A monologue

FADE IN:

INT. CONFERENCE ROOM IN THE ROBERT F. KENNEDY BUILDING.

WE SEE three people sitting on one side of a conference table. They are quiet, speaking not even to each other. They appear to be fidgety, looking at the closed door.

THE DOOR opens. Several people enter, the last one being a stern-looking man. They all sit down opposite the room's original occupants. They place heavy folders on the table. The stern-looking man clears his throat.

JACK SMITH

Thank you all for coming. I don't think this will take long. I'm aware that your client is a bit apprehensive with the state of our investigation. As well he should be. I also know you are here to offer a settlement. We agreed to this meeting to maintain legal norms. Unlike your client. However, there is no settlement your client could offer which would serve the needs of justice. 

In our investigation, we have uncovered malfeasance and borderline treachery of a magnitude which, quite frankly, shocked us. That a person entrusted with the safety of this country would commit the acts for which we have evidence is stunning on the face of it. But the degree of the allegations is truly astounding. The sheer audacity of them, both while in office and out of office. We've had to pursue multiple lines of inquiry for each crime. I've prosecuted war criminals, mobsters, crooked cops; none of those cases were as incredible as what we've been pursuing for these six months.

Now, I know your job is to defend your client. I know your job is to make offerings to end this investigation on favorable terms to your client. I'm going to tell you now: I will entertain no proffer. I will listen to no pleading. Perhaps if your client had shown any sense of remorse, that might have softened the People's stance. Instead your client continues to commit criminal activity, in broad daylight. I've seen nothing like it in my career.

Do you know the myth of Icarus? The boy who thought he could defy the limits of his station and attempt an act for which he had no suitability? And thus came to a rather terminal end? I think of that every time I review these cases we are pursuing against your client. (Yes. Cases.) He died because of his hubris. He was brought down low because of his overweening pride. Your client fits this myth almost too well. A man of limited intelligence, possessing no morality, who thought he was fit to ascend to the station which a series of improbable circumstances led him to.

Your client had choices to make in his life. He had advantages which not many people have. And in every instance he made the wrong choice. He made the choice which would benefit him the most at that moment, not the decision which was correct or just. He lived his life as a legal criminal. And he finally made a choice which consumed him. I am here to seek justice for that final choice.

The sheer pathology this office has uncovered will shock this nation. For four years, this nation was run by a mobster. But the thing is that mobsters are weak. And they're stupid. They may be cunning, but cunning gets you only so far. Striving to remain outside of the law's strictures means that you have to keep a hundred plates spinning. Once one falls, they all fall.

You may present mitigating factors. Those are beside the point. Your client made choices. And those choices will now have consequences, much to this nation's shame.

Let me tell you something, counselors. I have your client lined up. My scope is on him. The chamber is loaded, and my finger is just about to go on the trigger. Do we understand each other?

SMITH coughs and gets up from the table.

SMITH

Now, if you'll excuse me, staff will go over any particulars with you. Thank you for coming.

FADE OUT.

***

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