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[GRAPHIC: The U.S. vs. Conrad Black Day One]
REPORTER: A man who graduated from Carlton University in 1965 and was knighted in 2001 is now the spectacle of Chicago. Jury selection is currently taking place in a case that has been culminating for years. For more on the United States versus Conrad Black, we're joined from Chicago by criminal defense attorney Darryl Goldberg. Great to see you there, Darryl.
DARRYL GOLDBERG: Good morning.
REPORTER: How tough is it going to be to find an impartial jury in Chicago?
DARRYL GOLDBERG: Certainly you hope he can find an impartial juror, but the real question is going to be whether he's going to get a, a panel of jurors that he'd actually like, Mr. Black or, or the co-defendants.
REPORTER: Well you're a criminal defense attorney, what sort of questions would you be asking prospective jurors to try and find that jury that might be a little sympathetic to Lord Black?
DARRYL GOLDBERG: Well, most of the questions are-or my understanding is they've done a jury questionnaire in this particular case and so that's going to have a lot of the, the standard basic background information.
But it's really dependent on what his theory of the case is. And in all likelihood, I think that the consensus is that based on the, the type of charge and the fact that you're dealing with, with corporate fraud, he's going to want to look for someone, or a bunch of jurors that have some experience in the corporate structure, specifically CEOs or executive types that may be more sympathetic to taking trips, for example, to Bora Bora as some of the allegations are, or some of the other extravagant expenditures, so to speak.
And I think you're going to have a hard time finding sympathy amongst a blue collar factory worker. I think you're looking for more of the corporate types in this particular matter.
REPORTER: Well, how likely is it going to be that he'll be able to find those CEOs and more sympathetic, more understanding people? You were mentioning blue collar people, is that the majority of prospective jurors that we might see?
DARRYL GOLDBERG: I think that, you know, the northern district of Illinois has a wide base of a juror pool, or of voir dire. I think that it certainly depends. I know the government is going to do whatever they can in all likelihood to keep off the corporate types, anyone who may be sympathetic.
REPORTER: Can you explain for us in laymen's terms exactly what Conrad Black is facing? There are 14 counts. Can you perhaps walk us through and give us the general idea of what he is going to be facing in the court?
DARRYL GOLDBERG: Generally there's a stack of charges that deal with everything from a RICO charge, which is a racketeering influence corrupt organization, which is going to suggest that he ran Hollinger International as an illegal business essentially. And that he's charged with, I believe, obstruction of justice and there's mail fraud counts.
But everything the global picture from my understanding without carefully reading the indictment and the charges against him is that they're dealing with about $87 million in fraud. And the way that the sentencing structure works here is although the guidelines are advisory, you know, there's something that courts must take into consideration. So if he were, if he was convicted, he's looking at a sentence, essentially life in prison, well off the charts.
The way it works is you start at a basic loss when you're dealing with any type of fraud. And that amount, I believe, is $7,000 and that puts you at some sort of probationable level, kind of like a slap on the wrist. But when you're dealing with $87 million, the penalties just dramatically increase. And if you're looking at a table, he just goes all the way down to the bottom. And in reality if convicted he's looking at a life sentence.
REPORTER: What do you make of the prosecution team? It's being led by Patrick Fitzgerald. He's obviously a very big name, just came off a very big win against Scooter Libby in the United States. How tough is he?
DARRYL GOLDBERG: He's certainly a tough opponent. He's a difficult adversary for any defense lawyer and he's a very experienced, capable prosecutor and he is, he's got the momentum behind his back. And--
REPORTER: What about the defense? Sorry, go ahead, Darryl.
DARRYL GOLDBERG: No, and, and, and certainly all of the assistants that work in his office are very capable lawyers. And I forgot who exactly is on the defense team in this particular-I mean on the prosecution team in this particular case, but I know that they've certainly had experience handling these types of matters.
REPORTER: Now you're a criminal defense attorney. Have you ever had to face Mr. Fitzpatrick?
DARRYL GOLDBERG: Mr. Fitzgerald, personally?
REPORTER: Fitzgerald, sorry.
DARRYL GOLDBERG: No, I have not. Because he is the U.S. attorney for the northern district of Illinois. It's not typical that he's on every case. He has assistants that work underneath him and, you know, he's kind of the figurehead. He runs the office and he certainly has a lot of input, but there's a whole bureaucracy and hierarchy of management, so to speak and, and he typically does not try a lot of these cases.
He, you know, he worked his way up in the Justice Department prosecuting the bombing of the USS Cole years back and out in New York and now he made his way her as the acting head. And, but, you know, he has a whole line of assistants and a capable office who can certainly do a good job in this, in this case.
REPORTER: Can you give us an idea of what sort of defense the, the defense team is going to mount against Mr. Fitzgerald?
DARRYL GOLDBERG: Well without knowing the particulars and remembering that I have no access to any of the discovery or pretrial documentation or documentary evidence in this case, I'm guessing that it's going to boil down to what he really knew. Because if you remember, Mr. Radler, his partner, has pled guilty in this case and it's largely going to come down to his word verse Mr. Black's. And he's going to, of course, I'm just, could imagine, he's going to suggest that Mr. Black knew of all this and consented to all this and certainly took part of all of it.
But I think that the focus, Mr. Black's going to focus the attention on Mr. Radler or anyone who's going to testify as a cooperating witness against him. And, and he's going to, in all likelihood, I believe the defense theory would be he had no clue what was going on just a couple of doors down from his office.
REPORTER: Darryl, thank you so much for your time.
DARRYL GOLDBERG: Sure, thank you.
REPORTER: That was criminal defense attorney Darryl Goldberg. He just, he was joining us from the Chicago courthouse where Conrad Black is beginning his trial and jury, jury selection. And I guess Mr. Goldberg was able to pull it all together, how tough a fight it's going to be and how important this jury selection is going to be.
REPORTER: It is, Conrad Black's entire life hangs in the balance here on what he's going to be doing for the rest of it. And so far though he seems to be confident. Journalists down there in the courtroom which includes BNN's Amanda Lang, by the way there's only 17 reporters allowed inside the actual courtroom and she's one of them. They describe him so far as being confident. And he said he is feeling fine.
REPORTER: And he said he is feeling confident and strode in there with his usual confidence. He is being accompanied right now by his wife Barbara Amiel Black and also his daughter. And I think one of the, certainly one of the issues that a lot of people are, are thinking about when they're looking at the case is whether Mr. Greenspan will be able to get Mr., Lord Black to keep quiet, because he's known as being outspoken, vociferous, very eloquent, but also combative.
And that is being seen as a key for a lot of analysts who are looking at the trial and saying, you know, it's going to be up to Mr. Greenspan to decide whether to put him on the stand or not. But certainly to not bring him into the trial, or into use until the right moment.
REPORTER: Jury selection underway in the Conrad Black trial right now in Chicago. Right after this we'll be checking out those crude inventory levels. They were up while gasoline stocks fell. We're going to have more on that after the break.
