The Prosecution Is Finished Its Case

According to a BNN news flash, the prosecution has just rested its case. It didn't have the news about the prosecution dropping the money-laundering charge against Conrad Black, found here. (Paul Waldie, who wasn't interviewed on the network early this afternoon, got the scoop.)

An updated Reuters report, by Andrew Stern, fills in some details in its opening: "Prosecutors wrapped up their case in Conrad Black's criminal fraud trial on Wednesday after 11 weeks of testimony... Black did get a bit of good news as the government rested its case when prosecutors, without explanation, dropped a single count of money laundering against him." It doesn't say whether or not an FBI agent, which the prosecution said they planned to call to the stand, was actually called.

Two summary reports have been issued with both of the above items included: a Bloomberg report webbed by the Chicago Tribune, and an Associated Press report webbed by WQAD.com. Neither of them carry an explanation for the dropped charge. The former notes that the prosecution introduced documents from the 13 boxes today; Mr. Black temprarily taking those boxes away from Hollinger Inc.'s head office at 10 Toronto St. is the basis for the obstruction-of-justice charge. The Toronto Star's webbing of the AP report mentions also that "Randall Samborn, a spokesperson for the U.S. attorney's office, said he would have no comment" about the dropping of the charge. So does the Forbes webbing, which has an earlier AP trial report appended below the new item. Those two reports have been blended into a single one in the Canadian Business webbing.

Another blended report, by Mary Vallis and webbed by the Vancouver Sun, starts off with an identification of what the dropped charge was about: "The charge had alleged the $2.15 million US cash payment for an apartment was raised from frauds alleged in other charges." It doesn't mention the prosecution has rested, only that the resting was imminent.

Stephen Foley's, webbed by The Independent, is more comprehensive. It begins with a mention of the dropped charge, and notes that the chances of Conrad Black testifying on the stand are now slim. The bulk of it reviews the prosecution's case and ends with a summary of the remaining allegations. Mr. Foley also reports that opinion on the trial outcome is far from unanimous, with some observers believing that the evidence of Mr. Black's lavish lifestyle will convince the jury to convict on at least some of the charges remaining.

An updated report by Mike Robinson, webbed by 680 News, contains in its beginning and end some information on the trial's progress while the jury was absent. At its end, it discusses a coming defense motion to dismiss other charges. Mr. Black's lawyer for the obstruction-of-justice matter, Marc Martin, had argued that the obstruction-of-justice charge should be dropped, as "there was no proof of wrongdoing," no knowledge of intent, and "no harm...done because Black eventually returned the boxes intact." Eric Sussman, on the other hand, "argued that the obstruction of justice was blatant and that Black had defied not only a Canadian court order but an American court and a federal grand jury before finally returning the boxes." He also argued that there's no way of knowing if Mr. Black had squirreled away something from those boxes. "St. Eve gave both sides until June 5 to file briefs expanding on their arguments. Martin said he would ask her to drop other counts, as well."

As far as the planned defense is concerned, James Bone of the Times of London has a sketch of it. According to his report, Edward Genson plans to call only two defense witnesses, Joan Maida and Kenneth Whyte. Later in the report, expense receipts that were introduced into evidence are itemized; according to the report, the Fendi bill got introduced into evidence ($101,550 spent.)

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Mark Steyn's latest entry in his Maclean's Conrad Black trial blog passes on evidence that David Radler may have lied on the stand when he professed to have no knowledge of lenient parole arrangements in Canada: "This afternoon, in a subordinate clause in a parenthetical aside relating to one of his motions, Black’s QC revealed that he’d called up Vancouver’s top parole lawyer to get him to testify as an expert witness on the BC country club Radler would be serving his sentence in. The parole lawyer replied that, alas, he’d love to testify but he had a conflict of interest: David Radler was a client of his." (The day that Mr. Radler secured the parole lawyer's services was not mentioned.) Mr. Steyn futher discloses that Eric Sussman claimed that he didn't know about this side representation - and preferred not to find out about it.