Monday Surprises

The first item from today's coverage of the trial, as webbed by 680 News, carries a real surprise: the defense has filed a motion to have David Radler testify as a defense witness. Yes, they want "to require the government to produce F. David Radler for examination in the defence case." The reasons given: "Black's lawyers have since unearthed evidence that Radler had contacted a leading Canadian parole lawyer [John Conroy] before making his plea arrangement with U.S. prosecutors.

"'That Mr. Radler has had the leading Canadian parole lawyer on his legal team since November 2004 is probative of his bias, motive and interest in testifying for the government,' the court filing said.

"'It also impeaches his claims of ignorance about Canadian surrender and parole rules.'"

A report by Paul Waldie, webbed by the Globe and Mail, has some details of Julie Ruder's cross-examination of Kenneth Whyte. She focused in on the payment of a $100,000 bonus as an attempt on Mr. Black's part to wiggle out of the non-compete agreement that the prosecution has conceded to be legitimate. "Mr. Whyte insisted the bonus was for his past work at the paper which had been 'sold out from under him.' He said Lord Black wanted to ensure that they were remained on good terms so they could work together again in future." He added under redirect examination that he and Mr. Black "talked about positions in Chicago or New York. Mr Greenspan said the CanWest non-competition agreement only applied to Canada." Csr. Ruder also brought up bias in her cross-examination.

The second surprise of the day is that Donald Trump will not testify today. According to a Canadian Press report, webbed by the Montreal Gazette, "Conrad Black's fraud trial will have to wait to hear testimony from celebrity property developer Donald Trump, who had been expected to testify in defence of the media magnate on Monday.... Officials at Trump's office would not say why he did not appear Monday as had been expected or comment on trial, but a spokesperson did confirm Trump was still in New York. " The report, which also includes the defense's attempt to call Mr. Radler, says that no-one on the defense team is denying that Mr. Trump will testify sometime this week.

On a BNN interview with Paul Waldie, aired at 1:55 PM, Mr. Waldie disclosed an update on Donald Trump: he isn’t going to be a witness this week, and it’s not likely he’ll be called at all. [This item has been confirmed by the Chicago Tribune.]After Mr. Whyte, some tax experts and apartment experts were next. The defense presented invoices from spends on the Manhattan apartment, but the prosecution said that some of them were potential personal property, not improvements to the apartment itself – “likely that Black would have taken them with him,” in Mr. Waldie’s words.

Mr. Waldie has also updated his earlier report on this morning's trial events, as webbed by the Globe and Mail. It also includes Ms. Ruder showing E-mails to Mr. Whyte "from marketing people at the National Post around the time of the trip. The marketing people were trying to arrange a letter from Lord Black for an upcoming ad in a trade publication. However they were told that Lord Black was out of touch and 'on vacation.'" The apartment expert, Lee Williams, not only testified to what Mr. Waldie mentioned in the interview, but also acknowledged that Mr. Black did take some of the purchased items with him.

An Associated Press summary, webbed by ABC7 Chicago, starts off with this item: "Jurors at Conrad Black's racketeering trial today heard about the media mogul's lavish Park Avenue apartment, which featured a 12-thousand-dollar commode." It also mentions that Mr. Williams is a former tax agent.

The Donald Trump no-show starts off a Reuters report, written by Andrew Stern. It has a quote to that effect: "Edward Greenspan, Black's Toronto-based lawyer, told reporters outside of court 'We're not calling Mr. Trump.' He offered no explanation." The question about the true status of the Bora Bora trip is also referred to: when Csr. Ruder confronted him about it, he replied, "'I don't know about that,'... He later said he felt the issue was not urgent and that he had been able to call Black in the past wherever he was around the world." With regard to the bias issue, Mr. Whyte answered a question about whether or not he's loyal to Mr. Black with, "I no longer work for him. I suppose I'm loyal to him."

A more detailed AP report, by Mike Robinson, has been webbed by the Daily Southtown. It contains a partial itemization of the accessories for the apartment paid for by Mr. Black: "Besides a $12,000 'three-drawer' commode and the $17,000 music system, there were $4,399 towel-holder bars, $17,710 Indian white marble elephants, $9,800 Louis XVI painted stools, a 1920s Chinese carpet for $33,000 and a porcelain bottle that belonged to Napoleon Bonaparte on his campaign in Russia along with a mahogany shaving stand for $12,500.... [There was also a] diamond vault [that] cost $12,000 and Black paid $828 for sofa pillows plus two yards of silk, according to the list. It also included a Brussels carpet that cost $3,255, a mother of pearl Persian box valued at $9,600 and a $9,750 plaque depicting Amazon women." Near its end, it notes that "Williams testified the improvements cost $4.6 million -- exactly what Black and his defense attorneys are claiming. But the government has said no more than $2.3 million in such improvements are provable." A few of these items, as noted above, were taken away, and some others could have. Even more detailed is Canadian Business' version, which works in the above points with the David-Radler-for-the-defense story.

A much briefer report has been put out by UPI, and webbed by Monsters and Critics. It focuses on Donald Trump's no-show, and adds that Mr. Trump's office had no comment on his absence.

The Bloomberg report, written by Joe Schneider and Andrew Harris, begins by recounting the defense's motion to have David Radler testify for the other side. The reason why they are petitioning for it, according to Conrad Black counsel Marc Martin, is that "'Radler is under control of the government.''' It also notes that Mr. Whyte testified that the statement he had given in a 2006 deposition, that the $100,000 bonus he had received from Mr. Black in 2003 was to keep up a good business relationship, was accurate. It also relates that Eric Sussman used a capital-improvement versus removable-item standard to whittle down the $4.6 million figure to $2.3 million. Near its end, it discloses that "Williams also testified that what prosecutors say was a July 2001 journey by the Blacks to Bora Bora aboard Hollinger's corporate jet, which cost the company more than C$558,000, should have really cost as little as C$45,000. The witness said Hollinger had wrongly computed the cost of the trip."

Stephanie Kirchgaessner of the Financial Times is back on the trial beat, with an abbreviated list of the items in the apartment. Her report also notes that Csr. Sussman remembered his previous pronunciation difficulties. (See item #6.) "The posh terminology left prosecutors somewhat mystified. Eric Sussman, the chief prosecutor, did not even attempt to pronounce the word 'Guilloche' and confessed that he did not know what a barbiere was. The term is usually used to describe a shaving stand or table, which comes complete with a basin and mirror." It also has a scoop regarding the Donald Trump no-show: "the businessman’s personal assistant told the FT Mr Trump had been called over the weekend and was told he did not need to appear in court." ("Surprise" indeed.)

A report from Stephen Foley of The Independent explains why Conrad Black's defense team decided not to call Mr. Trump: they believe that they have enough to acquit without his help. Mr. Foley notes that the tesimony of Mr. Williams "appeared to do more harm than good to the Black defence, offering the prosecution an opportunity to give jurors another peek at Lord Black's lavish lifestyle."

Shifting back to the first surprise: a report by Mary Vallis, webbed by the National Post, has more details on the defense motion. It reveals that Csr. Greenspan only had a hunch that Mr. Radler had retained John Conroy, which was confirmed later. The prosecution is arguing against allowing the defense to call Mr. Radler to the stand, for two reasons: one, "the parole lawyer had not spoken directly with Radler other than to send him a bill;" two, "there is an 'insufficient factual basis'" for the recall. "'We believe it's completely collateral,' Sussman said." Judge St. Eve is expected to rule on the motion tomorrow.

Also, CTV's David Akin has a spot on The Verdict, during which he speculated that the reason Mr. Trump wasn't called was the fear that his testimony may have ticked off the jury, and that it was not worth the risk relative to the added benefit. They may also have been worried about the cross-examination. Also (probably the more significant reason,) the already-established presence of Donald Trump might be enough; other witnesses will have covered for the points he would have made. Today marks the end of the defense for Conrad Black; counsel for the other defendants are starting to call witnesses. Mr. Black's legal team will probably recall some witnesses. Other than Mr. Radler, though, those witness will just be “tying up loose ends.” The verdict in the Conrad Black trial might very well come by the end of June. At the end of this episode, Ms. Todd speculated that there must have been some hidden bomb in Mr. Trump's testimony; he would have been an unreliable witness. Donald Trump is the head of a private company; he himself said that the mindset needed to head up a public company is different.

And finally, CBC correspondent Neil Macdonald had a report on CBC's The National, in which he said that it has been assumed that Mr. Black et. al. believes that little defense is needed because the prosecution has failed to prove its case. Hugh Totten said on camera that this attitude is reckless. Mr. Black is still silent outside of court, but he was quite loquacious before Judge St. Eve's rebuke. Csr. Totten also said that Mr. Black's outside statements will come back to haunt him, if he's found guilty, during the sentencing.

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Mark Steyn has seen fit to respond to the publicly-raised suspicion that he harbours a conflict of interest regarding the Conrad Black trial. His latest disclosure: "By the way, all this media navel-gazing about 'conflicts of interest' ignores the obvious: as I've said before, I have no financial interest in defending Conrad and nor does Ken. He signed our paycheques, but that was long ago now."

Also, Douglas Bell has excerpted a Times of London column for the Toronto Life Conrad Black trial blog. The column itself compares Conrad Black to Paris Hilton.


If you yourself are intrigued about the recent Angus Reid poll asking (among other questions) whether or not Conrad Black will get a fair trial, Court TV Canada has an online poll that you can cast your vote in, and even supply a reason for your choice. The "No"s have a much greater frequency than in the AR poll, so the Court TV one may have been gamed. Interestingly, though, three "No" submitters said so because they thought that Mr. Black would buy his way out of a conviction through expensive legal talent. Something to consider when interpreting the result of Angus Reid's.