On a Sunny Easter Monday in April, the courtroom filled with the small, exacting rituals that make public trials feel like private examinations of character.
The lead defense counsel, Cllr. Arthur Tamba Johnson, moved with the calm economy of a man who has decided that law is, in the end, a profession of questions.
Across from him sat Baba Borkai, introduced to the room as the prosecution’s principal witness and a senior investigator with the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission.
The defendants in this landmark national security trial were seated there, too, but with focus on one: former Acting Justice Minister Cllr. Nyanti Tuan.
The thrust of Mr. Johnson’s cross-examination was methodical: draw a single, seemingly straightforward thread through the tangled weave of an investigation and pull until whatever holds it together begins to fray. That thread was a claim—an assertion that Mr. Tuan had told investigators he would produce receipts accounting for the disputed US$6 million allocated to joint security agencies. It was an ordinary.
