U.S. Senior District Judge Jed Rakoff made a little joke at his own expense at Monday’s hearing on the settlement between the owners of the New York Mets and the trustee for Bernard Madoff’s bankrupt brokerage. After noting that the settlement includes a statement by trustee Irving Picard of Baker & Hostetler that lets the Mets owners off the hook for willful blindness, Rakoff paused. “I’m sure that was carefully negotiated,” he said, according to the hearing transcript. “I won’t ask the trustee if that means whether he admits or denies that he no longer thinks he can prove his claim against the defendants because I’m not permitted to ask those questions anymore.” More on Reuters here.
