Robert Jay QC Will Have Rebekah’s Head.

by gojam

The main headlines after Rebekah Brooks’ appearance at the Leverson Inquiry today have focused on another email which seems to put Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s job on the line. You can read that elsewhere.

I’m more interested in the ‘beartraps’ that Robert Jay QC set up for Rebekah Brooks. In the previous post I mentioned that a number of ministers had been granted ‘Core Participant Status’ last week but Lord Justice Leveson only agreed to this because every ministers, including Cameron, Clegg, Cable, Hunt, Hague, Osbourne, Gove, and Theressa May, had already submitted their own written submissions. This was so that those ministers did not have prior sight of other witness statements which might allow them to create their own written statements around what others had already submitted, this limits the chance of collusion.

Robert Jay QC has obviously seen those written submissions by ministers and Rebekah Brooks has not and during the proceeding it became obvious that Robert Jay was using those ministerial submissions to question Rebekah Brooks.

The two obvious cases were when the questioning turned to the McCanns. Robert Jay asked on atleast three occasions whether Mrs Brooks had threatened the Prime Minister that if the government did not instruct the police to review the McCann investigation the Sun would “Put the Home Secrtetary’s picture on the front page everyday until the government relented” and at the end he was asking it in the kind of manner lawyers use when they are imploring a witness not to perjure themselves. Now, obviously somebody has submitted that she did but on three occasions she denied it.  It could be in David Cameron’s or Theressa May’s or another ministers submission but I bet you a fish supper it’s in there somewhere and we’ll all find out soon enough.

The other occasion was whether the Prime Minister had ever asked Rebekah Brooks if the continuing phone hacking saga could jeopardise Andy Coulson’s position, then working for the PM, in a particular conversation that she’d admitted having with him. “Not on that occasion” replied Mrs Brooks, “On any occasion ?” enquired Mr Jay, “On no occasion.” came the reply. By the end of this little exchange it appeared, by the looks on the faces everyone present at the inquiry, that a barrel load of rotting fish had just been dumped in the room, so strong was the odeur of evasion.

Anyway, we’ll all find out pretty soon but I suspect that she has directly contradicted some written ministerial submission and Robert Jay QC has just metaphorically lead Mrs Brooks a few steps closer to the guillotine.

Signing off, LOL  ;-)