ninme

Macleans – Previously on The United States vs Conrad Black…

Before our mid-season hiatus, the nefarious mastermind Lord Black of Crossharbour and his three accomplices had been convicted of …well, very little when you look at the mountain of spaghetti the US Attorney threw at them in order to get a few forlorn strands to cling to the wall. Conrad Black was found guilty of stealing $2.9 million from Hollinger International, as well as of “obstructing justice” in the US by being captured on videotape packing up his office in Toronto, from which he was about to be evicted. The great elephant of the US Justice Department had laboured and brought forth a mouse. But the mouse is enough to put him away for the rest of his life.

We’ll find out today, maybe by lunchtime, maybe a little later. The old recurring characters are back: Judge Amy, whose big day Monday will be; Eric Sussman and his team of lean and hungry Federal prosecutors who seem more determined than ever that Conrad should get a sentence as long as his own if not quite as baroque. But there have been some cast changes, too. The defence has pretty much a whole new set of lawyers; the meter on Black’s legal fees is up around $50 mil now – don’t ask me whether that’s US or Canadian; the game’s being going on so long, exchange rates have reversed and no doubt will do so again before the final invoice is submitted. But one trusts that this time they’ll match the government team’s youthful energy and palpable meanness.

The Times tracked down the judge for an interview, which apparently they got, though I didn’t read it, because I saw this:

Personally, I don’t think that any woman not deliberately setting out to undo a century of feminist efforts, nor any person with a grave and serious task ahead of him, nor any human with a man’s life in her hands, should be striking that pose for the cameras. It’s unserious, unbecoming, and vain.