Thread by @MaryKostakidis

Extradition September hearing Day 4
In the Observation Room.
Hearing may start at 10am or 10.30, depending on whether the Defence lawyers can see Julian earlier as the judge would like.

A post script on yesterday:

This is an observation.
In the discussion at the end about how much time Defence and Prosecution should have with each witness, there was a marked difference in the attitude toward the judge between Lewis & Summers. It was rather astonishing.

Summers was respectful and deferential, while Lewis was cantankerous and behaved as if he were her superior. The judge was exceedingly polite in return.. but did not resile from her position. They are to resolve it all at the beginning of today’s hearing.

The matter of how much time each has is very important. Lewis wanted more time with Timms. However, Defence had to truncate their initial expose of the witness’s evidence from an hour and a half, to half an hour, with no notice. The judge just told them that’s what would happen.

It seems that an hour was allotted for cross examination and that was not truncated but clearly Mr Lewis felt if he needs more time he should have it. He then complained about the time Defence has to question the witness on matters raised in the cross examination but the judge...

Again refused to accommodate him. She directed him to sort out an acceptable schedule among themselves & if they couldn’t she will just make the decision herself.

The other matter which I found extraordinary is that the Prosecution sent a massive bundle of docs to the Defence to pass on the Witnesses last minute. The witnesses all say they received the bundle last night, have barely had time to read it, don’t have a hard copy, can’t refer

to it when being cross examined because they can’t split their screen. It contains all the Kromberg docs Lewis keeps referring to, media reports etc.
This is worse than it sounds. He is quoting selectively from the material and in the subsequent questioning from Summers,

He reveals that further along the passage quoted, there is significant information that pertains to the matter Lewis raised. And bear in mind, the witnesses have not had a chance to read these docs for themselves, unless they happened to do so anyway in their prep.

Btw, in my earlier tweet, I am not suggesting Lewis IS her boss, it was a remark about his attitude.

Just got a message that the court won’t be ready to start at 10.
I assume Julian’s lawyers are having their half hour with their client now.

We’re in court now but there isn’t a soul. I’ve seen the Court tweet about a Covid related issue (not J) & expect we will find out soon

Summers in court, wearing a mask, as he was yesterday when he entered.

Fitzgerald there too now. No ,ask for him, or the court assistants sitting just beneath the judge’s bench.

Can hear now. Summers coughing.

The young woman sitting behind Summers - part of the legal team I presume - is also wearing a mask.

There is a conversation occurring between one of the Judge’s assistants & Fitzgerald but they have cut off sound to us.

Earlier I heard one of them saying the judge is consulting the appropriate authorities about how to proceed.

I’m getting messages asking me to confirm whether court is going ahead. I can only tell you Summers & Fitzgerald don’t know either! They are waiting for the judge.
James Lewis has just appeared on videolink.

Lewis asking if he can be heard. He has a tech problem. He only has 30 mins before his laptop battery runs out. He has been advised to sign off to conserve battery but he says it will take him 5 mins to get back on.

He is told we are waitingfor Mr Assange to enter the courtroom

Lewis says he is staying in his home in London... he didn’t want to go home because...

Sorry, staying in his flat in London as he didn’t want to go home.

Sitting next to Lewis for the last 3 days in court was a young woman who is not there today. Now Summers & Fitzgerald are alone in court.

The odd court official wandering in & out

For some reason Lewis can’t move his laptop close enough to the charger. He must be getting even more worried about running out of juice.

Judge is in

None of us can hear each other but we all just heard someone telling us that

Mr Lewis is frozen. Whoever Mr Smith is, he is complaining he can’t see the court & Me Lewis can’t see or hear the court

We can all hear each other except for mr Lewis

He can now hear but not see

We will continue she says

Fitzgerald says Covid would be in the court room & they should not be there

Junior counsel (the woman sitting next to Lewis) is the problem.
Fitzgerald asking for an adjournment till her Covid results are in for many reasons, including J’s health.
Lewis agrees, adjourn till Monday.

Lewis: not possible for me to cross examine on videolink

All I can see he says is the back of Mr Fitzgerald, frozen

Judge: one of the barristers may have been exposed to the virus. The outcome of the test will be known tomorrow.
She agrees to adjourn till Monday as both sides have asked for this, but she makes the point, if necessary they will proceed on videolink

She asks for Interests of Justice submissions from both sides before Monday on how they wish to proceed if the test is positive. She has asked the press not to disclose the name of the barrister affected

I don’t know if the legal team saw Julian this morning. If so, he has already been potentially exposed to the virus. In any event, they did see him yesterday morning. If the test is positive, it will be interesting to see what they propose.

Back on Monday morning London time.

Postscript to today:
If the test is negative, which should be known tomorrow, all proceeds as normal on Monday. If it’s positive, the judge made it very clear that whilst she is agreeing not to proceed via videolink today, they are to assume she won’t direct them to proceed ..

Word missing : they are NOT to assume

via videolink on Monday. Another blow to Mr Lewis who protested he can’t possibly cross examine while on videolink. He is on the back foot again. At present.

For Monday’s hearing:

the next witness will be Eric Lewis, a DC–based attorney with experience of national security cases in The Eastern District of Virginia and complex cases with UK-US cross border
implications.