complicated in this case because there could be objections to the way the judge is planning to charge the jury. typically the charging conferences, in which the judge sits down and figures out what instruction to give the jury, are complicated and dull. the jury is not there for that. the press is of course invited to watch, as is the public, but the jury is sent to their jury room. it s important step in the process, andrea. both sides are going to want to argue the facts as they adduce them at trial, but they re also going to want to peg those facts to the law. and that s where they will find out precisely what law judge ellis will instruct the jury on. and when they have had a charging conference with him, can they argue back and forth to him? or will he be preemptory in saying, this is the way i see it? yes and yes. they can try. i ve been in front of judge ellis, he is often not in the mood to hear much about the law from others. and so he can be preemptory and
that he thought that there was a decent argument from the defense that the misrepresentations to the bank were not material, which is one element of the crime, because ultimately the ceo decided for unrelated reasons unrelated to the misrepresentations, i should say, to grant the loan. but the judge correctly said this is really an issue for the jury to decide, it s a factual issue, you can make this argument but it s not for the judge to step into the shoes of the jury and throw out the counts. now, chuck, as a former prosecutor in this district who knows the judge very well, and we know that there is a lot of debate over whether he was putting his finger on the scale, you then, before you get to closing arguments, there would be a charging conference with both sides, which could get