Craig Whyte sent his first tweet last night, announcing that he was looking forward to returning to Glasgow, and setting the record straight. It turned out to be his last tweet, for now at least, because he removed his Twitter account this morning.
Strange, right? I was going to say the fastest, oddest, turnaround in intent in recent times, but Theresa May just beat him to that, with room to spare.
Let’s say then a turnaround that is highly suspicious.
We can speculate a little here.
But before we do, it’s also worth noting that Whyte isn’t in Glasgow today after all, but stuck in London. The trial itself isn’t going to get properly underway without the lead defendant. He’s not done a runner – his lawyer, our old pal Donald Findlay – has turned up for business as per … and told the court that Whyte will be here tomorrow.
Surely even Craigy hasn’t brass-necked it and tried to tell the court the trial will begin only when he wants it to. Let’s rule that out. What could have got the judge to stay a bench warrant for his immediate arrest, when someone misses the opening day of a trial?
James Doleman, as ever, will be invaluable to all of us in understanding what’s going on here. He deserves great credit for the way he works and the details he imparts, simplifying legal concepts for the layperson which allows us to understand them properly and in context.
So, what’s going on here?
Is there a deal on the table?
The judge would certainly swallow that, because a deal would end the whole farce, everyone gets to save face, everyone gets to go home.
We have long suspected a deal might be cut here. We might be in the first, and final, phase of the trial right here, right now. If Whyte’s people have got them to take jail off the table – a big win for him, even with the shoddy state of the prosecution case – and they’ve agreed to a reduced set of charges, which might really amount to nothing, then it is game over and everyone will retreat from the high drama, and high damage, a trial would bring.
Was Whyte ever really “raring to go” and up for the fight?
Probably, if he had no choice. But I rather suspect that he’d rather avoid it. His setting up Twitter and threatening to talk might well have been a final effort to bounce certain people in to pushing for a deal that favoured him. We’ll soon find out; if he turns up tomorrow in the mood it’s game on.
There’s an obvious place where pressure, to cut a deal, could be coming from on the prosecution side. If you’re not already clear where (who) that is, watch Paul Larkin’s documentary The Asterix Years. You’ll suss it quickly enough.
Yet even that might not be enough to save certain people from being held to account … once Whyte has the inconvenience of a trial behind him and no longer has to worry about jail, he’s free to talk on any subject he wants. And he’s free to write too.
There’s one or two people interested in such a book, publishers with the weight and the clout to make it a bestseller.
Watch for that in the future.