The Blacklist

Chapter 179 The trial begins
When Elizabeth was brought into the courtroom, she looked determined in her work suit, without a trace of fear on her face!

Two USSS agents stepped forward to take over the security mission at the door and nodded to Donald and Nawabi behind them. Their former colleague Katie had already greeted them and expressed friendliness to the SER people.

After what happened before, many people at the scene began to rethink the case. When they saw such a beautiful and capable female agent appear, some of Yan's supporters had already changed their minds!

The first step of the trial is for the prosecutor to read out the indictment against the defendant. The 21 jurors listened very carefully, as this would affect their subsequent judgment, and they could not be careless.

Everyone at the trial had different expressions. After hearing about the circumstances of the crime and its serious consequences, many began to doubt - were all these crimes committed by this not-so-vicious female detective? How could people not believe it?

At the end of the indictment, the prosecutor charged Elizabeth Keen with 16 counts of first-degree murder, treason, and espionage, a total of 19 felonies, any one of which was sufficient to carry the death penalty.

Judge Denner said, "Defense counsel, does your client plead guilty?"

Wright stood up and said, "Your Honor, my client denies the charges and pleads not guilty."

Elizabeth sat in the dock with a very calm expression and no expression.

No one in the court was surprised by this. It would be strange if the defendant admitted to these crimes, but how could the defendant and the defense attorney escape guilt?

Then came the cases one after another. The first was the bombing of the CIA's Russian and European Intelligence Analysis Division. This time, 14 agents were killed! If this case is proven, the others will be sentenced to death without trial!

The prosecutor presented a series of evidence of the bombing case, including that before the explosion, Elizabeth had visited the Russian-European Technical Base in the name of work and had contact with these CIA agents, which reasonably suspected that they were trying to determine the location and time of the explosion; the most direct evidence was the inspection report issued by the DCPD Explosive Ordnance Disposal Section, which clearly stated: fingerprints were found on the bomb fragments, and after verification, they matched the defendant's fingerprints.

When it was Wright's turn to speak, she said bluntly: "The prosecutor's accusation makes no sense!

"First of all, my client is an FBI agent with the approval of the Attorney General. He is responsible for highly confidential investigations. He went to the CIA's Russia-Europe headquarters for work reasons. At that time, the secret service received intelligence that an extremely dangerous foreign agent had infiltrated our country and was going to carry out a major operation. My client was ordered to go to Russia-Europe with his two partners to share this intelligence with him in order to determine the other party's action target...

"When the explosion occurred, my client had just left the Russian-European Science and Technology base and was even affected by the explosion. He and his colleagues were slightly injured, but he still insisted on working and hunting down the real murderer..."

After listening to Wright's words, the prosecutor stood up and said: "No matter how brilliantly the defense counsel speaks, or how he explains the defendant's work attitude, it cannot change one fact - that is, there are the defendant's fingerprints on the bomb..."

"Objection!" Wright stopped the trial. "The prosecutor just said that my client's fingerprints were found on the bomb fragments, but now he says they were on the bomb. This is obviously misleading the jury!"

"The objection is valid! The prosecutor's expression is ambiguous and there is suspicion of misleading the jury. A warning is issued." Judge Denner ruled, "The jurors of the grand jury must clearly understand the difference between these two concepts." "Understood." The foreman juror nodded to indicate that he had received it, and some jurors thought about it before they realized that "bomb" and "bomb fragments" are of course different.

The prosecutor was a little embarrassed, his trick was discovered, and he was a little embarrassed, but: "The prosecution retracts its previous inappropriate statement. There were fingerprints of the defendant on the bomb fragments. This is confirmed by the report of the DCPD Explosive Ordnance Disposal Section!"

Without even looking at him, Wright picked up a document on the table and said, "Here is the inspection report issued by the DOJ Forensic Identification Laboratory and the ATF Explosives Identification Laboratory. It states that the incomplete fingerprints on the explosion fragments found in the Russian-European explosion case were definitely copied later!" At this point, she glanced at the prosecutor with some ridicule and continued, "Maybe the perpetrator was short on time. There are still traces of transfer tape on this incomplete fingerprint..."

There was some uproar in the courtroom. The inspection department of the Metropolitan Police Department was certainly not as good as the top laboratories of the two major federal agencies, especially since everyone understood what fingerprint transfer using tape meant. This was obviously a frame-up!

The prosecutor was somewhat speechless, but of course he could not give up the accusation, so he thought of another way and said, "Just now the defense claimed that the defendant and his colleagues went to the Russian-European Science and Technology base to share the entry intelligence of a foreign spy. This cannot be proved at all because the other party's CIA has been completely victimized..."

Wright immediately said: "The prosecution just said that my client went there with his colleagues. Now the two of them can testify in court at any time..."

The prosecutor immediately responded, "The other two are colleagues of Agent Keane and have a close relationship with him, so their testimonies cannot be used without third-party verification!"

Ha! This is starting to get unreasonable! Everyone in the hearing was shocked...

"Respect!" Judge Denner banged the gavel and looked at Wright. He felt a little dissatisfied with the prosecutor. They were obviously cheating!
Wright did not dwell on this point, because she had a big trick, and said: "Prosecutor, you mean that my client's colleagues cannot be witnesses, then what if it is the client himself?"

"Of course you can, but your client is an exception. She is the defendant and her testimony cannot explain the problem." The prosecutor knew some of the inside story and knew that SER had caught the Russian spy, but it was impossible for him to confess. He even had a formal foreign identity and would be released after his detention expired after this case. He wanted to see what other evidence the other party could come up with!

Wright ignored him and turned to the judge and said, "Your Honor, we would like to invite a new witness to appear in court."

"Granted." Denner said. He was also a little curious at this time. Who is the new witness?
Wright's assistant stood up, walked to the witness entrance on one side of the courtroom, opened the door, and extended his hand to invite people in. People outside the door began to walk in, one, two, three...

Everyone in the hearing was a little confused. So many witnesses at once? But the CIA's middle and high-ranking officials who were sitting there all stood up in shock - they... they were not dead!
That’s right, the ones who came were 14 agents from Russia and Europe.

When the judge and prosecutor saw the photos of the 14 "victims", they were stunned. What was going on?

(End of this chapter)