Thread by @VickyPJWard

I predict that today’s closing arguments in the #GhislaineMaxwellTrial will be a showdown by the two lawyers who appear to bear the most personal animus toward each other: defense attorney Laura Menninger and Assistant U.S. Attorney Alison Moe.

vickyward.substack.com/p/the-last-duel

The defense in the Ghislaine Maxwell trial rested on Friday—an event which felt rather like the calm before the storm.

After lunch, Maxwell was asked if she would testify in her own defense and she responded in stiff upper-lip English, “Your Honor, the government has not proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt; and so there is no need for me to testify.”

It was all rather anti-climactic.

Except, that is, for the brawling between the lawyers which happened when the jury was outside the room. The tension between the two teams is at this point not only palpable—it’s actually the most interesting dynamic in the courtroom.

It occurs to me that a very high percentage of this trial has taken place without the jury present because the lawyers have been locked in numerous battles about what evidence should and should not be admissible.

Because of this, it’s very hard to know the picture that the jury has of the evidence as compared with what we journalists know about the lawyers in the room and their legal bickering.

On Saturday, during the charging conference, Moe was not present and Menninger slipped out early. Both presumably were readying their closing statements. Moe will go first, then Menninger, leaving Maurene Comey 35 minutes for the prosecution for her rebuttal.

The judge told both teams to tell their colleagues to have a fair fight that draws only on the evidence presented at trial.

“For both sides, any inference argued had better be from the transcript or the documents, and any objections should be rare and not based on your interpretation of the available evidence but the fact of the available evidence. We should get through closings without objections.”

Will the two lawyers abide by the judge’s instructions? One thing you can be sure of: Both of them are going to give this everything they’ve got. Stay tuned for more...
vickyward.substack.com/p/the-last-duel