Ira Kleiman’s legal representation filed a new document today, calling for a New York lawyer to be allowed to act as co-counsel for Kleiman in the ongoing case against Craig Wright. As the trial is being heard in Florida, special dispensation is needed for a representative who is not admitted to practice within the jurisdiction.
Bringing Out The Big Guns for Craig Wright?
So who is this new, hot-shot lawyer from The Big Apple? Um… well it’s just some guy from the New York office of Roche Cyrulnik Freedman LLP. The same firm that Kleiman’s current counsel, Velvel (Devin) Freedman is a founding partner of.
Quite what Freedman believes Stephen Lagos can bring to the case is unclear. But in requesting consent for his appearance, he seems to be essentially demoting himself to dealing with the case’s admin, so it must be something special.
Of course, we can expect Wright and his representation to complain about this latest request for all that they are worth. That, sadly, is the level to which this case has degenerated.
$10 Billion Schoolyard Squabble
Including this latest filing, there have been 400 documents filed so far in the case. And while one might think that the involvement of lawyers and a judge might give the affair a whiff of respectability, one would be very very wrong.
While wrapped up in legalese, the sentiment behind recent exchanges has been more akin to a schoolyard slanging match. Indeed, it is hard to read through many of the more recent documents without imagining a goading sneering delivery.
Take the document that Bitcoinist most recently covered, relating to whether Craig Wright can claim client/attorney privilege on a requested set of over 10,000 documents. Seemingly unable to hold themselves back when refuting one of Kleiman’s claims, Wright’s teams adds a snide, “Not surprisingly, they offer no support for that argument.”
Privilege Disproven… Or Not?
Filings from Kleiman’s side are not much better, although one wonders if some of that is because of the material they have to work with. In a document filed yesterday, responding to Craig Wright’s previous assertions about his privilege, we get this beauty:
Craig has not met his burden to establish a valid privilege because he has not even identified the companies that hold the privileges he asserts.
Craig Wright is then mocked for potentially not even knowing which companies’ privileges he was asserting, until Kleiman’s team put together a chart of 17 potential names, in what it describes as a “game of ‘Guess Who'”.
The whole affair is becoming painful to watch, but one imagines that is the entire point. If everyone has given up the will to live by the time the case concludes, then it doesn’t make any difference what the end result is.
Perhaps this new lawyer will shake things up and get things moving again… or perhaps Freedman just decided that all of this bickering is below him?
What do you make of the latest developments in the Craig Wright lawsuit? Add your thoughts below!
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