the years. Thousands and thousands of dollars. We'll even give the US Attorney the explanation for Mister Merrion's strange and remarkable behavior which despite his formidable powers of data-collection and analysis, seems to have eluded him: Mister Merrion and Mister Hilliard are friends.
'It's as simple as that. They've been buddies for thirty-five years.
Dan Hilliard's former wife told me she used to tell her husband that if it hadn't been for her, and later on his girlfriends, people would've thought that he and Mister Merrion were gay. Mister Merrion's a bachelor, from a small family. His father died years ago. His mother's terminally ill, in a vegetative state; his brother and he are estranged. Dan Hilliard's the closest thing to 'family' my client's ever had, all his adult life.
'Is it really surprising that he's treated Hilliard like an elder brother? Wouldn't you, or even Mister Bissell, as morally demanding as he is, think it appropriate to share a completely unexpected large inheritance which I assure you this was, no 'shrewd move' on his part, the windfall from the Lane estate with a family member? Or with someone who had filled, most faithfully, for years, the vacant family place?
'Of course you would. We all would. So our question here becomes:
Given the quantity and detail of the evidence that the US Attorney has outlined as already in his hands, what need or purpose except humiliation, can he possibly have for forcing Mister Merrion to testify against Dan Hilliard?'
'Your Honor please?' Bissell said. 'I was getting to that. We don't know where Dan Hilliard got the money to put up the house in Bell Woods that he and his wife occupied until their divorce. We can't figure out where he got the money for the house on Martha's Vineyard. It may've been from innocent sources, bequests we can no longer track down. We doubt it, but it may have been. The Grey Hills money is different. We know where that money came from, and we also know he didn't earn it, or pay taxes on it, either.
'We anticipate that if we obtain an indictment alleging Mister Hilliard with criminally evading income taxes due and owing on the monies Mister Merrion paid to Grey Hills in his behalf, Mister Merrion may interpose as one defense for his friend the fact that he himself had paid income taxes on the money, before sending it to Grey Hills in Hilliard's behalf. Countering our allegation that the monies were not annual gifts but a bribe paid in annual installments as a stipend for Merrion's job and thus, constructively, income to Hilliard when paid to Grey Hills for his benefit Merrion would be able to tell the jury they were after-tax dollars in his hand, a gift to his pal Hilliard.
Exceeding the then-statutory lifetime limit of thirty thousand dollars; perhaps exposing them to civil penalties and interest, but negativing the criminal aspect of intent to evade income taxes.'
'Mister Cohen?' the judge said, 'any comment here?'
'Just that that indeed would be part of the evidence Mister Merrion will give, if Mister Bissell brings about the unhappy event he just described,' Cohen said.
'Secondly, your Honor,' Bissell said smoothly, 'we anticipate that the grand jury may return an indictment alleging Mister Hilliard under color of his official authority sold a state office to, and extorted monies from, its occupant; and further that he conspired with Mister Merrion and others to sell, trade and traffic in a public office, and extort monies from its occupant. And further: alleging that he conspired with Mister Merrion and others to deprive the public of the rightful service and free and unfettered judgment of a public official in other words, alleging racketeering that Mister Merrion might interpose in Mister Hilliard's defense the claim that the monies he paid to Grey Hills in Mister Hilliard's behalf were not within the knowledge or the contemplation of the parties when Mister Hilliard arranged the clerkship, and were given of his own free will.'
'Of course he would,' Cohen said. 'It's the same horse under a different rider.'
'Exactly,' Bissell said. 'We have a right to compel Mister Merrion to commit himself to a story before we seek any indictments, to lock him into it before trial. We may never call him at trial, but we have a right to find out what he'll say if we do, and to prevent him from colluding with a clever lawyer to fabricate a different story to counter our case-in-chief. Reasonable doubts are counterfeited by such fabrications, to mislead credulous jurors. We want to find out what he'll say, before he finds out what we can prove.
'We know he wont do that voluntarily,' Bissell said. 'That's why we've given him immunity. As Mister Cohen demanded, it's Transactional, not Use. We've told him, through his lawyer, he is not a target. We've told him that nothing that he says will be used in evidence against him, unless he lies to us if he does, of course, we'll go after him for perjury. Hammer and tongs, to use a Hilliard phrase. We've filed the document declaring all of this with you.'
The judge gazed at Bissell for a long minute. He gazed back without shifting his eyes. 'My,' she said, 'that's very ingenious, I must say.
You propose to bootstrap all of that stuff forward within the statute and nail Hilliard good, to punish guys who are dead1. Kill him because they got away? And make his best friend help with the execution? Is that all you have for us today?'
'It is, your Honor,' Bissell said. 'Frankly, I'm surprised we needed anything that this hearing, if that's what it is, was even held. In my experience the judge doesn't even get involved unless and until the immunized witness refuses to testify. Mister Merrion's not scheduled to come before the grand jury 'til next week. Who knows what he'll do then? He may not know, yet, himself.'
'Yes,' she said. 'Well, I was also somewhat surprised Geoffd asked to_be heard. But then I said: 'Geoff wants a hearing, and he's a good guy, so what the hey, give him a hearing.' So Geoff, we're all listening.'
'Your Honor,' Cohen said, 'I appreciate the court's kindness. I'll be brief. Congress enacted testimonial immunity to deal with frustrations encountered in prosecuting the Mob. It takes the Fifth Amendment out of play, to prevent underlings from shielding kingpins by claiming, correctly, that if they testify what the godfathers told them to do, they'll hang themselves at the same time, for doing it.
'Congress never meant to enable a prosecutor to do what this one wants to do: transform a man against his will into Judas Iscariot in order to conjure up charges against his friend. Mister Bissell by his own account has abundant evidence of what he calls tax evasion. More than enough to drag Dan Hilliard into court and see if he can persuade a jury to railroad the guy. He doesn't need to involve Ambrose Merrion, the man's very best friend, in this little manhunt of his. This's overkill, and plain meanness, nothing more.'
'Geoff,' the judge said, 'I know how you feel. I know how your client feels, too: that he and Dan Hilliard did nothing wrong; all they did was become politicians and play what some believe is the headiest game in the world. They may be right. Never played the game, myself, but I've watched a lot of it; sure looked like fun to these eyes.
'But fun's irrelevant here. The law gives the US Attorney the power to grant immunity in any case he thinks appropriate. It gives the judge no discretion. If the US Attorney grants immunity, and the witness doesn't talk, I have to order the witness to talk, and if he wont, put him in jail.
'Them's the rules. If I thought that by letting you talk for another hour you'd come up with something to change that, I'd sit here and I'd let you do it. I'm sorry, but I don't.
'So: Mister Merrion, hear what I say to you. If, as and when you appear before the grand jury and are formally advised on the record of the grant of immunity; and asked questions; and you then refuse to answer, for any reason at all or no reason at all, the US Attorney will direct the US marshals to bring you before me. I will then inform you that you have valid privilege to remain silent, and order you to answer.
'You will be taken back before the grand jury, and if you do not answer then, we will meet for a third time. I will then find that by reason of your refusal to testify, you have placed yourself in contempt of this court. I will order the marshals to take you into custody and hold you to some convenient place of confinement until such time as you decide to obey my order to testify.
'Thus endeth the lesson; a hard saying to be sure, but as I told you, those're the rules we have here. Mister Cohen, do you or your client have any questions?'
Cohen sighed. 'No, your Honor.'
'Mister Merrion,' the judge said, 'did your excellent counsel leave anything out that you would like to say now? Within the bounds of civility, of course don't want to take too many chances here.'
Merrion had the thousand-yard stare of a man who'd stopped caring what he saw. He spoke off-handedly. 'No,' he said. 'Just, I guess, that I'll see you next week. All of my life I've done what I can to protect people's dignity.' Looking at Bissell: 'I'm not going to give mine to him.'
The judge pursed her lips. She looked at Bissell, already rising from his chair. 'Nothing more from you, Mister Bissell, I take it?'
Bissell shook his head, smiling a parsimonious smile. 'Not today, your Honor,' he said. 'Next week, I guess,
