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Thursday, April 30, 2020

RUMPOLE ON CROSS TWO QUESTIONS YOU DON'T ASK THE NEXT THIRD OBVIOUS QUESTION UNLESS YOU HAVE VERY DAMAGING INFORMATION YET TO USE

Rumpole: Do you recall making statements reported here?:

'Shi and other WIV researchers have categorically denied this lab was the origin for the novel coronavirus.' 

Shi: Yes.

Rumpole: Do you recall making statements reported here?:

'On Feb. 3, her team was the first to publicly report the virus known as 2019-nCoV was a bat-derived coronavirus.'

Shi: Yes.

Rumpole: No further questions.

The implications, so far, are themselves, rather obvious.
He saves these for his summing up.

...UNLESS YOU HAVE VERY DAMAGING INFORMATION YET TO USE.  I have violated this iron rule of trial advocacy on many occasions. 

Usually, I knew or could allude to something the witness either did not know, or could not anticipate being asked; and/or I thought I could turn a subsequent line of questioning against them anyway; or, worse still, my back was to the wall and I felt nothing left to lose. But it is dangerous. 

The best thing to say is that if you don't have improvisational skills for this kind of thing, avoid it and keep known gains to forego unknown ones.

This post is dedicated to Randy Fertel.

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