Peter Worthington:
Chicago lawyer Pat Tuite, who has been involved in trials for 35 years, gratuitously says that throughout his working life he's never seen prosecutors so inept as in this case.
They have produced little of criminal intent or deed: "I'm not saying the prosecutors are incompetent, but they don't seem to have anything of substance to show criminal acts."
Steven Skurka:
Torys partner Darren Sukonick, (if only it had been Tory, Tory, Tory) continued his uncomfortable videotaped testimony today. In a heated cross-examination, he admitted that it was his idea that Hollinger International pay non-compete fees to company executives as a means of avoiding tax on corporate bonuses. As the author of the payment plan he added in his best Seinfeld voice that he did not think there was anything wrong with that. He further conceded that he had advised Hollinger’s lawyer, Mark Kipnis, that the company wasn’t required to publicly identify the non-compete fees received. In the blogosphere, this admission was accurrately described as a bombshell being dropped at the Conrad Black trial.
There are a series of benefits that result to Conrad Black’s defence from the explosive testimony of Sukonick. The first is that he is clearly not a partisan or advocate for the defence and therefore his important concession will ring truer for the jury. Secondly, it severely undermines the upcoming testimony of the prosecution’s central witness, David Radler, who is anticipated to tell the jury that he and Conrad Black hatched a bogus scheme to pay themselves bonuses cloaked as non-compete payments. Thirdly, it provides the beginning of a safety net for Conrad Black in the event he chooses not to testify. It leaves the door ajar for Greenspan and Genson to argue to the jury at the end of the case that there was simply no case for their client to answer. And finally, it develops a credible claim that if the non-compete payments were not always spelled out in various corporate filings and reports, it was the result of Torys’ failure either to advise the company executives to disclose them or indeed urging them against it.
Someone wake me up when David Radler takes the stand and again 5 minutes before the jury pronounces its verdict.
