JUDGE A. HOWARD MATZ: She just told us all that she was the one
in charge after getting that delegation. Now, I'm not going to permit more inquiry into that.
That's out of the question.
Nobody has the right to establish
something that's been established and to go over it time and
time again. No one has the right, not any lawyer, not any
client, to impeach somebody about something that hasn't been inconsistent.
KILLERCOP: Okay.
JUDGE A. HOWARD MATZ: That's been established.
KILLERCOP: I would like the record to reflect that I
don't like being yelled at by Your Honor.
KILLERCOP: I'm trying to be respectful, as you
have asked me. I'm also trying to show Your Honor that this
witness became, I believe, very good friends with the agent --
Cugno -- on a personal level.
A definitional retreat takes place when someone changes the
meaning of the words in order to deal with an objection raised
against the original wording.
Judge
A. Howard Matz: "it would be a huge sea change in the administration of justice to have the personal backgrounds of whoever happens to be U.S. Attorney at a given time become a basis to issue subpoenas. Selective prosecution, which you hinted at, has already been ruled upon. So I don’t need further argument on Ms. Yang."
Antiquitam, argumentant ad
Students of political philosophy recognize in the argumentum ad
antiquitam the central core of the arguments of Edmund Burke.
Put at its simplest, it is the fallacy of supposing that something is
good or right simply because it is old.
This is the way it's always been done, and this is the way we'll continue
to do it.
(It brought poverty and misery before, and it will do so again...)
