Denial Page #6

JULIUS:

Ah here she is, excellent, our

client’s arrived. The defendant.

All the way from Atlanta.

DEBORAH:

My God, sure you got enough people?

JULIUS:

I’ll give you their names as we go

along. For now, everyone: Deborah

Lipstadt. Say good morning.

The whole room says ‘Good morning’ and ‘Good morning,

Deborah.’ The ASSISTANT gestures towards an empty seat. She

finds herself next to a saturnine Welshman in a suit, 40s.

Behind them, a poster framed on the wall which reads PRINCESS

WINS RECORD LIBEL SETTLEMENT. DEBORAH downs her coffee in one

go.

EVANS:

I’m Richard Evans. How do you do?

JULIUS:

Richard is Professor of Modern

History at Cambridge.

DEBORAH:

Yes I know. He was my idea,

remember? I asked for you

specially.

JULIUS:

He’s one of our eight expert

witnesses.

EVANS:

It’s a pleasure to meet you.

She sees a postcard stuck in the corner of the poster.

“Another victory for the eminent lawyer.” Then the signature:

Diana. JULIUS notices.

JULIUS:

Yes, we’re aiming for a similar

result.

Full Blue Script // December 4th 2015 2626.

DEBORAH:

Do to Holocaust deniers what you

did to the monarchy?

JULIUS:

Sort of.

DEBORAH has taken out twenty closely-typed pages from her

briefcase, and hands them across the desk to JULIUS.

DEBORAH:

I’ve prepared a document on the

approach I think we should take.

Our central claim should be that

Irving is not a real historian.

JULIUS:

Excellent, that will be most

valuable, thank you. James?

JULIUS drops her document casually on the very side of his

desk, with no interest at all.

JULIUS (CONT’D)

Deborah, James is going to start by

explaining to you what your legal

options are.

LIBSON:

I’m James Libson. I work with

Anthony.

DEBORAH:

I recognize your voice. We’ve

spoken, haven’t we?

JULIUS:

Quite. Carry on.

LIBSON stops for a moment and gathers himself.

LIBSON:

To explain:
There are three routes

a libel defendant can take. First,

you can argue that Irving is

misinterpreting the offending

words. Since at one point in the

book you say that Irving seems to

conceive of himself as carrying on

Hitler’s work, then I don’t think

we can claim he’s misinterpreting.

DEBORAH:

I don’t think we can.

Full Blue Script // December 4th 2015 2727.

LIBSON:

Nor can we take the second route

which would be to claim that the

words written are not as offensive

as Irving makes out.

DEBORAH:

We can’t take that route.

LIBSON:

They are offensive.

DEBORAH:

I hope so. I certainly tried to be.

LIBSON:

So that leaves us with only one

option.

JULIUS looks pleased.

JULIUS:

We call this the atom bomb defence.

And this is the one we’re going to

go for. We plead justification.

LIBSON:

Even if the words are defamatory,

they are nevertheless true.

JULIUS:

Quite. Not every word. It doesn’t

have to be every word. You can get

some small detail wrong, but we do

have to prove what we call ‘the

sting’ of the libel. We will argue

that Irving deliberately

subordinated the truth in order to

propagate anti-Semitism and to

engender sympathy for the Third

Reich.

There is an impressed silence, no-one wanting to speak.

JUNIOR:

More coffee?

Silently, DEBORAH takes a second coffee.

JULIUS:

We have to deal with the special

problem that in the UK the burden

of proof lies with accused. I’d

like you to listen to Laura. Have

you met Laura?

LAURA:

Ms. Lipstadt.

Full Blue Script // December 4th 2015 2828.

JULIUS:

She’s 23. This is her first case.

She and I have been discussing this

very point. Attack it, Laura.

LAURA smiles, nervous in this packed room.

LAURA:

We feel... Anthony feels, in this

particular case, the peculiarity of

the British law can actually work

to our advantage.

JULIUS:

Say.

LAURA:

The first reaction everyone has

when they hear about this trial is

horror.

DEBORAH:

Horror? More like disbelief. More

like fury. A court of law has to be

a lousy place to judge history.

EVANS is shaking his head in corroboration.

EVANS:

I must agree. As a historian.

LAURA:

They say:
‘My God, are you serious?

You sit down in a court and some

pompous English judge rules on

whether the Holocaust happened?’

DEBORAH:

Yeah, and let’s think about this:

what happens if we lose? We lose

and what? Suddenly it’s respectable

- it’s legal -to say the Holocaust

didn’t happen? Unless I prove it

did? Has anyone begun to think what

that will mean?

JULIUS is smiling tolerantly. He nods at LAURA to carry on.

LAURA:

But the wonderful thing is, you

see, if we play this right, it’s

not going to be Irving putting the

Holocaust on trial. No. It’s going

to be us putting Irving on trial.

JULIUS:

Laura’s right...

Full Blue Script // December 4th 2015 2929.

LAURA:

Thank you...

JULIUS:

Laura’s very sound on this. Really.

LAURA is blushing at the great man’s praise, so hurries on.

LAURA:

If we can concentrate on his lies,

and - equally important - his

motives for lying, then there’s

absolutely no reason we should have

to produce eye-witnesses.

DEBORAH:

Hang on, I don’t get this. What,

the survivors won’t appear?

LIBSON:

No. We don’t want them to.

DEBORAH:

No survivors?

JULIUS:

No. Under no circumstances.

DEBORAH:

Why not? Why the hell not?

JULIUS:

Because even to let survivors

appear would be to legitimise

Irving’s right to question them.

DEBORAH shakes her head, furious at the ambush.

DEBORAH:

Before you settle on this strategy,

can I point out the obvious

contradiction?

JULIUS:

Please do.

DEBORAH:

You once told me this trial might

have implications for the fate of

the whole Jewish people. Now you

say you’re not going to allow them

to speak.

The lawyers are looking as if working out what they’re trying

to deal with here. When LIBSON speaks he’s tactful.

Full Blue Script // December 4th 2015 3030.

LIBSON:

OK, just to explain the thinking,

so you understand the thinking:

DEBORAH:

Oh yeah, please, I’d love to

understand the thinking.

LIBSON:

We believe Irving’s planning to be

what’s called a litigant in person.

JULIUS:

He plans to conduct his own case.

DEBORAH:

He’s not hiring lawyers?

JULIUS:

You got it. Just think about it:

That man. In person. There he is,

in court, David Irving,

international Holocaust denier,

finally getting his hands on a

survivor. Imagine. Imagine the hurt

he’ll cause. The damage. The

insult. It’s unthinkable. I’m not

going to allow it. I’m not going to

allow it to happen.

JULIUS has become passionate. The whole room is stilled.

DEBORAH:

So what are you allowing?

JULIUS:

David Irving keeps a diary. Has

done for years.

DEBORAH:

He mentions it on his website.

LIBSON:

He said he had nothing to hide, but

we still had to subpoena him to get

hold of it.

DEBORAH:

You’ve been to see him? In person?

DEBORAH is shocked, but JULIUS is smiling.

JULIUS:

Deborah, the best defence is a

strong offence. First rule...

Full Blue Script // December 4th 2015 3131.

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