After twelve years of pseudo-jurisprudential bollocks in the town where justice goes to die, Mann vs Simberg & Steyn is finally underway. Greetings from the diseased and depraved capital city of the United States!
Week Three will commence at the DC Superior Court at 9.30am today ...but not in Courtroom 518. As I noted after Thursday's grim session:
In tribute to the plaintiff's 'reconstruction' of climate records, the temperature controls in Judge Irving's court have completely broken down. The trial exhibits have begun to warp. Yesterday, I came close to passing out.
My doctor in France advises that heart patients should not be in temperatures above 26 Celsius - that's 79 Fahrenheit. His Lordship's airless windowless room was heading up to ninety. I don't believe that a judge, even in America, has the right to upgrade a defamation suit into a capital offence. So I said to him, somewhat intemperately, that I thought you guys had a constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment down here.
And thus, as issued over the weekend, behold the Court's new order:
This order is to advise that all further trial proceedings will take place in Courtroom 132 of the Moultrie Courthouse starting on Monday, January 29, 2024.
The Court has moved all demonstratives admitted into evidence to Courtroom 132. Courtroom 518 will open at 8:15 a.m. on January 29, 2024, for the Parties to relocate all of their remaining belongings and materials to Courtroom 132.
Attendees wishing to observe the trial virtually can join Virtual Courtroom 132 at or dial (202) 860-2110 / (844) 992-4726 and enter the WebEx meeting ID 2343 119 3793.
ACCORDINGLY, it is by the Court this 26th of January 2024, hereby ORDERED that the jury trial in this matter will resume on January 29, 2024, at 9:30 a.m., in Courtroom 132 of the Moultrie Courthouse; and it is further ORDERED that all further jury trial proceedings in this matter will take place in Courtroom 132 of the Moultrie Courthouse.
For any non-Americans minded to swing by, Courtroom 132 is on the ground floor. We shall see. I have not yet recovered from last week's trial by ordeal.
Whatever the mercury reading, Amy K Mitchell will be here at the close of business with her evening Court Report, and Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer will have another of their acclaimed trial dramatisations.
If you seek a sane alternative to Michael E Mann's global-warming "hockey stick", there's always our handsome limited-edition trial souvenir: the SteynOnline Liberty Stick, made in the USA and showing both Magna Carta and the US Constitution. They're exclusively available here - and I sign and number each one.
~My old boss and Mark Steyn Caribbean Cruisemate Conrad Black devoted his weekend column to both an ancient (if ongoing) and a more recent outbreak of lawfare:
Jordan Peterson and Mark Steyn — Canada's warriors for freedom
These two outstanding Canadians deserve the support of all of us
Lord Black was on stage in Alberta last week moderating discussions between Professor Peterson and Tucker Carlson:
Where Peterson is an extremely perceptive and learned professor and a very articulate advocate of his positions, Tucker Carlson is a charming and capable journalist who specializes in unorthodox and provocative opinions. At times as moderator, I felt and acted on the need to discourage his portrayal of our finance minister, Chrystia Freeland, as a Nazi... He's an amusing reactionary who responded to the idea of a proposed American wall on its northern border by saying that we must have it to prevent more talented Canadians from moving to the United States...
Oh, my. I fell for that one, and look where I am. Conrad's column sums up my travails:
Mark Steyn unleashed the full subtlety and vitriol upon Mann that his admirers have long appreciated; he portrayed his opponent as someone who was almost always on social media, "harassing and bullying anybody who disagrees with him... He is one of the most vicious blowhards on Twitter." In his pleadings in his trial in Washington, D.C., Mark Steyn has given Michael Mann a terrible debunking; the notion that Mann was libelled at any point in his decades of climate fables is hilarious. The American love of litigation and the considerable support Mann has raised from the climate change industry and the left-wing venue of the trial (Washington, D.C.) all pose a possible vulnerability for Steyn, but on the facts, he will finally unmask this egregious charlatan, who has been a pestilential international nuisance for decades.
~While we're on the subject of my deranged Dominion, Steve McIntyre arrives to testify at the DC Superior Court sweatbox this week. Five years ago, I had the pleasure of his delightful nonagenarian mum's company on the Mark Steyn Alaska Cruise. As a wee Ontario schoolgirl, young Katherine McIntyre had the pleasure of being invited to meet her near contemporary, Princess Elizabeth. Nearly a century on, Her late Majesty is no longer with us, but Mrs McIntyre is. Here she is being honoured last Remembrance Day at Maple Leaf Gardens for her service with the Royal Canadian Air Force - and note that, unlike Joe Biden, who's twenty years younger, Mrs Mc can sing her national anthem more lustily than anyone in the room:
For Michael E Mann and his devoted Mannboys, Mrs McIntyre is better known as the creature who spawned the "human filth".
~For newcomers to the trial, lawyer Roger Roots has one of the best summations over at The Gateway Pundit:
Multi-million-dollar defamation judgments have recently been imposed against Alex Jones, Rudy Giuliani, Ammon Bundy, and even Donald Trump. And now, a twelve-year-old defamation lawsuit by climate activist professor Michael Mann against Mark Steyn and Rand Simberg has gotten underway in a D.C. courtroom...
An attorney for Simberg asked Dr. Mann how much Mann was paying for his attorneys and if Mann would have any legal debts from the case.
Michael Mann admitted that he hadn't paid a penny for the several law firms representing him over the past 12 years or to the four lawyers (and several staff people) representing him at trial.
And Mann said he would have no legal debts from the case regardless of whether he won or lost.
The courtroom audience was stunned. Steyn and Simberg appeared shocked as well. By some accounts, Steyn has already spent several million dollars defending himself.
~By common consent, Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer's daily dramatisations (with eminent Hollywood actors) of the DC court proceedings have been one of the undoubted highlights of the trial. It earned Phelim an invite to Anthony Watts's Climate Roundtable - which includes part of my testimony renderered not by Aussie thesp Thomas Bromhead but by an AI bot. Click below to watch:
~In other trial news, my first and second Statements of Claim against the UK media censor Ofcom have been accepted for judicial review by the High Court of England. The King's Bench Division will hear the case in March. So, after a quick post-Mann break for the Mark Steyn Caribbean Cruise, I will be jetting into London for yet another courtroom appearance. Many readers have inquired about how to support this latest Free-Speech Lawsuit of the Month, this time over Ofcom's throttling of honest discussion of the Covid and the vaccines. Well, there are several ways to lend a hand, including:
a) signing up a friend for a Steyn Club Gift Membership;
b) buying a near-and-dear one a SteynOnline gift certificate;
c) ordering a copy of my latest book, The Prisoner of Windsor (you won't regret it - ask Kathy Gyngell);
d) snapping up one of the above-mentioned limited-edition SteynOnline Liberty Sticks; or
e) lavishing upon your beloved a once-in-a-lifetime Mark Steyn Caribbean Cruise.
With the first two methods, one hundred per cent of the proceeds goes to a grand cause - and, in the rest, a significant chunk thereof. And, in all cases, you or your loved one gets something, too.
~Notwithstanding Mark's potentially fatal health implosion from the DC Superior Court sweatbox, we had a very busy weekend at SteynOnline, starting with Mark himself back in the chair for our Clubland Q&A. Acclaimed Australian actor (and sometime voice of the Geico Gekko) Thomas Bromhead recreated Steyn's end of the courtroom contretemps on Ann & Phelim's daily podcast, and Rick McGinnis's Saturday movie date went full Jacques Tati. On Sunday Amy K Mitchell filed her Weekend Update, and Steyn's Song of the Week celebrated "The Look of Love".
If you were too busy spending the weekend getting mean stares in the cereal aisle of Wegman's Supermarket, we hope you'll want to check out one or three of the foregoing as a new week begins.
