In an effort to try to skewer witness Kristin Amerling on potential personal bias, defense attorney Evan Corcoran asked several questions about the mainstay of female acquaintance circles across America: Her book club.
Both Amerling and Molly Gaston, one of two prosecutors on the Steve Bannon case, are in the same book club, Amerling testified. Amerling has been a part of it for five years, but hasn’t attended a meeting for about a year. The club communicates over email, meets monthly and reads fiction. The list of books: undisclosed.
According to a Washington Post reporter observing from the courtroom, some jurors perked up as the defense pointed out the personal connections.
The personal detour of Corcoran’s questioning tried to pry into Amerling’s connections with the prosecutor, and also revealed they had both worked together almost two decades ago on a Democratic-led House committee. Most of the book club is former staff of retired Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman, Amerling said.
Corcoran pressed on. In response to another question of his, Amerling said the book club’s discussion typically would start with a book, then it was “not unusual we would talk about politics in some way or another.”
That concluded the book club questions. Corcoran then turned back to ask Amerling about Bannon communications with the committee.
