#but after emerging as a lawyer phoenix is confident when it matters

[natorika]

there's something about phoenix being like. so cocksure and confident and a little bit spicy. like he doesn't ever actually know what he's gunning for in a trial until it's in his head but he's so good at delivering that you wouldn't ever know he's making it up as he goes. and that confidence transfers to the bedroom and with his partner sometimes, if he's in the mood, since i do think phoenix is a hard vers. but he can certainly press in his and his partners intimate life. this goofy loser boy clown of a lawyer takes every job he does with a certain air of determination, it is something he WILL see out to the end, and thats true of sex too. if his bottom isn't thoroughly pleased by the end when he's topping he makes sure they are and won't take anything less than an emphatic satisfaction.

likewise when he bottoms he's usually pretty confident too, unless he really really has a high regard of the other person (like w miles)

[that-fannerd-with-the-glasses]

Huhh so, here’s some general characterization/fun fact things for Incredibles AU!! I usually don’t post this kinda stuff but since I’m still working on chapter three, figured I might as well! 

Phoenix (36), Mr. Incredible/Bob Parr counterpart

Superpower is super strength

Superhero name is Captain Indestructible.

 Didn’t really start to realize his powers until late in high school, though he didn’t actually begin superhero work until he was in college. Mia was one of his professors and she ended up eventually catching on to his abilities and offered to be his mentor (as she’s also a super). They worked as a team together up until the point Mia was killed in a severe incident, from that point on Phoenix ended up working alone. He did end up taking Maya  under his wing since she was supposed to train with Mia before she died, though she eventually branched out on her own as well.

Was an art major, and had plans of mainly working from home as a freelance artist. 

He really does try to be a good dad, okay, and he fucking loves his kids. It’s not his fault that every job the government’s placed him sucks the life and willpower out of him. He studied art dammit, being stuck at a desk job selling insurance was his worst nightmare come true.

Was in peak shape during his hero days, but years of being hunched over at a desk and little to no exercise--not to mention poor eating habits ended up developing into a soft dad bod that he’s a tad insecure about.

Meets up with Maya once or twice during the week, they usually end up getting burgers and reminiscing about the old days together.

Tried so hard to forget about hero work and live a normal steady life with his family, but that’s easier said than done. His entire den at home is decorated with all sorts of posters and articles and lately, he’s been spending just a bit too much time in it.

He’s already blown cover on their family twice, and he’s so torn between wanting to stay put and wanting to resume hero work.

Miles (36), Elastigirl/Helen Parr counterpart

Superpower is elasticity. 

Superhero name is Flexuous. 

Has been dealing with his powers pretty much since childhood. After his parents died, he was taken in by Manfred Von Karma and trained to be his prodigy. 

He ended up breaking away from Von Karma’s teachings sometime later and tried to do hero work on his own, his first instance of this being when he and Phoenix met for the first time. For a while they actually were rivals, before becoming friends and eventually dating, and were far too amused by the media’s obsession with their supposed rivalry.

Was studying to obtain a law degree and had hopes of becoming a lawyer, but when the lawsuits started happening and superheros were all uprooted, he ended up having to abandon any hopes of having any sort of high profile career. 

Sometimes works as a legal mediator just to make a bit of extra money/put his law knowledge to good use. 

He is the true backbone of the Edgeworth-Wright household. It would be in shambles if he weren’t in charge of it, as hair pulling as such a task is. For some years he and Phoenix co-parented without a problem, but with middle age starting to settle and Phoenix delving into a midlife crisis, he’s more or less been having to manage things on his own.

Phoenix and Miles -

They formally met through a foreign language course they were both taking, though officially had actually met several times under their super personas. It didn’t take long for either of them to figure each other’s identities out, however.

By the media’s standards, Captain Indestructible and Flexuous were rivals to one another, which up until a point was true. When they started dating, however, the rivalry all became a pretense just for the public’s entertainment. Though that wasn’t to say their butting heads and bickering outside of their super suits wasn’t all real, because it very much was. 

They dated for about two years before they were engaged, but their wedding had to be put on hold due to all the lawsuits and Super-related scandals going on. 

Miles pretty much planned his and Phoenix’s wedding up to a T, which didn’t matter in the end since they couldn’t afford the venue they’d wanted. They tried to wait a while, so they could save up enough money but that didn’t work out, and thus they decided to just go ahead and have a small private ceremony at the local courthouse. 

Phoenix knows Miles will never admit it, but he’s heartbroken that they didn’t get to have the wedding they wanted, especially after all the effort he put into it. That and the venue they’d booked was where his parents had gotten married, it’d meant so much to him to have their wedding there and they didn’t get to do that. 

They made the promise to each other that someday, when they were more financially stable, that they’d renew their vows and have the ceremony they’d always wanted, however that’s easier said than done when you’re trying to pay off bills and raise three kids.

Adopted Apollo two years into their marriage, then Athena a few years after that, and just recently have adopted Trucy. 

Apollo (14), Violet Parr counterpart

Superpower is invisibility/force fields.

The oldest child of the Edgeworth-Wright family. 

Has a crush on Klavier, who’s one of the more popular students in school because of course he is.  

Struggles with having to keep his powers a secret, which in-turn causes a great deal of self doubt.

Enjoys classic literature and music. 

Is stressed 24/7. His family is weird and he just wants to be normal, please help him. 

Athena (10), Dash Parr counterpart

Superpower is super speed.

The middle child of the Edgeworth-Wright family.

Her biological mother was also a super, who was killed by an ex-villain. Something similar happened to Miles when he was young, so of course he was all for adopting her. 

She has way too much energy for her own good, and has trouble focusing on one thing at a time. Her parents have tried time and time again to find a proper outlet for her to take her energy out on, but nothing’s worked so far and has only resulted in multiple visits to the principal’s office.

She wants so badly to play sports and has begged her parents time and time again to let her try out for one of the teams, though this usually ends in disagreement. Miles will put his foot down over the fear of her having an unfair advantage due to her powers, while Phoenix wants nothing more than to let her go ahead and do it. 

She very much loves and cares for her siblings, even if she does tend to pick on Apollo sometimes. 

Trucy (11 months old), Jack Jack Parr counterpart

Superpower is transformation, but the rest of her family doesn’t know this yet shhhh. 

The youngest child of the Edgeworth-Wright family.

She was an urgent emergency adoption, as well as being a closed one, so not much is known about her birth family. 

Maya (30), Frozone/Lucius Best counterpart

Superpower is telepathy/telekinesis.

Every woman in her family ended up developing these sorts of powers one way or another, so when hers started to get out of control she confided in Mia and was promised help in the matter. When she did finally arrive in the city though, Mia was dead so Phoenix took over the whole mentor thing, even if admittedly he wasn’t very good at it.

Despite everything, with Phoenix knowing next to nothing about Maya’s sort of power, he really tried his best to be of help to her and they ended up becoming close friends, even when she went off to do hero work on her own. 

After the superhero relocation program went into effect, she started work as a medium as a low key means of using her powers without giving herself away. She now owns her own small “mystic elements” type of shop where she does palm readings and the like, though nothing too drastic since a full display of her powers would give her away and have her relocated. 

Has never once been relocated come to think of it, and Phoenix is kind of jealous. It helps that she can be more subdued about her powers, while he doesn’t really have that option. 

Pearl lives with her and works in the shop as well. She ran away from home several years ago after a fight with her mother and Maya’s been looking after her ever since.

Is the cool, eccentric aunt to Phoenix and Miles’ kids. She or Pearl are their go-to whenever they need a babysitter (since they can’t actually afford one lmao). 

Franziska (33), Edna Mode counterpart

Has no superpowers. 

Works in the fashion industry, used to be responsible for a lot of super’s suits before the whole lawsuits and relocation shit went down.

The adoptive sister of Miles, who at one point was incredibly resentful towards him due to their father paying him more attention than her due to his having powers. They’ve both made peace since then, on the account that their father sucks.

Before Phoenix had met her, he was wearing his own homemade suit which she absolutely tore to shreds upon seeing. Ever since that day, he’s been low key terrified of her. 

Is essentially that wealthy lesbian aunt who likes to show off around Christmas and dump expensive presents on her nieces and nephew. 

Travels around a lot due to her job, so she’s not around often.

Dick Gumshoe (45), Rick Dicker counterpart

Has no superpowers.

Works with the whole Agency that regulates supers and what not, personally made sure that he’d be both Phoenix and Miles’ assigned case worker since he’d already known them a while.

Is doing his best in a crappy situation. Personally if you asked him, he’d be fine with supers coming out of their forced retirement but he’s not able to do much about it in his position. Regardless, he’s still a valued family friend and the kids love it when he visits.

Is married to Maggey Byrde because its what he deserves. 

Dahlia Hawthorne (32), Syndrome counterpart

Has no superpowers so to speak, but instead relies on technology invented by her family’s company.

She and Phoenix crossed paths during a supers convention, where she tried to convince him to train her as well, going on and on about how she wanted to be a hero too. But seeing as she didn’t actually have powers and wasn’t a hero herself, he turned her down.

The first attempt wasn’t the last, as she tried time and time again to get his attention and get her to train him, and each time he would refuse. He admired her efforts but the fact was, she was a civilian and even with her technology, she could be seriously hurt. 

Inadvertently foiled his attempts to sabotage a villain that ended up causing a railway explosion. She was arrested afterwards for interference with hero work, and Phoenix didn’t see her again for a long time.

Took Phoenix’s rejection very personally, and holds her public humiliation towards her arrest as his fault. 

Moved away to the island after she got out of jail and spent the next several years building up a brand new company from the ground up as part of her revenge plot. 

Iris Hawthorne (32), Mirage counterpart

Has no superpowers.

Is the twin sister of Dahlia.

She took on many of the company responsibilities until Dahlia was released from jail, then was forced into being her assistant for the new company. 

[wardencommanderrodimiss]

Witches, Chapter 12: the one you’ve been waiting for, where three lawyers, a detective, and their fae chaperone who’s also a nun try to punch a yokai. Plus, some interesting tidbits about some interesting people.

I guess 12k chapters are just a thing that happens sometimes, and this one is getting dropped at 10pm EST on a Tuesday because I have less control over this fic and my life than I intend.

[Seelie of Kurain Chapter Masterlist] [ao3]

[Witches Chapter Masterlist] [ao3]

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If it wasn’t dark enough for Tenma Taro to emerge from hiding when they started, it must be by the time they get everything squared away and rein in the tangents. Sebastian mentions the large, stolen magatama (“How big was it?” Iris asks, and Kay says probably a loaf of bread or a football, and Athena asks American or European, and Kay says she didn’t know those were the only two kinds of bread) and the mayor’s face darkens and Phoenix and Iris exchange a silent look that plainly tells Apollo to worry. “Yes,” Phoenix says finally, after several moments of that silence, “it probably did steal that in the hopes that there would be power within for it to tap into.”

Phoenix (sitting hunched on the stairs with his his gargoyle posture, which Iris is hilariously correct about because Apollo has never seen him sitting with two feet on the ground at the same time) will stay with Jinxie and Mayor Tenma ward the Forbidden Chamber with enough of Jinxie’s charms, and anything more they can, so that if the Chamber is re-opened in the future, the yokai still won’t be able to escape. For the rest of them, in their pursuit, Kay has a bag full of a worrying amount of flashlights and headlamps. “Ready to go?” she asks as she doles them out with very little apparent concern. Apollo somehow ends up with two flashlights and no headlamp, but Trucy, who has two headlamps, has put both of them on. “Sebby, ready to lead the way?”

He doesn’t answer. Kay ushers them all out the doors into the night. The lights at the front of the manor illuminate the garden, making visible half a dozen black birds that sit perched on the nine-tails flower bushes. One opens its beak and lets out a croaking caw; Athena lets out a small shriek, grabbing Trucy’s arm and jostling her into Apollo. “Are those Tenma Taro’s minions?” she asks. “He’s kinda like a crow, right?”

“Yeah, but these crows work for us,” Kay says, elbowing Sebastian. “We asked them to tell us where to find a giant bird monster. They’ll get us in the vicinity, and then I guess we wait for Tenma Taro to sniff us out? Or just kinda yell, ‘hey, yo, yokai guy, there’s only room for one bird person around here and we’re fighting you for it!’”

Athena turns to Apollo in confusion. He shrugs. Does that mean Sebastian, witch with a crow familiar? Is that what he is? It’s all presumption on Apollo’s part, really, Klavier’s mention of his coworker the witch and spying crows back-to-back. Kay doesn’t offer to explain, and Apollo doesn’t know enough to explain - he’s guessing, he’s always guessing.

“I didn’t know Pearl had a sister,” Trucy says, at no more than a whisper to Iris. “But that’s what Daddy and you said? How’s she doing? It’s been ages since I’ve seen her!”

“She’s as well as ever,” Iris replies. She speaks just as quietly, and even that disturbs the still, empty night. “Though it would not surprise me if soon she were to simply barrel back into the human world. She does seem to miss it rather often.”

“I feel like this is all our faults,” Athena whispers, slowing her pace, lagging even further behind Apollo, and he matches her steps. The beams of their flashlights still hit the backs of the others ahead of them; they aren’t separated enough to be in danger. “That this is actually kind of dangerous, and everybody’s got to be involved because we didn’t get the job right the first time.”

“I mean.” Apollo doesn’t actually know what he means. He folds his arms across his chest to try and block out the damp night chill and the only sound is their feet shuffling through the grass. The tightness in his chest returns in an instant. “Even if Filch had said it, we’d still - Tenma Taro would still be loose no matter what got said in court. And maybe we’d still be out here but it’d be…”

“Some weird volunteer work for the town,” Athena says. “Lock the demon up, keep everyone safe. Not fixing our own case, and then Detective Faraday and Prosecutor Debeste wouldn’t have to be involved—”

“What?” Kay says. With a jolt of horror Apollo realizes that the group has slowed down to let him and Athena catch up, and their voices carry with nothing else around but their bodies to absorb the sound. “Of course we would be! Friends don’t let friends take on monsters alone, especially when one’s interfering with justice and the truth! We’ve got an obligation to kick its ass and set the record straight.”

“Just for the sake of arguing,” Apollo says, “because I’m a lawyer, wouldn’t it at least in some regard be the fault of the defense attorneys doing the cross examination, and the witness?”

Sebastian stops entirely; Trucy runs into him, and Iris doesn’t quite seem to change her trajectory at all to step to the side of them, but then she is there, stepped back further, almost to give them space to have a conversation. Her movement lacks continuity, a flow, in the way Vongole’s has at times. She’s less human than Apollo remembers, or maybe now she isn’t trying to keep up appearances. In the beams of the lights, she doesn’t cast a shadow.

“Like, technically, I guess,” Kay says, dragging every word out into a doubtful drawl, and beginning to walk backwards to properly glare at Apollo and Athena while they keep moving. “But when I actually think about it, it’s not that much different than a witness being threatened into silence, or a judge being blackmailed into a particular verdict, or any version of that we’ve dealt with.” The dismissive wave of her hand doesn’t answer anything but she barrels on without giving time for those last several words to be absorbed. “Some outside force putting pressure in. Whatever you do in a trial like that’s rough, because there’s just only so much you can do when people are threatened and scared. And your witness was, legitimately, scared to talk! That isn’t your fault you can’t crack it. You’ve gotta handle the other thing, too.”

“He wasn’t afraid enough to tell us after,” Apollo says irritably. He doesn’t think Kay is wrong, exactly, but he - they - Phoenix - someone - should have figured out that there was this other thing in the way of getting the cleanest verdict. Why didn’t they know? 

“You understand the reason you call us by euphemisms,” Iris says softly, but her words command respect enough that even the breeze slows. “The Fair Folk. The Gentry. Complimentary, for fear of what is listening. And the louder you speak, to the more ears you speak - something is always listening.”

Not someone, either. Something. “That is terrifying to hear that described like that,” Sebastian says. “But you, ah, probably mean for it to sound like that. I’m not crit - critiquing your choices or anything. And Justine says something similar, that you guys just kinda, uh, know. I’ll stop saying anything now.”

Iris tilts her head to the side; she appears curious, not aggrieved, and her voice is as level as ever as she continues. “You might know that saying, that two can keep a secret if one is dead. To announce in court the fiend’s escape - even if most of the gallery would not believe the tanuki, even if the prosecution would not - there are that many more people listening. There would have been that many more ways for Tenma Taro to hear that its escape has been noticed, that it will be pursued. The tanuki was right to be afraid.”

“My grandfather taught me something like that, too,” Trucy says, folding her arms tightly around herself. When was the last time she has ever brought up Magnifi? “Be careful about what you say or else you might call it to you. That’s - that’s how we worked. The Troupe, I mean. Call for ‘Gramarye’ and we’d be there. Which that all means that we, personally, probably, should not be standing here saying ‘Tenma Taro’ a whole bunch.”

“No,” Apollo agrees. This is a grave they continue to dig, and maybe he’s been in the woods to fall in a faery ring and find a lost soul, and burn a different faery ring, but those were all ghosts, and past. This is present and alive. “These aren’t wise choices.”

“Yeah, but that’s what friends are for,” Kay says. “Make the mess worse with you, then help you back out of it and set everything right. It’s just like a court case like that.”

“Implying you make a mess out of all your cases?” Athena ventures, wincing as she says it, knowing what a terrible question it is and being too curious anyway. Apollo knows this because he is wondering just as well; he wouldn’t have asked, but he wants to know too. “Whoops!” Widget chimes, like any of them really needed assistance figuring out what emotions Athena is cycling through. 

“Not all of them,” Kay says. “But shit happens.”

“And we have important jobs to do so we can’t just sweep it under the carpet,” Sebastian says. “We have to dust for help and ask ourselves - ask for help and dust ourselves off and get back up again."

They sound rehearsed, but sincere, like these are things they’ve pondered for a long time, or talked about before, or heard from someone else. Wisdom for the ages passed on after personal experience. Reassurance, enough to set Apollo’s stomach at ease even as trees rise up around them and they venture on to find a monster. If he dies, it’s not going to be with people who are angry with him for fucking up. Because they aren’t angry, and he - well, still screwed up a little, got too carried away, too confident, didn’t doubt enough, but he’s far from the only one. He’s not the worst one.

“Even,” Kay adds, prodding Apollo in the shoulder, “if sometimes you’re supposed to be working the other side from the person you’re asking help from.” Her shoulder slams into a tree and finally her attention turns to what’s in the direction she is moving in.

“There’s a value in a friend who knows when to stand with a different bench and badge for the sake of the truth,” Iris says. “Or simply for the sake of a friend.”

“What kind of trials do you have with people switching benches?” Athena asks.

Kay shrugs. “Oh, you know,” she says. Apollo does not know. “Sometimes in the course of an investigation—” “Shh!” Athena hisses, and Widget, its chirp at odds with its words, adds, “Shut up!”

“I was answering your question—”

“Shh!” Athena moves to maybe slap a hand over Kay’s mouth and ends up grabbing her shoulder instead. “I heard something!”

A twig cracks under Apollo’s foot. Athena glares at him next. Iris tugs the hem of her robe out of a bush and steps away from their little cluster of people, her hand ghosting along Apollo’s shoulder, never making contact but still a tug, pulling and urging him back. Her other arm is raised, doing the same to Trucy, spreading them out so that if something strikes, they aren’t all one target. “Are you sure?” Sebastian whispers. “I don’t hear anything.”

“I know there’s something,” Athena says. “Hey!” she calls in a furious stage whisper. “Tenma Taro! I’m not afraid of you!” 

“I am!” Sebastian says. 

And then Apollo can hear something, right near him, a loud gush of air and a crackling, joined with light, fiercer than their weary flashlights and momentarily blinding. He blinks and sees spots of orange against his eyelids, and opening them again the orange is still flickering, off of Sebastian’s fingertips. Fire, from the bare skin of his hands, the bits ungloved, flames that beat back the forest’s chill that had so slowly, almost unnoticeably, swallowed them. He stretches one hand out and up, toward the trees, illuminating the gashs cut in the bark above their heads, claw marks, evenly spaced just like in the shop. “Can you get some more flashlights on that for a clear picture?” Athena asks, tapping Widget, and its bright mechanical lights sharply contrast all else around them. “This could be useful evidence for the trial tomorrow.”

“I’ll remember that we have to counter that,” Kay says. “Seb, remind me when we’re driving home?” 

“What, you’re actually coming in the car with me?”

“Yeah, ‘cause we’ve gotta talk strats without the defense around!”

“Wait,” Athena says. Widget’s lights blink out, its scan completed. “Seriously, does no one hear—”

And Apollo does hear it, then, and it takes him a moment to even understand what the sound is; it first registers in his brain as a flag being whipped and pulled about by a strong storm. But this is a forest and the air is still and cold with no heavy sheets of fabric about. It’s flapping, and a different kind. Wings flapping, loudly, loud enough that it doesn’t make sense, because a bird shouldn’t be that big, that close—

It’s not a fucking bird, is why. Should be the first thing on his mind and isn’t, not until Kay shrieks, “Scatter!” and the bobbing shine of flashlight and flame land on two yellow-skinned legs with long, dark, protruding talons that sweep overhead and would have clawed Apollo apart if the wind from its wings weren’t like a wave crashing down, knocking him over. The dead leaves coating the forest floor scratch at his face and he pushes them away to see Trucy, also on the ground, pushing herself up to her knees and throwing out a hand. A wispy glow, shimmering pink and blue, dances up her arm and doesn’t draw Apollo’s eyes the way it usually does whenever Trucy wants to torment him.

But Tenma Taro, its talons sinking deep into the ground, wings spread wide, swings its head about, pointing its sharp beak in the wake of the bobbing light. Trucy’s wisp darts off, weaving into the trees, and the monster, flexing the talons on its hands, lunges after it. “Misdirection, a magician’s best trick,” Trucy whispers, crawling forward and grabbing Apollo’s hand and tugging for him to follow her. “And we’re not gonna be useful here anymore.”

The ground beneath them slopes away from Tenma Taro, an unstable decline on the ever-shifting patchwork carpet of leaves. “Athena?” Apollo hisses into the darkness, more concerned by the second that she’s going to attempt being useful by throwing down with a yokai. “Athena!” 

Flashlights abandoned haphazardly on the ground cast faint light and wild shadows in every direction, nothing discernable; Sebastian’s orange flames hang scattered in the air like giant fireflies. Everyone’s voices scramble together into indistinguishable chatter, and then, above it all, a horrid, gargling, roar: “You think you can distract me, little girl? You’d better run!”

“Oh,” Trucy breathes, barely audible over the leaves crunching beneath them. “It realized. It saw through it.” She scrambles awkwardly to her feet, remaining hunched as she does, and she waves her hand at Apollo, as though to shoo him back to the group. “Other way, Polly, go!” 

“And what do you think you’re doing?” he hisses. Every movement makes too much noise, the leaves and twigs loud as gunfire in his ears, his voice a scream, the very air acting as a megaphone to draw the hunter back to them.

“Bait!” Trucy starts to run, but most of her motion is sliding, her hands flung out and easing herself down the hill so as to not entirely wipe out. “It’s after me!” 

“I’m not—” Forget Athena, then; forget Kay and Sebastian, and Apollo nearly falls back over on his way after her, nearly slips and knocks them both over. “Trucy!” 

“Stop following—” Her feet slip out from under her and her descent turns into a slide. That’s got to be easier, honestly. Less focus on not falling, because he’s choosing to fall over at the start, means he can better scan the sky, the black ragged canopy of leaves against the deep dark blue for Tenma Taro coming after them.

“What do you mean, it ‘saw through it’?”

Trucy catches hold of a tree and rights herself. “One of Daddy’s friends, Maya, she says it’s not that hard for her or any fae to tear her eyes off a will o’ the wisp. Guess yokai are like that too.” She glances back up the hill, where they can still see spots of flame, and when her headlamp isn’t shining directly into his eyes Apollo can see she looks scared. In the dark, she drops her mask, and somewhere above them, Tenma Taro’s throaty screeching resumes.

“Do you think we can outrun it?” Apollo asks.

“We’re small,” Trucy says, but without much confidence. “And maybe Mr Tenma is on the way—?”

“I can smell you!” the yokai shrieks. Its voice is nothing like the one that Filch did while in the costume; it shakes Apollo straight to the core. The splintering of trees that follows is worse, because while Apollo can’t see it, he can still picture clearly those huge claws splitting apart wood, and just as easily flesh and bone.

They run, snagged by trees and brush and twigs, all like brown skeletal hands reaching to slow them, drag them to the ground, into the grave, to lie and rot among the rest of the leaves. Tenma Taro has no constraints, shredding everything that lies ahead of it, everything that sooner and sooner might come to include Apollo and Trucy.

In an instant, the air ices over, their gasping breaths forming fog, Apollo’s teeth clattering together. As Tenma Taro, now visible, bears down on them, Iris stands in between, still as if her hair and robes were carved from marble though a vortex of snow spins about her. Light from a source Apollo can’t see illuminates her, makes plainly visible even her pitch-black hair, a ghostly aura that might be emanating out from within her. Her head turns just slightly to glance back at them over her shoulder, and out of the night, her eyes gleam - not like a cat’s eyes, the way they bounce back the light in hazy circles. Her eyes are the lights themselves, sharp as lasers, two teardrop-shaped red spots, red as and redder than fresh blood. Above the inner corners are two smaller red pinpricks, just as bright.

There are two monsters in the woods tonight. 

“Out of my way!” Tenma Taro snarls, its tongue lolling from its beak as it launches itself into the air, its wings battering aside the branches above it. Then it drops, legs-first, talons splayed wide, and Apollo doesn’t have a chance to scream for Iris to move before it hits her – and keeps going, through her, to strike a tree behind her with a loud crack. It wrenches its talons free of the wood and wheels about, its three yellow eyes passing over and dismissing Apollo and Trucy. “Coward! Stand and fight fair!”

“No thank you.” Iris reappears to the side of Tenma Taro, brushing her hair back behind her shoulder with a disdainful flick of her hand. A second Iris appears up the hill, identical down to the snow swirling around her shoulders. Neither leave a shadow on the ground. “I’d rather not. A fight is only fair if I know I’ll win.”

“You’ve fallen a long way to be running errands for the Nine-Tailed Fox,” Tenma Taro hisses, curling the talons on its hands. “Where’s your pride, Mystic?”

It’s trying to goad her into a fight, and what better way than to strike at a fae’s petty pride? Apollo doesn’t know which Iris to watch for a reaction. They don’t move in tandem, as far as he can tell from frantically looking back and forth between them. The one on the hill blinks and the tiny red spots above her eyes blink out too. The one closer to them has a hand on her chin, apparently on deep thought. “I am not here to help the Fox,” she answers. “I have a different debt.”

Fire bursts from overhead, further up the hill, in puffs like quick exhales. Tenma Taro twists its head and presses low to the ground, hunched in a way that reminds of Vongole shying away from the burning ring of flowers. Those of the Winter Court don’t like fire. And Iris standing beneath the path of the flames doesn’t stir, but the other Iris shifts back half a step, a slight motion, but enough. Tenma Taro assesses her, tilting its head back and forth and back, tongue lolling from its beak.

And several things happen all at once.

Sebastian stumbles into view, unsteady on his feet, but the breath of flames that bursts forth from his fingertips doesn’t waver or falter. He directs it lower, skimming right over Tenma Taro’s head, forcing it to crouch closer and closer to the ground to avoid being burned. And Iris lunges, not toward Tenma Taro, but to Apollo and Trucy, as Tenma Taro does the same, skittering low beneath the ceiling of fire. 

“Run!” Trucy grabs Apollo’s arm; Apollo tries to push her behind him, out of Tenma Taro’s path. Before it reaches them it flaps its wings, shrieking as it does, embers catching alight on the tips of its feathers, and the force of the wind pushes them to the ground again. Like a nightmare, the one where he’s drowning and can’t move his limbs and there’s no one to save him, or the one where he’s just weighted down and can’t get up fast enough - adrenaline might get his heart moving but nothing else matches its pace. His cheek stings from scraping up against a fallen branch on landing. Tenma Taro looms above them, as big as the statue in the Forbidden Chamber and far too alive, its wings still flailing and churning up the air trying to put the fire out. Trying to keep its prey down. 

It drives both of its taloned hands down toward their heads. Apollo closes his eyes, doesn’t mean to but prays that the pain will be quick, and he only opens them when the pain doesn’t come, when instead his ears are ringing with a loud crack. A sheet of ice slopes up from the ground, in toward and over his head; the tips of Tenma Taro’s talons poke through. The ground is coated in frost, white with it, and it burns on Apollo’s bare hands like he’s pressed his skin directly against ice cubes. He staggers to his feet, helping Trucy up, or maybe she’s the one picking him up. 

The woods are lit up by a wall of fire pressing nearly against Tenma Taro’s back. Each time it tries to yank itself free, it recoils into the flames and howls. Apollo almost feels sorry for it, if its triangle of yellow eyes weren’t fixed on him, if it weren’t leaning forward with its tongue rolling loose, the closest to drooling in anticipation a bird monster can get. It pecks at the ice, causing cracks to slowly widen, slowly working itself free. “Better run again, fool little illusionist,” it hisses. Apollo pushes Trucy behind him, for what little good he could do standing against it. “I don’t like being tricked. I’ll eat you first and then your little witch who thinks he’s so strong—”

Abruptly, the fire vanishes, leaving them in darkness, bright spots flashing in Apollo’s eyes. Tenma Taro is a darker, hulking mass still illuminated in the white glow of the magic ice, and by that light Apollo can just barely see the aggressively-screaming figure that hurtles out of the air - was she up a tree? - to land on the yokai’s back. It flails, its wings wheeling about, evidently throwing its attacker its off when there is a yelp and the crunch of leaves and bushes. “Warding charms, bitch!” Kay shouts from wherever she landed. Sebastian lights up the night again, resuming the flames now that Kay is clear of them. When it flaps its wings again, it doesn’t crush them to the ground. 

But it batters at the ice with its beak and surges forward when the ice splinters - doesn’t get far before the frost on the ground lights up into a white glow, and faintly above it like a mist, a pale ghostly blue. And Iris steps forward. 

She doesn’t look like Iris anymore - doesn’t look human, either, but Vera still looks like Vera when she doesn’t look human. Iris doesn’t have a trace of Iris left. Blazing crimson, her hair billows out like grasping tentacles of some unholy horror, only held flat against her scalp where two twisted horns lay close along her skull, risen out of her forehead. Her skin is the color of ashes, of asphalt, of a shadow, just a few shades lighter than what her hair used to be - than what her eyes, when there were only two of them and not four glowing spots, used to be. The magatama from her necklace floats in front of her chest, lit a luminous pink that shimmers out into the air. Apollo would swear he’s seen that shade before. 

Iris raises one hand, her fingertips that end in bone-white hooks twitching; the other arm she stretches out in front of Apollo and Trucy. A motion for them to step back, a gesture that she is here to do what is asked of her, to protect Phoenix’s daughter. “If you touch,” she says to Tenma Taro, her head tilted back to threaten the beast twice her height, “what is my family’s” - each word is soft, calm, venomous - “I will tear out your tongue and your eyes.”

(There are two monsters in the woods tonight, and Apollo knows which he’d rather have as an enemy.)

“You think you could?” Tenma Taro sneers. 

“I know I would,” Iris says. 

Tenma Taro twists its head around almost the whole way, more owlish than crow, assessing the situation behind it: the patchy wall and ceiling of flames courtesy of Sebastian, and Kay somewhere out of sight with more warding charms. Is Athena, wherever she’s ended up, still a factor in play? Apollo hopes she’s all right. The sick twisting in his stomach tightens even further knowing he just abandoned her. 

Its decision made, Tenma Taro throws itself backwards into the flames, shrieking bitterly as it does and furiously, frantically, flapping its wings. The breeze it creates gently stirs the few bushes that aren’t frozen over, but as it continues, the air begins churning, battering against them. Was it the warding charm that kept them momentarily safe - did it burn the warding charms off? Apollo leans against a tree to stay on his feet; Trucy latches onto his arm. Sebastian’s flames waver, wobble, as he probably is wobbling, and flare up into the trees, catching several branches alight. Iris stands firm, unflinching, her hair and robes swirling from a wind contained to her alone.

“I didn’t want to do this,” she says. Not a threat, but a warning, just a few moments in advance, and Apollo doesn’t think - though he can’t say for sure - that she’s being sarcastic or snide. She does sound genuinely mournful. But not enough. Of course not enough, not when Tenma Taro, beak wide and screeching, talons outstretched, hurtles forward. Iris flicks her wrist like she’s throwing something and only after the motion does it appear: a widening glob of what looks like rotten, diseased blood, dark sickly red blackening in spots. It makes impact at the back of Tenma Taro’s throat, splattering up into its eyes. 

The yokai falls sideways, crashing to the ground along with the trees that it toppled into and brought down with its weight. There’s no time for silence. “Kay?” Sebastian calls. “Kay, where are—”

“I’m o-Kay,” she says, appearing from around another tree and immediately plopping to the ground at its base, holding her head. “Maybe concussed? It’s cool.”

“Where’s Athena?” Apollo asks. Frozen leaves crunch beneath his shoes as he cautiously advances forward, around Iris who has sunk to her knees, and around the huge sharp feet of Tenma Taro. It’s snowing now, scattered fat flakes drifting gently out of the sky, but where it lands on his skin it doesn’t melt, just stays cold until he brushes it off. “Athena?”

“I’m here!” Athena slides the rest of the way into view, signs evident that she’s had a rough time traversing the woods, too. Her knees are scraped and her tights torn up in several places. “Prosecutor Best here didn’t even let me try and tackle it.”

“That’s because that was the best option for your safety,” Sebastian retorts. 

“Yeah, and the detective here went all, whatever.”

“Cowabunga,” Kay says with a worrying, uncharacteristic lack of enthusiasm. Maybe she really is concussed after that fall. “But that’s because I’m a responsible adult and if I die I die but you’re like, twelve.”

“I’m eighteen,” Athena says. “Thank you very much! I’m eighteen!”

“Oh my god you’re like a baby,” Kay says. “You’re older than I was when I started doing dumb shit but you’re a baby.”

Athena is ready to protest again, her fists balled up in rage, but her eyes drift past Kay to the hulking feathered beast collapsed in the ice, snowflakes settling among its dark feathers. “Is - is Tenma Taro dead?” she asks nervously. 

“No,” Iris says. Her head is bowed, her hair falling straight like a heavy shroud around her face, and the scarlet is bleeding from it, black returning from the roots down. “It merely sleeps. Were it so easy to kill, the Nine-Tailed Fox would have done so long ago.”

“Are you all right?” Trucy asks, bending over, trying to get a glimpse of Iris’ face. “And are, um - are the - the Fair Folk like you, are you that hard to kill?”

(Mia was murdered, wasn’t she.)

“That’s a bold question to ask, dear little firebird,” Iris says. She shakes her head, tossing her black hair over her shoulder. She still has horns, faintly lighter than her hair, and those glowing eyes and the spots above them; still fae, still mostly unglamoured. “But no. We are not. We are people and we die, are killed, are executed. A guilty verdict and death sentence are contracts and we do not break contracts.” She sweeps her hair back with a clawed hand. “You did not ask that. This valley has always been especially unstable, and magic and belief make real. Tenma Taro was born of gold and greed and a well-meant but foolhardy and cruelly-executed deal to create something that would protect the villagers from their gold and their greed; it is a spirit, less than alive but much more than a ghost.” She exhales heavily and laboriously clambers to her feet, brushing leaves and dirt from her robes.

“So when L’Belle said that Tenma Taro was just a story to keep people away from the gold,” Apollo says, “that’s - not true, because it’s more than a story, but it is all because of the gold.”

Iris nods. “Yes. It is because of the gold.”

“The gold, and one of you ff - Fair Folk, dicking around and fulfilling a deal in the meanest way possible,” Trucy says. She isn’t bold enough to name the fae plainly in front of one who just dropped a monster like a stone, but she is angry enough - about this specific situation? In general? On behalf of her mother? A boiling point, and finally one of the fae in front of her - to try and spark a confrontation. Like Tenma Taro mocking Iris’ pride, and she didn’t rise to it. 

“What you get in any deal depends on who you make it with,” Iris replies evenly, calmly, and not the deadly calm of minutes ago. “An accused hires your father knowing that defense will be a tumultuous, messy one, but that he is clever at the turnabout and never, ever will give up faith.” Trucy frowns and folds her arms across her chest. Iris blinks, an action obvious in the dark when the red lights go out and return, and adds, “A different defense attorney has a different method. The devil might ask you to pay a piece of your soul, literally or metaphorically, for the perfect evidence to set you free.” There are no pupils in her eyes, no way to know precisely where she is looking, but Apollo would swear that her gaze has moved to him on that sentence. “Likewise, when you ask us for help, you get our methods.”

Trucy’s shoulders barely slump, but Apollo sees the fight drain from her all the same. He has questions he wants to ask, if it’s the culture of the Court that makes everything a game or if growing up magic in a place of magic twists something in them, if they feel guilt, if she would have killed Tenma Taro if she could, if it were easy. And he remembers the curses staining Phoenix’s neck and he decided he doesn’t want to know that badly. He’ll extrapolate from the data he already has, guess if Vera is the changeling outlier or Kristoph is. 

“Um, so uh, we should probably deal with this big thing,” Kay says, pointing at Tenma Taro with her foot. “Like before the philosophy discussions.” She sounds just a little frantic trying to redirect - to distract Iris, to save Trucy. “Before it wakes up. How long’s it gonna be out for?”

“Hm.” Iris drums her knuckles against her face, keeping her claws away. “I would say - from the time of year, and its strength, and that I am far weaker than my sister - a month? Perhaps two.”

“Oh,” Kay says, no longer hurried. “Yeah, that’s not sleeping at this point. That’s a coma.”

“Ah. So it is.” She seems in no way concerned with these particulars of semantics and looks instead over to Sebastian. “Is there something you mean to ask, dear witch? You’ve been staring.”

“Ah! No - or I am staring but I don’t - I was just thinking that oh this is what you look like and—” Sebastian tries to smooth down the curls on the top of his head and does not succeed. “I’m quiet now please don’t kill me.”

“I would never,” Iris replies.

“Seb,” Kay groans. “You have the - you could have just looked earlier to See what she looks like!”

“But that feels - invasive - intrusive?” Sebastian’s mouth twists. “Wait, both those words work, don’t they.”

“Yeah,” Kay says. “Both work. You should totes talk to Gavin about that. He’d way disagree with you and it might be funny.”

“Please,” Sebastian says. “I’ve only just gotten over the feeling that he hated me. I’m not gonna start a fight telling him he’s rude or paranoid or—”

“Does anyone know the way back to town?” Athena asks. “We should’ve left a trail of bread crumbs back.”

“There are several folk stories about why that does not work,” Iris says. 

“I’m just gonna call Jinxie and tell her to send her dad to find us,” Trucy says. “Still got a bit of cell service out here.”

Iris steps over Tenma Taro’s splayed wing and approaches its head that lays twisted to the side, beak flopped open. She inhales, hiking up her shoulders, and closes her eyes, pressing the heels of her hands to her eyelids. And then, as Apollo is about to ask what she is doing, she drops to her knees and plunges her arm down its throat. 

“Uh,” Apollo says, looking around, and he’s the only one watching Iris; Athena has a branch over her shoulder like a baseball bat and is saying something to Kay and Sebastian and Trucy is still on the phone and staring up at the sky as though waiting for the Amazing Nine-Tails to crash down in their midst at any moment. Which he might. 

Iris turns her head and that in itself seems birdlike, like she’s twisting her neck just a little further than a human would be able to. “Why,” she asks, and he gets the feeling she’s not really addressing him in particular, “would anyone swallow a—” She wrenches her arm free and holds up for Apollo to see a large magatama, maybe about the length of her head, that has the faintest golden shine to it.

“It ate the magatama?” Apollo asks. He knows he sounds stupid. She pulled the magatama out through its mouth, and that suggests that yes, the damn bird-monster swallowed the magic rock. It also suggests that either the magic rock got wedged right at the top of his throat, or the length of her arms is not what it seems.

“There are so many better ways,” she says wearily, wiping off the magatama with her other sleeve.

Mayor Tenma, in the form of the Amazing Nine-Tails, arrives on the scene a few minutes later, surveying the downed trees beneath Tenma Taro, the frost and ice that have flattened the brush and leaves to the ground. “Did you not say,” he asks, hefting Tenma Taro up over his head with an ease that makes the beast appear weightless, though even with his arms raised high its feet dangle nearly to the ground, “that you, Iris, would be the least destructive of your sisters?”

It is not a subtle slight. Iris assesses the man in front of her, something between human and fox spirit, someone who tonight stands on the same side as her, for the same ends. “Of myself, my cousin” - she puts stress on that - “and my little sister, yes, I assure you that either of them would have caused much more damage here tonight.”

A thin layer of snow has firmly settled on the tree branches high above. It would be beautiful if it weren’t May, if Apollo didn’t know how unnatural it is. “Very well,” the mayor says, and in two bounds he has leaped out of sight, over and through the trees, but golden light trails behind him, flowing from his tails and sinking like it has physical weight to the ground, leaving a bright path to follow home.

“There’s our bread crumbs,” Kay says.

The hike back is quieter; all of their conversation came from nervous energy, Apollo realizes, and now that they have without a doubt survived, the thought of court in the morning has gained weight. And school, too, for Trucy, he supposes, given the way she begins to lag as they finally reach the tree line and break free into the empty fields that surround Nine-Tails Vale. Apollo slows to stick with her (and also avoid Athena up ahead where he hears her challenging Kay and Sebastian to a race) but he can’t understand the look she gives him, the expression on her face. Frustration, almost, and fear, and he’s not sure if he should be offended but Iris has halted to wait for them and Trucy turns that hesitant glare on her instead.

“Ms Iris?” She keeps her voice so soft that it cracks hoarsely on just two words. 

“You don’t need to call me that,” Iris replies. Her eyes are dark, and only hair lays against her head - she has braids where the horns were. But the breeze doesn’t ruffle her hair and when it sways with her own movement, it still flashes red underneath. Even if they hadn’t seen her fighting Tenma Taro, she still can’t feign humanity well enough that Apollo would ever risk dropping the honorific. “What is it?”

“You came out here because Maya told you to,” Trucy says. “But what Maya told you to do was protect my dad, and he wasn’t going into danger, so he asked you to look after us. And you did, so that’s a deal, you held your half, and now he has to pay you back. That’s how it works.”

Iris is silent but not still. She turns the large magatama over in her hands. “See, I know you’re friends or something,” Trucy continues, clasping her hands behind her back and standing tense, stretched as tall as she can, though Iris isn’t especially tall either. “Since Daddy always calls Maya his friend too.” She inhales forcefully. “But Grandpappy was family, not friend, and he still took my mother’s soul and buried it in a box so it’s not like it’s simple that I can trust that you won’t collect your half by asking for something that Daddy can’t pay back.”

“Something he can’t pay back,” Iris repeats. “Humans often say such a thing, that we have asked for something they will never be able to return.” She shakes her head. “Usually what they mean is that they owe us something that they do not want to give.”

“Yeah,” Trucy says, her voice rising in pitch now that Athena and the others are out of sight, “but I don’t want to lose another parent to the likes of you! You and Mr Gavin and my grandfather and—” With a shuddering inhale, she falters.

“I don’t want, and I have never wanted, to hurt your father,” Iris says.

And she’s fae, so that’s true, of course, but—

“That doesn’t mean you haven’t ever hurt him, or that you couldn’t,” Trucy says. “I’ve grown up with witches and fae and lawyers. I know how you talk when you’re trying to hide something.”

“Of course it doesn’t,” Iris agrees softly.

“So I just—” Trucy sounds close to tears now and Apollo steps up to her side so that he’s at her shoulder, the most support he can offer when he doesn’t know what she’s about to say next. “Whatever you - whatever you’re asking him to pay, I’ll pay it.”

(And if Apollo did have an idea that was what she would say, his support would be to slap a hand over her mouth.)

Iris’s lips part and then close again. She stares for far too long without blinking. “So what’s he owe?” Trucy asks, forcefully, defiantly, like to cover up the fear she must be feeling, because Apollo knows he’s damn terrified. “What’ll I owe? What do you want?”

“You don’t think that would hurt him more than anything I could do, for him to learn you tried to take up a debt for him?” Iris asks. 

And Trucy is the one to go quiet then. “Darling, let me tell you this as plainly as I can,” Iris adds. “Your father owes me nothing and never will owe me anything.”

“Wh-what?” Trucy turns to Apollo. Why’s she expect him to have any more idea what this means? He doesn’t know Iris any better than she does, and Trucy has the advantage because she knows Phoenix better. “But - he - don’t tell me you’re just being nice! That’s not how this works!”

“And why couldn’t it be?” Iris asks. “You are a magician, little firebird - you got your gifts for free. Blessings are for free.”

“Well - yeah. But - but you don’t ask for a blessing. This was - my dad asked you to keep us safe. That’s a deal, that’s an exchange! Even asking Maya or Pearl for something little, we’ve always got to make a payment back! Even if that’s just dinner or movie recommendations or going shopping or - or - it has to be something!”

“It was a deal and the debt is still mine,” Iris says. “I owe something I cannot repay.”

Trucy’s eyes narrow. “You just said that most of the time, people can pay back and it’s just a steep, terrible price. How do you - what did you do?” 

Iris shakes her head. “It was something I didn’t. Tell me, do you think there is fair repayment for a life one could and should have saved, but didn’t?”

“Um.” Again Trucy looks to Apollo for help. He doesn’t think there’s an objective answer. He’s not sure if Iris wants them to answer at all. But she’s definitely made the point.

“I know what I am and the sins that I need to pay for. Weigh my heart against anything your father would ask and mine is the heavier every time. He knows this too.”

Is this guilt? Could one of the fae let herself come out the loser on a contract? Surely they can fail, and there are stories of them being tricked (unwise though it might be to attempt), but this sounds like guilt. Some sins to pay for. That’s not the language of deals.

“Oh,” Trucy says, and nothing more. No follow-up questions; no further accusation. She must at least know, if not the circumstances of what Iris refers to, then the gap where it fits, some thing or another that Phoenix conspicuously doesn’t talk about. (A lot of things, he conspicuously doesn’t talk about, but Apollo can sympathize here.)

Iris has a hand raised, absently tracing her thumb along the base of her neck, above her collarbone. The same location as one of the ugly curses branded on Phoenix. (A question Iris, or Phoenix, surely would not have answered even if Apollo dared ask: is Phoenix’s the life she could not save?)

“We should return you both to him,” she says. “He’ll doubtlessly wonder why the others have arrived back but not you two.”

And they’re silent as the Nine-Tails’ golden pathway fades out behind them, ushering them back into the brightly-lit manor garden. Kay and Athena chatter away animatedly at - is that Prosecutor Edgeworth? Yes, the chief prosecutor himself here to manage the situation himself, or maybe looking at him, it doesn’t much seem that he’s managing anything. More like he’s the beleaguered uncomfortable onlooker, which is how Apollo still tends to think of himself despite all evidence to the contrary saying that he’s irrevocably involved in this madness. Phoenix stands at the edge of the edge of the garden, nearly in the darkness, and he jogs the rest of the way over to meet them. 

“I figured if you’d all died,” he says, and Trucy careens straight into him and throws her arms around him and he drapes one over her shoulder, “then everyone wouldn’t be so cheerful, but they didn’t know where you’d gone, either. Everyone all in one piece? You good, Truce?” She tilts her head back and nods. “Apollo, are you all right? You’re a bit scraped up.”

His cheek does still sting, now that he thinks about it. “Yeah,” he says, rubbing at it and then examining his fingertips when they step back into the light to make sure he isn’t bleeding. “We did a lot of tripping and falling.”

“There was just something I wanted to ask Ms Iris,” Trucy says. Over her head, Phoenix raises his eyebrows, seeming more concerned than questioning. “But it’s all good, so!” She ducks out from under Phoenix’s arm and waves. “Hi, Mr Edgeworth! I didn’t think you’d get out here!”

“I - no, I was not quite sure.” His gaze turns into a glare as it moves from Trucy to Phoenix. “Though seeing in person that beast makes me wonder what on earth you were thinking letting your daughter come out here.”

“More or less the same thing I thought when I talked to Apollo and Athena about this, which was, ‘they’re tough kids who’ve seen some shit, they’ll be fine’. You wanna worry about anyone particular, it should be Athena. She’s seen less shit than them.”

“Polly and I are ride-or-die now,” Trucy announces. “So I had to be here!”

“Please not the dying part,” Apollo says. 

Edgeworth’s thunderous expression doesn’t change in the slightest, but this bears all the markers of an argument that’s been had before and hasn’t gone anywhere then either. So instead he says, even more tersely, “Iris.”

Kay’s head snaps around so fast that her hair slaps Sebastian in the face. 

Iris bows low at the waist and her head remains ducked even when she straightens back up. Kay hisses something at Sebastian and he plants an elbow in her ribs and whispers back. Iris doesn’t look at them and they keep tittering under their breath; Athena, failing to do so casually, tilts her entire body in toward them to even more closely listen.  “Prosecutor,” Iris says. Not hostile, but no real emotion, either. 

“Chief prosecutor now,” Phoenix says, sounding smug and proud as though he’s bragging about a promotion that was his own, not Edgeworth’s.

“Oh!” Iris startles, a surprised hand rising to her face. “Congratulations!” And she beams, an open-mouthed grin showing teeth just barely too pointed. Apollo wouldn’t notice if he weren’t looking for the details that are wrong about her. “I can’t imagine someone better suited for the position.”

“I - well.” There is no one here more uncomfortable than Edgeworth, but his discomfort is contagious and Apollo already wants to flee the area. “But you can hardly know that many prosecutors, either.” Apollo doesn’t want to read too deeply into it, though reading too deeply into everything is the only defense strategy Phoenix ever taught him, and he could guess that Edgeworth expected a reception of equal antagonism from Iris as he gave her. And now that isn’t how she’s responding, at all, and his only script for the situation is rendered useless. 

“Of course not,” Iris says. “But if we should hope to lead the legal world to caring more about seeking justice and the truth than rivalries and win records, how could there be better than a prosecutor who so intimately understands how it is for those at the other bench, as well.”

“Ah,” Edgeworth says. 

“And I think - wait.” Iris’ head snaps up toward the second floor of the manor. “Did you feel that?”

“Nope.” Phoenix’s quick answer makes some sense - if they have to ask they haven’t felt it - but Iris still levels a dirty look at him. He shrugs exaggeratedly in return and her glare tapers out. 

“I think the Forbidden Chamber was sealed again,” she says, tilting her head back to look at the looming mountainside the manor sits against. “I felt a shift in the air. We should make sure that was something good.” She drifts more than walks to the doors, and when she extends a hand to the doors, they part just before she touches a handle.

No one else moves even after the doors boom closed behind her. “You didn’t mention she was going to be here,” Edgeworth says, his face pinched tight though he sounds more confused than anything else.

“I didn’t know,” Phoenix says. “Maya sent her over and you think Maya’s ever warned me in advance of anything before?”

“Of course not,” Edgeworth pinches the bridge of his nose. “Of course, not even if it’s your—”

“Back in October she sent Iris over with some messages when she and Pearls were too busy to drop by themselves,” Phoenix says, loudly on the first few words and then dropping back into a normal tone, but it makes conspicuous the fact that he was cutting off Edgeworth before he could say - something. Anything more about Iris. About what she is to Phoenix. “She said she’s more or less their messenger now, and probably only more that I’ve asked Maya and Pearls to look into some things for me.”

“You’re okay with this?” Edgeworth asks. 

“She’s less likely to start shit with any random person on the street, so probably better her running around than the alternatives.” Phoenix yanks open the manor doors. Their actual physical weight is obvious now, unlike Iris opening them with a mere gesture. Apollo isn’t quite sure that Phoenix answered the question. “Besides,” he adds over his shoulder at Edgeworth, “you know I can only keep one grudge going at a time and there’s always some new bastard doing worse for me to be pissed at.”

Implying that there could be reason to be, and stay, angry at Iris. (I know what I am and the sins that I need to pay for. He knows this too.)

“I’d expected you to have learned to multitask by now,” Edgeworth says, following him. No one else moves; Kay and Sebastian have their heads conspiratorially close together, and Athena still leaning in toward them. Trucy is rooted to the spot.

“And rid myself of one of my few remaining virtues? Please. Do you like me better when I’m an asshole, is that it...?”

Silence follows the slam of the doors. “What were you whispering about?” Trucy asks immediately. Apollo would like to take a moment to unpack everything that was just being said, but apparently there’s too much happening and they’re just going with that part.

“Iris,” Kay says. “And Mr Edgeworth. She bowed to him. That’s like—”

“I mean sure they’re people like we’re people,” Sebastian says, “but generally getting their respect as an equal is super hard enough, and this was - um, defense? Def - deference, that’s the word, deference, yeah, sorry.”

“And sure yeah it’s weird that she bowed to Mr Wright too, but he’s like—” Kay waves her hand around in the air. “Weird. He’s the one that you’re like yeah, of course he’s had this happen to him. But Mr Edgeworth definitely doesn’t ever let the fae owe him anything, just ‘cause, you never know how they’re gonna decide is good to replay you, so it’s like, what’d he do? How’s he know her too?”

“We met her before, me and Trucy,” Apollo says. “It sounded like she knew Mr Wright from his college years, so did Prosecutor Edgeworth also…?”

Kay and Sebastian look at each other. Then they look at Trucy. Everyone is looking at Trucy. “No, I think they only met again once Daddy was a lawyer too,” Trucy says. “He and Mr Edgeworth, I mean. Polly’s right about Ms Iris; that’s what we’re guessing.”

“Some college ex-girlfriend?” Kay asks dryly. “That’d explain why they’re all weird with each other.”

“Daddy said he didn’t date her, though,” Trucy says. “We asked.” Her expression darkens further and she glances at Apollo from the corner of narrowed eyes, like she’s trying to remember exactly what Phoenix’s words were, where the trick was for him to sneak the truth past their eyes. 

“And why would Prosecutor Edgeworth know Mr Wright’s ex if they didn’t go to college together?” Athena asks. 

“Opposition research,” Kay says. “But then why’s she know him well enough that she’s—” She huffs in annoyance. It’s a riddle, not a crime but a truth to be revealed, and she wants at it. “And you shouldn’t date the fae in the first place. Like everyone knows that.” 

“Do I?” Athena asks. 

“Now you do,” Sebastian says. 

Athena slaps at a mosquito, causing the rest of them to realize they are also undergoing harassment, and all of them beat a hasty retreat inside the manor. “Do you mind if I ask you something?” Athena says, after her crestfallen realization that the pizza boxes have all been piled up on the trash can. 

“Um, maybe?” Sebastian says. “Depends.”

“How’d you become a witch?”

So Athena’s the one bold enough to ask. It’s not like Apollo hasn’t wanted to know ever since meeting Sebastian, but he also knows from Klavier that magic’s truths aren’t always pretty. Even a witch, a deal that should be made as a choice - the Folk aren’t fair, and Phoenix told Apollo and Trucy the story of his friend Larry who accidentally became a witch. Every kind of magical gain has the potential to have come out of horrible loss. 

“Don’t do it,” Sebastian says. 

“Huh?”

“Wait, were you asking how to become a witch? Or why I did?”

“I don’t want to be a witch,” Athena says. “I was just wondering about you.”

“Oh.” Sebastian’s shoulders hunch forward. “But don’t do it, guys, seriously. You don’t quite get magic just like that” - he snaps his fingers and a few sparks snap off of them and he flinches like he didn’t expect that from himself - “you’ve gotta practice and work at it and it’s - I had to pick, I guess, I realized. I could dedicate myself to being a witch, or being a good prosecutor, and I wanted to be a good prosecutor. Like - like Prosecutor Edgeworth. So I’m not a particularly talented witch. I don’t know why Mr Wright thought that I’d be able to stand up to Tenma Taro. I could’ve burnt the whole forest down.”

“Yeah, but you didn’t,” Kay says. “And that’s what really matters.”

“If I’d had to do more than herd it into Iris���”

“Shoosh.” Kay flings her arm around Sebastian’s neck and ruffles his hair. “You did good.”

“I guess that makes sense you’d have to train at it,” Athena says. “But if you know you don’t have time to be a witch, why did you make that deal in the first place? Seems like a lot of risk for less gain.”

“Well,” Sebastian says, with a tremble to his voice, to his hands, his eyes darting at Kay, who leans a little heavier on his shoulder. “Yeah. It’s not - it wouldn’t have been a smart deal for me to make, no.”

Meaning he made it when he was young and too stupid to know better, to borrow some of Phoenix’s words, or it wasn’t something that he consciously chose. “Oh,” Athena says, very soft and very sad, as Widget cycles through yellow surprise to blue despair. Which of the possibilities does she hear in his voice?

“It’s—” Sebastian shrugs, twisting his hands together. Kay slides off of his shoulder. “It’s what it is now, I guess. Comes in handy at times which is why I don’t break the contract, even though Justine’s willing to let me at no cost.”

“Comes in handy whenever I remind you to check something out with the Sight,” Kay says. “Since you forget.”

“I don’t forget! Not all the time anyway. It’s rude!”

“How is anything you See admissible evidence?” Athena asks. “Like, no one else can - I mean, what are the odds of two people with the Sight working the same case to be able to corroborate it?”

“It’s not admissible at all,” Sebastian says. “But sometimes you might be able to guess at what’s going on by something you saw.”

“How so?” Trucy asks.

“Uh,” Sebastian says. “Admittedly we’ve personally never really run into that, and then my only example is from Justine and it’s a really long story that—”

“It’s fine, it’s fine!” Athena says hastily, a little frantically, at the way Sebastian’s voice begins to wobble again. “Um, so Justine is the, your ‘patron’ then? She’s the one who gives you magic fire powers?”

“I borrow them, more like,” Sebastian answers. “But I’m lucky that it’s her, because she’s kind, and fair by our standards. Basically, since the contract’s ongoing, I’m borrowing magic from her, and so she could borrow something of mine in return. And by ‘something’ I mean ‘anything’.”

“Anything?” Athena echoes.

Trucy is the one to answer. “Anything,” she repeats firmly. “There’s no sense of scale. They can leverage a tiny favor to mean you owe your soul for it, if they want it, and you can’t refuse.”

“And for a witch it’s a constant give-and-take,” Sebastian adds. “So the patron is constantly - what’s the word I’m looking for, uh, accruing favors that the witch owes in return. And unless you were thinking well enough ahead to put in your initial contract things you wouldn’t give, or do - it’s very not good.”

“Oh,” Athena says, eyes downcast. “You don’t pick your patron?”

“How many people actually know one of the Fair Folk to ask?” Kay says. “Besides Mr Wright. And us now. But like, otherwise, if you wanna make a deal you’re just screaming to whoever’s listening.”

“Or nearest,” Sebastian adds. “Or likes what you’re offering the most, or is already interested in you for some other reason.”

“Hm,” Athena says. “Okay. And what happens if your patron dies? What then?” 

Trucy sits down on the floor as Athena’s interrogation shows no sign of ceasing. Didn’t Athena ask this particular question of Phoenix already? “Then you lose all your powers,” Sebastian says. “Well, they fade away over a couple weeks, is what I hear.”

“And your powers - do you pick the kind you have? Like if you wanted lightning instead? Or did your patron decide you look like a fire person? I don’t see it, personally.”

“You have a lot of questions for someone who says she doesn’t want to become a witch,” Kay says, squinting suspiciously at her.

“I don’t! But a giant bird-monster tried to eat Apollo and Trucy and then Mr Wright’s college ex turned into some kinda demon to fight it, and this is the first time in my life I’m ever seeing this stuff, so of course I have questions.” Athena, bouncing on her heels, abruptly stops. A frown creases her face. Widget again goes dark blue. “And there’s the rumors about Prosecutor Blackquill. Y’know, that he’s a witch. And I asked Mr Wright some about it, but you’re an actual witch.”

“Mr Wright probably knows more than I do, still,” Sebastian says. “I’d heard that about Prosecutor Blackquill too but I don’t really know him. What was it you asked? Powers, they’re what you end up with; I didn’t pick it and she definitely didn’t - the Fair Folk don’t really like fire.”

“It’s a grab bag?” Athena asks. “A roll of the dice?”

Sebastian hesitates before answering. “I think it does gravitate toward something that does suit specifically you. But that’s just a guess based on me.”

Blackquill’s invisible knives answer nothing more about him - he’s a murderer, he’s a samurai/ninja type, they knew that already - and Athena is right that Sebastian doesn’t look like someone who would be, of all the potentially limitless possibilities, fire. 

“Witches can have familiars, right?” Apollo asks. Sebastian nods and doesn’t say anything more detailed. Nothing about crows; go figure. But if Blackquill really is a witch, and not something more complicated, then that answers that question about that damned bird. Or maybe Taka is something like Vongole. And maybe the Prosecutors Office is a nightmare. No, definitely.

“I think I’ve run out of questions,” Athena announces. She sits down in the doorway of Filch’s office, grabbing a box of tissues from within and dabbing at the scrapes on her legs. “For now, anyway. Maybe I’ll shout something at you in the middle of the trial tomorrow as I come up with it.”

“Please don’t,” Sebastian says. “Leave it for after.”

“Oh, god,” Kay says. “Speaking of the trial tomorrow. Seb. Sebby. I don’t think we have a case.”

“Yeah, we found the stolen goods eaten by a yokai,” Athena says. They probably could come up with a way to work around that, but for once there’s something in the defense’s favor.

“Maybe we can argue that the defendant is Tenma Taro,” Kay muses. “Or she’s possessed.”

“Don’t,” Apollo says. “That’s what happened last time. Don’t do that to us again.” If they want to go that route he can’t actually stop them but they’re on friendly enough terms that he’s still going to grumble about the prospect. He’s going to relish not being afraid that the prosecution is going to murder him. 

A door thuds closed upstairs and the murmur of voices drifts down. Athena tilts and swivels her head, a radar dish adjusting to get the signal. “Mr Wright just suggested dynamiting the mountain to get the chamber to collapse on Tenma Taro and bury it,” she says. “And - Mayor Tenma says there’s historical and cultural importance of the manor to the town and they can’t just - Mr Edgeworth just interrupted to say Mr Wright is an idiot.”

Kay snickers. Athena props her chin on her hand. “Is it really that bad of a concept though?” Trucy asks. “Make sure no one lets it out again?”

She has a point. For the sake of the town, bury its monster, and maybe then people will stop believing in it. And maybe if they stop believing, it will stop being. One could hope. 

Iris holds the magatama when the group of them - Phoenix rolling his eyes at Edgeworth, Jinxie hanging off of her father’s arm with a charm in her hand raised threateningly at Iris - appear around the corner of the stairs. She ponders it for a few seconds before she raises up her other hand and the shimmering outline of a magatama of equal size appears above it, solidifying until it drops into her palm. Its color is slightly duller and sicklier; this magatama, she offers to the mayor. His expression is stern, more or less always is, and from his face alone it’s impossible to read what he is thinking. “There’s no catch,” Iris says. “No debt to me; it’s an exchange. Your shop-owner gets back something close to her stolen stone, without the chance that anyone unscrupulous will again barge in seeking its power.”

“And you get that power yourself,” the mayor says, but he takes it from her nonetheless. Edgeworth’s frown deepens further.

“Are we pretending that one is the one we recovered and just pretending we didn’t see this exchange?” Kay asks. “You couldn’t have done that thirty seconds ago and given us deniability?”

“Ah,” Iris says. “I should have. Forgive me.” She sighs. “I should be off now. I did promise Sister Bikini assistance with the night’s chores.” A smile spreads across her face, one with a wicked edge, and her twinkling eyes turn on Phoenix and Edgeworth as she adds, “I’ll tell her you both say hello.”

“Sister Biki…?” Edgeworth falters and looks to Phoenix, who grins mischievously, a mirror and an echo of Iris’ expression. 

“What, you don’t remember her?” Phoenix asks. “Head nun at Hazakura Temple. Short, had a booming laugh, kept hitting on you during the cross-examination - wait, that’s why you don’t remember her! All the older women who’ve hit on you from the witness stand probably just merge into one conglomerate in your memory, huh?”

“Heavens forbid they should combine in real life,” Iris says, starting to drift away from them, where Apollo can see a spat forming. “A truly Lovecraftian entity that would be.”

“I - I don’t—” Edgeworth’s sputtering doesn’t form a full sentence. 

Phoenix’s grin doesn’t lapse. “At least I don’t have to deal with the curse of being handsome, on top of everything else,” he says. Kay lets out a laugh that sounds more like one of Tenma Taro’s squawks. Iris presses her lips together and stretches her eyebrows as high as they will go. “Someone was supposed to object to that,” Phoenix adds after another half a second. 

Trucy pats him on the arm. “You’re very handsome, Daddy,” she says. 

Athena slaps her hands over Widget and feigns a cough to drown out whatever it has vocalized. 

“Now that you’ve remembered how to shave,” Edgeworth mutters. 

“I’ve told you,” Phoenix protests, and the way Edgeworth immediately rolls his eyes shows that yes, yes they have gone through this before, “nobody was gonna take me seriously as a pro poker player with my clean-shaven baby face.”

Edgeworth scoffs. “You don’t have a baby face, Wright.”

“Speaking as someone who does, he doesn’t,” Sebastian mutters. Kay snickers.

“I don’t know,” Iris says. Sebastian and Kay step out of her way, parting like a stream against a stone, and she eyes the corner caretaker’s office and then Athena sitting there in the doorway. “He does, a little. We could put it to vote.”

“Okay, I don’t think we need to talk about my face that much.” Phoenix holds up his hands in mock surrender, turning from Edgeworth to Iris. “I heard everything I needed when - Iris are you eating garbage?”

She flinches at her name, and with that flinch, her eyes and hair flicker red, and some of the skin on her face turns that deep shadowy ashen gray. Her shoulders and arms collapse into herself as all eyes turn to her and she shrinks toward the trash bin piled full of pizza boxes like she’ll disappear behind or into it. And Phoenix freezes a moment before, a little less spirited, he adds, “I can’t believe Maya’s turned you into a trash gremlin too.”

“I haven’t had pizza in at least twelve years,” Iris says, and now that she uncoils herself from looking like a snake about to strike, Apollo sees in her unclawed hands that she holds a piece of pizza crust. “Let me have this.” She bites into it forcefully, showing off her dagger teeth, and then she reaches to the open boxes balanced on each other, filled with greasy napkins, and retrieves another scrap of crust, her eyes narrowed, daring anyone to say anything. “Besides,” she adds, still not confident enough in her trash-gremlin ways to not keep justifying herself, “I need some energy to get back to Hazakurain.”

“Your new magatama isn’t enough?” Phoenix asks, nodding at the stone tucked under her arm.

She crunches louder on the crust. “Someone, if perhaps not me, will be in touch if we learn anything new,” she says to Phoenix, very pointedly ignoring his question. Whatever they’re talking about, it isn’t Tenma Taro anymore, but they’re on the same page. “My cousin may seize on that excuse, or perhaps none at all.”

“I look forward to it,” Phoenix says.

Iris spins, her robes whirling around her, her hair splayed about, its colors and the colors of her skin shifting and twisting together. A snowy vortex swirls at her feet, rising up and swallowing her and once it passes her feet, her legs, they are simply gone, and with a puff of frigid air she and the snow vanish entirely, leaving a circle of flowers on the carpet where she stood.

Jinxie leans out from behind her father and drops a charm in the center of the ring. 

“What kind of flowers are those?” Kay asks, leaning down to investigate. When she does, her hair tumbles over in messy waves, still with a few pieces of leaf tangled up in it. She looks real; Athena with her scraped knees and Sebastian with dirt smudged on his face look real. Apollo has stared at Iris so much, trying to figure her out, noticing every way that the world doesn’t work right around her, and now the subtle motions - not even the tics he watches witnesses for - of people being people are remarkable.

“Do the flowers matter?” Athena asks. “Does it mean something?”

Apollo is glad to see that the flowers aren’t rooted into the carpet. They’re just scattered on the ground, stems cut diagonal at the ends, as though the contents of a vase were poured out in an even, perfect circle. “No, not really,” Sebastian says. “Well, a little? Justine’s are lion lilies, which mean something to her, but like abstractly they don’t really have to mean anything about - um, those are probably irises, anyway. Those flowers.” He pulls his phone from his pocket and starts typing something, probably a search to check on what iris flowers look like.

“An iris is a flower?” Phoenix asks blankly. Trucy presses her hands over her eyes and groans. “What? Why was I supposed to know that?” Edgeworth sighs deeply.

“Oh,” Sebastian says, frowning at his phone. “I guess those aren’t irises.”

“They’re kinda weird-looking flowers aren’t they?” Kay asks, leaning over Sebastian’s arm to also examine what his screen displays. “Kinda droopy petals on the outside there.”

There’s nothing Apollo would describe as droopy about these flowers circled on the floor. They’re round and the size of his palm, dozens and dozens of little petals stacked around each other. Most are a pale soft pink, but a few dark flowers, their petals as black as pitch, are interspersed among the rest. “It was a decent hypothesis,” Sebastian sighs. 

“Whatever they are, they do not belong in this manor,” Mayor Tenma says. “Mr Wright, you will know the best way to get rid of these without causing offense, yes?”

“Just toss ‘em out the window,” Phoenix says, and as half a dozen people gape at him, he adds, “That’s less offense than setting them on fire or throwing them in with the trash.”

“I’m still not touching those,” Sebastian says. “Not after seeing her fight a yokai. Sorry, Mr Wright, but she’s terrifying.”

“That’s fine,” Phoenix says, stooping and gathering up a large handful of flowers, crushing them together with no real regard for them. Athena springs up and throws the window open for him to dump the first ones out. “I’m used to being the one cleaning up fae messes.”

Remarkable, really, how the words should surely be passive-aggressive, how even Phoenix’s cheery tone should be sarcastic - but as much as the man can be a mystery, Apollo is certain if there’s anger, it isn’t at any of them still here in the foyer.

-

Athena gives him a lift home; Kay and Sebastian go together to talk strategy before the case tomorrow, and Phoenix and Trucy go with Edgeworth. Apollo has more than a dozen texts from Clay, the first three asking why he’s still out so late, the rest proposing increasingly implausible - but still nowhere near as batshit as the truth - scenarios as to what he’s up to. “You’re a popular guy, huh?” Athena asks, watching Apollo scroll through the messages as they walk to her car.

Apollo snorts. “Nah. These are all from my roommate, trying to guess if I’m still alive or if being a lawyer for Mr Wright has finally killed me. And I hadn’t even told him that we were going to actually fight a yokai today, either.”

“Would he have believed you?” Athena asks. “‘Cause two weeks ago I wouldn’t have believed you either.”

“He’s the most superstitious person I know who hasn’t been tangled up in this kind of thing,” Apollo says. Klavier is more paranoid, but personal experience gave him more than enough reason to be. Clay is just… Clay. “Is it even superstition when we know it’s true?”

“I guess it isn’t,” Athena says. “It’s definitely not the kinda thing I thought I’d come home to.”

“But you knew Mr Wright, though.”

“Oui, and I wouldn’t change meeting him for the world” - would Apollo? No, he wouldn’t either, he’s sure of that now - “but I thought he was - kinda the only one, I guess. And then I’m here and there’s - there’s this, and then there’s Prosecutor Blackquill, and I - I don’t know.”

“Welcome to the Wright Anything Agency,” Apollo says. 

She laughs. “Happy to be here, actually!” Widget beams green; despite everything, she still means it. 

“I think we’re glad to have you here, too.”

-

“So what took this investigation so long?” Clay asks. Apollo kicks his shoes off into the middle of the living room and decides that’s a good enough place for them to be tonight. 

“You don’t want to know,” Apollo says. 

“I’m sure I don’t,” Clay says. “Cavorting with the prosecution? Got stuck in a wormhole and lost about five hours without knowing it?”

So Apollo tells him, and he isn’t even halfway through the story before Clay starts shaking salt onto Apollo’s head. 

[reaganwarren]

A/N: Custody Battle AU. Nayuta now testifies about their time with Troupe Gramarye. 

“Father left us in the care of Thalassa Gramarye when he left to go back to Khura’in to deal with an emergency. Because of that, we stayed with Troupe Gramarye, with whom Ms. Gramarye lived. A month later, the accident that robbed her of her life occurred, and we spent the rest of the time with Magnifi, Zak, and Valant Gramarye.... We stayed in Japanifornia only for that first month. There was a funeral, then the troupe traveled all over the world, performing. During the first month with the troupe in Japanifornia, Apollo and I helped the troupe as stage hands, but after Thalassa’s death, Magnifi encouraged Apollo to follow in her footsteps and become a magician, leaving me to do all the stage hand work with whoever happened to be employed at the sites we had our shows at.

“Thalassa Gramarye was a lovely woman.... I cannot say the same of her husband. Valant Gramarye always treated us with kindness, and I am eternally grateful for his company, but Zak Gramarye is rude, uncouth, and has demonstrated a dangerous temper on at least one occasion.... Often, I was spared his wrath, but I happened to be a witness to one incident while we were performing in the Mediterranean. I do not know what they had been arguing about. But I had heard raised voices when passing the hotel room we were sharing with Zak and his daughter, Trucy, at the time and recognized one of them to be Apollo. I opened the door and entered the room, only to witness Zak punching a hole in the hotel room wall. Apollo was cowering on . . .” 

Nayuta cleared his throat, then looked over at Apollo. Both Maya and Phoenix turned their heads to look at Apollo. Apollo had his shoulders hunched and arms crossed, but otherwise just looked like he was concentrating on Nayuta’s testimony. 

“Please continue with your testimony, Nayuta. You may omit details you don’t feel are important to the case, but if it is important, please include them, even if it’s difficult,” Justine Courtney said. 

Nayuta closed his eyes. 

“As you wish, Your Honor. Keep in mind that the hotel room was rather small. Two beds and a bedside table to share between them, a television, and a bathroom, for four people. If we were not using the backstage areas or the green rooms in those backstage areas for our daily living, we were using the hotel rooms or train cars or airplane seats or rental cars. So much of the home-schooling sessions we received while part of Troupe Gramarye occurred in these hotel rooms, and it wasn’t strange that Zak and Apollo were alone in the room. The only time that occurred was during Apollo’s math tutoring. Otherwise, Apollo and I only saw Zak when we were interacting as a group. While I was certainly worried for Apollo’s safety when I saw him cowering on that hotel bed, I was interpreting it as . . . I wasn’t thinking that there was a danger of . . . .” 

Nayuta cleared his throat again, trying to find the words. His eyes were still closed, but his facial expression showed that he was getting increasingly uncomfortable. 

“If I may interpret,” Edgeworth said, “you are saying that while you assert that Apollo Justice is not safe with Troupe Gramarye specifically because of Zak Gramarye, you are saying that the danger he poses is not one of a sexual nature. In other words, you are not claiming him to be a sexual predator.” 

“Yes, that’s what I’m trying to say. It was clear Apollo was being threatened and was scared, but the environment was circumstantial, not indicative of the type of crime that was taking place,” Nayuta said, opening his eyes once more. “I see no benefit in getting the facts mixed up. I just wanted the court to understand that distinction.” 

“The court hears your words and appreciates the forethought,” Judge Courtney said, smiling pleasantly at Nayuta. 

Dhurke’s hands were tightening into fists, and Edgeworth could almost feel the air vibrations from his body shaking. But Dhurke kept himself in one place, face set and unchanging. 

“At what time during your stay with Troupe Gramarye did this happen?” Judge Courtney asked. 

“. . . I believe we had been with them for a little more than half a year. We did so much traveling around that time that I can’t quite remember if it was when we were in Turkey or Greece.... I’m inclined to say it was Turkey, because our time in Greece feels like it had been more pleasant.” 

“Was the determination of the pleasantness the behavior of the troupe members?” Edgeworth asked. 

“Yes, it was,” Nayuta said. “The country itself was fascinating to explore and learn from.” 

“Do you have proof other than your word that this incident occurred?” Phoenix asked. “Like a bill from the hotel for damages?” 

“. . . I do not have any bill from the hotel. That would have been given straight to Magnifi Gramarye. After I happened upon the scene, Zak moved towards me, and I ran to get Mr. Valant. I also kept a record of the incident in my private journal. Both Mr. Valant and my journal can back up my claim. The journal entry was written without the influence of my father or Mr. Edgeworth the day of the incident.” 

“And where is this journal?” Phoenix asked. 

“. . . It went missing the day my father picked me up from the Sunshine Colesium when he returned from Khura’in. It hasn’t been located yet.” 

“Mmhm. I see. So I take it you’re expecting Mr. Valant to provide key testimony to support this young man’s claim, right, Mr. Edgeworth?” Phoenix said. 

Edgeworth didn’t say anything. 

“Adding Valant’s testimony would be vital to the case. Though I believe Apollo’s testimony would be the most important in this case. The incident did happen to him after all.” 

“Mr. Justice, are you willing to testify about the incident?” Phoenix asked. 

Apollo turned his head away from Nayuta (and happened to also be away from Phoenix) when he answered. 

“I can’t testify to something that didn’t happen, Mr. Wright,” Apollo said. 

Phoenix stared at Apollo for a long moment, then looked back at Nayuta on the stand. 

Nayuta looked like Apollo had flung some sort of insult at him. 

“A-Apollo!” 

Apollo wouldn’t turn his head back to look at him. 

“And what about you, Mr. Valant? Are you willing to testify as to whether or not the incident Nayuta is talking about actually occurred?” Phoenix asked. 

“I’d be willing to testify,” Valant said. 

Nayuta looked over to Edgeworth and Dhurke, expression torn between the hurt that Apollo would even attempt to paint him as a liar and the confident relief that a “see? I told you so” gave a person. 

“Then if Your Honor will allow it, I’d like to produce Mr. Valant’s testimony as a rebuttal to Nayuta’s testimony,” Phoenix said. 

“The court will allow it,” Judge Courtney said. 

Nayuta went back to the plaintiff bench, and Valant took his place at the witness stand. 

“So I am to testify as to the incident in which Nayuta grabbed me and brought me to the scene in the other hotel room?” Valant said, twirling his staff with a flick of his wrist and catching it in his palm once more. 

“Yes, that’s exactly right,” Judge Courtney said. 

“Let’s see, there weren’t many instances where I was suddenly grabbed from my room to mediate a situation, so it must have been . . . yes, indeed! It indeed did happen in our small but beautiful room at that Turkish hostel! There indeed had been damage that occurred to that wall, and it had indeed been Zak who had caused the damage, but there was no fight when I arrived. Nayuta has been such a great help to the troupe when he had stayed with us, but occasionally there would be instances where he and the rest of us would have misunderstandings. The incident in question was simply another misunderstanding. Zak’s dealings with Apollo indeed mostly stayed in the realm of math tutoring, but occasionally there was a new trick or two to be taught! Apollo and Trucy are expected to grow up and take their places as proud members of the troupe, after all! Even if the young man is wanting to grow up to be the troupe lawyer. With Apollo being Zak’s step-son, it’s only natural to want to impart some magic know-how! When I arrived on the scene, I simply discovered that the trick had gone a bit wrong, and it had startled Apollo. But no one was hurt, and we paid the hostel the money needed to repair the damage. But I suppose I can see how it could have been misconstrued! I have no doubt that Nayuta truly would not intentionally lie about such a thing. We simply must not have cleared the matter up after the truth was discovered. While his knowledge of our language is great for his age, it still isn’t his first language, and between me, Zak, and Magnifi, we do have some varying degrees of heaviness to our accents. I’m truly sorry we ever allowed a situation happen where Nayuta felt he or dear Apollo were ever in any danger. It was certainly not our intention.” 

Edgeworth’s eyebrows furrowed heavily throughout Valant’s testimony. He knew it. He knew they couldn’t rely on him. 

Dhurke’s body was no longer shaking, but his glare was intense. On Dhurke’s other side stood Nayuta, wide-eyed and mouth falling open at the blatant betrayal of a man he had trusted. He held his rosary tightly in his now-trembling hands. 

“Mr. Valant,” Phoenix said, “do accidents happen a lot with the troupe’s magic tricks?” 

“There is always some level of rick associated with performing magic. The more impressive the trick, the higher the risk. But with dear Apollo and little Trucy at the ages they are, we’d never teach them tricks that were overly dangerous. Those tricks are for us old folk, ha ha ha ha!” 

“And the troupe has dialed back from using particularly dangerous tricks ever since the tragic accident that took Thalassa Gramarye’s life?” Phoenix asked.

“Exactly right,” Valant said. “The Zak & Valant Quick Draw Gun Show has been retired indefinitely, and we’ve increased our safety precautions. Nayuta can even testify about all the things he helped us with to keep everything safe from backstage, if you’d like.” 

“Does Troupe Gramarye have proof of payment for the damages to the hotel room?” Edgeworth asked. “Any picture evidence to guarantee that the hostel didn’t attempt to make you pay for damages that were not directly caused by your group?” 

“That would be a question for Magnifi,” Valant said. “I am not aware of any pictures or receipts, but we left Turkey the next day. With all the packing and traveling, it’s entirely possible any receipts got lost in the wind.” 

“I have all the receipts, but there are no photographs. You cannot prove the damages were caused by any body part,” Magnifi said. 

“And you cannot prove they were not,” Edgeworth said firmly. 

“Do you really think I’d allow such a brute to marry my daughter and be near my grandchildren?” Magnifi asked. 

There ended up being no room for a rebuttal. 

Suddenly, the doors to the courtroom burst open. The stench of a landfill filled the air, causing pretty much everyone to either cover their nose and mouth or pinch their nostrils closed. 

“Oh my god!” 

“What is that - !?” 

“I found it!” Kay Faraday shouted, holding a dirty, stained book over her head. 

It had the symbol of the Defiant Dragons on the cover. 

“I found Nayuta’s journal!” 

[fullspectrum-cbd-oil]

Democrats Swap Virtual Campaign Events for Rallies in Coronavirus Crisis

Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden on Wednesday canceled political rallies in Florida and Illinois due to concerns about the coronavirus pandemic and replaced them with what his campaign called “virtual events” in the two states.

Biden and his rival U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont are re-thinking their approach to campaigns amid widespread warnings from public health officials about packed crowds and handshaking involved in politicking. Both called off primary election-night rallies in Ohio on Tuesday.

Biden’s virtual events will be held in the lead-up to the next round of primaries to decide who should get the Democratic nomination to take on Republican President Donald Trump in November. The two states will vote on Tuesday along with Ohio and Arizona.

Late Wednesday, Trump also canceled two campaign events, including a fundraiser in Denver scheduled for Thursday.

“Out of an abundance of caution from the coronavirus outbreak, the President has decided to cancel his upcoming events in Colorado and Nevada,” Trump spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said in a statement.

Until Wednesday, Trump had sought to play down the extent of the coronavirus threat and has held several rallies in recent weeks aimed at stealing the spotlight from the Democrats.

On Tuesday his campaign said he would hold a “Catholics for Trump” event in Milwaukee on March 19.

In a somber address to the nation on Wednesday night, he however acknowledged the pandemic threat but expressed confidence the U.S. public health system could handle it.

Biden, a moderate who has emerged as the race’s clear front-runner, and Sanders, a democratic socialist, have both criticized the Trump administration over its response to the outbreak.

“This is a matter, this whole coronavirus – is a matter of presidential leadership,” Biden said in Philadelphia on Tuesday night after decisively winning four of the six states that voted.

Biden said he would deliver an address on the U.S. response to the virus in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, on Thursday.

COVID-19, the disease caused by the highly contagious virus, is a sometimes fatal respiratory illness. The number of coronavirus cases has risen steadily in the United States and currently exceeds 1,000, with 32 deaths, according to a Reuters tally.

Earlier on Wednesday, Biden’s campaign said it had created a committee of mostly doctors who could give advice on how to keep the candidate, his staff and voters safe.

Sanders’ campaign has said it will address plans on a day-to-day basis.

Trump campaign officials did not respond to requests for comment about how the coronavirus outbreak would influence event plans. Vice President Mike Pence on Tuesday told reporters decisions about events would be made “literally on a day-by-day basis.”

State officials have told constituents to consider voting early if they are worried.

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Wednesday urged voters to participate, but try to avoid crowds.

“People should think about trying to vote at a time when there is a smaller crowd,” DeWine said, suggesting that many polling places are less crowded in mid-afternoon. Voters also still have time to cast their ballots by mail, he said.

Arizona officials reminded voters of a Wednesday deadline to vote by mail.

Separately, organizers on Wednesday called off a March 27 rally in Detroit that was to be hosted by former first lady Michelle Obama. The rally, aimed at boosting election turnout in November, was canceled “out of an abundance of caution” given the spread of the coronavirus, organizers said.

The outbreak has infected more than 121,000 people and killed more than 4,380 worldwide. It has pounded financial markets, forced school closures and prompted organizers to cancel concerts, conferences and sporting events.

The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law has urged state election officials to ensure that virus concerns did not interfere with upcoming votes.

“States must not wait a moment longer to take real steps to address the impact of the coronavirus on the 2020 election season,” the organization said in a statement.

The Democratic National Committee said the next presidential debate, scheduled for Sunday in Phoenix, would not have an in-person audience because of the health concerns.

(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt in Philadelphia, Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento, and Amanda Becker, Doina Chiacu, Chris Kahn, Steve Holland and Jason Lange in Washington; Editing by Scott Malone, Jonathan Oatis, Sonya Hepinstall and Himani Sarkar)

from IJR https://ift.tt/2Q9fliS via IFTTT

[bountyofbeads]

Republicans ready to look past Trump’s brash intervention in Roger Stone case

By Mike DeBonis | Published February 12 at 6:23 PM EST | Washington Post |

Posted February 12, 2020 |

Congressional Republicans showed little sign Wednesday that they would move to check President Trump’s brash public intervention in the federal prosecution of a former campaign confidant, leaving Democrats largely alone to fume about the evaporation of another norm of American governance.

Trump this week publicly decried a Justice Department sentencing recommendation for political operative Roger Stone, then congratulated Attorney General William P. Barr in an early-morning tweet Wednesday for “taking charge” and overruling it — creating at least the appearance that the long-standing taboo against overt political influence on prosecutorial matters had been obliterated.

But what ensued on Capitol Hill on Wednesday appeared to be less of a break-the-glass moment of crisis and more of a recurring episode in a three-year-old soap opera: While Democrats were aghast, members of the president’s party either expressed mild dismay or excused Trump’s tampering entirely.

“It doesn’t bother me at all, as long as the judge has the final decision,” said Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), a former Senate Judiciary Committee chairman who sharply criticized the administration of President Barack Obama for alleged politicization of the Justice Department.

He added about the president’s tweet: “I think a president’s got freedom of speech just like everybody else has.”

Democrats cast the lack of pushback as further evidence that Trump feels emboldened, unchecked and unleashed after his Senate acquittal on two impeachment charges — abuse of power and obstruction of Congress — at his trial, which ended last week.

Besides the president’s public statements on the Stone case, Democrats pointed to his dismissal of subordinates who testified in the House impeachment probe and his decision to withdraw one executive nomination this week — that of a former U.S. attorney who had overseen the Stone case at an earlier stage — and the possible abandonment of a Defense Department nominee who had questioned a White House hold on military aid to Ukraine.

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) seized on the demise of the nomination of Jessie K. Liu to serve as undersecretary of the Treasury Department for terrorism and financial crimes as proof that Trump is “on a retribution tour.”

“I mean, it’s just one thing after another,” said Brown, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, where Liu was set to testify Thursday at her confirmation hearing. “The president clearly feels he’s unleashed. And [Republicans] all said he learned his lesson — the lesson he learned is he can get away with whatever he wants.”

Asked what lessons he learned from impeachment, Trump said Wednesday, “That the Democrats are crooked. They got a lot of crooked things going. That they’re vicious.”

Tempering the Democratic outrage has been the reality of their tenuous political position: In the Senate minority, they have no direct power to call hearings or force action by the Republican majority. The Democratic House majority, meanwhile, has been chastened by the failed impeachment effort and a desire among party leaders to turn a page from Trump investigations and toward an economic policy message as Election Day draws closer.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday that Barr would make his first appearance as Trump’s attorney general before the panel on March 31. Nadler told Barr in a letter that the recent tumult has raised “grave questions about your leadership of the Department of Justice.”

Nadler indicated that the panel would inquire about the handling of the Stone case and other prosecutions related to Trump, as well as Barr’s decision to evaluate material that Rudolph W. Giuliani, President Trump’s personal attorney, had gathered from Ukrainian sources claiming to have damaging information about former vice president Joe Biden and his family.

The seven-week delay in getting answers vexed many Democrats, who cast Trump’s intervention in Stone’s sentencing as a matter of grave constitutional concern.

“Seven weeks would not be an inordinate delay in normal times,” said Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.), a Judiciary Committee member. “This is Trump time we’re dealing with, and so that is multiple felonies and high crimes and misdemeanors from now.”

Nadler declined to comment about the timing of the hearing.

Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday chose stronger words, calling the overt intervention in the Stone case “one of the most horrible things President Trump has done” and “Third World behavior, not American behavior.”

The decision to overrule the initial sentencing recommendation prompted four career prosecutors to withdraw from the case Tuesday.

Schumer’s call for emergency oversight hearings putting Barr and other Justice Department officials under oath was quickly dismissed by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), who said Wednesday that after a conversation with Barr, he was “very confident” that the department has acted properly. Graham also gently rapped Trump for speaking publicly about the case.

“These people were way out of bounds in my view,” he said of the front-line prosecutors, who recommended a sentence as long as nine years for Stone after his conviction for lying to Congress and tampering with a witness. “You’re not gonna go to seven to nine years on a 70-year-old guy when the alleged victim said they didn’t feel threatened. That’s just revenge. That’s sour grapes. But having said that, the president shouldn’t have said anything.”

The GOP reaction this week was markedly different from when, in 2016, then-Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch met privately with former president Bill Clinton on a plane at the Phoenix airport while federal investigators moved to close the case on Hillary Clinton as she moved toward the Democratic presidential nomination.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) at the time called for a special prosecutor to take over the Clinton case. On Wednesday, he fully defended the decision to overrule the front-line prosecutors’ sentencing decision.

“I think the world is sort of turned on its head where subordinates somehow dictate policy,” he said. “In this case, the judge is going to make the decision, not anybody else.”

Asked about Trump’s tweets and the Clinton-Lynch uproar, he said, “The president has First Amendment rights, too.”

Top Republican leaders offered little pushback. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) declined to comment on the Stone case at his weekly media availability Tuesday, while Senate Majority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) offered only faint criticism Wednesday: “I’m not a lawyer, but strikes me at least that you want to let the legal process move forward the way it’s intended to.”

Other members of the Senate Judiciary Committee were similarly reluctant to comment Wednesday on a matter squarely inside the panel’s oversight portfolio.

“I want to get the information on it before I give you a comment,” said Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.).

“I don’t know the facts of the case; I haven’t been following it,” said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.).

“I think the tweet was problematic and gave the appearance that the president was more involved than he actually was,” said Sen. John Neely Kennedy (R-La.).

Meanwhile, the Republican senators who have been more willing to criticize Trump did not go much further.

“I don’t think the president should be determining what the sentences are,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), while Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said Trump “should not have gotten involved,” and Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said, “Politics should not play a part in law enforcement,” without directly criticizing the president.

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Karoun Demirjian contributed to this report.

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TRUMP TAKES ON JUDGE AMY BERMAN JACKSON AHEAD OF ROGER STONE’S SENTENCING

By Ann E. Marimow | Published Feb 12 at 6:22 PM EST | Washington Post | Posted February 12, 2020 |

First he went after the prosecutors who recommended a multiyear sentence for his friend Roger Stone. Then President Trump turned his Twitter ire to the “witch hunt disgrace” of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation, which led to Stone’s indictment. But perhaps most surprising was Trump’s decision to target U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson — who will determine Stone’s fate when he appears in her courtroom next Thursday.

It was not the first time Trump had gone after a federal judge or questioned the judiciary, but Tuesday’s attack was nevertheless vexing to current and former judges as Jackson prepares to decide whether to send the president’s friend to prison — and for how long.

“The timing is outrageous, and the notion that you’re attempting to influence a judge,” retired federal judge Nancy Gertner said.

“He’s trying to delegitimize anyone appointed by someone other than him and say that the only people who can be trusted are Trump judges,” she said.

The targeting of Jackson, who has presided over a set of cases involving Trump associates in the past year, is the latest in a drumbeat of disparagement from the president when he disagrees with rulings. After Trump criticized a district court judge who ruled against the administration in 2018, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. took the rare step of responding and countering the president’s characterization of the judge as an “Obama judge.” Roberts, a nominee of President George W. Bush’s, has himself been the target of the president’s ire. Trump labeled him an “absolute disaster” for his vote in 2012 to uphold the Affordable Care Act.

Other presidents have expressed dismay at court decisions, as President Obama did during his 2010 State of the Union address after the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. FEC opened the door for corporations and unions to spend freely in elections. But Trump’s criticism comes as Stone’s sentencing is pending and the president is being lobbied to pardon his friend. Michael Caputo, a former campaign adviser to Trump, on Wednesday announced a committee to raise money for Stone’s appeal alongside a petition drive for him to be pardoned.

“Roger Stone stood up for Donald Trump. Now America should stand up for Roger Stone. Please take just a few seconds to help by signing the petition to pardon Roger Stone!” says the committee’s website.

When asked Wednesday by reporters whether he was considering a pardon for Stone, Trump said, “I don’t want to say that yet.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

[Who is Judge Amy Berman Jackson? ]

Stone’s sentencing by Jackson is scheduled for Feb. 20. A jury convicted Stone in November on charges of witness tampering and lying to Congress about his efforts to gather damaging information about Trump’s 2016 presidential election opponent Hillary Clinton. Stone’s defense has asked for a sentence of probation, citing his age, 67, and lack of criminal history.

On Tuesday, Trump criticized as unduly harsh the initial sentencing recommendation of seven to nine years made by front-line prosecutors. Shortly thereafter, the Justice Department signaled that it would seek a more lenient sentence for Stone, a move that prompted all four career prosecutors to withdraw from the case — and one to resign from the government.

Hours later, Trump targeted Jackson for her treatment of another ally of his, Paul Manafort, his former campaign chairman, and suggested that the judge had been soft on Hillary Clinton.

“Is this the judge that put Paul Manfort in SOLITARY CONFINEMENT, something that not even mobster Al Capone had to endure? How did she treat Crooked Hillary Clinton? Just asking!” the president wrote, sharing a tweet that named Jackson as the judge who sentenced Manafort.

Just one day before Trump voiced his displeasure with Jackson, the judge issued a ruling favorable to the administration. She threw out a lawsuit filed by historians and watchdog groups seeking to compel the White House to preserve records of the president’s calls and meetings with foreign leaders.

Jackson, 65, has played a central role in cases involving Trump associates and Mueller’s Russia investigation. She sentenced Trump’s former deputy campaign chairman, Rick Gates, in December. She presided over the trial of Gregory B. Craig, a Democratic former White House counsel who was charged in a spinoff from the Mueller probe and was acquitted in September.

Before adding 3½ years to the almost four years Manafort received after his trial in Alexandria, Jackson said, “This defendant is not public enemy number one, but he’s also not a victim either. There’s no question this defendant knew better, and he knew exactly what he was doing.”

She did not as a judge, however, have any authority over the conditions of Manafort’s confinement, as the president suggested in his tweet.

Jackson, a 2011 nominee of Obama’s, was born in Baltimore, the daughter of a U.S. Army-trained physician. A graduate of Harvard University and its law school, Jackson spent time both as a federal prosecutor in Washington and as a white-collar defense lawyer. With lawyer Robert P. Trout, she represented former Louisiana congressman William J. Jefferson on corruption charges after a search turned up $90,000 in cash stashed in the Democrat’s freezer.

Jackson, through a court spokeswoman, declined to comment.

Her current and former colleagues say she is unquestionably independent and will not be pressured by Trump’s tactics, even if she would prefer not to be the subject of his attacks.

“I have no doubt that she will not be deterred, pressured or intimidated by the unwarranted and inappropriate remarks of the president or anyone else for that matter,” said a colleague, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman, another colleague of Jackson’s on the court in Washington, recently warned of the consequences of similar attacks from the president. Trump, Friedman said in a speech, “seems to view the courts and the justice system as obstacles to be attacked and undermined, not as a coequal branch to be respected even when he disagrees with its decisions.”

Jackson has already tangled with Stone. Last February, a photo of the judge on Stone’s Instagram account seemed to violate a gag order she had imposed on him because of concerns about pretrial publicity. The image appeared to show a gun sight’s crosshairs next to a photo of Jackson’s face. Stone said he wasn’t sure who posted the image, but he said he viewed it as a Celtic cross. He apologized for it.

Paul G. Cassell, a former federal judge in Utah, called the personal nature of the president’s attacks “highly unusual and an extraordinary departure from the way things are ordinarily handled.”

But, he said, the nation’s system of government insulates judges from political pressure because they are appointed for life. While most judges would prefer not to be the target of attacks on social media, including from the president, he said, the independence of the judiciary provides protection from repercussions.

“Judge Jackson will simply move forward and decide the case,” said Cassell, now a law professor at the University of Utah, “and ignore the surrounding atmospherics from the president and the others who are responding to him.”

______

Spencer S. Hsu and Allyson Chiu contributed to this report

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Barr faces fresh scrutiny over Stone sentencing controversy

By Matt Zapotosky and Devlin Barrett | Published February 12 at 6:43 PM EST | Washington Post | Posted Feb 12, 2020

President Trump on Wednesday put Attorney General William P. Barr squarely in the middle of the brewing controversy over the Justice Department’s sentencing recommendation for Trump’s longtime friend Roger Stone, praising Barr for seizing command of the case from career prosecutors.

The president’s Twitter message came just a day after the Justice Department was again thrust into a political firestorm, when the four prosecutors on the Stone case withdrew from the proceedings amid a dispute over what penalty they should propose for the president’s close associate.

Legal analysts and others said the episode represented a low moment for the agency, suggesting that its Trump-appointed leaders were bending to the president’s political whims and trying to undermine the last prosecution brought by former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III as part of his investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Trump, though, made clear he was pleased with the department’s moves — and with Barr, in particular.

“Congratulations to Attorney General Bill Barr for taking charge of a case that was totally out of control and perhaps should not have even been brought,” Trump wrote. “Evidence now clearly shows that the Mueller Scam was improperly brought & tainted.”

A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment on the president’s statements.

Some current and former Justice Department officials have long feared that Barr is willing to risk the institution’s historic independence to serve an irascible president. The top Democrat in the Senate called for the Justice Department inspector general to investigate the Stone episode, and the House Judiciary Committee announced Wednesday it would have Barr testify March 31 to address that case and other recent incidents that it said “raise grave questions” about Barr’s leadership.

Among those is Barr’s recent acknowledgment that he had created what he called an “intake process” for Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani to give the Justice Department what Giuliani has claimed is damaging information about former vice president Joe Biden and his family.

Two people familiar with the matter said Barr has instructed the U.S. attorney’s office in Pittsburgh to handle such information. Giuliani’s claims are particularly problematic for the Justice Department because he is the president’s lawyer, and under investigation by federal prosecutors in New York for his business ties to two men accused of breaking campaign finance laws.

Barr also has faced criticism for his handling of the Mueller probe — particularly those cases, including the prosecution of Stone, that have continued after the closure of the special counsel’s office last year.

Stone was convicted by a jury in November of obstructing Congress and witness intimidation. Career prosecutors on the case — working out of the U.S. attorney’s office in the District — on Monday filed their recommendation on what penalty Stone should face when he is sentenced Feb. 20.

That recommendation, though, proved to be thornier than most, as the career prosecutors sparred with their supervisors over what was appropriate. The prosecutors argued the sentencing guidelines called for seven to nine years in prison. Political leadership at the Justice Department, though, pushed for something less, arguing Stone’s conduct did not merit a lengthy addition to his sentence for threatening violence.

On Monday, it seemed the career prosecutors had won out. All four signed on to a recommendation, also endorsed by interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia Timothy Shea, that recommended a sentence based on a guidelines calculation. The move enraged Trump, who tweeted early the next morning: “This is a horrible and very unfair situation. The real crimes were on the other side, as nothing happens to them. Cannot allow this miscarriage of justice!”

Hours later, a senior Justice Department official claimed department leadership was “shocked” at the recommendation and would move to undo it. All four career prosecutors moved to withdraw from the case, with one quitting the government entirely. The Justice Department then filed a new recommendation — signed by Shea and a different career prosecutor — that said the previous guidance “could be considered excessive and unwarranted under the circumstances.” It did not advocate for a specific penalty but suggested three to four years in prison would be reasonable.

Kerri Kupec, a Justice Department spokeswoman, said that the department had decided before Trump’s Tuesday tweet to revise the recommendation and that there were no discussions between the White House and Justice Department about the Stone case in the days leading up to the prosecutors’ guidance.

A Justice Department official said senior leaders at the agency had expected the first Stone filing to say what the second filing did.

Officials have not provided a clear timeline of the interactions between career prosecutors and department leadership, or fully explained how leadership could have been taken aback by the initial sentencing recommendation. Shea was a counselor in Barr’s office before he was named as interim U.S. attorney last month. Also involved in the discussions was David Metcalf, who had been a counselor in Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen’s office and now works for Shea.

A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment or address questions about Shea and Metcalf’s handling of the matter.

The Stone episode comes just weeks after the U.S. attorney’s office for the District also seemed to soften its stance on another case originally brought by Mueller against former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia’s former ambassador to the United States.

In early January, prosecutors recommended that Flynn be sentenced “within the Guidelines range” of zero to six months in prison. But in another filing just weeks later, they made clear they agreed with Flynn that a sentence of probation is “reasonable.”

Prosecutors did not explain in the later filing why they emphasized probation as a reasonable sentence for Flynn. Both documents were signed by career prosecutors — Brandon L. Van Grack and Jocelyn Ballantine. Flynn is now seeking to withdraw his guilty plea, alleging a variety of government misconduct.

______

Spencer S. Hsu and Ann E. Marimow contributed to this report.

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THE DEGRADATION OF WILLIAM BARR’S JUSTICE DEPARTMENT IS NEARLY COMPLETE

By Editorial Board | Published February 12 at 4:02 PM EST |Washington Post |

Posted February 12, 2020 |

MARK THIS as ANOTHER BIG STEP in the EROSION of STANDARDS at Attorney General William P. Barr’s Justice Department.

The department on Tuesday suggested a light sentence for President Trump’s old friend Roger Stone, by overturning a previously filed and tougher proposal. It did so over the strong objections of four career line prosecutors, all of whom resigned from the case; one left the department entirely. This extraordinary intervention played out publicly after Mr. Trump tweeted his displeasure over the initial recommendation that Mr. Stone spend seven to nine years in prison for obstructing Congress and witness tampering, which was in line with the department’s sentencing guidelines.

The Justice Department insists that the decision to reverse course came before the president’s tweet. But senior officials did not need a tweet to conclude that the president would react angrily to a tough sentence for his longtime crony, and to act in anticipation — or fear — of the president’s predictable reaction.

Meanwhile, the line prosecutors’ resignations provide strong evidence that the department’s reversal was unusual and unwarranted. Indeed, given the crimes of which Mr. Stone was convicted — and the fact that he was caught allegedly threatening a witness — it would have been unreasonable for prosecutors to seek the substantially lighter punishment that Justice now appears to favor.

Now the department has lost at least one career civil servant and yet more credibility. Mr. Barr had already, last year, manipulated the release of the Russia investigation’s findings, using his power over how it would be presented to the public to paint Mr. Trump in a positive light that the actual conclusions did not warrant. Now his department has intervened publicly to skew the punishment that one of the bad actors uncovered in that probe, Mr. Stone, will receive.

The most important role of the attorney general is to protect the department from improper political influence, including from the president. Mr. Barr should have ensured that Mr. Stone’s case was handled with strict professionalism, as the career prosecutors sought to do, and shielded them from White House pressure, direct or indirect. To all appearances, he did the opposite. Mr. Trump evidently thinks so: “Congratulations to Attorney General Bill Barr for taking charge of a case that was totally out of control and perhaps should not have even been brought,” he tweeted.

Senior Democrats are calling for a congressional inquiry. That is certainly warranted. What was the attorney general’s understanding of what the Stone sentencing recommendation was going to be? At what point did he form this understanding? With whom? To what extent was that understanding a reflection of Mr. Stone’s relationship with the president — or set in anticipation of the president’s likely reaction to a tough sentence? Why, after line prosecutors went a different route, was the decision deemed so egregious that it must be overturned, prompting obvious questions about the politicization of the Justice Department?

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) said there would be no special hearing on the matter. Given his newfound role as presidential enabler, that’s no surprise. But it’s not right, either.

Meanwhile, Mr. Barr should reflect on how, under his watch, the department he has served for so long has become so tarnished.

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THIS IS A REVOLTING ASSAULT ON THE FRAGILE RULE OF LAW

By Chuck Rosenberg | Published Feb 12 at 2:30 PM EST | Washington Post |

Posted February 12, 2020 |

***Chuck Rosenberg is a former U.S. attorney, senior FBI official and acting head of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Something extraordinary and deeply troubling happened at — and to — the Justice Department this week. Four federal prosecutors properly, and as a matter of conscience, withdrew from the Roger Stone case. They had shepherded that case through the criminal-justice system but in an alarming development were ordered to disavow a sentencing recommendation they filed with the federal judge overseeing the matter.

Their original recommendation — asking the judge to sentence Stone within the range set by the U.S. Federal Sentencing Guidelines for the offenses for which Stone was convicted at trial — was a perfectly ordinary filing. It is the type of pleading filed in federal courts by federal prosecutors every day. Certainly, when a defendant is convicted at trial, it is routine for prosecutors to suggest to the judge that he be sentenced within a prescribed range — the result of a cumbersome sentencing guidelines calculation that is often debated between the parties and adjudicated by the court.

Of course, the filing was just a recommendation to the judge, who has ample authority to sentence Stone within that range — or above it or below it — as she determines. Prosecutors do not sentence defendants; judges do. So how did something so ordinary become so extraordinary?

First, some background. The Justice Department that I know and love — and in which I worked for two decades in many roles — must always be two things to the public it serves: fair and perceived as fair. These are related but distinct concepts. Our work must be fair — that is, we must have fair outcomes as a matter of practice and principle. Anything less is unacceptable, which is one reason, for instance, we turned over exculpatory evidence (a constitutional obligation) and why we publicly fronted our mistakes when we made them.

But our work must also be perceived as fair. Fair outcomes are not worth much if the public does not perceive those outcomes as fair. One way, among many, we ensure that is to assiduously avoid politics in our work. When I was a career federal prosecutor in Virginia, my colleagues and I simply did not talk about politics. I did not know then, and I largely do not know now, how my colleagues (including the federal agents with whom we worked) voted or even if they voted. It simply did not matter to our work. Folks did not talk about it. It was irrelevant to our work. We knew that unwritten rule. Whatever our view, we kept it to ourselves, because it had no place in our world and because letting it seep in would corrode our work. We worked free of political interference or influence. Always.

Until now, apparently. What happened? Following the routine filing by the career prosecutors — in line with the sentencing guidelines applicable to the Stone case — the president inexplicably tweeted that the sentence Stone faced was a “miscarriage” of justice, calling it a “horrible and very unfair situation.”

And then — and this is the part that is so disturbing — the prosecutors were ordered, either because of the president’s tweet or irrespective of it (and both scenarios are awful), to rescind their original recommendation and to ask the judge that Stone receive more lenient treatment at his sentencing. What the prosecutors were ordered to do was dangerous and unsettling and undermined everything they — and we — stood for as Justice Department professionals. They properly refused.

We all understand that the leadership at the top of the department is politically appointed, and we make peace with that (in addition to my work as a career federal prosecutor, I served in political positions under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama in the Justice Department and worked for thoughtful appointed leaders of both parties), but being asked by that leadership to allow politics to corrode our work is not remotely normal or permissible. And it is treacherous.

The rule of law is a construct. It was made by people — and is nurtured and preserved by people. It can also be destroyed by people. And unlike the law of gravity, which works everywhere and all the time (at least on this planet), the rule of law is precious and fragile. As citizens and prosecutors, we either safeguard it or we surrender it. That’s the choice. What political leadership did here — mandating a favor for a friend of the president in line with the president’s publicly expressed desire in the case — significantly damages the rule of law and the perception of Justice Department fairness.

Principled resignations by career federal prosecutors highlighted this dangerous stunt. I am proud of them for that.

But I find it revolting that they were pushed into that corner (one resigned his job; three others resigned from the case) and saddened by their sacrifice. This is not normal and it is not right,and it is dangerous territory for the rule of law.

SAFEGUARD or SURRENDER. YOU CHOOSE.

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Venezuela’s opposition says Guaidó’s uncle was detained, holds Maduro responsible

By Mariana Zuñiga & Anthony Fabiola| Published February 12 at 7:21 PM EST | Washington Post | Posted Feb 12, 2020

CARACAS, Venezuela — Opposition officials on Wednesday condemned the disappearance and apparent detention of Juan Guaidó's uncle after the opposition leader returned home this week from a global tour to build support for his effort to oust President Nicolás Maduro.

Guaidó’s uncle, Juan José Márquez, traveled with him on a flight from Lisbon that landed at Simón Bolívar International Airport in Maiquetía shortly after 4:30 p.m. Tuesday. Senior opposition officials said Guaidó last saw Márquez just before he crossed into an arrivals hall, where Guaidó’s supporters clashed with Maduro’s backers, who hurled insults at the opposition leader and appeared to manhandle him as he tried to make his way to a waiting car.

Márquez does not hold an official position in the opposition leadership.

“I hold you responsible, usurper Nicolás Maduro, and each one of your minions in Maiquetía for what happens to Juan José Márquez, an honest and brave man who knows the value of this fight and whose only responsibility is to worry about his family,” Guaidó tweeted Wednesday.

Venezuela’s communications ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

Guaidó, the National Assembly president who is recognized as Venezuela’s rightful leader by the United States and more than 50 other nations, defied a travel ban to spend 3½ weeks in Europe and the United States lobbying for more international pressure to isolate Maduro and force him from office. The United Nations last year issued a report documenting the torture, arbitrary arrest and killing of government opponents and citizens under Maduro.

Before Guaidó’s return Tuesday, the Trump administration warned Maduro not to harm or detain the leader. The opposition’s U.S. backers quickly decried his uncle’s disappearance.

“Kidnapping interim president @JGuaido’s relatives only demonstrates that the dictatorship is weak and desperate,” tweeted Michael G. Kozak, the acting assistant secretary of state for western hemisphere affairs. “We demand the immediate release of Juan José Márquez unharmed. #Democracy cannot be intimidated, this must stop!”

Romina Botaro, Márquez’s wife, said her husband called her while being held at customs. She said he was wearing a protective vest that he was told he needed to declare.

That was the last she heard from him, she told reporters at a news conference Wednesday. When Márquez’s lawyers went to the airport late Tuesday, she said, they were told he had disappeared from the building.

Later, Botaro, speaking to reporters in Caracas, said that she had spoken to her husband again at 5 p.m. Wednesday and that he confirmed he was being detained at the headquarters of Military Counter-Intelligence in northern Caracas. He additionally told her that he was due to be arraigned in court, she said.

On Wednesday, opposition lawmaker Delsa Solórzano tweeted, “They inform us that they are transferring Juan Márquez, uncle of the President @jguaido, to court.” Opposition officials said they could not immediately confirm that Márquez had turned up in custody. But they denounced what they said was an attempt by “the Maduro dictatorship” to give him a public defender.

“Juan José Márquez . . . has a private [attorney],” Guaidó’s press team tweeted. The Washington Post could not immediately reach attorney Joel García.

Botaro said Márquez, an airline pilot, had nothing to do with politics.

“Like any protective uncle, he only wanted to escort his nephew and protect his safety,” she said.

Guaidó said Maduro had targeted his family.

“Threats have not stopped us or will stop us,” he said.

The opposition denounced the arrest of the organizers of Guaidó’s homecoming rally Tuesday evening. Several hundred supporters gathered in eastern Caracas to hear the opposition leader speak. Opposition officials said the drivers of three buses that carried lawmakers to the airport to greet Guaidó were stopped and detained.

Deyalitza Aray, an opposition lawmaker, was held but later released.

“It was an illegal detention, without any sense,” she told reporters Tuesday in Caracas. “This is a dramatic situation because it demonstrates how the regime acts against citizens and the congress.”

The country’s national press union said at least six journalists covering Guaidó’s return were attacked and robbed. Some of them were bitten and punched, the union said.

Maduro’s government has sought to penalize Guaidó’s supporters in recent months. Government forces closed down the hotel and seized the cars he used during at least one campaign stop. Pollster and political analyst Luis Vicente Leon said it was clear Maduro was sending “a message.”

“Politicians, deputies, assistants, many people have been arrested and intimidated,” he said. “And not only people, but places have also been closed down. This is a very clear strategy that tries to encircle anything that supports Guaidó.”

Maduro’s message, he said, is that Guaidó’s “fight is expensive, and his uncle is a perfect way to send this message.”

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BACKGROUND INFORMATION BELOW:

Trump withdraws Treasury nomination of former U.S. attorney for D.C. Jessie K. Liu after criticism of her oversight of Mueller prosecutions

By Spencer S. Hsu, Josh Dawsey and Devlin Barrett | Published February 11 at 11:41 PM EST | Washington Post |

Posted February 12, 2020 |

President Trump on Tuesday withdrew the nomination of former U.S. attorney Jessie K. Liu of the District of Columbia to a high-ranking Treasury Department post after being lobbied by critics of her office’s handling of cases, including ones inherited from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, two people familiar with the decision said.

Liu, 47, served more than two years in the politically sensitive post of top federal prosecutor in the nation’s capital and was Trump’s firstnominee to the position, serving from September 2017 until Jan. 31.

In the job, Liu oversaw late-stage courtproceedings for top Trump aides and Mueller defendants, including Trump’s 2016 deputy campaign chairman Rick Gates and former national security adviser Michael Flynn, as well as the November trial and conviction of longtime Trump political adviser Roger Stone.

However, over the past two weeks, coinciding with Liu’s departure, the U.S. attorney’s office has changed its sentencing stances in both Flynn and Stone’s cases, with prosecutors moving from stiffer sentencing recommendations to more lenient ones.

Emerging accounts of the circumstances surrounding Liu’s departure from the administration cast those decisions in a new light.

The White House’s move to drop Liu was disclosed Tuesday after all four career U.S. prosecutors handling the case against Stone withdrew from the legal proceedings when the Justice Department undercut their sentencing recommendation for Trump’s longtime friend and confidant. Prosecutors on Monday said Stone should serve 7 to 9 years in prison.

Trump has been lobbied extensively against Liu by people who do not like her handling of the D.C. office — particularly as it relates to the Mueller probe, an administration official said. The decision to withdraw the nomination was made Tuesday afternoon, the official said.

A second administration official confirmed Liu was notified at that time.

A third person familiar with the situation — who like the others spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly— said Liu’s nomination was opposed vocally by Barbara Ledeen, a conservative operative and Republican Senate staffer unhappy about Flynn’s prosecution for lying to the FBI.

Ledeen’s husband co-wrote a book with Flynn and she was named in the Mueller report as a person Flynn contacted during Trump’s 2016 campaign to obtain Democratic rival Hillary Clinton’s private emails.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the situation, the person said Ledeen had made little headway before the recent storm over Stone’s sentencing, calling it a turning point. Treasury officials believe Trump himself made the call to withdraw Liu because her confirmation hearing before the Senate Banking Committee was set for Thursday, and Trump was concerned she would be asked about the case, the person said.

Liu had no role in Stone’s sentencing recommendation, having left office before it was sent to supervisors for approval, several people said.

Ledeen, a Senate Judiciary Committee staffer since 2000, said in an interview: “I’m a Senate staffer. I can’t lobby either the Senate or the White House. I’m kind of amazed my name came up in this.” She added, “Somebody likes to throw around my name.”

Liu did not respond to requests for comment.

Trump’s reversal was striking because Liu, who had served on his presidential transition team and was a Treasury appointee early in his term, was personally vetted by then-White House counsel Donald McGahn, and met with Trump in the White House before he first named her U.S. attorney.

Late last year, the White House announced plans to promote her, saying on Dec. 10 that Trump intended to nominate her to undersecretary of the Treasury Department for terrorism and financial crimes, to lead the administration’s use of economic sanctions as a national security and foreign policy tool.

Liu’s nomination was sent to the Senate on Jan. 6, and she told the U.S. attorney’s office of plans to leave at the end of the month, people in the office said. Liu’s departure at that time was seen as somewhat unusual because she had not yet received Senate confirmation for her new job before being replaced on an interim basis by Timothy Shea, a former counselor to Attorney General William P. Barr.

That same period saw a shift by Flynn’s prosecutors. On Jan. 6, prosecutors recommended that Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S., be sentenced to zero to six months in prison, emphasizing that defendants in similar cases served time behind bars. But in a follow-up filing Jan. 29, they made clear they agreed with Flynn “that a sentence of probation is a reasonable sentence” for him, citing cases where defendants were spared incarceration.

The filing came as Flynn continues his effort to withdraw his guilty plea, alleging government misconduct. Prosecutors did not explain in their filing the reason for the shift.

______

Keith L. Alexander contributed to this report.

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Attorney General William P. Barr names Timothy Shea, one of his counselors, as the District’s interim U.S. Attorney

By Keith L. Alexander, Spencer S. Hsu and Matt Zapotosky | Published Jan. 30, 2020 at 3:13 p.m. EST |Washington Post | Posted February 12, 2020 |

Attorney General William P. Barr on Thursday named former federal prosecutor Timothy Shea as the District’s interim U.S. attorney.

Shea, 59, currently serves as a counselor to Barr at the Justice Department. He will oversee the nation’s largest U.S. attorney’s office with 300 prosecutors.

The announcement comes just a day before Jessie K. Liu, the city’s current U.S. attorney, leaves office on Friday.

Liu, 47, has served in the post for a little over two years. President Trump on Jan. 6 nominated her to become the Treasury Department’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial crimes, and her nomination is pending before the Senate Banking Committee.

The U.S. attorney’s office in the District is unique in that it handles both local and federal cases, from violent crimes in the city to high-level national security and public corruption prosecutions.

Prosecutors there have taken to trial former Trump confidant Roger Stone and former Obama White House counsel Gregory Craig, and have taken over cases involving former Trump deputy campaign manager Rick Gates and former national security adviser Michael Flynn. They are managing a grand jury investigation into former acting FBI director Andrew McCabe, who is accused of misleading federal investigators about a media disclosure, and are handling a leak case in which they have focused at least some of their questioning on former FBI director James B. Comey. Comey and McCabe have been outspoken critics of Trump, and the D.C. U.S. attorney’s office has faced criticism that it is unfairly targeting the president’s political rivals.

In a statement, Barr described Shea’s reputation as “a fair prosecutor, skillful litigator, and excellent manager is second-to-none, and his commitment to fighting violent crime and the drug epidemic will greatly benefit the city of Washington.”

Shea has served in a variety of roles in federal and state government, including as a prosecutor in federal court in Virginia. Trump ultimately must nominate, and the Senate must confirm, a candidate to fill the U.S. attorney job.

Liu, who worked as a line prosecutor in the office decades before returning as its chief in 2017, declined to comment on her tenure or her plans. She also will require Senate confirmation for the Treasury role.

Her departure has been a source of concern from some who say the city needs a long-term top prosecutor to put in place strategies to curb crime and ensure convictions amid a rising number of homicides.

“It’s very disturbing to me there is turnover this quickly,” D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) said. “It’s not good for public safety not to have that stability.”

Mendelson praised Liu for working with city leaders and residents but added he was concerned that her successor may not share the same ideas of what is of importance for the District.

While overseeing federal cases, Liu also turned her attention to crime issues in the city. In early 2019, her office began taking more gun cases to federal court as part of a crackdown on repeat violent offenders and felons found illegally possessing firearms. District leaders had pushed to take these cases away from D.C. Superior Court believing sentences were often inconsistent or too lenient.

D.C. Police Chief Peter ­Newsham described Liu as a “really good partner” to the department, but echoed Mendelson about his concerns of a new U.S. attorney taking over as law enforcement work to identifying new approaches to reduce violence. “There is something to be said for consistency,” Newsham said. “Unfortunately, we’re going to have to start all over again with a new leader.”

On Thursday evening, D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) said Shea had contacted city officials, and they plan to meet in the coming days. Bowser said she hopes Shea will keep some of the initiatives that Liu put in place, including pursuing gun cases in federal court. “He is already on board,” Bowser said. “We want to make sure he recognizes the context of how the U.S. attorney’s offices and annexes work together for a stronger D.C.”

Liu oversaw myriad high-profile cases. It was her call last year to dismiss charges against 188 defendants who were charged with rioting during Trump’s 2017 inauguration. Nearly two dozen defendants pleaded guilty; prosecutors were unable to secure convictions at trial in other cases.

Liu’s office last year also petitioned a federal court judge to seek the early prison release for 1980s D.C. drug kingpin Rayful Edmond III after he spent decades cooperating with authorities.

Liu became most visible in the community when she clashed with some city council members over a proposed amendment to a D.C. law that would grant additional inmates convicted of serious crimes a chance at early release.

That law, the Incarceration Reduction Amendment Act, allows people who committed crimes as juveniles a chance to petition for release after serving 15 years in prison. The proposed amendment, sponsored by D.C. Council member Charles Allen (D-Ward 6), would expand the group of eligible inmates to include those who were as old as 24 when they offended, as opposed to age 17.

The amendment was originally planned for a council vote last fall. Allen spokesman Erik Salmi said the measure was “not dead,” but no date for a vote has been determined.

Liu came under criticism for the handling of hate-crime prosecutions, with community leaders saying her office failed to aggressively prosecute such cases and pursue enhanced penalties when authorities said they believed the victim was targeted because of race, sexual orientation or religion.

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D. C.) said she repeatedly tried to convince Liu to address a rise in hate-crime arrests in the city, but prosecutions were stagnant.

Norton, who has represented the nation’s capital since 1991, described Liu being “at the bottom of the list” in terms of quality among the U.S. attorneys with whom she has worked.

“As she moves on, it seems clear she never wanted this position in the first place and appeared to be using this job to move onto to where she is moving to now within the administration.”

Liu previously was nominated by Trump for the No. 3 position in the Justice Department, but she withdrew from consideration in March after Republican senators raised concerns about her past membership in a lawyers group that supported abortion rights.

Karl A. Racine, the District’s first elected attorney general, said he disagreed with some of Liu’s decisions such as moving more firearm crimes to federal court. But they had common ground on other issues.

When he expressed concern over an increase in fraud cases involving elderly victims, Racine said, Liu allowed one of his local prosecutors to team with her office on such investigations.

“I had an enthusiastic partner in Jessie,” Racine said.

_______

Peter Hermann and Eddy Palanzo contributed to this report.

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[marilynngmesalo]

LIVE: Christine Blasey Ford testifies about alleged sex assault by Brett Kavanaugh

LIVE: Christine Blasey Ford testifies about alleged sex assault by Brett Kavanaugh https://ift.tt/eA8V8J LIVE: Christine Blasey Ford testifies about alleged sex assault by Brett Kavanaugh

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee braced for a history-making clash as Brett Kavanaugh and one of his accusers awaited their chance to testify Thursday about her claim that the Supreme Court nominee sexually attacked her when both were teenagers.

The embattled appeals court judge emphatically rejected that allegation from Christine Blasey Ford as well as accusations from other women as Republican leaders struggled to keep support for his elevation to the high court from eroding.

The committee of 11 Republicans, all men, and 10 Democrats was to hear from just two witnesses on Thursday: Kavanaugh, a federal appeals court judge who has long been eyed for the Supreme Court, and Christine Blasey Ford, a California psychology professor who accuses him of attempting to rape her when they were teens.

Early Thursday, all was eerily quiet outside the hearing room in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, across the street from the Capitol. Photographers and a contingent of Capitol Hill Police officers waited in the hallway, and access to corridors near the room was restricted. There were no signs of the modest number of public spectators who will be allowed inside.

Republicans have derided Ford’s allegation as part of a smear campaign and a Democratic plot to sink Kavanaugh’s nomination. But after more allegations have emerged, some GOP senators have allowed that much is riding on Kavanaugh’s performance. Even President Donald Trump, who nominated Kavanaugh and fiercely defends him, said he was “open to changing my mind.”

“I want to watch, I want to see,” he said at a news conference Wednesday in New York.

Kavanaugh has repeatedly denied all the allegations, saying he’d never heard of the latest accuser and calling her accusations “ridiculous and from the Twilight Zone.”

The conservative jurist’s teetering grasp on winning confirmation was evident when Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, expressed concern, in a private meeting with senators Wednesday, about the third accuser, according to a person with knowledge of the gathering. Republicans control the Senate 51-49 and can lose only one vote for Kavanaugh to prevail if all Democrats vote “no.” Collins is among the few senators who’ve not made clear how they’d vote.

Collins walked into that meeting carrying a copy of Julie Swetnick’s signed declaration, which included new accusations of sexual misconduct against Kavanaugh and his high school friend Mark Judge.

Collins said senators should hear from Judge. After being told Judge has said he doesn’t want to appear before the committee, Collins reminded her colleagues that the Senate has subpoena power, according to a person who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The hearing was to be the first time the country sees and hears from the 51-year-old Ford beyond the grainy photo that has been flashed on television in the 10 days since she came forward with her contention. In testimony released beforehand, she said she was appearing only because she felt it was her duty, was frankly “terrified” and has been the target of vile harassment and even death threats.

“It is not my responsibility to determine whether Mr. Kavanaugh deserves to sit on the Supreme Court,” she was to tell the senators. “My responsibility is to tell the truth.”

Republicans are pushing to seat Kavanaugh before the November midterms, when Senate control could fall to the Democrats and a replacement Trump nominee could have even greater difficulty. Kavanaugh’s ascendance to the high court could help lock in a conservative majority for a generation, shaping dozens of rulings on abortion, regulation, the environment and more.

Republicans also risk rejection by female voters in November if they are seen as not fully respecting women and their allegations.

In a sworn statement, Swetnick said she witnessed Kavanaugh “consistently engage in excessive drinking and inappropriate contact of a sexual nature with women in the early 1980s.” Her attorney, Michael Avenatti, who also represents a porn actress who is suing Trump, provided her sworn declaration to the Judiciary panel.

Meanwhile, the lawyer for Deborah Ramirez, who says Kavanaugh exposed himself to her at a party when they attended Yale University, raised her profile in a round of television interviews.

Republicans largely expressed confidence in Kavanaugh, emerging from a closed-door lunch with Vice-President Mike Pence Wednesday to say the nominee remained on track for confirmation.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said all week that Republicans will turn to a committee vote on Kavanaugh after the hearing. They hope for a roll call by the full Senate early next week with the aim of getting him on the court as its new term begins.

Collins’ unease was not the only suggestions of creeping doubt among Republicans. Asked whether there were signs of Republicans wavering in their support of Kavanaugh in their lunch, Sen. John Thune, the third-ranking Republican, paused briefly before saying “no.”

In the hearing, Democrats planned to ask Kavanaugh if he’d be willing to undergo FBI questioning about the various claims — a request Republicans oppose — and press him about his drinking and behaviour as a teenager.

Questions for Ford were expected to be aimed at giving her a chance to explain herself.

Republicans have hired an outside attorney, Phoenix prosecutor Rachel Mitchell, to handle much of their questioning. Thus, they will avoid having their all-male contingent interrogating Ford about the details of what she describes as a harrowing assault.

Democratic questioners will include two senators widely seen as potential presidential candidates in 2020: Kamala Harris of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey, who aggressively challenged Kavanaugh during the judge’s earlier confirmation hearing.

Ford planned to tell the committee that, one night in the summer of 1982, a drunken Kavanaugh forced her down on a bed, “groped me and tried to take off my clothes,” then clamped his hand over her mouth when she tried to scream before she was able to escape.

“I believed he was going to rape me,” she will say, according to her prepared testimony.

Kavanaugh is being challenged on multiple fronts by his accusers, former classmates and college friends. They say the good-guy image he projects in public bears little relation to the hard-partying behaviour they witnessed when he was young.

In his prepared testimony, the 53-year-old appellate judge acknowledges drinking in high school with his friends, but says he’s never done anything “remotely resembling” what Ford describes. He said he has never had a “sexual or physical encounter of any kind” with her.

He also provided the committee with detailed calendar pages listing in green-and-white squares the activities that filled his summer of 1982 when he was 17 years old — exams, movies, sports and plenty of parties. That’s the year when Ford says she believes the assault occurred.

Nothing on the calendar appears to refer to her.

Ford released sworn statements from people who said she had told them about the assault in later years.

Late Wednesday, the committee released a flurry of other documents of unclear significance.

Transcripts of private interviews with committee investigators show they asked Kavanaugh about two previously undisclosed accusations received by Senate offices. One came in an anonymous letter sent to the office of Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., describing an incident in a bar in 1998, when Kavanaugh was working for the independent counsel investigating President Bill Clinton. The other accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct in college. Kavanaugh denied them both.

The committee also released a summary of its work that noted its staff had spoken to two different men who believe they “had the encounter” with Ford, rather than Kavanaugh. The committee notes do not detail what came of those conversations.

Activity on Capitol Hill is likely to grind to a halt during the proceedings, with lawmakers glued to their televisions during what is widely seen as a sequel to the politically explosive hearings of 1991 with Anita Hill, who accused now-Justice Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment. Thomas denied Hill’s accusation.

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