Vinoo Varghese

About Vinoo

Vinoo Varghese is a criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor based in New York City. He earned his BA in philosophy from NYU's College of Arts & Science, then went on to Brooklyn Law School, where he received his JD in 2000. After graduating, he joined the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office, working in trial bureaus, investigations, and appeals before running the Assault on Police Officer Program, which prosecuted attempted murders of NYPD officers. In 2006 he moved into criminal defense, founding Varghese & Associates, P.C. on Wall Street. Varghese has defended clients in high-profile state and federal cases across the country. His notable work includes defending Rengan Rajaratnam on insider trading charges (2013); representing New York City Councilman Daniel Halloran in a case brought by then-U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara — a cross-examination of an FBI agent that surfaced withheld recordings led to a mistrial. From 2009 to 2015 he represented a client charged with tax fraud, winning a rare Rule 33 new trial motion, successfully defeating the government's Second Circuit appeal, and securing a full acquittal at retrial. In 2019, he represented a juror in the Chanel Lewis murder retrial who raised concerns about the deliberations. A prominent legal commentator, Varghese has appeared on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, and CBS, including Hardball with Chris Matthews, The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, and CBS This Morning. He is an outspoken critic of prosecutorial overreach. In March 2020, he wrote an op-ed in the New York Daily News challenging Governor Cuomo's exclusion of criminal defense lawyers from COVID-19 essential services — the following day, they were classified as essential. In 2021, he filed an emergency application to the U.S. Supreme Court challenging New York City's teacher vaccine mandate, drawing coverage from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, and Bloomberg.