Maybe it's just me, but Skilling lying on the stand (or at least conveniently not remembering the Photofete situation) would certainly get my attention as a juror. It would make me think twice about a lot of what he said.

Larry, I read the various accounts of his testimony, and it didn't appear to me that he was lying. He understated the total amount of his investment, but the investment was made in stages, and one of the stages was $60,000, which is the number he used. The fact that he doesn't remember the details of what for him is a fairly small investment doesn't strike me as all that shocking. The more damaging part, in my view, is the implication that he disregarded Enron's ethical rules, and I suspect that the defense will argue that this was not really a material transaction to Skilling.

One last thing: Skilling's lawyer was pretty aggressive about bringing up bad facts on direct, allowing Skilling to frame those discussions. But he never mentioned Photofete. I have a hard time believing that he forgot or didn't know about the transaction. I suspect that Skilling's team decided that it just wasn't that big a deal.

We'll see how it all plays out; cross, as we all know, is a cumulative effort. Bringing this kind of stuff out early nicely sets the stage for the bigger stuff. I think it just makes it that much easier for the jury to believe he's a crook, as the prosecution contends. We'll have to see, though, if the prosecution has enough up their sleeve to make the jurors actually believe he is a crook.

Absolutely right. I just posted about another exchange from this morning that seems like a more important crack in Skilling's armor. A few more shots like that and he is done.

Yeah; to use the boxing analogies that cross lends itself to, that was a pretty good body blow. After yesterday and the interesting "sparring" from this morning, Skilling is on the ropes.

I’m with Larry on this one. I don’t see how the prosecution could have gotten off to a better a start. “Now that we’ve established that you at best have a self-serving memory of the facts (but are probably just a liar), you flaunt the company’s ethics code, and you have hired a high-priced consultant to coach you on how to be more appealing to this jury, let’s get started with the real questions …”