Media Roundup: A Difficult Trip

The media reports, webbed overnight and today, covering the Conrad Black trial have a mixed focus. Some centre on the testimony of Paul Healy about the Manhattan apartment, some veer in on The Donald, others spotlight the 13 boxes and the associated testimony of the security guard who moved them out and then moved them back, and one features a law proposed by a Canadian party that is no friend of Conrad Black:

1. From Business Week, an Associated Press report that focuses on the testimony of security guard Lancelot Bloomfield, the same fellow who transferred the boxes out of 10 Toronto Street and later moved them back because of procedures not followed. The International Herald Tribune has webbed a slightly abridged version of this report.

2. A story originally webbed by Canada.com, and later webbed at the news subdomain of the National Union of Public and General Employees Website, has also made the Toronto Star's Website: "Chicago fraud trial a wakeup for Canada, MP says: NDP finance critic calls for corporate-crime law." The measure, to be proposed for drafting as a joint party bill, would create a federal securities regulatory agency (a constitutionally dicey issue in Canada for a long time,) create procedures for independent auditing of public-company books, tighten up existing ones for executive disclosure, increase the mandate for Royal Canadian Mounted Police investigation of corporate fraud, extend protection to corporate whistleblowers, and - some of you may have already guessed it - outlaw non-compete payments to individuals. The proposed joint bill would be modeled on already-existing legislation in the United States and Australia, although the last item mentioned just above seems to be a New Democratic Party original.

3. The Los Angeles Times has webbed a Reuters report that focuses upon Mr. Healy's testimony relating to the sale to Mr. Black of the Manhattan apartment.

4. Ameet Sachdev of the Chicago Tribune has writen an article that also focuses in on the testimony of Mr. Bloomfield. It notes that the boxes were removed in violation of a Canadian court order.

5. A brief Canadian Press report, webbed by the Edmonton Journal, notes that the trial itself does not resume until Tuesday, and that the prosecution is expected to rest next Wednesday.

6. Another CP report has been webbed by the Edmonton Sun. It's entitled "Trump has 'no idea' if he'll be witness for defence." A longer version of the same report, which relates Mr. Trump's quote to Mr. Healy's testimony, has been webbed by the Calgary Sun.

7. The Star has also webbed a report by Sandro Contenta, covering the testimony of Mr. Bloomfield, who said while on the stand that "he packed the boxes into Joan Maida's Honda but then had second thoughts."

"'I got ahold of myself and said, "This ain't right,"' Bloomfield told the court. 'I just brought them back in.'" Later, it also says that he testified that he had bumped into court-appointed inspector Monique Delorme "by chance."

8. Janet Whitman's report for the New York Post also discusses Mr. Healy's testimony. It begins with: "Conrad Black's pricey Park Avenue apartment swap back in 2000 might not be the shareholder scam prosecutors are alleging, a key witness at the dethroned press baron's fraud trial admitted yesterday." Near its end, it mentions that Patrick Tuite has subpoenaed Mr. Healy's Rolodex, and it notes the possibility that Mr. Healy may be called back on the stand as a defense witness.

9. A report by Theresa Tedesco and Mary Vallis, webbed by the Ottawa Citizen, discusses a ruling by Judge St. Eve disallowing the entry of documents that invoice certain purchases made by the Blacks - as well as "the paper trail of wire transfers that reveal how the money was transferred from Hollinger's Chicago head office to personal bank accounts in Toronto and London." Grounds given by the judge: Canadian documents have to be pre-certified as admissible before beeing admitted into a criminal trial, which the prosecution did not do for those documents. The report also notes: "According to American law, documents obtained in foreign jurisdictions are [prima facie] admissible only in civil proceedings and require further legal approval to be admissible for criminal purposes."

10. Mary Wisniewski's report in the Chicago Sun-Times reports on the jury getting a laugh out of hearing about the heated towel racks installed in the Manhattan apartment. Her report explains that "[t]he towel racks... came up as a way to rebut a defense claim that Black spent so much on renovations to the apartment that it justified his paying just $3 million for it in 2000." The report also contains a capsule description of the apartment itself.

11. Michael Sneed's latest column in the Sun-Times contains an excerpt from Barbara Black's latest Maclean's column.

12. Another version of that report by Ms. Tedesco and Ms. Vallis, webbed by the Vancouver Sun, has a different ending: it discloses that the (alternate) juror excused from the trial, "[a] middle-aged woman with salt-and-pepper hair who has worn a pink tracksuit to court... has been excused for personal reasons that are unrelated to the trial."

13. A report webbed by the National Post, written by Ms. Tedesco only, recounts a complaint made to the judge by Eric Sussman about Mr. Black's comments on Mr. Radler's testimony outside of court, which Judge St. Eve accepted. "'I suggest that you tell him and admonish' him, U.S. District court Judge Amy St. Eve told Lord Black's defence lawyers this week, according to court documents. 'If you can't control him ... I'd be happy to do it.'" It also notes that Csr. Sussman made it clear that the prosecution was objecting solely to Mr. Black's comments about Mr. Radler's testimony. It notes further that the prosecution has done so in part to get the objection itself on the record, and that Edward Genson has promised to get Mr. Black to refrain from any further comments. [A CBC News item discusses the same topic.]

14. The Vancouver Province has webbed a report that works both Donald Trump's comments and Mr. Bloomfield's testimony in.

15. Paul Waldie has written a profile of Joan Maida, Mr. Black's long-time personal assistant who is expected to be the first defense witness. At its end, it mentions that Ms. Maida has a rather famous son.

16. CTV News has webbed a (not-quite-new) report on Mr. Trump's continuing feud with The View, and with Rosie O'Donnell.

17. Allan Fotheringham is once again writing about the trial, as webbed again by the Welland Tribune. In this latest column, he deploys a standard gag of his to make fun of the chief defendant.

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Those of you who are fans of The Donald might have good reason to crow about this item: Three weeks before her contract expires, Rosie O'Donnell is gone from The View. [According to this CBC News report, she quit after getting into "an angry confrontation" with Elisabeth Hasselbeck.

To move back to the trial, Mark Steyn notes in his latest entry that the government, regarding the defraudment-of-shareholders-through-personal-items part of the case, seems to be worn down to waving a luxury that an office worker who can scare up (enough wherewithal to meet the payments on) a new $10,000 credit card could afford: a heated towel rail.