Media Roundup: Prepping For Trump

The several media reports, webbed overnight and today, all focus upon Donald Trump's expected appearance as a witness today:

1. From CBC News, a CP report that briefly summarizes Donald Trump's expected contribution to the defense's theory about the birthday party. It ends by mentioning that the trial will resume with the finishing of the cross-examination of Kenneth Whyte.

2. The Calgary Sun has webbed an expanded version of the above report, credited to Romina Maurino.

3. The Toronto Sun has webbed an abridgement of the same report that the Calgary Sun has webbed, also credited to Romina Maurino.

4. The expected upcoming testimony of The Donald is mentioned in a report by Paul Waldie, webbed by the Globe and Mail, but the bulk of it is devoted to a controversy last week when the jury was away: whether or not Eddie Greenspan can call a B.C. lawyer, John Conroy, as a rebuttal witness to show that David Radker knew of the lenient terms awaiting him for plea bargaining. Because Eric Sussman argued last Friday that Mr. Radler had never talked personally to Csr. Conroy, it looks unlikely that Judge St. Eve will rule in favour of him being called.

5. CTV News has an expanded version of the above CP reports, with an added quote from Steve Skurka about the risks of bringing in a celebrity as a character witness: "'It is risky because if the jury senses that the defence is playing with their emotions -- that this is just a trophy witness, that you're utilizing and exploiting celebrity to try to fool them -- then it has the opposite effect and it damages Conrad Black,' said Skurka."

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From the American Thinker comes an opinion piece arguing that "Scooter" Libby should be sentenced to parole only. The article, written by Clarice Feldman, makes a tie to the Libby case and the Conrad Black trial through the prosecutor-in-chief of both: "Fitzgerald demonstrates here, as he does in the Conrad Black case in Chicago, a too-eager jumping into cases without adequate research, a snipping the edges off the truth to make them fit the jigsaw puzzle case in his mind, a granting of immunity to the people really responsible for the claimed wrongdoing and then counting on the court's predilection to give the government the benefit of the doubt and the jury's distaste for the defendant to carry him through despite the weaknesses of the case which remains."