Thread by @Corinne_Vella

Former PM Joseph Muscat is testifying in the public inquiry into Daphne's murder.

#JusticeforDaphne #DaphneCaruanaGalizia

2. Joseph Muscat has accused the public inquiry board of failing in its mission and of violating its terms of reference.

#JusticeforDaphne #DaphneCaruanaGalizia

3. Joseph Muscat's said of his reaction to Daphne's murder: "I knew immediately that it would mark my political legacy."

#JusticeforDaphne #DaphneCaruanaGalizia

4. Joseph Muscat has now said that he will answer "all the board's questions which are in line with the terms of reference", implying he won't answer questions which aren't put by the board.

#JusticeforDaphne #DaphneCaruanaGalizia

5. Joseph Muscat has declared that Daphne's work needs to be analysed. He is now "analysing" her work. "She published photos of me with my children, out eating a burger". She didn't. He made that up.

#JusticeforDaphne #DaphneCaruanaGalizia

6. Muscat is now declaring that nothing he ever said instigated hatred against Daphne. This is what he said about her at the time when the murder plot was suspended, pending the national election. #JusticeforDaphne #DaphneCaruanaGalizia
timesofmalta.com/articles/view/…

Reminder: former PM Joseph Muscat is testifying into the inquiry into Daphne's murder. He's spent most of his time so far defending himself and criticising Daphne. #DaphneCaruanaGalizia

8 Joseph Muscat protests too much. He said he'd answer all the board's questions, but he's doing most of the talking. There haven't been many questions so far.

#DaphneCaruanaGalizia

9 Joseph Muscat's telling the board that "a colleague of yours investigated the allegation that my chief of staff took kickbacks from the citizenship scheme". He means passport sales. #DaphneCaruanaGalizia daphnecaruanagalizia.com/wp-content/upl…

10 Muscat is saying "the state did not know that Daphne Caruana Galizia was going to be killed". How would he know? He is not the state. #DaphneCaruanaGalizia

11 Muscat is criticising the inquiry again and questioning the motive of Daphne's murder. Kurt Farrugia, his former head of communications, is in the hall and tapping frantically on his phone. He's supposed to be running Malta Enterprise. #DaphneCaruanaGalizia

12 Muscat is disputing the existence of a parallel cabinet in his government. The claim was made under oath in this inquiry by two of Muscat's ministers.
#DaphneCaruanaGalizia

13 Muscat is now defending his chief of staff: "he was an integral part of the workings of government."
He's referring to Keith Schembri, the subject of Daphne's last published blog post. #DaphneCaruanaGalizia

daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2017/10/crook-…

14 Muscat is now defending his proximity to business operators when he was PM: "About 10 people run the economy." So far, no word on corruption and why he protected Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi, both of whom were identified in the #PanamaPapers.
#DaphneCaruanaGalizia

15 Muscat is now reading out a report about a vote in parliament in 1998. He is speaking in 2020. Daphne was killed in 2017. The relevance of the 1998 vote is unclear.
#DaphneCaruanaGalizia

16. Muscat is now saying that he told Keith Schembri to say all he knew about #17Black. The company belongs to Yorgen Fenech, accused of conspiring to have Daphne killed. #DaphneCaruanaGalizia timesofmalta.com/articles/view/…

17. Yorgen Fenech's company #17Black was a target client of Konrad Mizzi's and Keith Schembri's Panama companies.
#DaphneCaruanaGalizia

reuters.com/article/us-mal…

18 Muscat's going into great detail about first meeting Fenech in 2009 and how many other Fenechs were there too. The board's question was about reports that Muscat shared a WhatsApp group with Fenech and Schembri. #DaphneCaruanaGalizia

19 Muscat says that he has been questioned by the police and "it appears that there was nothing untoward in this chat". Apparently, a PM needs the police to tell him about right and wrong. #DaphneCaruanaGalizia

20. A reminder: "A murdered journalist. Shady offshore deals. A tiny nation in the grip of large-scale criminal interests...the selection of Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat as the OCCRP 2019 Person of the Year in Organized Crime and Corruption." occrp.org/en/poy/2019/

21. Joseph Muscat didn't give a proper interview for almost three years. Now he won't stop talking off his ring-binder of notes. He keeps looking around the room rather than at the board. Meanwhile, Kurt Farrugia has stopped tapping on his phone.
#DaphneCaruanaGalizia

22. Now Muscat's lecturing the board about journalism and his Black Friday purchases. He's looking around the room. His lawyer Pawlu Lia is seated near him. #DaphneCaruanaGalizia

23. Muscat is talking rather a lot about himself and lecturing the assembly (mostly journalists) on journalism. He's speaking in a public inquiry into a murder. This is the journalist who was killed. #DaphneCaruanaGalizia

24. "I know her family will not like to hear this", Muscat says. He then goes on to say that Daphne had become "politically irrelevant because she fell out with both governing and opposition parties, and that's when she was killed". He dusts his hands together for emphasis.

24.ii Muscat's confused about the role of journalism. Perhaps the career propagandist believes his propaganda message that Daphne was paid for her blog posts. Traffic on Daphne's blog peaked around October 2017. Her writing was more relevant than ever. #DaphneCaruanaGalizia

25. The board reminds Muscat that the state should not wait for an inquiry to be completed before taking action. "Waiting for the outcome of the inquiry" was Muscat's stock justification for not taking action on the corruption Daphne exposed. #DaphneCaruanaGalizia

26 Reminder: Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri took ownership of their Panama companies AFTER Muscat was elected and when Muscat had already appointed them as minister and chief of staff. #DaphneCaruanaGalizia #PanamaPapers

Tu quo que is a limited strategy. Muscat hasn't learned this. He's sidestepping accountability for inaction on #PanamaPapers by citing Swiss Leaks. Daphne exposed Mizzi's and Schembri's Panama companies. Muscat didn't fire them. He protected them. #DaphneCaruanaGalizia

28. Muscat's been asked about 17 Black. He's launched into defending himself over Pilatus Bank.

Reminder: Why hire a PR firm to discredit a journalist as "a Russian spy", if she and her work are "irrelevant"? Asking for a former prime minister who has trouble with the truth. #DaphneCaruanaGalizia
euobserver.com/justice/146821

30. Muscat employs his trademark circularly 'logic to deny that Daphne's murderers had a sense of impunity, "because they're in prison now". The board points out that the sense of impunity was before Daphne's murder, not after.
#DaphneCaruanaGalizia

31. Muscat is back to lecturing about journalism. He spent most of his working life as a propagandist for the party that propelled him into government.

32. Now Muscat is talking about Roosevelt. The inquiry is about a murder on 16 October 2017 and the circumstances that made it possible. #DaphneCaruanaGalizia

33. Muscat is looking around the room again as he speaks. He says Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri were doers. Apparently, that's enough to justify not firing them. He keeps looking at his notes.
#PanamaPapers #DaphneCaruanaGalizia

34. Now Muscat says that he is a victim because he had to take responsibility for what happened while he was in office. He didn't resign in October 2017. He left office in January 2020. #DaphneCaruanaGalizia

35. The board asks Muscat about leaks from security briefings. He says he will only do that behind closed doors. The board says they asked about leaks, not the briefings themselves. Muscat insists on not speaking in public "because there is a fine line between briefings & leaks".

35.ii As a sidenote, Muscat could say that again. Those briefings were leaking like a sieve. Information was relayed to murder suspects. This was confirmed by witnesses in criminal proceedings. #DaphneCaruanaGalizia

36. The board tells Muscat that the parte civil have questions. Muscat says that he does not wish to be used politically. The board tells him questions will be put to the board and he will answer. #DaphneCaruanaGalizia

37. The hearing is suspended for ten minutes. When it resumes, Muscat will be answering questions put by the parte civil. #DaphneCaruanaGalizia

38. The session's back on. Muscat is asked about steps he took against Mizzi and Schembri. He says he would have asked Schembri to leave if he hadn't resigned. Schembri's Panama company was exposed in 2016. He 'resigned' in November 2019. #DaphneCaruanaGalizia

39. The board reminds Muscat that cabinet is a state institution. Surely that's government 101, especially for a former prime minister?

40. Joseph Muscat's lawyer Pawlu Lia is objecting to questions by the family lawyers. The board's terms of reference clearly state that family is allowed to participate in the proceedings.

41. Parte civil lawyers ask Muscat about his covert email exchange with passport sales chief Christian Kalin of Henley&Partners. Muscat's lawyers object. "This is a political narrative". #DaphneCaruanaGalizia
daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2017/05/prime-…

Muscat finally replies. He was protecting the country's reputation. People are suffering from the impact of COVID19 and revenue from passport sales is helping them.

Rewind that. Muscat's said that he colluded in 2017 with the passport salesman Christian Kalin to threaten Daphne with punitive lawsuits because of a pandemic in 2020. Maybe he has a crystal ball to foretell the future?

44. Muscat's asked why his party included a photo of Daphne on an election billboard. He doesn't deny it. He justifies it. Apparently, persecuting a journalist is normal to Muscat. #DaphneCaruanaGalizia

45. Muscat's lawyers object to Muscat being questioned about his declaration that "Malta is being tarnished from Bidnija". Muscat says he wasn't commenting about Daphne. #DaphneCaruanaGalizia timesofmalta.com/articles/view/…

46. Muscat is asked about his comments in the EP about "blogs and fake news". He doesn't deny making those comments. He says defiantly "She used to make things up." Except 'she' didn't. Her name was Daphne Caruana Galizia.
euobserver.com/economic/13823…

47. Muscat's lawyers object to questions about his relationship with Yorgen Fenech. The board allows the question. Muscat plays down the connection. "We didn't meet often". However: 'Large volumes' of WhatsApp chats in Fenech, Schembri and Muscat group timesofmalta.com/articles/view/…

48. Muscat's asked about Konrad Mizzi's claim that he always acted with Muscat's approval. Muscat frowns. He answers, speaking in the third person. The prime minister this, the prime minister that. He sidesteps the question by explaining expected cabinet procedure.

48.ii He doesn't say that he never approved of Mizzi doing anything illegal.

49. He's questioned now about Projects Malta, which travelled with Mizzi from ministry to ministry, even when Muscat 'took action' and switched Mizzi's title from Minister for Health and Energy to Minister without portfolio (but in charge of Projects Malta and installed at OPM).

50. Kurt Farrugia's fiddling with his phone again. He and Muscat go back a long way. As government head of communications, Farrugia ignored media requests on Muscat's behalf for years. Now he's busy. So's Muscat's Facebook page, even though he's not online.

51. Muscat's lawyer Pawlu Lia is interrupting proceedings. He wants to "prove" that Daphne refused police protection. Apparently, he thinks this is some sort of justification. Of what, it's unclear.

52. Muscat's lawyers are standing in the public area of the hall, blocking my view of the proceedings. Kurt Farrugia's taking a break from being busy online. So's Muscat's Facebook.

53. A parte civil lawyer is asking about the clandestine company 17 Black, which belongs to murder suspect Yorgen Fenech. Muscat says he never asked Fenech about 17 Black. He says that Schembri told him it has nothing to do with Electrogas. However: timesofmalta.com/articles/view/…

54. Muscat's asked about leaks from the investigations. He says "I have already said that I will answer questions behind close doors". The questions concern information that is already in the public domain. The board points this out. Muscat says he will only answer in camera.

55. Muscat denies knowing that his chief of staff met murder middleman Melvin Theuma.

56. Muscat is asked about a threat he received. "The threat was that I would be smeared." He's referring to alleged involvement in Daphne's murder. #DaphneCaruanaGalizia

57. Muscat's lawyer, Pawlu Lia, interrupts proceedings again. He's objecting to questions about the administrative procedure followed when Yorgen Fenech applied for a pardon. #DaphneCaruanaGalizia

58. Muscat doesn't object. He says he'll answer. There's plenty of detail. The standout is that he begins by talking about not objecting to a complete review of the standard procedures.

59. Muscat says that the decision about Yorgen Fenech's request for pardon was taken by cabinet, in his absence. #DaphneCaruanaGalizia

60. More questions by the parte civile. Muscat's lawyers are objecting again.

61. Pawlu Lia interrupts again, objecting to parte civile questions. The board's chairman impatiently tells him off: "Let's hear the question first".

61.i Explainer: Pawlu Lia is legal advisor to former prime minister Joseph Muscat.

62. Muscat is asked about a comment made by a party rep: "We never voted for the mafia to take over the country". Muscat's reply? No member of the mafia was ever arrested, and there are many around. Apparently, he thinks this validates his premiership. #DaphneCaruanaGalizia

63. Muscat says all he saw in Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi was that they were hard workers. #DaphneCaruanaGalizia daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2017/10/crook-…

64. Muscat is asked about his involvement in a WhatsApp chat with Yorgen Fenech. Pawlu Lia objects. He's overruled by the board. Muscat says his mistake was to leave the group. #DaphneCaruanaGalizia

65. Yorgen Fenech's lawyer, Charles Mercieca, has just walked in. He sits in front of Malta Enterprise CEO Kurt Farrugia, who is taking a break from his phone.

66. Muscat's still on the stand. Earlier, he objected to testifying again during another sitting, so this one is going on longer than usual. #DaphneCaruanaGalizia

67. Muscat's asked when he heard that Yorgen Fenech was arrested in Houston on drug-related offences. Pawlu Lia objects. Fenech's lawyer Charles Mercieca walks up to Lia and whispers in his ear. Muscat answers the question. He heard about the incident soon afterwards.

68. Muscat's being asked now about Schembri's visit to his house the night before he was arrested. Muscat claims Schembri went to inform him that he was going to resign. Background: Schembri was at Muscat's home till late at night. He was arrested hours later.

69. Muscat's asked about Schembri's missing mobile phone. There is some discussion between the parte civile lawyer and the board. Muscat listens, wearing his trademark smirk. #DaphneCaruanaGalizia

70. Lia's objecting. Again. Questioning moves ahead.

71. Take a moment to remember: this inquiry is about a murder. #DaphneCaruanaGalizia

72. There's a question about one of Muscat's last trip. He visited Montenegro. He says the trip had been scheduled for a long while.
lovinmalta.com/news/i-have-no…

73. Schembri claimed that Muscat told him to call Fenech the night before his arrest.Muscat's lawyer Pawlu Lia objects to the question.Muscat says he'll reply.He confirms Schembri's claim & asks the board for empathy:"Imagine what would have happened if this person had escaped".

74. Muscat's asked about his birthday party at the official residence of the prime minister. He confirms that Fenech was a guest "and so were other business people." Fenech was officially a person of interest in Daphne's murder investigations. #DaphneCaruanaGalizia

75. Muscat wants to make another statement. He asks for the board's understanding. He wants to clear up "claims in the media". He says he's not planning to leave Malta and move to Dubai. He's disputing claims that there are cases against him in the USA.

76. Muscat now wants to testify behind closed doors, so we're being asked to leave.

77. I walked out of the courtroom to find Joseph Muscat’s lawyer, Pawlu Lia, sharing a joke with Kurt Farrugia, and Charles Mercieca, lawyer to Yorgen Fenech, accused of conspiracy in Daphne’s murder. #DaphneCaruanaGalizia

Here’s why Muscat brought up #SwissLeaks - kompromat. A crook found refuge in Muscat’s arms. Muscat thinks this justifies Mizzi’s and Schembri’s impunity. #DaphneCaruanaGalizia daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2015/03/muscat…

78. It was difficult keeping up with the narcissistic stream of consciousness in today's hearing. Now there's time to catch up with Muscat's soundbites. Let's see...

"I was the one to call the inquiry". Technically, that's correct. It's the PM who is empowered to call an inquiry. That makes Muscat the person responsible for blocking the inquiry in the first place. This was in 2018: pressgazette.co.uk/press-freedom-…

80. Muscat: "The inquiry is failing miserably". That's only if, as Muscat does, you expect the inquiry to blame the murder victim for her own death. Muscat wants the inquiry to "scrutinise her writing". The subtext is that he expects the inquiry to blame Daphne for her own death.

81. Sight unseen: Muscat's hands shook as he spoke - and he was only reading off a prepared text.

82. Muscat: "I have no information that state entities were involved". Establishing whether state entities were involved in Daphne's murder is the task of the public inquiry, not of Joseph Muscat.

83. Muscat told the board to "look at the facts". He says that only one car bombing case was "solved". And that was when he was PM. I'm not sure what to make of this. Is he being disingenuous? If car bombings are a given, the state has failed.

84. "I have offered to drop the libel as long as the family recognises the results of the inquiry." That's the sound of a former prime minister blackmailing a murder victim's family from the witness stand for the second time. Here's the first time: independent.com.mt/articles/2019-…

85. Muscat on Daphne murder: "It will overshadow all the good work I did for this country." That's the monstrous ego speaking again. Daphne's murder is an inconvenience interfering with his entitlement to adulation.

86. Muscat: "She was the one who called me Sant's poodle". What can I say? Daphne was blown up outside her home. She's been gone for more than three. And a former prime minister on the witness stand sulks that she once called him a poodle - over 12 years ago.

87. "Finger pointing doesn't do any good - everyone contributed to that environment - except myself" - Muscat presents himself as the saint among sinners. The career propagandist was talking about the hostile environment created by poisonous propaganda.

88. "I noticed that Konrad Mizzi's draft declaration of assets had listed the company" - Muscat on Mizzi's secret Panama company. He recently said he learned about the company "from the media", because even now he still can't admit to reading Daphne's blog.

89. "Back then, we didn't know where the issue would take us, not all the details were known" - Muscat on Daphne's reports about Mizzi's and Schembri's Panama companies. Why didn't he ask Mizzi and Schembri for the missing details?

90. Muscat told the board that he was available to media. Except that he wasn't. He didn't give a proper interview to any Maltese media for several years and gave no interviews at all after his disastrous performance on BBC with @johnsweeneyroar

91. Muscat on Schembri: "He was vital to running the government". More accurately, Schembri was vital to Muscat. The question is why.

92. Muscat on Schembri again: "If he did wrong, I paid the price for it already." A non-sequitur. You can't pay the price of something that didn't happen. When was the last time Muscat was jailed on Schembri's behalf, anyway?

93. "I apologise if my tone comes off as disrespectful," Muscat tells the board, after his opening gambit accusing the board members of being politically manipulated and failing in their mission.

94. "I think I was doing the right thing by being close to business" - Muscat disputes the board's concerns about the blurring of boundaries between government and business. The concern is proximity to *dirty* business. One of Muscat's WhatsApp buddies is accused of murder.

95. Muscat on questioning Schembri about 17 Black: "He gave me an explanation that it was based on commercial business". A recap of Muscat's denials: timesofmalta.com/articles/view/…

96. “Food, wine and whisky photos featured in the chat,” Muscat on his WhatsApp conversations with murder suspect Yorgen Fenech, whom he claims to not have met more than 8 times over several years.

96.ii "There were no pictures of women" he insists. This seems very important to him. He's less concerned about being on familiar terms with a man accused of Daphne's murder.

97 "It's a love/hate relationship," Muscat says of his relationship with journalists. He was testifying in an inquiry into the murder of a journalist. #DaphneCaruanaGalizia

98. "Print media will be dead soon and online media platforms have more to learn" - the king of hindsight predicts the future. He doesn't explain the relevance of his crystal ball visions to the inquiry into the circumstances of Daphne's murder.

99. Muscat claimed he called the police commissioner after the 2013 election "to protect Daphne and her family". Let's take that at face value. What do you call a newly elected prime minister who thinks it's within his gift to issue instructions to a police commissioner?

100. Muscat was asked why he resigned. He said it was always his plan to step down. Actually, his plan was to step up. He expected to be President of the European Council. He failed. Like he failed to complete a single term in government.

101. One minute later and Muscat's story changed again. He said he resigned because his chief of staff was arrested. Another minute, another story: He said he was forced to resign once Schembri was arrested.

102. "If I did not step down, I would have called an election" - Muscat repeated the canard that an election is a substitute for criminal justice.

103. "because Henley&Partners were defending the interests of the country" - Muscat's 'justification' for endorsing a passport sales corporation's SLAPP threats against a journalist. (Earlier he claimed to be a champion of free expression.)

104. "Mizzi is essentially a project" manager, Muscat said of the only sitting minister named in the Panama Papers. You're supposed to believe that's the reason Muscat appointed Mizzi as a minister.

105. "If the NAO had something on me - they would have mentioned it" - Muscat dismisses responsibility for the corrupt hospitals deal. He was PM. The deal happened during his tenure.

"I told Keith to tell Yorgen not to go."With this sentence, the former Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat admits that in the murder case Daphne Caruana Galizia he warned the main suspect Yorgen Fenech about an imminent arrest through his chief of staff." nzz.ch/international/…

107. Ranier Fsadni: "He told us he was good at saving money, so he invested some in the US. But as long as he was prime minister, he told us wasn’t saving any money at all. Did he save all the money for a substantial investment in the last year?" theshiftnews.com/2020/12/06/the…

108. "There is no world class story he can allude to without naming one that he ignored as prime minister. Panamagate? Vitals Global Healthcare? the shaky nature of the Electrogas consortium?" #DaphneCaruanaGalizia theshiftnews.com/2020/12/06/the…

109. Why does Muscat say now that he was mistaken in sacking Manuel Mallia and Michael Falzon prior to 2016? So that his refusal to sack Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri does not stick out. Instead, they become part of a longer list of “misjudgements”. theshiftnews.com/2020/12/06/the…

110. He stands for good governance? Which corporation, let alone govt, would allow a communication aide, like Bedingfield, to speak “in his own name”...when good governance means that as long as you work for such an institution you speak only in its name?theshiftnews.com/2020/12/06/the…

111. He couldn’t make a right judgement on Panamagate because of the Egrant allegations? When he demoted Mizzi, at end-April 2016, he had learned nothing that was not revealed by Caruana Galizia in February... when he had assured us there was no problem. theshiftnews.com/2020/12/06/the…

112. The man who says he didn’t target journalists built up one journalist as a legitimate political target. It doesn’t mean it necessarily led to the assassination, but it did mean that it became more difficult for her to be seen outside in public. theshiftnews.com/2020/12/06/the…

113. Muscat says she became politically irrelevant...Once more he’s reframing the narrative. She became isolated… while remaining dangerously relevant because of stories she might yet break. #DaphneCaruanaGalizia theshiftnews.com/2020/12/06/the…

114. That’s the crux of the inquiry: did the State contribute to the growing isolation of a journalist who was becoming more dangerous to powerful interests? #DaphneCaruanaGalizia theshiftnews.com/2020/12/06/the…

114. Muscat said he never targeted or sued journalists. He's still suing her three years after her murder. theshiftnews.com/2020/12/06/the…