At this point I think the entire case needs to be thrown out, or settled. Leave Kim alone. This entire mess really should've never gotten this far.
I listened to the whole live streamed appeal trial, ( over 50 hours of arguments ).
There is a clear miscarriage of justice, and protecting the justice system's integrity should come above pleasing Hollywood.
Fraud can result in substantial revenue?
The US Authorities haven't followed the New Zealand Law before, why would they follow it now? They didn't break the law in using GCSB, why should their case be affected?
Just because they illegally took the evidence collected? Than they would have closed the case before now.
This makes it extremely problematic if the US start going after a NZ citizens who have been cleared of the alleged crime by a NZ court.
One requirement of the grant of citizenship is that the applicant is "of good character", which presumably means you haven't recently been convicted of a crime. As a matter of due process, I would hope that a mere accusation by a foreign government would not count as proof of someone's bad character. On the other hand, I also suspect that the executive is given quite a lot of discretion to withhold the granting of citizenship from anyone, and there is the matter of his 2009 dangerous driving conviction.
Does anyone know enough about NZ law to determine whether gaining the protections of citizenship is an avenue that is open to him?
Very few states exempt non citizens from the protections against government overreach, as most interpretations of UN's human rights treaties kind of forbids it, so even if he is not a citizen the NZ government still have to obey it's own laws in prosecuting a case against him(the US is notorious for non-compliance with treaties they themselves promoted when a treaty goes beyond the protections offered by the rather washed out US constitution).
The problem here is again that any action taken against Kim Dotcom by the NZ government in spite of it's domestic court case falling apart will be government overreach by just about any sane standard. so there is not a lot neither the US not the NZ authorities can do if the NZ court end up deciding that the he cannot be extradited to the US or convicted under New Zeeland law.
Diplomatically the problem is also that this isn’t a one of against a shady businessman but a part of a trend that have already seen the EU court nullify a data safe haven agreement due to the US court systems rather strange belief that it's not actually bound by any international treaties.
[1] https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/kim_dotcom_caught_in_the_we...
GCSB, the NZ spy agency, has certainly strayed by using their powers against a NZ citizen, and there should be repercussions.
However, the DoJ's case against Dotcom does not revolve around GCSB. Let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater.