Absence of Malice Page #8

that these checks were drawn

immediately before

and immediately after

your meeting with Mr. Quinn.

What do you make of that?

What do you make of it?

Come on, now.

You're trying to say

that you just got

an urge to contribute

to his committee

before you met him, then

you got another urge after?

Yeah. I came into

some extra money

a couple days later.

All right.

You made these contributions

anonymously. Why?

I wanted them to be anonymous.

ROSEN:
I'll bet. Tell us why.

I didn't want other people

asking for contributions.

The reason is

that you were paying off.

Prove it.

Mr. Gallagher,

if you in fact told Mr. Quinn

that you would act as

a government informant...

No, wait a minute.

I said that I'd see

what I could find out.

ROSEN:
What are you finding out?

Nothing.

Nobody wants to talk about it.

You son of a b*tch.

You're trying to frame me.

He set me up.

He arranged the meetings.

He is the one who got me

on his machine.

He's got the cancelled checks.

He's trying to frame me!

What's his motive?

To get even, you dummy!

You guys ought to get married.

Mr. Gallagher, are you that smart?

QUINN:

You're damn right he is.

Ms. Carter,

you seem to know a lot

about what's going on.

I'd like to ask you

where these stories came from.

Objection.

My client is not...

You save your objections, counselor.

This ain't a courtroom.

Now, Ms. Carter, this story

about Mr. Gallagher, the first one.

I had reason to believe

the strike force was

investigating Mr. Gallagher.

I confirmed it. I wrote the story.

WELLS:
How did you confirm?

Objection. You are asking...

Wait a minute. Wait a minute.

I wanna answer this.

I read the file.

WELLS:
Did you, now?

How did you come

to read the file?

I was talking with Mr. Rosen.

It was lying on his desk.

When he left his office,

I read it.

Did you ask Mr. Rosen what

in the name of Christ he was doing

leaving the file on his desk

for you to read it?

He intended me to read it.

WELLS:
Why would that be?

So I would write a story

that made Mr. Gallagher look bad.

This story.

Did Mr. Rosen give you

that one too?

No.

Go ahead, Ms. Carter.

I'm sorry, I can't tell you.

I think I know

where we're headed here.

Before we get there,

I wanna say something to you.

You know and I know

that we can't tell you

what to print or what not to.

We hope people in the press

will act responsibly.

When you don't, there ain't a lot

anybody can do about it.

But we can't have people go around

leaking stuff for their own reasons.

It ain't legal.

And worse than that,

by God, it ain't right.

I can't stop you,

but I can damn well stop them.

I wanna know

where them stories come from.

Under the First Amendment,

my client is not required to reveal...

That's all horsepucky.

The First Amendment don't say that,

and the privilege don't exist.

Now, do you understand

I can ask you these questions

in front of a grand jury?

Yes.

And if you don't answer,

you can go to jail?

I know it's possible, yes.

Oh, it's more than possible,

Ms. Carter, it's damned likely.

I ain't anxious

to be locking up reporters.

But I'm gonna tell you something.

I don't like what's going on.

May I say something, please?

Yes.

I don't wanna go to jail,

but this has got to stop

someplace.

A lot of damage has been done.

I'm responsible for a lot of it.

I know that.

I don't know. I keep thinking

there must be some rules

to tell me

what I'm supposed to do now.

But maybe not.

The person who told me

about the investigation of Mr. Quinn,

they were not leaking it.

They did not intend

for it to be printed.

I did that on my own.

I'm scared to death of going to jail,

but if I tell you who it was,

you'll have to do something about it,

and someone else will be hurt.

So it's really very simple.

I can hurt someone

or not hurt someone.

No rules.

Just...

me.

I can't tell you.

Mr. Gallagher.

I seem to wanna ask

if you set all this up.

If I do, you ain't gonna tell me,

are you?

No.

I'll tell you something.

You're a smart fellow.

Don't get too smart.

I'm pretty smart myself.

Everybody in the room is smart.

And everybody's

just doing their job.

And Teresa Perrone's dead.

Who do I see about that?

Ain't nobody to see.

I wish there was.

You're excused now, sir.

Ms. Carter, you can go too.

Later today I'll have

a statement for the media.

You ain't gonna like it.

It's gonna say Mr. Quinn here

may not be the smartest DA

we've ever had,

but there's no evidence

suspecting him of anything.

And it's gonna say you were

suckered by Mr. Rosen here

who has some peculiar ideas

on how to do his job.

It's gonna say it was premature

and real wrong

that these investigations

ever got reported in the first place.

You don't have to print it, of course,

but it's gonna wind up in the paper.

Angeline,

you and Elving go on ahead.

Robert, you can go too.

I'll be along in a minute.

Jim, you're in a bad place,

boy.

I could talk myself blue

clearing you, but wouldn't

nobody believe me.

You got a hell of

a publicity problem.

I could sue.

Who?

You can't win.

Absent malice,

what can you prove?

Saying I should resign?

The president appointed you.

I ain't the one to be kicking you out.

But I'd suggest it.

I'll talk to you later.

That's really too bad. I'm sorry.

Yeah.

He's a nice guy.

He just forgot about the rules.

What did you figure you'd do

after government service?

I'm not quitting.

You ain't no presidential appointee,

Elliott.

The one that hired you was me.

You got 30 days.

Would you excuse me

for a moment, please?

Well...

You got us all, didn't you,

Michael?

You got yourselves.

How'd you know I'd get the story?

I knew somebody would.

I'm sorry it was you.

How'd you know I'd print it?

It's news, isn't it?

Remember,

nothing's done yet.

Make sure that this is...

Davidek filled me in on it.

We're not gonna retract

anything, but we've got

a lot of explaining to do.

Sarah's gonna write the story.

We'll handle it the best way we can.

[SIGHS]

I need to know how to describe

your relationship with Gallagher.

Mac said to quote you directly.

You can say whatever you want.

[SIGHS]

Just...

say we were involved.

That's true, isn't it?

No.

But it's accurate.

[]

Hot, huh?

Not so hot, really.

I went by your house.

There's a "for sale" sign out.

Yeah, it's sold.

Got a good price.

You got some sun.

Yeah, I've been sitting on the beach.

We were pretty famous for a week.

Did you read the story?

Nope.

You want a beer?

Sure.

Where are you headed?

I don't know.

I guess I got a couple

of moves left in me.

But you don't know where?

Not sure.

People are going south and west,

but, uh, I think I'll go north and east.

You can go clear

to the Hudson River.

I mean, clear to Canada,

on the inland waterway.

The Northeast.

I was raised in the Northeast.

I had my first job there

the summer when I was 16

on the Berkshire Eagle.

I wonder if they'd have me back.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes