According to a report by Paul Waldie, webbed by the Globe and Mail, Mr. Healy testified under direct examination that Conrad Black asked Donald Trump to attend the 2002 Hollinger International annual meeting, held in 2003, "in order to voice support for company management..." After quoting from the request E-mail from Mr. Black to Mr. Trump that jurors were shown, written "shortly before the annual meeting, which was held in New York in May 2003," it relays Mr. Healy's testimony that "the company had to scramble to get proxy votes to Mr. Trump in order for him to speak. Only shareholders are allowed to speak at the meetings."
The report also contains details of the cross-examination of Mr. Healy by Edward Genson, which began this morning. [Early this morning, according to Mark Steyn, if you adjust for time zone.] "Lord Black's lawyer, Edward Genson, began his cross-examination of Mr. Healy by showing the jury several supportive e-mails Mr. Healy sent Lord Black in 2002 and 2003... In [one], he told Lord Black: "I am so impressed by your fortitude and I will support any tack you take."... Mr. Genson said Mr. Healy stopped supporting [Conrad Black] once a special committee of the company's board started investigating allegations. Mr. Genson noted that Mr. Healy remained on the company's payroll and even received more money from Hollinger." Also probed was Mr. Healy's change of employment from Conrad Black to Richard Breeden. Mr Healy replied, "'I stopped supporting Conrad when I found out what he'd done.'"
Romina Maurino has written a report, webbed by 680 News, which has more details on what Mr. Healy testified to while under direct examination. In addition to a more elaborate description of the support that Mr. Trump gave to Mr. Black, including the context, it also relates that Mr. Healy "also said he got a call from Radler, Black's former associate and the prosecution's star witness, after he was interviewed by [the] special committee set up in 2003 by Black... 'He asked me whether or not I ratted him out to the special committee,' Healy said."
Mr. Waldie was interviewed on BNN, as aired at 1:47 PM ET. He started by discussing the entry of Donald Trump's name into the record. The prosecution doing so expands the scope of Mr. Trump's own testimony, should he be called, from simple testimony about the business element of the 60th birthday party. He may decide not show up, according to Mr. Waldie, because he'd rather not be cross-examined over his support of both Mr. Black and Mr. Radler at the shareholders meeting held in '03. The cross-examination of Mr. Healy so far has been "very tough." Csr. Genson should be at it for the rest of the day.
Andrew Stern's report, from Reuters, starts with the introduction of Mr. Trump in the trial too. It reminds us that Mr. Healy is testifying under a grant of immunity. Mr. Trunp's support is the highlight focused on by an AP summary webbed by WQAD.com.
A more detailed AP report, by Mike Robinson and webbed by The Southern Illinoisan, mentions (as does the summary) that "[a]t the time, Trump had just bought the Chicago Sun-Times Building from Hollinger and he and Black were getting along well." Near its end, more details from the cross-examination are disclosed: Csr. Genson made a point of asking how friendly Mr. Healy is with Gordon Paris and how much he and Mr. Breeden, his current boss, "'pal around'". Mr. Healy answered, to the latter, "'We have [palled around].'"
The Bloomberg report, written by Andrew Harris and Bob Van Voris, quotes another E-mail sent from Mr. Healy to Mr. Black when the latter was in a spot of trouble: "'I and my Christian Scientist practitioner mother are praying for you and for Hollinger at this time.''' It also has Mr. Healy's 2003 pay from Hollinger Int'l: $345,000.
A more recent report by Ms. Maurino, webbed by CBC News, has this excerpt from Csr. Genson's cross-examination: "Defence lawyer Ed Genson attacked Healy's testimony, noting that he had admitted to lying in the past and was testifying under an immunity deal.... [He] took Healy to task over the false memo, asking him why he wasn't fired after admitting he lied....
"'Do you think part of the reason they let you keep your job is that you blamed it on other people, you blamed Conrad Black?', Genson asked." Mr. Healey's answer: "'I was told to write the memo'".
More details about both of the above events of the trial are in the National Post report by Mary Vallis. It identifies the letter from the Bloomberg report, quoted from above, as being sent on May 21, 2002, and quotes the last question in the line excerpted in the quotes just above this paragraph: "'Until you made up what he'd done,'" Mr. Genson shot back." It begins with the testimony about Mr. Trump's appearance at the meeting held in '03.
That appearance makes up the bulk of the report webbed by Pravda. It contains no details on the cross-examination.
An update of the report webbed by CBC News by Ms. Maurino adds Csr. Genson's reaction to Mr. Healy's claim that he had simply done what he was told with respect to the valuation memo for the Manhattan apartment: "Genson dismissed that statement, saying Healy had stood up to Black various times in the past and that he was wealthy enough that he didn't need to keep a job that apparently forced him to behave unethically."
Bloomberg's has been updated too, and webbed by the Chicago Tribune. In its middle, it has more excerpts from Csr. Genson's cross-examination. One series of questions has Mr. Healy testified that "he was 'a little irritated,' with Black before [the shareholders'] meeting" held in 2002. He also said that "he helped one of Hollinger's biggest investors identify suspect disclosures in the company's annual report for discussion at the 2002 shareholders' meeting." When later asked if he had just wanted to do Richard Breeden's dirty work in late 2003, though, Mr. Healy answered, "'No... I am an advocate for justice."
The Independent's Stephen Foley was written a report which focuses on the "'esoteric favour'" Conrad Black asked of Donald Trump. So has James Bone of the Times Online; his report has a link to a copy of the entire E-mail. A third report focuing on that E-mail to Mr. Trump has been webbed by CNN.com International; it's an updated Reuters report. In addition to having a more complete quote from that E-mail, it also reveals that the proxy Mr. Trump got was for 100 shares. It has a new snippet from the cross-examination near its end.
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Douglas Bell of the Toronto Life Conrad Black trial blog has an extended analysis of Andrew Potter's social-climbing article, which expresses Mr. Bell's disagreements with its thesis.
Also, Mr. Steyn, in his Maclean's Conrad Black trial blog, has a sentence in a recent entry that's worth lingering over: "[T]heir urge to retrospectively criminalize the normal compromises of business life is far more worrying than Conrad Black buying a Park Avenue apartment at what the US government feels is an insufficiently bloated price."
(There's been a lot of compromising in the business world over the last several decades, which implies that if squelching this habit is the effect of the new corporate-governance laws and their enforcement, then the business environment has the potential to be seriously retooled, as the securities industry was in the 1930s.)
A more recent entry has Mr. Steyn saying that the "assessment" that Mr. Healy conducted was less than thorough.
Finally, the AOL blog "Blogging Stocks" has an all-but-explicit pro-comeuppance entry about the Hollinger annual meetings that have been entered into evidence at the trial. According to the entry, Conrad Black falls into a pattern of "arrogance and a disdain for shareholders and critics."
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