Back at the Moakley courthouse in Boston this morning for Charles Lieber's trial. Opening statements are scheduled to begin at 9 EST.
Judge Rya Zobel is explaining the charges to the jury before the attorneys give their statements.
JR Drabick gave the prosecution's opening statements outlining the gov't's case against Lieber, alleging that he made false statements to DoD investigators and to NIH (via Harvard), failed to report income from China on his tax returns and didn't report a foreign bank account
In his opening statement, defense Marc Mukasey said the gov't didn't have proof of the accusations against Lieber and stated: "This case is not about Charlie in China, it’s about careless conduct in Cambridge,” referring to the gov't investigations.
Gov't has called Jennifer Ponting, who used to manage grants for Harvard. She is testifying about correspondence from NIH saying that the school might not be in compliance with its grant because of Lieber's foreign collaboration.
On cross examination, Ponting said that she did not take notes in a meeting with Lieber to discuss NIH's correspondence. She says a colleague took notes. And she says she and her colleagues did not incorporate all of Lieber's comments.
Govt's second witness is Jeremy Bloxham who was Harvard's Dean of Sciences during 2014. He testified that he saw a photo of a lab at Wuhan University of Technology that was using Harvard's name and arranged to speak with Lieber about it.
After corresponding via email and speaking with Lieber, Bloxham says he felt Lieber addressed any concerns he may have had by asking the lab at Wuhan to remove Harvard's name.
The govt's next witness is Renee Donlon, who did administrative work for Lieber from late 2012 - 2017. She helped arrange his calendar
Donlon spoke briefly about her duties working for Lieber and then court recessed for the day.
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