Prosecution Goes Fishing – Conrad Black Trial Update

Patty Fitz Goes Fishing

The prosecution still hasn’t lost hope of finding evidence against Lord Black. They are scraping the bottom of the barrel to find something, which means that their book deals and private practice offers are in jeopardy:

Prosecutors in Conrad Black's trial are about to finally get their hands on 13 boxes of documents from Lord Black's office in Toronto after nearly two years of legal wrangling…the inventory includes: “Musings,” “Barbara Black Sundries 2002-2003,” “Brascan Share Options,” “CIBC Stock Options,” “CIBC Pledge of Shares to Duncree 2004,” “Tax Information 2005,” “Entertaining Hotels etc.” and “Interview Requests 2005.”

Prosecution Struggling

Prosecutor Julie Ruder continues to flounder. Check out this dud that’s supposed to show Lord Black abused his flight privileges:

“Was there any company policy requiring Conrad Black to use company planes for his personal vacations?” Ms. Ruder asked him. Mr. Creasey replied: “No.”

Awful redirect. It’s nice to see Creasey remember something, but is Julie trying to insult the intelligence of the jurors with these silly questions?

The Betting Markets - Short Lord Black Contracts

This chart from FT Predict shows just how weak the case is against Black is. The odds of Conrad Black being convicted of all charges fell 20% in a week - the longer this trial goes on, the more obvious it becomes the prosecution doesn't have a case.