I couldn't stop by the King building to catch the action myself. But a few SDFLA blog "special correspondents" were on the scene and reported the following:
AUSA Harry Schimkat's direct examination of Secretary Rubio was well-done--"concise, direct, efficient, and organized." It also produced some moments of levity. Take the following:
Question: "Sir, are you employed?" (Laughter)
Answer: “Yes, I actually have two jobs. Secretary of State of the United States of America and National Security Advisor for the President of the United States." (More laughter)
Later, Secretary Rubio testified that he served as a U.S. Senator for Florida until he was confirmed by the Senate as Secretary of State “99-0.” That prompted this line from Judge Damian: “Better than me.” (Laughter again)
On cross, defense attorneys scored some points too. In response to questioning from David Markus, Rubio agreed that Esther Nuhfer, Rivera's co-defendant, was "trustworthy," "acted in good faith," was "generous as a person," and was "strongly opposed to socialism in Venezuela." And, more specific to the charges, Rubio agreed that Nuhfer never lobbied him for anything. Jay Weaver for the Herald covers it here.
Still a lot more to come in this case. But yesterday made some history. According to Newsweek, Secretary Rubio is the first sitting member of the president's Cabinet to testify in a criminal trial in 43 years. The last one? Labor Secretary Raymond Donovan, who testified at a mafia trial in 1983.
2 comments:
Too bad david isn't the one writing about this. A former prosecutor covers a prosecutor in a good light, even though everyone in the courtroom saw that he was terrible. The defense lawyers were so much more engaging and interesting. The prosecutor was a dud. The courtroom was electric.
^ Hye now, the article starts off with saying that the info was delivered by others. Can't fault John for not pushing your opinion of the live proceedings when he says he wasn't there and is only relaying what was shared with him, especially if you didn't send in your take -- that's on you . These folks do a great service to our community with the blog, why don't we all agree on that and go about our day.
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