Extradition September hearing Day 5 Morning session
This is the 7th day of the hearing but the court has run for only 3 and a half. Lots of time wasted with the Covid non-event and technical difficulties.
First, a postscript on cross examination technique. Any comment from..
.. lawyers welcome.
James Lewis QC ‘s technique became crystal clear yesterday. He endeavours to discredit the evidence of witnesses in their statement by insisting they answer a very specific question succinctly, because it will elicit the answer he needs to go on the record,
.. even though the matter requires a fuller answer to do the question justice, and the fuller response in fact provides the opposite answer.
This strikes me as a technique to be used if winning is all that counts.
I am reminded of a long running case many years ago called..
.. The Greek Conspiracy Case where I acted as interpreter. There were half a dozen QCs in court daily for a year and a half. The purpose of cross examination from both the Prosecution and the Defence, was to establish the truth. You saw a witness being cornered into telling the
.. the truth.
But this here is often just herding the witness towards the goal of making a statement that may strictly be true but will be misleading. It is hence extremely anxiety provoking to watch.
Secondly, whereas previous witnesses received the Prosecution bundle ..
.. the day before, Eric Lewis received his on the day of the morning he was being cross examined. James Lewis shrugs that off, maintaining Eric can simply listen to his reference to paragraphs not seen by the witness, then answer a question, without being able to provide context
or request context. I am not a lawyer, so the cross examination technique used here may be considered entirely legitimate. The second issue I would think would undermine the legitimacy of the process.
Because both these approaches are causing problems and delays, James Lewis is
.. insisting on more time to cross examine & reprimanding the judge for not controlling the length of the answers the witness is providing (they were in fact not long at all). His apology to the judge after the break was perfunctory. He has put on record she is being unfair in
.. his view ie you are on notice, this may be grounds for appeal.
(This is of course my interpretation).
I’ll be joining the videolink shortly & expect the cross examination of Eric Lewis to continue.
Members of the European Parliament who, along with Amnesty & other groups, were given access that was revoked last minute, have made this short video about British justice
We can see the court. Everyone there except the judge & JA. Eric is back on a split screen. Let’s hope it all works today.
Judge in
Eric owns up to & apologises for the news video that boomed into the court yesterday!
Lewis: goes back to Ahmad in ECHR.. his audio is fuzzy. Oh no. Lewis underwater.
Lewis: refers to a paragraph in the Ahmad decision. Eric received the bundle yesterday & just found the section.
Re effects of solitary confinement..
Eric trying to scroll & keep up with Lewis..
Lewis: ECHR deals with the American system
You say they did not have the benefit of more recent studies, such as the Danish report.
Would it have reversed the decision?
Eric: if they had before them the vast body of psych damage available today I would hope that it would affect
Their decision
Eric citing other ac academics.
Lewis: citing a paper that says the Danish paper had limitation.
Asks Eric why he didn’t mention the limitations in his report.
Eric: that body of psych research is large & I could have gone on forever but if you’re saying they aren’t are problem
I disagree.
Lewis quoting a report critical of the report Eric quotes.
Eric says the findings a4e qualified.
Eric says he did provide links to the two articles.
All rather underwater..
Lewis accusing Eric of being selective in the information & “fishing”
Eric said there were very large fish in there.
Lewis: answer the question, stay concise.
Matter has improved in prisons.. why didn’t you mention the Cummingham litigation.
Eric: They have either not been properly implemented or do not apply to Mr Assange.
Lewis: defence assets JA may go to ADX.
Impossible to hear all
Lewis goes to.... kromberg!
Who .. describes all these improvements.
More bundles, searching.
Lewis quotes.. but Eric says he doesn’t have that bundle but he asks for the name of the document because he has all of Krombergs docs himself.
Lewis summarises this class action alleged treatment of prisoners with mental illness failed in their care.. & quotes Kromberg. Eric has no idea which bundle we are talking about..
Asks for time to search the bundles
Lewis: given what Kromberg says in paragraphs xx to yy, do you agree conditions have improved?
Eric: in some ways better & in other ways worse.
Lewis: Covid now. Have you read what Kromberg says?
Eric: recently or some months ago? I have today’s statistics.
Lewis:
Have you visited the Alexander detention centre since the Covid Pandemic?
Eric: no
Lewis: there are no cases of Covid at the ADC (earlier he said ADX)
Eric: that’s what Mr Kromberg says
Lewis: arguing that if that’s where they think he will go, all the statistics about other
Prisons are irrelevant.
Eric: he May be sent elsewhere & we have to look at the cases over the entire prison system
Lewis: apropos sentencing - you have said in May (year?) in he faces 340 year sentence (that sentence would apply in time of war).
Eric: saying he is happy to accept that was an error
Lewis: the 175 is a sound bite. You don’t expect that.
Eric: a reasonable likelihood & I’m
Happy to explain.
Fitzgerald objects that Eric should be able to explain.
OMGoodness he is discussing with the judge how to ask the question that will prevent him from supporting his opinion.
Eric: underwater, inaudible except for odd word about all the comments public figures
have made about JA. Talking about sentencing advisory - inaudible.
Lewis: look at cases under same provisions, espionage act sentences. Case of Sterling in Kromgerg’s declaration “critical flaws in Eric’s assessment - a tiny proportion of federal offendants receive Max Sentence”
Do you agree?
Eric: yes
Lewis now questioning Eric about comparisons in sentencing.
Are you familiar with the facts of Sterling?
Eric: I am
Lewis : he was a CIA operative who passed on info to a Russian & then on to Iran. Do you know his sentence? What was the max?
Eric: 100 years
Lewis: 130
Lewis : he appealed & what was the result? He got 30 months.
Eric: that’s what this particular judge decided on appeal, that’s not what the govt wanted.
Fitzgerald objects Lewis not giving Eric time.
Judge says it’s standard cross examination practice.
Lewis now asking him about another case: Albury (sp?)
He faced 2 counts, Max 20 years. Recent case in Minnesota.
Eric: not familiar with this case, looking for the page
In the material he received yesterday, “haven’t read it”.
Lewis: well let’s read it together he says, reading & jumping all over this doc
Lewis: continues to riffle through the bundle summarising the outcome in this case & raising the issue of base level sentencing.
Lewis: in JA case are there any Top Secret or just Secret docs (presumably this affects the base rate).
Eric: not certain.
Lewis: judge in this case
explains rational for sentencing in Albury .. 49 months in prison.
Eric: I haven’t read it because I received it yesterday
What is the longest sentence ever imposed for a defendant who has made unauthorised disclosures to the media? 63 months (either 63 or 43.. unclear audio)
Eric: there has never been a case like this one.
Lewis: recommendations are made for sentencing, decision is made by a federal
judge.
Lewis: District judge has life tenure, to ensure independence.
Eric: senate has impeached numerous judges
Lewis repeats question
Eric: yes
Claude Hilton is the judge assigned to JA case, has been sitting on the bench for 35 years.
Do you have any reason to believe he
would be unfair?
Eric: I don’t question his integrity
Lewis asks him why judge would fail to apply the guidelines.
Eric says there is a wide range of discretion
Lewis wants a break
Eric happy to
Short break.
Good to see other journos on the tech chat also now asking to see Assange. I have not had a reply to my email yesterday explaining why it was important to see more of the defendant.
Here is what I have asked for:
Is it possible for journalists on the videolink to see more of the defendant?
In the statement you read out to us daily before crossing to the court, you state it will not be possible to see the defendant at all times (or words very much along those lines).
In fact on each of
the three days the hearing took place we caught a glimpse of the defendant for a second, maybe 2 seconds. We cannot see whether he attempts to communicate with his lawyers, how often that occurs, how it occurs and whether it is successful. On day one we heard him shouting
something and it may be he has no form whatsoever of communicating with them during the hearing. As journalists, we do need
to see.”
Lewis: ref to article Lewis published in Independent saying Eric doesn’t want to see JA extradited, quoting wrong section & wrong number 340 years
Eric: apologises for the error
Lewis: refers to Rosen decision (conspiring to transmit national security info)
Eric points out this deals with disclosers not publishers.
Eric is inaudible half the time.
There is a discussion about “vagueness & ambiguity” but inaudible
Lewis talking about other cases where the judge had to balance harm to national Sec versus first amendment rights, incl Pentagon Papers. Eric’s responses inaudible.
(They have us a brief look at J)
Eric says.... which is why there has never been a successful prosecution pf a publisher. I’m sorry I couldn’t hear nearly all of what he said.
Lewis now differentiating between whistleblowers & journalists & jumping all over a bundle. “common sense says govt can punish journalists” because when the material is published, it replicates the damage.
Eric: agrees that is what “he “ is saying
Lewis asks if Pentagon Papers are most relevant precedent.
Eric: very relevant but there are others.
Lewis: the result may have been different had the govt decided to prosecute. Do you agree?
Eric: they acknowledge the possibility
Lewis: when you say legal precedent precludes
prosecuting JA, there is no legal precedent.
Eric: while the Supreme Court have never... balancing Nat sec interests against 1st.. plutonium bomb.. that is my analysis. Judge Ellis may take a different view. Impossible to work out what he said..
Lewis: provide one single precedent
Eric: quoting Holder, Miller. NYT is a precedent, the Minnesota case, ... continues inaudible. Leaks to appears every day that are not prosecuted.
Lewis: listen carefully, write down the question if you need to but I want a concise answer - The US Supreme Court has never said they are precluded from prosecuting journalists for publishing Nat defence info
They are going round in circles. The judge says she has understood the answer. Lewis moving on do journos have the right to go into the Whitehouse without authorisation?
Lewis:What degree in political science do you have
Eric: answers
Lewis: what academic peer reviewed articles have you written in pol sci.
Eric: none
Lewis quoting a judge about Eric’s evidence: re political motivation & abuse of process.
“Eric Lewis’s opinion is pure conjecture” so your evidence was not accepted by the High Court
Eric: exhaling about this case. Individual who said he was going to Syria to support a group battling Assad... (inaudible) policy had changed, not a change in political opinion
Lewis quoting Feldman, judge corrects him, Feldstein.
Lewis: he admitted there was no decision not to prosecute & did not withdraw the possibility of prosecution. Drawing distinction between a decision to not prosecute & a decision not to prosecute.
Do you agree?
Eric: no
Eric: I believe it reflects a misunderstanding of how the prosecution & DOJ works & not consistent with my long experience
Lewis: Miller left DOJ in 2011, 2 years before ha gave that interview to the Washington Post.
Eric: he would not have said anything that was not run past Holder, in my opinion.
Lewis: fed prosecutors are guided by the principles in their guidelines?
Eric: no they are guided by the AG
Lewis: they are barred from political motivation
Eric: if you look at the prosecutions & judges’ comments about them, they show they don’t follow the guidelines.
Lewis: re political motivation of Trump - asking if Eric left out a word, yes he was talking about the 2016 election campaign. Trumpet desperate to squash the problem to his legitimacy created by Wikileaks.
Are you saying it’s a politically motivated prosecution of someone who
helped Trump’ election?
Eric: relating how when & why Trump changed his comments/view of Wikileaks.
Lewis: if Trump wants to get rid of the problem, he is keeping it in the spotlights by prosecuting.
Eric: inaudible
Lewis: that’s pure conjecture
Eric: quoting Trumps closest to support his view. It is an informed assumption based on numerous sources he says.
Lewis: classified information covered by a procedural statute
Eric: it’s about the way material is handled in discovery.
Lewis : the govt cant withhold if it’s relevant to the case. The US can’t unilaterally withhold info
Eric: they can withhold classified info (more detail)
Lewis: do you agree the statute’s aim is not to create an unfair trial?
Eric: but that’s not the effect - makes it difficult for defendants to obtain docs & causes long delays to trial.
Fitzgerald now: re decision under Obama & decision to reverse that under Trump. Sarah Sanders interview: Trump said Obama did nothing about JA, we did. (That’s the video that intruded into the courtroom yesterday), & Miller, if the dept is not going to prosecute publishers,
then they are not going to prosecute JA.
The dept had “all but concluded” not to proceed. Article quoted an a DOJ official .. if it was untrue, they would have come out & said so.
Fitzgerald referring to evidence that pressure was put on Prosecutors.
Eric: yes & Sessions confirmed it by saying it is a priority for us.
Fitzgerald : you said 1,000 prosecutors wrote protesting about the decision in the Stone case.
Eric: Trump makes the decisions &
Barr has articulated it, that they are the “hands” of the President.
“Merely his hands.. his discretion is absolute & not reviewable”
Eric: This is how things have changed. Prosecutions are triggered by the President.
Fitzgerald referring to Trump commuting Stone’s sentence & JA would be tried under an administration where the AG takes his orders from the President.
Superseding indictment in May issued 4 months after Barr took office. Many prosecutors resigned in protest at political
interference but Barr did not. Fitzgerald is summarising Eric’s statement.
Eric: prosecutors don’t say they are closing a case, they let the time frame lapse. In case someone walks in the door with info that would change things. Nothing like this has happened, there is no change
Eric discussing leaks from within DOJ as to why they did not proceed to prosecute.
The NYT problem applies to the 17 counts under the Esp Act
Fitzgerald: re whether you are qualified to comment ..
Kromberg makes all sorts of comments about prison conditions.. is he more qualified than you?
Eric: I’d be surprised if he has spent more time than me in prosons. When prisoners are unhappy they don’t go to him, they come
to me. The guidelines look good on paper but my experience is the reality is different.
Fitzgerald : on length of time it will take.
Eric: if the US regards all the Wikileaks docs as classified, it will take a very long time. And throughout the time he will be in solitary.
Fitzgerald : Mandela rule = solitary for 22 hours, without meaningful contact with others
Fitzgerald: review procedure for SAMs
Eric: not aware of any court challenge, the AG has discretion
Fitzgerald: referring to evidence submitted in cases In ECHR Lewis quoted.. decision in Ahmed might be decided differently today.. what factors would make it different?
Eric: there has been extensive research into effects of solitary confinement
(Inaudible)
Eric: re prison JA will be in - they do not keep records of how many inmates have mental health issues, reviews have shown an alarming lack of knowledge / interest about/ in mental illness
Eric: reviews say 80% of prisoners diagnosed with mental illness get no treatment.
Fitzgerald: a former warden said there is no treatment available for Aspergers for prisoners under SAMs where as Lewis stated if Aspergers is confirmed, there is treatment available for it.
Breaking for lunch
Fitzgerald needs 20 more minutes, then next witness.
Whoa, apologies for my spelling of names/ cases.
I may tweet a little less frequently.
It’s challenging to type one thing while listening & evaluating the next thing that’s being said.
Eric is back. What a marathon for him.
It seems Mr Lewis is having a better day today & this witness has made a few concessions. However when you think about the concessions, they are not on substantive matters & the essence of his arguments remain very strong. In my view.
Judge in but all frozen now
I have no sound or movement on my screen, just a frozen picture
Trying to reconnect
I have reconnected but I’m not being admitted to the room by the host
Hah! Back in
Eric: discussing how the sentence is arrived at.. whilst 175 is the maximum sentence, you could reach the 175 by more convictions under fewer of the counts.
Says Manning could have been given the death sentence or life - it was discretionary.
Lewis is finished.
10 min break before next witness
The witness is Tom Durkin, on video
He is American & sports a massive moustache
Fitzgerald: qualifications - attorney licences to practice in numerous jurisdictions, practicing criminal law for 47 years, incl as Assist District Attorney for Illinois ..... teaches law at Chicago Uni plus awards for his work incl for Guantanamo
Summarise problems facing
Tom: classified docs only available to people with clearance & cant be discussed, even with your client. You can’t take anything off their premises. Not discussing the material with the defendant is an incredible handicap.
Fitzgerald: is there a real risk he will spend life in jail?
Tom: very likely. Sentencing guidelines ... He would be looking at a conviction on all counts by a jury. The govt likely to take a position that JA is more liable than Manning.
Can the court take into account relevant
of which he hasn’t been convicted but alleged against him, to enhance the sentence.
Tom: Yes, used in aggravation - the court has discretion what it will take into account.
Effect on his freedom of choice to defend.
Tom: if you plead guilty it massively reduces the sentence - a built in incentive to plead guilty.(sound breaking up)
Tom: most clients cannot risk the exposure & take a plea.
Tom: oh dear, he is frozen
Judge walks out while they find a technician
Which gives me the chance to tell you Tom is what you might call a very chilled dude.
He is back & animated
Judge: the issue was at your end
Fitzgerald: if defendant is induced to plead guilty would the requirement be they would have to cooperate with the authorities, including revelation of sources of information?
Tom: yes (inaudible)
Tom: I think it was likely there were political considerations when he was first charged, similarly for the superseding indictment & second superseding indictment.
Kromberg says grand jury has to give the go ahead. Is the jury a protection against an overzealous prosecutor.
Sound & picture breaking up
He is frozen
Judge walks out
Tom has changed computers.
Tom: no the decision is made by DOJ, in this case by the Nat Sec division - the defence have no right to make representations to the grand jury.
Lewis: are you saying he will not get a fair trial or that it will be difficult?
Tom: he would not get what I’d consider a fair trial.
Lewis: seeing classified docs is an inconvenience
Tom: worse than that - you can’t discuss it with your client, the most important person in the case.
Lewis: go to Kromberg
Tom : I can’t on this computer
Lewis: Kroeber says JA will be able to access the info
Tom: I don’t accept the fact that the defendant would be able to review classified evidence. The govt could declassify the material but theres no way he’d be allowed in to the Skiff(sp? It’s the space they are allowed
To view classified docs
Lewis: do you know t( sissies he will raise in his trial?
Tom: I’m not his lawyer, no.
Lewis: if you don’t know the issues how can you know it will be a problem
Tom: the issue of discovery (not all classified) is it is very expensive.
Lewis: defence has had access to 500,000 pages of Wikileaks docs he has put on the internet.
Tom: I don’t know but regardless of what it is you still have to discuss it with him
Lewis quoting from a document that he says Durkin is confused about.
Tom: I don’t have the doc in
front of me.
Lewis: on levels of sentencing - the base level if he pleaded guilty would be reduced
Tom: the judge can’t ignore enhancements
Lewis arrives at a base level he is happy with & Durkin agrees.
Lewis: have you read the case of Rush?
Tom: no
Lewis: the court said other conduct was irrelevant to sentencing. Asks about political motivation -& decision by Obama n9t to prosecute. He quotes Feldstein who backtracked on his evidenced (not not a decision, just not a decision) apologises for the double negative.
Tom: I don’t necessarily agree. Obama made a decision not to charge JA. Obviously they can always go back but that doesn’t mean it’s not a political decision. Mr Kromberg says the jury was ongoing but that’s not that important. I think it was declined by the prosecutors.
Tom: the grand jury didn’t charge him, it wa s the AG.
Lewis: all your knowledge derives from news articles.
Tom: of course
Lewis informing him Miller’s comments came 2 years after he left
Lewis: are you being paid.
Tom: I’m being paid by the hour
Lewis: may I ask how much?
Tom: only if the judge agrees t9 redact it so my other clients don’t see it.
General mirth
Fitzgerald: asks Tom about the media reports, Miller etc
Essentially the witnesses are all being asked to justify how they can rely on media reports when formulating an opinion about the reasons for not prosecuting by Obama & prosecution by Trump.
Tom makes the point that when info is leaked & its not uncommon, if the govt disagrees it will correct the record & they haven’t. If the Obama administration intended to prosecute JA, they would have corrected the record, in some way.
Lewis objects because a reference is being made to something in a doc the witness doesn’t have before him, but in fact he does. (Can’t understand the basis of the objection as Lewis has incessantly referred to docs which witnesses have got before them nor read at all)
Tom: All the power is in the hand of the prosecutor who decides which counts JA would be able to plea
Tom Durkin finished.
Tomorrow’s witnesses are Goetz (?) in the morning and Daniel Ellsberg in the Afternoon.
Court ends.
Goodnight
• • •
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‘For Israeli decision-makers, starvation of the Gaza Strip was in the cards from day one of the war.. 1. About 30,000 people live in the southern Israeli city of Sderot. Imagine that the refrigerators of all Sderot residents are empty. In fact, they don't even have refrigerators. The bakeries are closed. The supermarket shelves offer nothing. Residents are hungry. And then, once every 24 hours, a single truck enters the city gates and distributes food, door to door. And the food on that truck? That's all there is, for the entire city.
About 30,000 people also live in Or Akiva. And in Arad. Each city gets one truck a day.
Will the residents of Sderot still be hungry by the end of the day? And what will happen after a week? And after a month?’ Cont
‘2. According official data from the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, which is responsible for carrying out the government's civilian policy in those areas, an average of 71 trucks entered the Gaza Strip each day over the past month. Seventy-one trucks meant to feed 2.1 million people. One truck for every 30,000. Half of the trucks made it to a distribution center but the other half of them, brought in by the United Nations and various aid organizations, were looted en route.
It's a pitiful amount of food. But one can only wish the Sderot scenario was the reality in Gaza. The situation there is much worse.’ Cont
‘3. In Gaza, the truck does not distribute food door to door. Half of the food it carries is unloaded in large piles in remote military zones. The gates there open for just 15 minutes a day, according to a random schedule. You're reading that right: 15 minutes a day.
People loot the other half of the goods straight from the trucks. In both cases, those who manage to get to the food are almost exclusively young men, those who can carry heavy loads, run fast and are willing to risk their lives.
Over 1,000 have died so far while crowding around to get food, since late May, most of them from Israel Defense Forces gunfire.
What happens to those who can't make it to the trucks or the distribution centers? What about the women, the disabled, the sick, the elderly? What about the unlucky?
They are starving to death.’ Cont
Louise Adler in The Guardian: 🧵
‘One must acknowledge the remarkably effective Jewish community organisations in Australia behind the latest antisemitism report. Collectively, with their News Ltd megaphone, they have successfully badgered the government of the day, cowed the ABC, intimidated vice-chancellors and threatened to defund arts organisations.
With the ability to garner prime ministerial dinners, a battalion of lobbyists has gained access to editors, duchessed willingly seduced journalists keen to enjoy junkets and corralled more than 500 captains of industry to subscribe to full-page ads against antisemitism and thereby blurring political argument with prejudice and bias. It is no surprise that this relentless propaganda effort has paid off…’
On those forever quoted statistics on antisemitism:
‘16 students at Sydney University feeling intimidated by the slogan “from the river to the sea” was reframed as 250 complaints submitted to parliamentary inquiry. A childcare centre that was not in fact a Jewish centre was added to the list of terrifying antisemitic attacks. The individuals police believe were hired by criminals seeking a reduction in their prison sentences who allegedly placed combustible material in a caravan became a “terrorist plot”’’
The figures include all the ‘fake’ antisemitism attacks by paid criminals orchestrated by a crime figure not in any way driven by antisemitism, antiZionism or anti Israel motivation. As for the keffiyeh and the phrase from the River to the Sea, interpreting the symbols and slogans of another group as threatening while promoting your own as needing protection is one eyed and undermines social cohesion.
‘The publication of the special envoy’s plan is the latest flex by the Jewish establishment. The in-house scribes have been busy: no institution, organisation or department is exempt from the latest push to weaponise antisemitism and insist on the exceptionalism of Australian Jewry. One might pause to wonder what First Nations people, who are the victims of racism every day, feel about the priority given to 120,000 well-educated, secure and mostly affluent individuals…
The envoy wants to strengthen legislation apparently. Isn’t that the role of the government of the day? Who is to be the arbiter? Who is to be the judge, for example, of universities and their report cards? Who will adjudicate “accountability” in the media? Who will recommend defunding which artist? Should this government endorse this proposal, it will clearly be the envoy.
Fortunately, a suite of laws protecting us from racism, discrimination, hate speech and incitement to violence are already deeply embedded in our civil society. No university is oblivious to these laws, no public broadcaster, no arts organisation.
Educating future generations about the Holocaust has long been a priority. I hope the envoy is aware of the work done engaging thousands of school students at such institutions as the Melbourne Holocaust Museum where my own mother was the education officer for over a decade. If the envoy is concerned that school students aren’t sufficiently well versed in the horrors of the Holocaust, she might take heart from such evidence as the sales of Anne Frank’s diary continue unabated, in the past five years more than 55,000 copies were sold in Australia.
The envoy helpfully proposes to nominate “trusted voices” to refute antisemitic claims – yet again seeking to prescribe who speaks and which views are deemed acceptable. One hopes that media organisations are resolute against the plan’s determination to monitor, oversee and “ensure fair reporting to avoid perpetually incorrect or distorted narratives or representations of Jews”. It seems that the envoy wants to determine what is legitimate reportage. Freedom of the press is of less importance. Independent journalism that is factual and speaks the truth is lightly abandoned.

What is Australia’s proposed antisemitism plan – and why are some parts causing concern?
Read more
Universities appear to be on notice: adopt the IHRA definition, act on it or be warned that in March 2026 a judicial inquiry will be established as the envoy demands.
Cultural organisations be warned – your funding could be at risk too. There isn’t a cultural organisation in the country that doesn’t have well-argued codes of conduct for staff, artists and audiences – in place well before the 7 October attack to combat homophobia, racism and hate speech. Now it is proposed that a Jewish Cultural and Arts Council is to advise the arts minister. To privilege one ethnic community over others is deeply offensive and dangerous.’
And there I’ll stop because Segal’s shopping list is deeply offensive and dangerous.
Breaking
ABC changes its position and defence, now acknowledging @antoinette_news IS Lebanese . A recognition the race exists 🤦🏻♀️
Today’s hearing began with the ABC apologising for filing an unredacted affidavit revealing the name of a complainant.
Two own goals for @ABCaustralia
With respect to the very wise move to change their position on race in this case, I think it can be assumed Chair Kim Williams would have come down on management like a ton of bricks. He has been outspoken on change required at the broadcaster, and this catastrophic case is public confirmation of the rectitude of that position.
@ABCaustralia Currently Ahern being cross examined by ABC - he is held responsible for hiring Lattouf. Next today will be then Chair Buttrose followed by Green, her direct supervisor whose evidence will be an integral piece in the puzzle of what Lattouf was told, as she did the telling.
In light of the ongoing court case brought by @antoinette_news against the @ABCaustralia for unfair dismissal, it’s worth recalling her proposal to the ABC in order to settle the matter which I’ll post in a thread below.
Instead, the ABC decided to defend their decision, exposed in excruciating detail and at enormous expense to the taxpayer - we are funding the 14 month battle (so far) and the massive US law firm Seyfarth the ABC has engaged to fight it. It will be costing a fortune.
Here is what she had asked for to settle it months ago:
🧵
Fascinating day in court as @antoinette_news lawyer outlines content of emails between senior members of the ABC prior to her HRW post, the pressure they came under from the lobby group Lawyers for Israel from the moment she was on air, because of her known political opinions, their conclusion the position was untenable but that they could not sack her abuse she had done nothing wrong and for fear of the phenomenal ‘blowback’.
The manner in which she was sacked - called to a brief meeting and told to collect her things and leave the building did not follow the proscribed procedure under the enterprise agreement according to her lawyer.
Her sacking followed her repost of a HRW report stating Israel was using starvation as a weapon of war.
Court adjourned briefly..
If you wish to follow, livestream here
Lattouf’s lawyer lists numerous additional complaints from the lobby group to the Chair and MD on the day she was sacked, and The Australian, which evidently knew of the complaints, called the ABC.
He says emails show ABC senior figures were sympathetic to the Israel lobby’s position.
A slide of AL’s post simply saying ‘HRW reporting starvation as a tool of war’ is shown - apparent this could not be construed as anything but a statement of fact, and in addition, with ABC news stories appeared on the HRW report prior to and after AL’s post.
Her lawyer refers to an unwritten expectation that ABC employees will not do at any time anything that may convey the view they are not impartial.
He says ABC claims it imposed on AL a bespoke rule (not to post about Gaza) and then sacked her for breaching that standard.
If Senior Exec Oliver Taylor asserts the post expresses an opinion, then the dismissal is because of her political opinions - ‘opinionated’ and ‘partial’ mean the same thing, so they hold the post revealed impartiality.
If Senior Management were agnostic on the Gaza issue, then they succumbed to a campaign.
Either ABC capitulated to a lobby or she breached a standard specific to her.
He says the ABC submission is long and an elaborate navigation for the ABC narrative, characteristic of a lawyers drafting, when there is ample material in the contemporaneous emails, in order to reinterpret clear statements in emails; the affidavits don’t deal with critical issues - who gave the direction and when? Her supervisor Green stated in their meeting that she did not give Lattouf a ‘directive’ not to post, she ‘advised’ her to avoid it. The complex affidavits don’t describe why the post was ‘partial’ - the post doesn’t appear in Taylor’s affidavit at all ie the very thing that was ostensibly the reason for the sacking.
Apropos communications, the ABC are prohibited from using Signal as they are subject to the Archives Act and can’t delete.
ABC Witness statements are he says replete with terms like ‘trust and confidence’, ‘impartiality’ etc
Oliver Taylor believes she was given a direction ‘bespoke to her’ not to post about Gaza, and her post ‘may’ have breached that direction.
He says the ABC justify not following their protocols for dismissal because a presenter can be removed even if she hasn’t done anything wrong (rostering change etc).
Lattouf asserts if she was not of the Lebanese race she would not have been removed in that way.
The ABC will assert says there is no evidence there is such a thing as a Lebanese race. The ABC lawyer rose - he objects to this being run as a discrimination case because it departs from the pleadings.
SAl’s lawyer says the issue is whether she was dismissed because of the HRW post, or because of objections to her political opinion by the lobby group and the Chair of the ABC.
Also, AL’s lawyer says that there could be no rational basis for Taylor to believe her post was a sackable offence. That the evidence she was given a directive particular to her was implausible given Green told management she didn’t issue a directive. Nevertheless, Taylor concluded a directive was given. And he thought there ‘may’ have been a breach of ABC social media policy.
1 of 2 for this morning session