50-plus calls made to try to get alleged crack video, lawyer says

More search warrant documents from Project Brazen 2 — the police investigation into Mayor Rob Ford and his friend, Alexander Lisi — were released by an Ontario judge on Friday.

Peter Jacobsen, the lawyer representing the Toronto Sun and other media, was back in court and said that Justice Ian Nordheimer released one data set from the March 7 information to obtain (ITO) police document.

Lisi is at the centre of the scandal surrounding the mayor and is currently facing extortion charges relating to the video that allegedly shows Ford smoking crack cocaine. He and a co-accused also face drug charges.

“What we have here is greater detail about the attempts that made to obtain the alleged crack video,” Jacobsen told reporters outside the University courthouse in downtown Toronto on Friday.

There were more than 50 calls made after May 2013 about the video, involving Mohamed Siad, who allegedly tried to sell the video, his friend Liban Siyad and Lisi.

“There’s no specific allegation that the mayor was trying to get the video or that Mr. Lisi was allegedly acting on the mayor’s behalf. There’s nothing specific in the ITO about that,” Jacobsen said.

He said there was nothing in Friday’s unsealed document that talked about an exchange of the video.

Another portion from the March 7 ITO is still sealed and the judge will decide in the coming days whether to disclose those portions as well. Lisi’s lawyer Seth Weinstein argued Friday that several paragraphs must remain banned in order for his client to have a fair trial.

Documents released last week revealed Toronto police went to California to get access to an iPhone belonging to Lisi and that police now have 10 gigabytes of the smartphone data in their possession.

The data focuses on photographs, videos and audio recordings taken, sent or received after Feb. 16, 2013. The data also included phone logs and the contents of Lisi’s address book.

With files from The Canadian Press