Black Watch: Today’s Top Stories

Bloomberg reported yesterday that Peter Atkinson got a pass from Judge Amy St. Eve allowing him to accompany his wife, a nutritional scientist, on a six-day visit to Rome to attend a clinical workshop. The prosecution didn’t oppose the request. One wonders what Lord Black must make of all this, having been restricted to Palm Beach and Chicago for four months while he awaits sentencing. Black’s been the subject of a prosecutorial fatwa in which the judge joined the government in divining that Black’s propensity to “fight” inside the court and out reflected some elemental aspect of his “character” that suggests he would fight extradition from Canada should he be allowed to travel there. And yet one of his co-defendants convicted of exactly the same crimes (save obstruction) gets to travel on his Canadian passport to the Eternal City, while Black’s passport remains in St. Eve’s office. It all points to the inherently political nature of this case. Black is trophy antlers for Patrick Fitzgerald and his prosecutorial hunting party. Fairness be damned.