Thank you. The Prosecution sees no need for additional questions for this witness and yields the floor to the Presiding Arbiter.
@Kingdom_of_Napels you have an opportunity to question the witness
I have no questions to ask the witness.
@A_mean_old_man you may now call HumanSanity to the stand
The Prosecution calls @HumanSanity to the stand, to comment regarding their relationship with Numero Capitan and the character and good standing of this individual and intelligence asset.
I’ve worked with Nuca off and on ever since returning to NS back in late 2019, especially as I took over projecting more outward-facing foreign affairs for XKI. During my time in XKI, I worked with Nuca primarily on cultural projects - including that Nuca attended the Tea House of Cards event that I co-hosted with y0 from TEP and was a key organizer of the first edition of The Liberty Gala - and also periodically on XKI’s external strategy and military operations. After I left XKI and moved to TSP, Nuca provided me with intelligence information which led to the uncovering of alternate accounts when I served on the TSP Legislative Committee and as a General/Admiral in SPSF. In all of those interactions, he was professional and acted with a high amount of discretion and fidelity to the truth, even when there were disagreements in direction.
The Prosecution thanks all of our witnesses for their testimony and believe it paints an honest, professional, and well-intentioned picture of the purveyor of the evidence, Numero Capitan, and conclusive verification of claims that threats of an infiltrator had been reported to our region’s leadership back in 2020. Given the Defendant has confirmed the authenticity of our evidence the need for this is less dire, but the Prosecution hopes it provides any background and clarity that may be helpful to the court in addition to the evidence as presented in the Prosecution’s opening. We yield the floor to the Presiding Arbiter and to the Defense, should he wish to question the Prosecution’s final witness.
I have no questions to ask the witness.
The Court recognizes that the Prosecution has rested their case and have called all witnesses.
@Kingdom_of_Napels, the Defense is now able to present their case
I motion to introduce all evidence listed in this post. Additionally, I’m posting here to note that I’m using the European date format. Apologies for any confusion, since the prosecution is using American dates, but changing them around would be counterintuitive to me and would make the screenshots similarly confusing.
I would like to preface this post with the statement that this case genuinely surprised me. My recollection of the conversations that took place is not without flaw (I genuinely did not recall any of this until it was brought up); they took place five years ago. Moreover, I’d like to make the case that, as this was five years ago, what I said or did not say five years ago is not reflective of my stances or positions now. As anyone who has been young, headstrong and foolish on the game can almost certainly relate to, it has been somewhat embarrassing for me to dig back through old logs, channels and conversations. I was also not a citizen of the East at the time, as far as I’m aware. This is not the core of my argument; rather, it is a disclaimer that I would like to get out ahead, as I do sincerely believe that the passage of five years is something that is relevant for the Conclave to consider in cases moving forward, and will be arguing as such also; I would not wish for any unfortunate soul to end up on trial and subsequently sentenced for their foolish actions or words five years ago.
A second thing I want to get out ahead of anything else is a much less positive angle: that Scardino/Fedele is a loose cannon, something I was very much reminded of when reading back up for the purposes of this trial. He would often jump to doing things without consulting myself first. As I suspect anyone who has worked with Scardino can attest, reining him in usually only occurs afterwards and only after you were informed he either did something or started looking into doing something. He is a wild card, if a culturally and historically important one, to Lone Wolves United. This lies at the root of the issue, though it is again, not something that I would argue absolves me of any guilt. That would be the fact that I am innocent of the wrongdoing alleged.
As far as I’m aware, though there is an abundance of screenshots and text, the actual charge is but one: that Fedele, known in Lone Wolves United and to me primarily as Scardino, was infiltrating the East Pacific with my knowledge, and that I failed to act on this, substantiated with a screenshot of Scardino saying he is doing so. This charge is untrue, as we will get to, but I’d like to start at the beginning, working in chronological order to put the publicised screenshots into context and prove my innocence.
I joined Lone Wolves United in January 2019. At the time I believe Dream Killers was Khan, though he left the region and the game in general shortly after if my memory holds. The region was in a terrible state, and continued to be so over the course of 2019 - Tom, at the time a Khalif, had real life circumstances and quit the game, and Scardino/Fedele we all know - my activity similarly took a dip when the coup occurred, as I was present to combat it with my endorsement and by trying to mobilise and inform our natives on the RMB. It was only towards the end of the year, when I seriously took over, that its activity seriously started to pick up, and in November that year I was made Khan. It was around this time that Haitianstates, now publicly revealed to be Numero, joined Lone Wolves United. Of course, all the alarm bells went off as I watched their rise. Competent, eager for advancement, joined at a time when other defender agents had infiltrated The Black Hawks, and a few other things that we noted but which are neither relevant nor am I interested in going over them here. Suffice to say, I had ample reason to suspect Haitian. Nevertheless, I added them to the command channel on 29/02/2020. After all, the region was in a terrible state, there was nothing nefarious to leak, and they were putting in the work. I firmly stand by this decision, as I would never have been able to revive LWU without their help.
In early 2020, we were invited by Overseeing Officer Sakana of the Eastern Pacific Sovereign Army to attend an operation targeting the region “Slatos”. As a raider organisation, and moreover, a raider organisation haunted by the stigma of being associated with Fedele’s coup (I am well aware of the irony at play here, five years on), I naturally decided that we were to assist. We did so. The screenshot in the motion was, if memory serves, Marrabuk’s submission of another Liberate The East Pacific proposal, in reply to Cormac’s antagonism towards A Mean Old Man, with a sidewards jab at Lone Wolves United. I recall being very frustrated at the constant accusations that our Defender enemies directed at LWU that we were involved in the coup d’état, especially when I had personally opposed it as a citizen of the East while also being a Khalif. The thread on that operation can be viewed publicly here: https://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?p=36739175#p36739175
I’d now like to get into the specific screenshots that strike me as the crux of the charge. After all, while the others hint at associations, there are three that I believe I am truly on trial for: the first one on 14/05/2020, at 13:48 my time (Central European Time) when Scardino (Fedele) posted that he had gained citizenship in the East, and a follow-up message on 14:27 to say that TEP’s security was “hilariously bad” and requesting to put several “trusted people” on an operation to overthrow/undermine/whatever it. Most damningly of all, perhaps, I then replied “Maybe” at 14:30. I will attach it below (taken from my phone the morning the charge was brought, before I ran to my computer):
The second of the three is dated to the 27th of July. It consists of the following, with the conversations before and after included:
There isn’t really much to say here other than that I’ll point out that careful observers might notice a discrepancy here: the conversation on the 14th of May also spoke of him having attained citizenship, and yet here he is, barely two months later, talking about “once I get citizenship in the East”. We will get to this.
Next, the third screenshot is dated to 12/08/2020, where Scardino/Fedele says AMOM is “consolidating” and that he won’t be able to achieve much.
This, as far as I’m aware, constitutes the totality of the evidence of Scar’s infiltration and my culpability in it. As posted above the logs the prosecution has presented are, as far as I’m aware (they are a little blurry), unaltered.
This infiltration never occurred.
On the 14th of May, at 10:35, I sent Scardino a headsup that I suspected Haitianstates was a spy. He replied at 13:40. There was a brief conversation about why I thought that before he posted his message in #command-room. Below are the screenshots of my conversation with Scardino on 14/05:
As is evident from the above, there was no infiltration of the East Pacific. There is no crime to charge me with, for there was no crime I was aware of that I neglected to report. Scardino’s post was an attempt at misdirection, though to this day I am not clear as to what a misdirection was supposed to accomplish. This is also why the other messages don’t really line up, as there was a suspected spy in the channel - nothing said in there could possibly be said credibly, for it would be leaked immediately, and clearly was. As a sidenote, as my reaction indicates, I was not consulted on any operations Scar was undertaking at all. At the time, as a raider leader I wasn’t interested in TSP’s security or whether or not Scardino was infiltrating it. I honestly don’t know if he ever actually joined TSP. I didn’t really care then, I don’t really care now whether he tried to infiltrate TSP five years ago.
What I did care about was his repeated messaging that he was in TEP, as I reached out to him about in late August. When he affirmed it was TSP and not TEP, I went back to not caring much.
The rest of the screenshots that I have seen don’t seem to indicate a crime. I was genuinely surprised to discover Lamb Stone returned in 2020 at all; I had honestly forgotten it occurred, and to my knowledge it was not long before he faded away again. I don’t think anyone will seriously be surprised to discover that the leader of a raider organisation dedicates time and thinking to coming up with plans to raid and to obstruct defenders, nor do I think anyone is surprised to find out that a regional leader seeks to advance their region’s image and position in diplomatic affairs. “Manipulating game mechanics and interregional politics” in my region’s favour is a rather malicious way to describe brainstorming on tactics and navigating the diplomatic field - it’s what frankly anyone who leads an R/D org should do. In the future, I am fully prepared and hope to do so on behalf of the East Pacific, whether it be coming up with tactics to support our military or to advance our diplomatic position. I sincerely hope I will have the chance to do so, also.
My tenure as Khan didn’t initially see much cooperation with TEP after Slatos, but there was some. In October, LWU raided England, and with EPSA’s support held the region against defender attempts, but otherwise it was quiet in 2020 until December, when Serge came to ask for my assistance with planning the largest update raid in history, which is where Operation Boom Beach came from. Leaving the actual details of the operation aside, which was the largest raid of its kind and featured the participation of virtually every region that raided, helmed by TEP and LWU. I recall cooperating with TEP very closely for the duration of it, and afterwards we concluded an embassy together. My memory admittedly is hazy - I was able to parse this together mostly off of my own records, but I stopped keeping those after Boom Beach, so afterwards it gets hazier as general gameplay dynamics shifted. I mention this, because I feel it important to establish what LWU’s position towards and interactions with the East Pacific were during my tenure as Khan. Any subversion of the East Pacific would have been monumentally stupid, and our interactions with TEP were never hostile or tense as far as I can recall. The opposite, as it happens.
In order to sum up the above, I would like to run down the charges, the first of them being High Treason. Did I overthrow or attempt to overthrow the legitimate Delegate or legitimate government of the East Pacific? Obviously not. There is nothing that even remotely hints at this. Neither did I levy war against the East Pacific. I did not assist an enemy at war with the East Pacific, either - Lone Wolves United maintained open and public diplomatic relations with the East Pacific for the majority of my tenure, and even prior to opening embassies we cooperated with EPSA on operations. If the enemy that the prosecution sees as being at war with the East Pacific refers to Fedele as an individual, I would like to reiterate that I never assisted him because there was nothing to assist with. It’s not entirely clear to me how the prosecution came to this charge at all, but the prosecution is charging me for a crime that never occurred. Likewise, treason cannot possibly apply for the same reason. I did not conceal any plots against the East; in fact, I repeatedly verified that there was no plot against the East at all. I have never conspired with anyone to commit high treason or to overthrow the East’s legitimate government. I did not “omit” anything, either - there was nothing to report to TEP.
I recognise that this post is already fairly long, so I wanted to concisely run down the charges and refute them based on the above, before I continue.
I initially wrote this in response to the motion and the evidence presented there. I was somewhat surprised to find out there was additional evidence, though it seems unconnected to any crimes I am supposed to have committed, and instead an attempt at smearing my name. The Prosecution dedicates less time to demonstrating that a crime took place and more to stringing together a narrative of unfounded and unproven suspicions seemingly based on a failure to verify its own information, which is largely of the public record. I will go over the additional stuff briefly, working in the order the narrative was constructed:
-Speaking with Feux is hardly a crime, nor is telling him that his terrible plan of waiting five years was, in fact, a terrible plan. It helps that I only spoke to Feux after his banjection - the reason I mention having thought on it was going over different scenarios that he might have been planning after I was made aware Debussy might have been Feux about 24 hours prior to his banjection. I certainly didn’t guess he’d be allowed back after.
-The Prosecution’s timeline of me joining TEP in 2019 handily omits my resistance to the Fedele coup, but otherwise might be correct. I don’t remember for the life of me.
-I never joined EPSA or applied to do so to my knowledge. A quick search of my messages seems to just turn up Serge trying to recruit me for it.
-Slightly baffled at the choice to prosecute an East Pacifican for shitposting but noted for sure.
-The Prosecution’s internal timeline disproves their suspicions that I resigned as Khan to avoid scrutiny, since they show a message 22/06/2023 where I mention resigning as Khan but it is also noted my resignation as Khan only occurred in September. My intention to resign as Khan originates in October of 2022, looking back through my DMs with Tom. There were largely irrelevant reasons as to why it took so long for that to materialise. The listed date of 6 September 2023 is the correct date of my resignation as Khan.
-Again, I’ve never been a member of the EPSA to my knowledge.
-Continue to be confused as to how doing my job is nefarious. Continue to note that not doing my job would probably also be perceived as nefarious.
-Again, not a member of EPSA. This erroneous assumption is repeated multiple times to further the Prosecution’s narrative but I’m unsure of what it’s based on.
-I was Khalif at the time of the Fedele coup.
-When Lamb Stone stopped being Khan is, in fact, a matter of public record. As I noted above, when I arrived in LWU, it was held by Dream Killers, and later by no one until I picked it up. It was not held by Lamb before Dream Killers, either - it was transferred from Green (Elysium Station II) to DK. This is long before the coup - Green was Khan in 2018. Lamb Stone was not present in the LWU server when I joined the region to my recollection, and his resignation as Khan occurred on April 10th, 2018. It was, in fact, publicly announced.
-I joined LWU in January 2019. When I was made Khalif I’m not sure - prior to Fedele’s coup, I recall that much, but LWU’s culture of record-keeping can charitably be described as “on a voluntary basis”, especially at the time. The coup was not discussed within LWU or between me and Fedele, and when it occurred I was present to combat it, as noted.
Before I move on towards the fact that these screenshots were taken four to five years ago, which I would like to argue should by all means be taken into account by the Conclave in this case and in future cases alike, I would like to briefly take a moment to address the foreign interference in our elections. Numero Capitan has held these logs for five years, and the operation concluded rather unsuccessfully in 2021. I do not buy that if there is something that he truly thinks was a smoking gun that he would wait to disclose it - this intervention in our elections was deliberate. I do not buy either that Quebecshire, someone who’s opinions on TEP are no secret and who has no particular history of respecting even the GCRs that he should like on paper, reached out to A Mean Old Man to bring this to trial after nominations opened and I declared my candidacy. I will not dwell on this point, as it is largely tangential to the actual charges, but I have no wish to see it forgotten.
Now, the timeframe. As I have demonstrated, no crime took place five years ago to my knowledge. If the prosecution has further evidence that I’m supposed to have been an enemy of the East Pacific half a decade ago, I invite them to bring it forward. However, I think the very fact that I’m on trial for what I said (or more accurately, did not say - note that there is no “did” here at all) half a decade ago is fundamentally a mistake. There are plenty of people who join NationStates at a young age, rash, hotheaded, prone to saying, thinking and doing stupid things, who over the years grow up and mature, look back and then spend a good few minutes groaning at their younger self’s stupidity.
People can absolutely change, especially in five years. Looking back through the channels I have access to and digging through DMs has mostly made me wince at my younger self, but that is rather my point - people grow in five years. I’m firmly of the opinion the Conclave should, for precedent’s sake, take into consideration the matter of time regardless. Five years ago, I was not a citizen of the East Pacific. In 2019, I was still staunchly anti-NPO. Lone Wolves United signed a treaty with the NPO late last year, with me personally contributing to the preamble. Two years ago, I stated wariness of Thaecia’s moderation. Two years later, I oversaw the signing of a treaty with them. People change, so do their opinions, they grow, they learn, and they realise their stupidity in the past. I don’t seriously believe it is reasonable for people to be retroactively charged, half a decade and a good deal of lessons onwards.
In closing, I would like to briefly express my earnest hope that this trial will lay suspicions to rest. I have answered all concerns to the best of my ability, both those expressed over the past few weeks and now the accusations on trial. I admit it has been exhausting. I have been under suspicion for doing my job, for not doing my job, and for taking on a job at all. I have been accused of nefarious behaviour for supposedly joining EPSA, and for not joining EPSA as “other raiders” do. I have faced accusations for performing my task as Magister and voicing my concerns in recent debates, for my involvement in foreign affairs, for my involvement in internal affairs, and for running for election. Things I said two years ago, foolishly but well-meant, have been dragged up to sustain an accusation founded on screenshots provided by foreign enemies taken five years ago, a screenshot itself intended to deceive a spy, and not even a deception initiated by me. I do not blame people for being suspicious, but I do hope I may finally assuage their concerns here.
I am innocent of any crime, and I hope the above will prove as such, both to the legal court of the East Pacific and to the one of public opinion, and that I may continue to contribute to the East’s success in the future.
I am ready to answer any other accusations or questions.
To add on to the above, I would like to Motion for New Evidence - I wasn’t able to piece together before the trial began that history would be so important. As such I’d like to submit the following two pieces:
This thread notes Lamb Stone/Aleister stepping down in 2018, about eight months before I joined Lone Wolves United: https://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=440739
The above image is the full message the prosecution showed that led to their confusion on my stepping down. The next line is a joke that I had not managed to step down yet, though I understand the confusion.
The Prosecution would very much like to respond to the Defense’s case but awaits specific instruction from the Presiding Arbiter.
Does the Prosecution have any objections to addition of additional evidence?
In addition, all responses to the other’s case will be done in Closing. Everyone gets a chance to present their case, and rest when they are done, and all responses will be done as closing.
The Prosecution does not see anything in the Defense’s case that it was not shown after Pre-Trial concluded and does not object to it on grounds of relevance, etc. We do not object to the motion for new evidence, and appreciate the clarification of this timeline. The Prosecution looks forward to responding to the case made by the Defense and to the Defense’s evidence in our closing arguments.
The motion for additional evidence is accepted.
Does @Kingdom_of_Napels have any additional remarks they would like to make about thier case, or has the Defense rested?
The defence rests, my apologies for the confusion.
(I do apologize for the weird timing of making posts. I have been presiding and reading over this as I have time during work. I hope no one feels like I have dragged this out too long.)
@A_mean_old_man and @Kingdom_of_Napels, we are now going to move into closing arguments. The Prosecution will get theirs first, and the Defense will get the final say.
This is your chance to make any final remarks or respond to anything that was presented by the opposing sides. Once you make your Closing Arguments, please note that at the end.
In the event that I do happen to be away and I don’t see the Prosecution make their final argument, the Defense is able to respond. This way things keep moving.
Thank you, Shadow. I believe this has progressed at an appropriate pace.
A foreword: I too am not thrilled with the timing of these logs’ delivery. The explanation was that Haitianstates was not a publicly-disclosed operation until November, 2024, and that TEP was warned back in 2020 with as much information as the asset could provide without potentially jeopardizing the operation, but I agree with the Defense that providing these during an election where the defendant is a candidate could be perceived as interference and complicates my position as a prosecutor on this case; it could, however, also be viewed as highly relevant to the security of our government, as again, a hostile foreign agent could be running for delegate, which may have reminded and spurred the purveyors of the evidence to deliver. Ultimately, the court’s judgment will decide how we are to perceive all this. I will remind the Defense that he had the opportunity to question the witness who forwarded the evidence regarding his timing, in order to strengthen his case, but that he chose not to.
Regarding the overall response from the Defense:
I don’t know how else to put it: this defense is bewildering, as is the apparent confidence with which the Defense presented it. To me, it raises more concerns than it alleviates. It would seem to me that the Defense might have been better off pleading no contest, because this is almost equally inexcusable as taking the Prosecution’s evidence at face value: you have shown yourself in DMs conspiring with the principal architect of TEP’s attempted coup in 2019 consistently for several months and within less than a year of the coup attempt, regarding operations against a treaty ally, TSP (treaty established 6/28/2020), both before, during, and after the alliance was established and while you were a citizen of TEP (a discrepancy in your argument: “I was also not a citizen of the East at the time” versus “the Prosecution’s timeline of me joining TEP in 2019 . . .”, and citizenship records from TEP that show no interruption between today and when you achieved citizenship on May 2, 2019 - certainly not “five years ago” precisely, but within three months of exactly “five years ago”: (https://forum.theeastpacific.com/t/old-citizenship-application-and-welcome-thread/1590/953?) - this was also four months after you joined LWU under Dream Killers AKA Cain AKA Aeneas Rahl’s leadership: perhaps you were instructed to get citizenship in TEP, much like I was instructed to get citizenship in Lazarus by Badger / Evil Wolf, while undercover as Wrektopia), and where you are shown using TEP as “bait”, in your own words. This is assuming you don’t also have designs for capturing TEP that you’re trying to obscure by creating these logs with Fedele in anticipation of (or perhaps after; I cannot verify your screenshots’ authenticity) any intelligence being released.
In fact, if we are to believe everything you say in your defense to be true, what you are shown doing in these logs is inciting defenders to consult TEP’s leadership, as they did, and putting innocent members of our citizenry and government under suspicion and surveillance, which is exactly what happened - with these innocent citizens and the concern and stress of members of our security apparatus being collateral in your designs against a treaty ally, which you are shown to be aware of and endorsing (re: “Good, good”, and “Sounds good”, in response to Fedele, in June 2020). All the while, you sit here in our citizenry, lips zipped. Not a peep from you: no warning, nothing. Those of us at the top back then are left to wonder whether we are being infiltrated and undermined. This is the BEST reading of your defense, even though its truth remains dubious given who you are shown closely communicating and conspiring with (Fedele, Cain “Aeneal Rahl”, Lamb Stone, Evil Wolf, apparently Davelands) and our knowledge of how they operate, TEP having been among their victims in the past. And even if we are to believe all this and believe that you had no designs against TEP (you fail to mention Lamb’s comments on it later, or other commentary re: quorum raiding to prevent Commend Libertanny, as was apparently requested by members of TWP, which you would apparently have said yes to “if it was an official TWPAF thing”) (evidence drawn from the full logs provided to the Conclave during Pre-Trial), your actions and statements show a blatant disregard and outright disrespect for our sovereignty and security, and for celebrated members of our community:
I do not believe I require a motion to provide the additional screenshot, as it was pulled from the dump file which was provided to the Conclave during Pre-Trial, and will also posit the following in my closing arguments for their consideration:
Again, this begs the question of whether these actions against TEP were ordered by Jo himself, rather than done of Fedele, etc.’s own volition. The defense’s decision to deflect / throw shade on Fedele / Scardino, a “loose cannon” who was technically his subordinate while all of these logs were being generated, seems to me to be in poor taste. It also seems like a cheap trick, as I know from my own personal history working undercover in this organization / working with its affiliates that they’re entirely willing to publicly burn each other and hedge their bets by playing both sides (see Aelitia, “opposing” the coup after previously attempting to recruit an undercover Feux as Adytus “Rahl” to join TEP’s Conclave, and being subsequently rejected from joining our government) for the sake of an operation or for the sake of future operations, while remaining privately collusive. At no time did Jo, in any of these logs, tell Scardino to stop what he was doing, despite having the authority and agency to do so. Rather, he is clearly working with Scardino to whatever end the latter (or Jo himself) seeks to achieve. Jo can’t seem to decide whether he was “young, headstrong, and foolish”, or the proud leader who “revive[d] LWU” after joining the region “in a terrible state”. He also can’t seem to decide whether he is “retired”, given he obviously still has access to #command-room and remains an Alpha Emeritus, which appears to have the same permissions as Khalif, the high-ranking role he admits to holding during the coup attempt perpetrated by Fedele. If he truly “opposed” this coup (what did that opposition constitute? One RMB post?) perpetrated by the people in charge of LWU at the time, why was he almost immediately promoted by them? I know these people. They do not reward disloyalty.
I beseech the Conclave: do not believe the Defense and do not underestimate the defendant. JoWhatup is an extremely intelligent, cunning, articulate, and patient adversary who will appeal to every angle, logical or emotional, to achieve his ends and try to save face. He keeps trying to invoke the age of the evidence in order to weaken our case, yet we all know how many years have gone into efforts to capture TEP (people in this circle’s sphere of influence have tried repeatedly for almost twenty years) and other regions like it. I do not believe his memory is as “hazy” as he claims, and I do not believe that he cannot remember exactly when he became a Khalif. The Prosecution asserts that Jo is an enemy, and that he was always in the pockets of our enemies - that he is an enemy of TEP and an enemy of our allies. The depth of his organization’s subterfuge is bottomless and, simply, we believe that the defendant lies - just like his closest colleagues lie and have lied while attempting to undermine and usurp us previously. Even if we are to believe what he says about no infiltration of TEP happening in 2020, his defense falls flat and fails to defeat the charge of high treason levied against him. This action of indirectly sending an intelligence asset to our doorstep to make us question our own citizenry constitutes “an act preparatory to war”, in my mind. It “assists . . . any forces against whom the East Pacific is engaged in hostilities” by enabling people banned for treason, with whom we are clearly still engaged in hostilities re: their interactions with us and our adversaries abroad and their posts from these logs, and with whom will be engaged in hostilities forever, purely by nature, in any of their endeavors, but specifically in their hostilities against a treaty ally, and hostilities indirectly perpetrated against us by using us as “bait”. And the nerve to run for Delegate, which would be in charge of Foreign Affairs, after perpetrating this action against our treaty ally. But I digress.
Again, the Defense does not deny the authenticity of these logs: this is the fatal mistake, because their very existence, apart from any excuses or explanation, constitutes treason. Please observe the words from the defendant’s own mouth in 2020, in a hidden command channel for LWU, for exactly what they are: the conspiring of a foreign agent with TEP’s worst enemies in schemes against TEP, possibly against TSP in addition to TEP, and against anyone they think they can get the better of in any way they can imagine. Remember that this is the modus operandi of this organization of self-ascribed “lone wolves”, and consider the meaning of this expression they’ve chosen to describe themselves. Then remember that this “foreign agent” was a member of our citizenry at the time, and later a member of many other facets of our government, who never willingly shared any of this information with us, and presumably hoped it would never surface. Consider why the Defendant might have chosen never to bring these logs to our attention. Consider that we cannot verify the authenticity of the Defense’s additional evidence and that the Defense has no witnesses, and chose not to question the Prosecution’s witnesses despite apparently taking issue with one of them. Consider anything else you read in the files and images provided, as there are comments galore on how this organization looks down on and seeks to manipulate practically everyone outside itself, including its own allies (see the dump file for derisive commentary re: TBH and Antifa), and seems to view the entire world as a tool for advancing its private agendas. Consider these quotes from the accused:
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Re: Fedele, banned for high treason, treason, and sedition, obtaining citizenship again in The East Pacific, claiming that security here is “hilariously bad”, and recommending putting “four or five trusted people in [TEP]”, on May 14, 2020, JoWhatup states “I don’t want too many people in on it”, acknowledging Fedele’s actions against TEP and being an active contributor to a plot against our government and thereby committing an act of high treason,
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Re: Fedele, on July 27, 2020, claiming to be going “WA immobile once [he gets] citizenship in the East [Pacific]”: unrelated posts by JoWhatup flanking this comment seven days and a single post prior and two days and two posts after, having obviously seen Fedele say this and saying nothing to deter it, clearly expressing tacit approval of or not discouraging what Fedele is apparently doing secretly and illegally in TEP,
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A post by the Defendant 5 minutes before a post by Lamb Stone / Aleister, banned for treason, where Lamb claims he “almost got [Cain: Aeneas Rahl] back in TEP” (context unclear) on December 8, 2020: showing the Defendant was aware of whatever this was,
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Suggestions by the Defendant re: “update bending”, “[running] raids to unseat delegates to block a proposal” immediately prior to Fedele claiming his “infiltration operation has made important progress”: a comment likely aimed at The East Pacific, and demonstrating some of the underhanded tactics the Defendant is willing to employ to achieve LWU’s ends,
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All of these collectively constitute an act of omitting to prevent treason, as most of the individuals featured in these logs discussing their activities in TEP are banned for treason and barred from obtaining citizenship here; the defendant has effectively fully admitted in his case to perpetrating this offense, regardless of any excuses or explanation provided,
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Finally, not contributing to direct evidence of lawbreaking but demonstrating the character and attitude of the Defendant in ways pertaining to the charges and therefore relevant for the court’s consideration, and demonstrating that the attitude displayed in the logs from 2020 is the same one held by the Defendant today, comments from the accused re: Feux’s recent activity in Lazarus: “I ran the math, you’d have had enough to eject Tubbius/NR before TRR updated, seize the delegacy and banject McChimp. Frankly I figured you had it in the bag when I heard you were Feux, and the people who pat themselves on the back for foiling your plot were ineffective idiots . . . you should have gotten Retz on board and then approached Malice when everything was in place. Their pilers would probably have allowed you to succeed”.
I’m going to repeat this one more time: if we are to believe you, JoWhatup / Soramra / Kingdom of Napels / etc., you used us. You callously used The East Pacific like a tool, as “bait”, while you were a citizen here: used us as collateral in a dirty game played against one of our allies, then never told us about it. You did this without shame or apology, then present it to us here as if it absolves you of any wrongdoing. Why should we ever trust you, or believe anything that you say?
The Prosecution encourages the Conclave to convict and to punish this individual to the full extent of the law for the crimes of high treason and omitting to prevent treason: among, if not the most serious of crimes against our democratic government, our region, and the good society it is designed to protect. The Prosecution does not believe the Defense, and, even if it chose to, does not believe that its case would “lay suspicions to rest” or “assuage [anyone’s] concerns” as desired, but rather raises additional and very severe ones and does not defeat the Prosecution’s charges.
The Prosecution rests its case and awaits a verdict. The Prosecution also requests that the Conclave release the HTML file containing the entirety of the logs from #command-room into public domain upon conclusion of the trial.
One final addendum to the Prosecution’s closing arguments, if the court will allow it: between posting 4 hours ago and now it was pointed out to us that TEP did, in fact, have a trilateral treaty with TSP from 2018 (The January Accords) prior to the bilateral treaty that was established in 2020.
This would mean that TEP and TSP were treaty allies for the entirety of the timespan depicted in these logs, rather than only after the establishment of the second treaty in June, 2020. The Prosecution sees this as relevant to the aforementioned information from our closing argument and the narrative it dictates.
I, likewise, have no genuine issue with the pace. Much as I might grumble that the time prolongs a relatively stressful event, I appreciate the Presiding Arbiter performing their task to the best of their abilities, and dutifully so. With that said, I would similarly like to respond to the Prosecution.
Before I begin to tackle specific statements and arguments, I’d like to begin by saying that the Prosecution appears to once more be acting on information it erroneously believes to possess but is in fact resultant from a failure to verify its own information. My citizenship nation in 2019, Kingdom of Napels II, CTE’d in November of that very same year, as a glance at the Boneyard would have confirmed. Similarly, had my citizenship not lapsed there would have been no reason for me to re-apply for citizenship in 2024. Again, this appears to be a matter of public record that the Prosecution overlooked. The boneyard page can be found here: https://www.nationstates.net/page=boneyard?nation=kingdom%20of%20napels%20ii
And my re-application for citizenship: Citizenship Application Thread - #156 by Kingdom_of_Napels
The Prosecution then seems to spin a story regarding my evidence, which I frankly find nonsensical whichever way it is sliced. If I anticipated that A) Fedele would post that he was infiltrating TEP and B) I did know there was a spy in the channel, I would have simply told him not to make a post in the channel rather than “faking” evidence in “anticipation”. Especially if, as the Prosecution continues to assert, I believed Fedele was infiltrating TEP. And if the accusation is that I am supposed to have faked evidence after, at an unspecified date, I would hope I’d have come up with something that did not leave open the other suggestion the Prosecution seems eager to pursue, that the evidence is real and that I should be on trial for knowledge of subversion against the South Pacific (a charge that, as I was not a citizen of the East at the time, does not appear reasonable to me either). This also does not line up with the discrepancy in the logs of Scardino applying for citizenship again after a mere two months - if there was a genuine infiltration, applying again after a mere two months makes no sense. Similarly it would make no sense for me to explicitly ask regarding Fedele’s whereabouts in late August if I was simply “faking” logs. The Prosecution seems unable to decide which one they believe I am supposed to be guilty of, compounded by their misconception that I was a citizen of the East at the time.
I will rattle off some of the rapidfire stuff the Prosecution then attempts to twist before moving on:
-Any suspicion caused within the East is regrettable, though I’ll point out it feels deeply strange to condemn and blast me for “sowing suspicion” by not shutting down Fedele’s narrative inside LWU’s command while putting me on trial seemingly over your own deep-seated suspicions rooted in my past words rather than any actions. Suspicions that you expressed before the trial began also, I should note.
-Again, I was not a citizen of the East to my knowledge, and there was no suspicious activity against the East to report.
-I didn’t read much more into Lamb Stone’s comment to Dream Killers than talking about DK’s involvement in TEP in 2018.
-The comment on quorum raiding does not indicate any treason. At the time we were pursuing a treaty with the West Pacific. Cutthroat and pragmatic, sure - I don’t deny it - but it doesn’t indicate hostility to TEP. After all, the reason we did not do so was that it would upset TEP, a consideration that does not make the slightest lick of sense if it was considered a hostile region by LWU or myself.
-It’s a little funny to talk about me ordering “actions against TEP” right after showing me denying a suggestion to undertake an action that could be perceived as anti-TEP.
The Khan is, indeed, the uncontested ruler of Lone Wolves United. I think it is slightly silly, however, to translate this into the idea that Fedele’s actions are at all times ordered by the Khan. As the region’s first founder, he commands a great deal of cultural and historical importance, as said, and as such is less inclined to await explicit orders. Again, there were no activities against the East that I either ordered or failed to stop. As for my leadership in Lone Wolves United, both my pride in what I accomplished in its rebuilding during my four year tenure as its Khan and my groaning at my younger self’s stupidity in word and opinion can be true. They are not opposites, nor do they hint at any deceit.
It is somewhat strange to me to see the Prosecution spin defending myself as manipulative, and perhaps even stranger to believe I would be lying about my recollection of half a decade ago being less than perfect. The Prosecution’s interpretation of the law strikes me as bizarre. Collateral suspicion as a result of Fedele baiting a spy - a spy attempting to sabotage and destroy the organisation I led - was unfortunate, but to frame it as treason is an absurd stretch of the word. The Prosecution then tries to spin at a different angle, once again highlighting that the Prosecution appears to be flailing around in an attempt to make a charge stick rather than, as behooves a just legal system, prosecuting a genuine case founded on solid evidence. This angle appears to be that speaking or cooperating with the East’s enemies in a region unrelated to the East, without being a citizen of the East and without undertaking any action against the East, would constitute treason, an angle that falls apart under the slightest scrutiny. Will the Prosecution be putting Xoriet on trial, for conspiring with Fedele to deceive The Python?
The Prosecution, afterwards, seems to return to its initial evidence, seemingly asserting once more that I must be lying about the context I provided. As I’ve explained above, this makes no sense to me, and moreover, it once again highlights how the Prosecution’s narrative is fundamentally incoherent. I’m certain the Conclave understands the difficulty of verifying DMs, especially given the only possible witness in question, but I’m also confident the Conclave understands the absurdity of faking them in whatever manner the Prosecution believes them to be faked. The Prosecution’s repeated assertion, again, that I am supposed to have committed treason also if I was aware of and assisting a subversion attempt against the South Pacific also does not hold up, in my estimation, when I was not a citizen at the time and as such had no obligation to report anything. Perhaps that case would be different if I was a Magister/Minister/Vizier intimately involved in an attempt to subvert a treaty ally by actively assisting a known rogue on an infiltration operation - but again, I was not. Should we have retroactively put A Mean Old Man on trial in 2019 for his prior subversion against Osiris, our then-treaty ally?
I am no legal scholar, as the Conclave is no doubt well aware. However, I can think of no just legal system where a defendant may be convicted retroactively based on nothing but rumours, suspicions, out of context screenshots and unreasonable stretches of legal definitions. I deplore the Prosecution’s attempts at painting my lawful defense as some sort of manipulation, undermining the very essence of a trial to prove guilt. The Prosecution’s case has repeatedly been riddled with factual errors it is bafflingly unable or unwilling to verify based on the public record, such as my alleged membership in the EPSA, the timeline of my predecessors as Khan, the timeframe of my citizenship in the East, and the date of my own resignation as Khan. The Prosecution’s narrative is disjointed, based on malicious interpretation of my words - my words of five years ago, not my deeds - and a framing of my character based on their own suspicions. No crime took place five years ago. No crime took place in the years since. The Prosecution has, at every turn, failed to verify its own information and its sole piece of evidence that indicates a crime might have taken place I believe I have sufficiently recontextualised to show that this was not, in fact, a subversive operation against the East.
I rest my case, having made my closing arguments, and await the verdict.