Word: sirica
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Watergate Trial Defendant John Ehrlichman looked more chipper than he had in weeks. Asked why by a reporter, he replied: "Well, the sun is shining, it's a beautiful day." Even Ehrlichman joined in the laughter as newsmen suggested a more apt explanation: Federal Judge John J. Sirica had just revealed that Richard Nixon would not be able to testify before the trial is expected to end. Sirica's announcement was based on the findings of three court-appointed physicians who had examined Nixon, as well as the records of his ailments, in California...
There are a few weaknesses on certain specific allegations against some defendants in the Government's multi-count case. Last week Sirica suggested that he might dismiss two of the counts against Mitchell and Ehrlichman, both of whom were charged with lying to federal agencies. All five defendants are expected to take the stand in their own defense. But they will also expose themselves to the crisp cross-examination of the prosecution team, most notably Neal, 46; Richard Ben-Veniste, 31; and Jill Wine Volner, 31. Each defendant is in dire but different straits...
...testimony of Magruder and the hearsay claim by LaRue that one of the burglars, G. Gordon Liddy, had named Mitchell as having authorized the project. Mitchell also has the advantage of being defended by the most engaging lawyer in the courtroom, William Hundley. When another attorney asked Judge Sirica to expel anyone from the courtroom who laughed during one tape-playing, Hundley asked brightly. "How do you feel about crying, Judge?" Said Sirica: "I can't answer that...
...jury and smile at the spectators (see chart), the now amiable Haldeman has shed his crewcut, stern image. He cracks jokes during recesses, signs autographs, confers at ease with his tart-tongued attorney, John Wilson. Often shouting and showily unimpressed by the judge, Wilson has tried to provoke Sirica into intemperate statements. He seems intent on seeking an unfair trial so a conviction could be reversed on appeal...
...defendants still seem to be clinging to one basic common contention: that they believed the payments to the burglars were solely meant to meet defense costs and family support but not to buy their silence. Judge Sirica, who seems to have more forcefully taken control of his courtroom since an appeals court termed his conduct of Liddy's 1973 trial "in the highest tradition of his office as a federal judge," made it clear that he does not believe this version. With the jury out of the room, he admonished Kalmbach: "You knew . . . that this money was being used...