Elijah handed a folder to the bailiff, who handed it to the judge. He then handed a copy to a suddenly pale Dana Pierce.
"Exhibit 99 is a verified, timestamped communication from the city's lead IT technician, Richard Vance, sent directly to Ms. Pierce's official government email address on October 12th. Inside this email is a diagnostic report proving that the IP address used to commit the fraud was a spoofed external network utilizing a remote access Trojan. The email explicitly states that Sarah Cross's credentials were stolen."
The courtroom erupted. Reporters scrambled for their phones. Sarah Cross gasped, putting her hands over her mouth.
"That—that is inadmissible!" Pierce shouted, her voice shrill, panicking. "He hacked my emails! That's a federal crime!"
"No, I didn't," Elijah said calmly, his voice slicing through the noise. "I subpoenaed the IT department's communication logs regarding the server maintenance. It was buried in the 5,000 pages of discovery you provided to overwhelm me, hoping I wouldn't read it all. You hid the needle in the haystack, Ms. Pierce. But you forgot that I'm very, very good at finding needles."
Judge Harrison was reading the email, his face turning a deep shade of purple. He looked up at Pierce, absolute fury in his eyes. "Ms. Pierce, is this document authentic?"
Dana Pierce was hyperventilating slightly. The walls were closing in on her now. "Your Honor... it was... it was an inconclusive report. It was a draft. We didn't believe the IT technician's methodology was sound."
"You didn't believe it?!" Judge Harrison roared, the loudest sound anyone had ever heard him make. "It is not your job to decide if exculpatory evidence is sound! It is your job to turn it over to the defense! This is a textbook Brady violation. You have committed a severe ethical breach."