A long deposition is a strange document. It is sworn. It is on the record. It is, technically, public. And yet most of its sentences will never be quoted, because most of its sentences are not interesting in isolation. The interesting sentences are the ones around the boring sentences — the ones that, in context, change what the boring sentences mean.
The deposition at the center of this video runs to four hundred pages. The press coverage at the time relied on six paragraphs, all of them from the first hour. We read the rest. The interesting material is on pages 218 through 247.
What got skipped
By the late afternoon of the deposition, the witness has been answering questions for several hours. The exchanges become more careful. The lawyer’s phrasing tightens. The witness pauses more often before answering. None of this is dramatic. All of it is informative. A witness who is choosing words at 4 p.m. is telling you something different from a witness who is answering quickly at 10 a.m.
The interesting sentences are the ones around the boring sentences.
This piece is a reading. Total runtime: just under fifteen minutes. We do not editorialize the depositions; we read them in order, with the relevant exhibits on screen, and we let the reader see how a single sentence on page 234 quietly contradicts a single sentence on page 71. The contradiction is small. It is also, if you have read the surrounding pages, dispositive.