Will you allow them to testify?
Even before the hearing began, government watchdog groups complained that Republicans who led the panel would not allow them to testify.
It is because Dr. Buigas interviewed brig officials that Judge Cooke allowed them to testify Tuesday despite strong objections from the government.
A bipartisan bill being promoted in both chambers would give directors a fixed term of five years, let them report directly to the secretary of commerce, and allow them to testify independently to Congress.
A prosecutor, Ernest Chin, told a judge in Brooklyn on Friday that the case was being dropped because the father of some of the 10 siblings who live in the apartment would not allow them to testify before the grand jury, the Brooklyn district attorney's office said.
He ruled key defense witnesses "irrelevant" and refused to allow them to testify.
And even if he had called them, it's unlikely a judge would have allowed them to testify.
He is chiefly remembered today as the abolitionist who found an interpreter for the African passengers of the ship Amistad, allowing them to testify during the trial that followed their rebellion against being sold as slaves.
The activists progressed unusually far because Howard allowed them to call expert witnesses to testify to the harms of climate change, even though he later felt compelled to instruct the jury to disregard their evidence.
(In fact, other women did come forward with allegations and testimony to corroborate Hill's account, but the Democrats struck a deal with their Republican colleagues and did not allow any of them to testify).
"He said something like this: That Yukos was financing political parties -- not just the Union of Right Forces and Yabloko, which he, President Putin, allowed them to finance, but also the Communist Party, which he, President Putin, did not allow them to finance," Mr. Kasyanov testified.
