by Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book Substack
LITERARY SDNY, Oct 26 --Twenty sixth day of October and in the US v. Bankman-Fried trial, it and SBF were on...
Or not.
Judge Kaplan said that Sam would take the stand at 2 pm. And at 1:55 there he was, in a too-big suit and lavender tie, sitting in the witness box. But before Judge Kaplan came back in, Sam returned to the defense table.
And then a fast change of plans. The judge asked the lawyers who much time each expected with the witness. The numbers were absurdly low: 60 to 90 minutes for direct, Mark Cohen said; 45 minutes for cross, replied AUSA Danielle Sassoon.
That did it. Judge Kaplan said that in order to hold the hearing he'd alluded to, a dress rehearsal of Team SBF's attempt to get advice of counsel before the jury - the idea that Sam couldn't be guilty if lawyers he hired told him it had all been OK - he'd send the jury home and play it again Sam for them on Friday.
For a moment it seemed that Judge Kaplan might also exclude the press from the dress rehearsal. Most producers would. But it remained open.
On direct examination with Cohen, Sam was in his element, talking about block explorers and saying, in essence, that it was all dan Friedberg's fault.
On cross examination it fell apart. Hadn't Sam known that Friedberg had previously been general counsel at a firm with a criminal insider trading scandal? Cohen's objections to that were overruled. Hadn't Friedberg used illegal narcotics to --
That objection was sustained. Used illegal narcotics to what? The damage was done. Now Sam was talking in circles, saying he didn't remember, saying I, I, I, or aye, aye, aye. Was his Adderall wearing off?
Or was he just being exposed? And how much of this would the jurors get or have to hear the next day?
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