1.Trial Scheduling, Expert Notice, Proposed Objection Instruction, and Juror 3's Attendance

THE COURT: Good morning.

I have a couple of things to go over with you folks and then if you have any items that you want to raise, we'll take those up. One is, I wanted to make sure that everybody is okay with the position of the podium. I know that, Mr. Turner, in the middle of -- or at the very commencement of your direct yesterday, I had you move it back so that really jurors nos. 5 and 6 could have a clear view. I didn't know if you felt that setting up in that way somehow caused any concern in terms of your voice carrying or anything else.

THE COURT: Terrific.

In terms of the protests and/or people being outside in the front, there is nothing. As I understand it, it's empty out front in terms of that. There's just the normal morning traffic.

Does anybody have any other information?

THE COURT: Terrific. Hopefully, that will be behind us.

In terms of the schedule, as you folks know, we don't sit on Fridays. I forgot to mention that to the jury yesterday, and I will do that this morning. Has there been any confusion on counsels' part as to that schedule?

THE COURT: I'll go ahead and mention that to the jury and make sure that they understand: No trial on Friday.

In terms of the defense, obviously, Mr. Dratel, you don't have to preview any evidence at all. It's not your burden. But I did note, just in terms in timing, that you hadn't previewed the names or even, generally speaking, the identity of any particular type of witness, whether there's going to be a computer expert, for instance. And for my planning purposes, we don't have to say anything to the jury. I'm wondering if there's somebody that you know of who is going to take up at least a week of time. I don't need to know who they are, but what are you predicting that point?

THE COURT: I'm happy to do this.

Mr. Turner.

THE COURT: I'll do that at the beginning. And then lastly, I just wanted to comment, as you folks know, we spoke a little bit pretrial about the fact that this case may involve varying amounts of technology. As you heard during the voir dire process, I told the jury they don't have to be experts in technology. They'll be provided with whatever evidence there is that they need to make a decision based on one way or the other during the trial.

I did suggest to you folks that a glossary would be helpful or something like that. I understand you have not been able to reach an agreement, and so be it. In a criminal case, I am not going to try to come up with something or impose something.

I do want to note that to the extent the government has a view about the clarity of yesterday, I think what came out is that there's something called a tor browser. What that is I think is mumbo jumbo to most people on the jury right now. I think they understand there's a tor browser and another browser and they're different, and that tor is associated with Silk Road, but I think that that's about all that came out.

So in terms of -- that will be up for the jury to decide. They may have heard it differently, but in terms of clarity, I do think clarity of the evidence is important here. The jury I do think needs to understand things. I wanted to give you a sense that there still is room for clarity.

THE COURT: How ever you choose to put on the evidence and whatever points you think are most important is entirely up to you. I wanted to let you know that sometimes when you're living and breathing a case for so very long and you try to reduce it down to something that's simple, it can even be more complex than you often think, but you folks ultimately will do what you choose to do.

That's what I had. What did you folks have, if anything, that you would like to raise before we bring the jury in?

THE COURT: How are we doing with the jury? Today is the first day, but we're getting a sense as to the time timeliness of the jury. We are currently waiting on nine. Hopefully, they'll be here shortly, but there still is jury selection going on in another big case and there are a substantial number of people still coming in downstairs as a result, which can cause some delays. So let's just take a quick break until we have got more information and hopefully we'll get our entire group here shortly.

Thank you.

THE COURT: Let's be seated. We have a decision to make. We are missing one juror. We have 15 of the 16. We have all except for juror no. 3. So it's the juror in the third seat. At this point, and we have called his cell phone a couple of times and gotten his voicemail and we have not received any phone calls from him, and they were instructed if they were going to be late to call.

At this point, I would be willing to proceed with one of the alternates, but I also don't think it's been such a very long time that if anyone has any opposition to that, that I would hesitate to wait a little bit longer, but we should then talk about how long we wait before we then proceed.

Let me also say before people discuss their views on this that it would normally be my practice, barring any reason to do anything differently, that if the alternates are used, the alternates are used in the order in which they're seated. So we would use alternate no. 1 first, alternate no. 3 and then no. 4 so we would proceed along. So that would mean alternate no. 1 one would come down and sit in the open chair.

Views?

THE COURT: We have his contact information, including the mobile phone.

So have we called only the mobile phone?

THE COURT: All right. Ladies and gentlemen, let's all be seated. Thank you.

I've just got a couple of housekeeping matters to address and then one other issue. There is not going to be trial on Fridays unless you are deliberating. All right? So Friday is a day that I do everything else, essentially, and counsel prepares to make use of the time most efficiently. So we won't have trial on Fridays.

Now, if you are deliberating -- and there will be a point when you are deliberating -- then we will sit on Friday, but that's not going to be for several weeks. OK? So you are not going to have to report for trial this Friday.

Also, Monday is Martin Luther King Day and that is a court holiday. The court is closed on Martin Luther King Day. And so there won't be trial on Friday or Monday, but we will be picking up on every other day of the week.

The second matter is that we are going to be serving you breakfast -- a continental breakfast in the morning and giving you folks a coffee service. When I say "coffee service," it is coffee, it is tea, it is also water that you will have. So there will be a continental breakfast, and I do know that things happen in terms of people's ability to get here on time but that is an added incentive to try to get people here so that we can start promptly.

Now, the last thing is that you have heard yesterday the beginning of the first witness and you heard counsel objecting, and I wanted to just make sure that you understand that objections and lodging objections by counsel is perfectly appropriate. It is expected. You are not to draw any conclusions from the objections made by counsel. It is part of their job. And, similarly, don't draw any conclusions from my rulings other than whether the evidence in question or answer is admissible. The objections relate to legal issues and principles that are within my authority to decide, and making objections to evidence or questions or answers is entirely appropriate regardless of my rulings on any particular objection. And you will hear throughout the course of the trial both -- all counsel making objections when appropriate. All right? So I just wanted to make sure you all had heard a little bit about that.

Now, without anything further, we are ready to proceed.

I want to remind you, sir, that you are under oath from yesterday.