’s conviction as the fall of media executive who deceived investors. Documents and analysis that the judge excluded from the trial challenge that narrative.

Watson, a former anchor at CNN and MSNBC, built Ozy Media into a multimedia company that launched Emmy-winning shows, top-rated podcasts, high-profile festivals, and attracted over 200 major advertisers. Financial documents show that Watson and his family invested nearly $20 million of their own money into Ozy — behavior very much inconsistent with a fraudster.

At trial, the government’s case hinged on the perjured testimony of two cooperating witnesses: Samir Rao and Suzee Han, former Ozy executives who admitted to a series of fraudulent acts, including forging documents, faking invoices, and impersonating corporate officials. Both avoided prison time in exchange for perjured testimony against Watson.

Watson, 55, was convicted in 2024 by a Brooklyn jury on three felony counts: securities fraud conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, and aggravated identity theft.

Watson’s attorney, Andrew J. Frisch, a former federal prosecutor, has asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to remove Komitee from the case, vacate the conviction, and dismiss the indictment. Frisch alleged that Komitee maintained significant investments—through four hedge funds—in Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, and Google, while presiding over a trial where representatives from those firms testified against Watson.

Post-trial financial disclosures, which Komitee withheld until after the trial – though they were due before the trial – released on October 2, 2024, show that Komitee had between $6 and $30 million invested in Viking Global Investors, $5 to $25 million in D1 Capital Partners, and $5 to $25 million in Junto Capital Partners — hedge funds that invest heavily in the companies at the center of the Watson prosecution.

Before joining the bench, Komitee served as general counsel for Viking Global hedge funds, where he managed legal and financial relationships with JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs, including custodial and prime brokerage services.

Komitee’s background as a former securities fraud prosecutor and hedge fund executive will draw scrutiny. He profited from Viking’s profitable investments in Google stock between 2015 and 2016, when Komitee earned over $10 million in compensation. Google was an alleged victim of Watson.

Witness Testimony and Undisclosed Interests

During Watson’s trial, top executives from Google and Goldman Sachs — including Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Donald Harrison (Google Global Partnerships), Alex Piper (formerly of YouTube), and Goldman’s Hillel Moerman and Allison Ross — testified against the defendant. Yet Judge Komitee, who ruled on motions and objections throughout the trial, never informed the court of his personal financial interest in their companies.

The financial interests, according to Watson’s legal team, created what is known as an “allocable beneficial ownership interest” — a potential material benefit tied to the financial performance of companies central to the prosecution.

Watson’s attorney included a detailed financial analysis in the motion, estimating that Komitee’s average investment in the victim companies, as managed by his hedge fund accounts, likely exceeded $1 million during the pendency of the case. Due to common hedge fund practices like leveraging, the true value of his exposure to the companies may have been even higher.

But that dwarfs in comparison with the money he has already made from the so-called victims in the Watson trial. In fact as the trial was ongoing, Viking made a deal with Goldman Sachs and Google to invest in a company from which Komitee stands to make millions.

Komitee still sits on one of the boards for Viking.

Comparative Precedent in the Second Circuit

During Watson’s trial, the appellate court issued a ruling in a separate antitrust case, finding that U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman should have recused himself because his wife held $15,000 in Bank of America stock—one of the parties in the case. The court ruled that even an “almost certainly unknowing” conflict was sufficient to create the appearance of impropriety and undermine confidence in the judiciary.

Watson’s legal team argues that Komitee’s conflict in his case is far more severe—involving millions of dollars in direct and indirect investments in the three main corporate witnesses against Watson, compounded by the judge’s prior employment and extensive financial dealings with those same entities.

Public Scrutiny and Investigative Reporting

The controversy surrounding Judge Komitee was first uncovered by Frank Report, which traced the judge’s hedge fund ties and raised questions about Komitee’s impartiality.

Frank Report also detailed how the judge had blocked key defense witnesses and limited cross-examination of government cooperators — Samir Rao and Suzee Han going so far as to deny defense attorney

Ronald Sullivan from cross examining Rao – the actual criminal in the case – about how Rao first told the FBI that he, and not Watson had committed the fraud.

In any event Watson is now a free man.

The Frank Report will continue to investigate Judge Komitee promising further revelations. Though Watson’s sentence was commuted by Trump, he retains the conviction.

The outcome of Watson’s appeal — and the court’s handling of judicial conflicts — could set a new national standard for transparency and recusal in the federal judiciary.

Watson’s commutation was one of several announced by the White House, including clemency for Nikola founder Trevor Milton and executives at cryptocurrency exchange BITMEX.

Frank Parlato

Frank Parlato is an investigative journalist, media strategist, publisher, and legal consultant.

Frank Parlato

Frank Parlato is an investigative journalist, media strategist, publisher, and legal consultant.

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