Out of office, Berlusconi remained a highly visible figure, both through his media empire and as the defendant in ongoing criminal trials.
Here was a woman, on prime-time television no less, openly discussing ongoing criminal trials and opining on whether the accused was innocent or guilty.
Betsy Holahan, a Treasury spokeswoman, declined to comment on the procedures for the news briefings "in light of the pending trial and ongoing criminal investigation".
The concerns about a civil trial during an ongoing criminal investigation, and about the prosecutor's access to the plaintiff's information in the civil trial, stemmed from Jackson's Fifth Amendment rights.
He botched an attempt to bring the accused 9/11 plotters from Guantánamo Bay to a New York courtroom for a criminal trial, and the congressional backlash to that effort created an ongoing legal disaster.
Ulbricht was convicted in February after a four-week trial on all seven counts, from selling narcotics and money laundering to maintaining an "ongoing criminal enterprise", a charge usually reserved for mob kingpins.
It was not a criminal trial.
"This is not a criminal trial.
There is no ongoing criminal investigation.
Mr. Rudin: Criminal trial, now this trial.
