Meggs has since been charged with tampering with documents for the alleged act and has pleaded not guilty.
“How is it today, 10 days before trial, I’m first being told you might advance an advice-of-counsel-defense,” Mehta shouted at Haller.
The trial will be a major test of DOJ’s decision to prosecute the rarely used charge, and the unsettled legal disagreements could implicate how they chose to present their case.
Mehta said that the allegation itself SoRelle suggested others should delete messages was not new. “I read it in the newspaper months ago,” Mehta shouted at Haller, adding “I’m not buying it” and that “it was in the indictment”
“Which indictment? The first, second, sixth,” Haller shouted over Mehta. The two continued to cut each other off, Haller alleging that it was new information and Mehta rejecting her arguments. Prosecutors shook their heads fiercely.
Mehta eventually told Haller to sit down, but she did not. Another lawyer suggested a break in the hearing, to which Mehta shouted “no.”