WUWT has a long post showing how Mann deceived the court, but the best part are the comments in that post. AGAIN, it is a VERY LONG read and is not for the faint of heart. Here is the “positive” case of contempt, followed by a more tempered case of what is happening.
Penn State climate scientist, Michael ‘hockey stick’ Mann commits contempt of court in the ‘climate science trial of the century.’ Prominent alarmist shockingly defies judge and refuses to surrender data for open court examination. Only possible outcome: Mann’s humiliation, defeat and likely criminal investigation in the U.S.
The defendant in the libel trial, the 79-year-old Canadian climatologist, Dr Tim Ball… is expected to instruct his British Columbia attorneys to trigger mandatory punitive court sanctions, including a ruling that Mann did act with criminal intent when using public funds to commit climate data fraud. Mann’s imminent defeat is set to send shock waves worldwide within the climate science community as the outcome will be both a legal and scientific vindication of U.S. President Donald Trump’s claims that climate scare stories are a “hoax.”
As can be seen from the graphs below; Mann’s cherry-picked version of science makes the Medieval Warm Period (MWP) disappear and shows a pronounced upward ‘tick’ in the late 20th century (the blade of his ‘hockey stick’). But below that, Ball’s graph, using more reliable and widely available public data, shows a much warmer MWP, with temperatures hotter than today, and showing current temperatures well within natural variation.
(Read It All: PRINCIPIA SCIENTIFIC)
In PJ MEDIA’s post on the issue, they note that “it may be premature to make such a sweeping declaration” in regard to Mann’s intentions for refusing to hand over the info, but that it is damning to his case — which he brought. And to be clear — clarity is key — Mann is not yet in actual contempt, but may be headed that way. I do not usually quote the NEW AMERICAN (I do not like their magazine — it has a VERY spotty record via the John Birch Society), however, they take a very centered approach to the “contempt” charge:
The libel suit against Ball concerns his assertion that Mann is guilty of fraud. As to what has transpired, O’Sullivan (who, it should be noted, is a colleague of Ball, with Ball being a founding member and ex-chairman of PSI) quotes Ball as explaining:
Michael Mann moved for an adjournment of the trial scheduled for February 20, 2017. We had little choice because Canadian courts always grant adjournments before a trial in their belief that an out of court settlement is preferable. We agreed to an adjournment with conditions. The major one was that he [Mann] produce all documents including computer codes by February 20th, 2017. He failed to meet the deadline.
As a consequence, O’Sullivan wrote on July 4 that Ball
is expected to instruct his British Columbia attorneys to trigger mandatory punitive court sanctions, including a ruling that Mann did act with criminal intent when using public funds to commit climate data fraud. Mann’s imminent defeat is set to send shock waves worldwide within the climate science community as the outcome will be both a legal and scientific vindication of U.S. President Donald Trump’s claims that climate scare stories are a “hoax.”
… Mann’s now proven contempt of court means Ball is entitled to have the court serve upon Mann the fullest punishment. Contempt sanctions could reasonably include the judge ruling that Dr. Ball’s statement that Mann “belongs in the state pen, not Penn. State” is a precise and true statement of fact. This is because under Canada’s unique ‘Truth Defense’, Mann is now proven to have willfully [sic] hidden his data, so the court may rule he hid it because it is fake. As such, the court must then dismiss Mann’s entire libel suit with costs awarded to Ball and his team.
Mann’s attorney, Roger McConchie, contradicted this July 6 at Mann’s Facebook page, writing:
Contrary to the nonsensical allegations made by John O’Sullivan in his July 4 posted [sic] on climatechangedispatch.com and elsewhere, plaintiff Michael Mann has fully complied with all of his disclosure obligations to the defendant Tim Ball relating to data and other documents.
No judge has made any order or given any direction, however minor or inconsequential, that Michael Mann surrender any data or any documents to Tim Ball for any purpose.
Accordingly it should be plain and obvious to anyone with a modicum of common sense that Mann could not possibly be in contempt of court.
So whether or not the Canadian court’s judgment will heat things up for Mann or Ball remains to be seen. What is for sure is that someone is telling a whopper of a lie.