U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth appears frustrated with Jacob Chansley's attorney Al Watkins. Watkins abused his privileges as a lawyer to arrange an interview between his imprisoned client and 60 Minutes.
Watkins, who is based in St. Louis, denied any effort to mislead.
"There's no subterfuge here, at all. … I did not under any circumstances try to conduct subterfuge to this court, certainly, and not to the facility where my client is currently housed," the attorney said. "It's just not my style."
Nevertheless, Watkins appeared to concede that the jail was in the dark about his plans to use a virtual lawyers' visit to make his client available to the media.
"The jail was only told this was an attorney-client interview video. I asked for a Zoom conference with him," the defense lawyer said. "I didn't tell them it was for an interview with '60 Minutes.'"
"I'm sure you didn't," Lamberth shot back.
