Good morning! Back in the courthouse for Kleiman v. Wright. We started a little early today and are planning to go late, as the parties try to wrap this up to hand the case to the jury tomorrow. Dr. Ami Klin, Wright's autism expert, is still being cross-examined on the stand.
Klin is saying that Wright is "overly literal." Also apparently Wright's favorite book is the OED.
We're on a 10-minute break, and now the attorneys are fighting over whether the plaintiffs can ask Klin to comment on some of the evidence in this case, namely emails in which Wright refers to Dave Kleiman as his business partner.
Defense says "it's not for Dr. Klin to opine on what Dr. Wright said years ago." It's inappropriate and is an "end-run around" the court's previous ruling on this expert.
Judge Bloom says he's already testified to the fact that Wright is overly literal. She agrees with defense that this exhibit is inappropriate for this witness; plaintiffs can't show him the email.
Plaintiffs ask if there is anything about autism that would cause someone to submit forged documents. Klin says no.
Plaintiffs ask Klin to assume that jurors have seen written declarations from Wright that contradict his own testimony. Klin says individuals with autism tend to make statements outside of shared context.
Klin: "They have a tendency for self incrimination. We try to understand the context they come from so that we don’t punish them for their disability."
Craig Wright is back on the stand.
Wright is telling his personal story. His parents separated when he was 5 and fought over custody. His mother subsequently dated other men who were abusive. He spent a lot of time with his maternal grandparents, especially with his grandfather in his ham radio shack.
When did you start coding computers? 1979. Says he started coding in a combination of languages, including C.
We're going through his professional career, the software he built for K-Mart, the Australian Stock Exchange and Lasseter's.
Wright is describing his idea of having tokens that could be used for online gambling with different currencies. I assume defense will link this work to bitcoin.
We were shown minutes of a meeting between Wright and a partner at BDO Allen Granger in I think Aug 2007 (the date was tough to read -- handwritten). Wright says this meeting was about the bitcoin white paper he was working on.
The minutes note a plan to finish the code by Aug. 2008, finish the "doc" (which Wright says is the white paper) by Oct 2008 and a run up of the test system by Nov-Dec 2008.
He says he started coding the bitcoin blockchain in early 2007 and finished coding by Mar-Apr 2008. Says no one helped before Mar 2008.
Wright says he sent fragments of the code to Hal Finney, who helped debug. He says Dave Kleiman saw not the first version of the bitcoin white paper but a later one and helped clean up grammar, etc. Didn't help debug or develop code or anything like that.
I admittedly am having a little trouble following the questioning right now but as I understand it, Wright is saying he needed something like AUS$600k worth of computers to mine bitcoin at the beginning.
Now we're looking at an email ostensibly sent from Wright to Dave Kleiman on March 12 2008 saying "I need your help editing a paper I am going to release later this year...bit coin, bit cash..."
But the email address it was sent from was "craig@rcjbr.org." Wright says RCJBR = Ramona, Craig, Josh, Ben, Rachel. Those are his wife and his kids. He didn't meet his wife until 2010 and the rcjbr.org domain name wasn't created until Oct. 2011.
Now we're looking at a tax return from 2009 in which Wright reported capital gains of $2.2 million. He says he sold from his personal trust to other companies some bitcoin-related rights. "I essentially said my software was worth $2.2 million and paid taxes on it."
Final couple of questions to Wright were about Dave Kleiman’s death. Wright says it hit him really hard. Says he never stole anything from Dave or his estate. No more questions from defense, plaintiffs will cross examine after lunch.
And we're on to cross. Earlier today, Wright said the initial bitcoin white paper was 60 pages long and that Dave Kleiman never saw that version. Now, Kleiman's attorney just read back to him his own testimony from day 9 of the trial
In that testimony, Wright said of the document "there was a whole lot of complete BS that nobody needed to know and Dave told me to get rid of it."
Plaintiffs are trying to poke holes in this document now, saying there's no metadata for the handwritten parts of the notes on this.
Plaintiffs are just reading back things that Wright said in court earlier. We got an objection that this is "just publication of prior testimony." Overruled.
Wright is off the stand, defense says they're going to rest.
The defense had said they were going to put a damages expert on the stand but I guess they're skipping that witness. This is moving a little faster than a lot of us expected.
The jury is taking a break while the parties are arguing a couple of motions, basically asking the judge for judgment on a few counts and affirmative defenses. I think they may need to hammer out a few details re: the jury instructions.
Jurors were sent home. The judge and attorneys are working out the jury instructions and some other last-minute details. We'll hear closing arguments first thing tomorrow morning.
The issue right now before the judge is how to instruct the jury on whether bitcoin is money or a commodity. There's very little case law to guide the court on this.

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More from @CarolinaBolado

19 Nov
Dr. Ami Klin of the Marcus Autism Center in Georgia is on the stand now in Kleiman v. Wright, discussing his work in the autism field and his extensive evaluation of Craig Wright.
He said individuals with autism who also have high intellect often go undiagnosed, especially someone like Wright, who was in school 40 years ago, when people didn't know much about autism.
Klin said he was approached by Wright’s attorneys to evaluate Wright. He told them he doesn’t do expert witness work very frequently and that his opinion would go where the evidence went and would not just serve the case.
Read 21 tweets
18 Nov
Back in the courtroom for Kleiman v. Wright. A doctor has been going through Dave Kleiman's medical records, explaining his medical issues. There were a lot. Kleiman had really bad pressure ulcers (aka bed sores) and couldn't sit or lay down for any extended period of time.
There were bacterial infections, hospitalizations. He was on painkillers. The reason this is being presented is that Wright has argued that Kleiman was too sick to have done any meaningful work on bitcoin.
In the records, nurses recorded that he was on the computer a lot and that he didn't elaborate on what he was doing, just said he was doing work. They also recorded that he watched movies on the laptop.
Read 15 tweets
17 Nov
The jury just walked back in to the courtroom in Kleiman v. Wright. Here's my story from yesterday: law360.com/articles/14411…
Before the jury came in, the attorneys discussed how they're definitely not going to be done presenting their cases by Tuesday, which was the initial plan. I think that's been pretty clear for a while.
Kleiman's team also asked to admit into evidence the Slack message that earned Wright a reprimand yesterday, as well as another one from several days ago that the plaintiffs say could be read to intimidate witness Jamie Wilson.
Read 42 tweets
15 Nov
Kleiman v. Wright is back up again today with Craig Wright still on the stand being questioned be Ira Kleiman's attorneys. We're not sure how long he'll still be on the stand after lunch; Kleiman's attorney said it depends on how lengthy Wright's answers are.
But direct examination could continue for the rest of the day. Wright's attorneys so far have indicated to the court that they don't plan to cross-examine him, but they reserve the right to change their mind of course.
This morning has been largely about W&K Info Defense's software IP, how much it was worth, where it was transferred, etc.
Read 21 tweets
10 Nov
Back in court today for Kleiman v. Wright, where Craig Wright will continue testifying. Here's @Law360's story about yesterday's proceedings: law360.com/articles/14394…
They haven't brought in the jury yet, as the parties are fighting over whether or not to introduce statements Wright has made in a Slack channel, some during the trial. Kleiman wants to show them to the jury, Wright's attorneys are fighting this.
Wright's attorney says had they known that the Slack channel was being monitored, they would've advised Wright that his statements there could be used against him. She also says that the request to introduce the statements is untimely.
Read 26 tweets
4 Nov
So a quick rundown of the Kleiman v. Wright trial today: it was cross-examination of Ira Kleiman all day.
Wright's attorneys went through a few topics, including Dave Kleiman's declining health, his personal finances (which were in very bad shape), and Ira's use of the devices he'd found in Dave's house
Wright's attorney showed jurors a slew of emails from 2008 before the bitcoin white paper was released in Oct in which Dave Kleiman told Wright and others that he was not doing well health-wise and was having trouble getting work done
Read 11 tweets

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