"The committee is just going along with whatever you propose. Why can't you admit that you are making the rules of evidence? Why do we need the rest of the panel?"
"The committee made the decision and can speak up if they do not agree." All of the women on the panel busily shuffled papers and Anuse beamed like a misplaced beacon. The silence of the panel told it all. Three cowered, two glowed. Henry was confident.
Well, thought Diana, we knew it would be a struggle. Turning to the material she and Al had prepared, she read into the record, once again, that she wanted an open hearing. That SHE had nothing to hide.
Continuing on, she brought out other legal points that Al felt needed to be in the record. "We have over and over again requested documents from the university and been denied them. You have provided me with nothing with which I can dispute your case. I am referring to some six hundred student SmurFFs that were referred to by your witnesses in the last hearing, over thirty times, yet never once were they given into evidence."
"What are you going on about?" Anuse feigned boredom.
"I am talking about the student SmurFFs that I requested at the last hearing. The charge was made that the 'suspect' SmurFFs were totally different from normal student SmurFFs and I need those for you to see that in reality, they are quite similar."
"I'm willing to believe the testimony that they exist and what they are represented to be. I don't need to see them in person." Nonchalantly, Anuse destroyed any illusion of committee impartiality with this remark. The committee's report to The Pope would remove any doubt that might linger.
Henry called a recess. It always seemed to work to break up the flow.