BoRev.Net

9/09
>>> Trial begins, defense claims that it was Guido Antonini who asked Duran to seek help from the Venezuelan government. Duran says he was only interested in getting his friend legal help in Argentina and protecting his company's reputation from the scandal in which Antonini (also an employee) was at the center. AP

>>> The prosecution reveals that the FBI drafted a letter Antonini sent to Chavez asking for $2 million. Duran's lawyer tells reporters it was "clearly a trap." Ha, you think? NYT

9/10
>>> One of the plea-takers, attorney Moises Maionica, testifies that "there was a guarantee from the governments of Venezuela and Argentina that [Antonini] would not go to prison" in Argentina. Because Venezuela can actually guarantee this. Whatever dude. AFP

>>> The prosecution again attempts to implicate all sorts of Venezuelan officials: Henry Rangel Silva (head of the Venezuelan intelligence service, DISIP), Tarek El Aissami (Interior Minister), Rafael Ramirez (PDVSA President), and naturally, Chavez himself. Bloomberg

>>> All of the alleged illicit money the DOJ loves to talk about - the suitcase cash/campaign contribution, Antonini's $2 million extortion - came from Venezuela's state-owned oil company, PDVSA. Because in the US, the government agency that is in charge of collecting oil and gas revenues would never be involved in corruption - or sex scandals and cocaine binges. Oh, wait. NYT

>>> Chavez responds. "It's a show. The trial is fixed, with a group of businessmen who are all being protected (by the U.S.)." Reuters

>>> US Embassy in Argentina issues statement that the Miami trial, "is not aimed at Argentine officials." Ha ha, what? El Universal

>>> During the trial, the prosecution scrapped "an alleged reconstruction of the events before and after Antonini arrived in [Argentina] with the suitcase," but once again names Cristina Kirchner as the intended recipient of the cash. Looks like the deal can only save her from so much. Terra Argentina

>>> The DOJ also alleges that a close ally to the Kirchners, Claudio Uberti, was the one who actually brought the suitcase on the flight. He had been fired four days after the incident by the Argentine Planning Minister, Julio De Vido, who is also accused of having given assurances to Antonini that everything would be OK after he was caught with the $800K. De Vido later denies ever meeting Antonini. La Nacion

9/11
>>> Argentine officials are feeling the heat from the domestic opposition due to the allegations made in Miami. They finally address the trial, with the Foreign Affairs Ministry pointing out in a extra-pissed-off release that the US has repeatedly ignored its extradition request of Antonini:

"The irresponsible statements from US prosecutors based on material fabricated by the FBI --that is, with knowledge of US political authorities-- affect in an unacceptable manner the jurisdictional power of our country and imply the improper use of a judicial case with subordinate political purposes."

>>> The US Embassy again denies the trial is politically motivated, stating that "one of the pillars of our government system is an independent Judiciary branch". Nope, no evidence whatsoever of politicization at the Department of Justice. Mercopress

9/12
>>> Judge Joan Lenard was supposed to issue a decision on the Venezuelan corruption evidence proposed by the prosecution, but does not because, "I am listening to the case as to whether or not it will be introduced . . .I am waiting and hearing and seeing what the case is." Duran's lawyer, Ed Shohat said that, "[t]his is a very significant issue, in my view almost case-determinative in ways that are negative to Mr. Duran." Bloomberg

9/13
>>> Conservative Argentine newspaper claims that the US Drug Enforcement Agency opened an investigation when Antonini was caught with the suitcase in Argentina. Duran later supposedly met with the DEA agent in charge of Venezuela, Thomas Adler, who assured him that the DEA knew the money had nothing to do with drugs. WTF does this mean? Who knows? La Nacion

9/15
>>> Argentina's Justice Minister, Anibal Fernandez, lays a legal bitch-slap on the US DOJ. He calls the trial "phenomenally irregular" and calls out the main prosecutors, Thomas Mulvihill and Alexander Acosta by name, questioning their experience and capabilities. El Nacional

>>> After more opposition pressure due to the Miami trial, the judge in charge of the Argentine investigation of the suitcase scandal, Daniel Petrone, reopens the case in Buenos Aires. He questions Guillermo Ledesma, an Argentine ex-judge and attorney who also met with Antonini in Miami last August. Ledesma can be heard in an FBI recording urging Antonini to return to Argentina to face charges because Chavez and Kirchner would protect him. Ledesma told the Argentine judge that the audiotapes were "manipulated to prejudice him." La Gaceta Tucuman Wait, why wasn't this guy charged with the others? Oh right because he's from Argentina.

>>> Argentina denies rumors that there was an additional $4.2 million on the fateful valijagate flight. AFP

9/16
>>> Repeating Cristina Kirchner's now-famous remarks about the US criminal proceedings, Chavez calls the Miami suitcase scandal trial a "garbage operation." El Universal

9/17
>>> During an Argentine hearing on the suitcase scandal, Claudio Uberti denies that he was the one who gave Antonini the suitcase o'cash, basically calling El Gordo a worthless, lying, FBI stooge. Planning Minister Julio De Vido denies that he has ever even met Antonini. Diario Los Andes

>>> During Moises Maionica's cross-examination, Duran's attorney, shows him a transcript of a conversation recorded on August 23, 2007. The transcript refutes the prosecution's claim that Duran and others guaranteed Antonini judicial impunity in Argentina and Venezuela.

Duran to Antonini: "I am not guaranteeing [impunity] to you, coño. The only thing that I am guaranteeing to you is that you get to defend yourself. You know what I don't want? That you go to prison, that you go without legal defense, and that you become disposable. That is what I don't want".

Diario Los Andes

>>> Duran's attorney, Ed Shohat, gets Maionica to admit that he was lying to Antonini at least four times in the taped conversations. Maionica lied about talking to different Argentine and Venezuelan officials, and other details of the alleged cover-up in an effort to scare Guido into cooperating. So how much of the taped conversations are just lies? La Nacion says this of Shohat's owning of Maionica - "[He] was left just one question short of being accused of false testimony . . . his word was diminished in front of the jury."

>>> Maionica admits that, before most of the evidence was gathered, Antonini was going "crazy" and threatened to go to the press unless he was given $2 million and assurances that he would not be prosecuted in either Argentina or Venezuela. AFP

Of course we now know that, Antonini was wearing an FBI wire at this time, so the crazy was coerced.

In other words, a huge part of the prosecution's case is a result of FBI manipulation hoping to provoke a bigger response from the Venezuelans. So Antonini may not make a particularly convincing witness unless he comes up with some new "crazy" on the stand. Or the judge could hand the prosecution another gift by allowing in that "Prior Bad Acts" corruption evidence. Wait for it!