Anybody else notice how little coverage this trial is getting in the national news?

Ray Nagin trial: Live coverage, day 4

A year after former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin was indicted on public corruption charges, his federal trial is now in full swing. The action started up at 9 a.m. This is a live blog, updated continuously throughout the day, so don't forget to hit the refresh button.  If you have any questions, leave them in the comment stream, and I'll try to answer them. 

11:30 a.m.: It looks like Grady's roll as a witness is to corroborate some of Fradella's and Laseter's testimony. 

Grady testifying that he also asked Fradella about how much Stone Age LLC was going to pay for the two shipments of granite they got from  Fradella's company, Home Solutions. 

Fradella never answered him. 

11:25 a.m.: After the initial 30 diagnostic, the board hired him to be the interim Chief Financial Officer. Home Solutions financial situation at that time was "Fairly Dire." The company was having trouble with its lenders. "At some point during the summer, we were having trouble just making payroll." 

11:21 a.m.: Government calls James Grady. Managing director of Alvarez and Marcel, former accountant with Arthur Anderson. As an accountant, he did work with the Recovery School District. After finishing with the school district, he got hired to be a contract worker with Frank Fradella's Home Solutions of America in January 2008. His job was to help diagnose the company's cash flow problems. 

11:16 a.m.: Not 100 percent clear what Jenkins is getting at.  He keeps asking if it was Fradella who decided who was in charge of the granite deal with Stone Age. Laseter keeps saying yes, but that fact is not in dispute. 

On redirect, Coman just reiterates the fact that Nagin's company received two shipments of free granite. Jenkins didn't really even try to dispute that. 

11:11 a.m.: Jenkins on cross examination now. 

11:04 a.m.: Coman: "Who handled the pricing of the granite slabs."

Laseter: Frank Fradella

Coman: Did Fradella ever get involved in any other granite sale? 

Laseter: No.

Laseter goes on to say that he asked Fradella how much to charge Stone Age, but, "I never got a response on charging anything for that," Laseter said. "What we got paid was zero." 

Eventually, Laseter just wrote up invoices showing the granite was given away at no cost. "Every other buyer was a cash buyer that had to pay us before we would ship it."

11:00 a.m.: Laseter says those 27 slabs were worth at least $20,000. He says he saw the slabs himself, they were damaged, but not worthless. "We wouldn't have kept it in inventory if you couldn't use it." Coman's math suggests the remaining slabs were worth at least $18,500. In any case, Laseter said, the Nagins didn't send the granite back.

10:53 a.m.: In a series of emails with his boss, Frank Fradella, it seems like Laseter was treating the shipment like a normal sale. 

After receiving the shipment, Jeremy Nagin sent Laseter an email. He was livid that only 27 of the 78 slabs they received were usable. 

10:47 a.m.: Assistant U.S. Attorney Matt Coman questioning Laseter, who was in charge of the granite transfer to Stone Age. Laseter never visited New Orleans. 

10:44 a.m.: Government calls Larry Laseter, former vice president of Home Depot. Left the company in about 2007. Joined Home Solutions of America after working at Home Depot. He was hired at Home Solutions by Frank Fradella. Laseter left Home Solutions in 2008.

10:21 a.m.: Pickens final string of questions on redirect was devastating:

Pickens: "Who signed off on your contracts?"

Fradella: "The mayor."

Pickens: "Who helped keep your company afloat?"

Fradella: "The mayor."

Pickens: "Who got the consulting contract?"

Fradella: "The mayor."

Pickens: "Who got the free granite?"

Fradella: "The mayor.

Pickens: "Who got the free trip to Chicago?"

Fradella: "The mayor."

Pickens: "Who got the $50,000 payoff?"

Fradella: "The mayor."

Pickens: "No more questions."

10:14 a.m.: Pickens is on redirect now.  He's again going over why Nagin fired off those emails attempting to distance himself from Fradella and Bennett. 

In a text, Nagin complained that Bennett was talking to then Times-Picayune reporter Gordon Russell.  

The gist: Nagin only started getting cold feet about his relationship with Fradella and company after Bennett starts spilling the beans. 

Pickens' line of questioning shows the jury that the payments and granite happened after his emails talking about "keeping the city" out of any dealings with Bennett and Fradella. 

10:09 a.m.: Jenkins appears to have just messed up a bit of his cross examination. In his opening statement, he mentioned that the granite Nagin's company received was "worthless" and therefore couldn't be construed as a bribe. However, while asking Fradella about the two shipments, Fradella said that the second shipment was pristine. (Nagin's company, remember, didn't pay a dime for either one).  Fradella doesn't budge.

Jenkins, in response, fumbles with paper. "I'll come back to that." 

10:08 a.m.: Jenkins is really hammering Fradella now. He's getting Fradella to admit that none of the money that went to Nagin or Stone Age LLC, the granite company that he owned with his sons, was concealed in any way, even though it would have been easy to do so. 

10:04 a.m.: Fradella admits that all but one of the projects that he and his company got were through the public bid process, which the mayor had no influence over.  That's a blow for the government's case.  The government has lots of evidence that payments were made (voided checks, bank statements etc.), but they have less evidence that Nagin did anything special for Fradella in exchange. 

Their case, when it comes to that angle, hinges on showing that the meetings Nagin went to with various investors in Fradella's projects amount to special treatment. 

10:01 a.m.: Jenkins is asking Fradella about an email in which he says that Home Solutions could help New Orleans recover from Hurricane Katrina by fronting hundreds of millions of dollars for projects.  Home Solutions would have to raise the money from private sources. 

So, you needed Nagin to meet with these bankers to help the city, didn't you, Jenkins asks.  So really, his purpose in meeting with them was to help the city recover faster, isn't it? 

"Yes that's accurate," Fradella admits. 

9:58 a.m.: Jenkins in full cross, knocks the computer monitor off of the lectern. It appears to be broken.  

The incident seems to have taken some of the wind out of Jenkins sails. He seemed to have Fradella on the ropes a bit, forcing him to admit that he didn't have any proof that the payments were bribes, other than his word. After the monitor took a tumble, though, Fradella just laughed. "Can you repeat the question, I got distracted." 

9:51 a.m.: Jenkins shows an email where Nagin says that any dealings Fradella and company have with him should go through his son, Jeremy Nagin, to keep the "city out of it." In a vacuum the emails seem to show the mayor was on the up and up. 

"The email says point blank, that he's not interested, does it not," Jenkins says.

"Yes but..." 

Point blank. Not interested. Correct?"

"Yes, that's what it says," Fradella says.

Fradella has to concede that Nagin sent emails that seem to show him refusing to do business with he and Bennett, but he maintains that those were only words on paper. Meanwhile, in real life, Nagin was still accepting money from Fradella and doing favors in exchange, he said. 

Jenkins: (Paraphrased) But aren't you just saying that because you want to please the government?

Fradella: "I'm not here to please the government, I'm hear to tell the truth."

9:48 a.m.: After bringing up the civil lawsuits, Jenkins drops the topic entirely. Not really clear why he brought it up in the first place, except to try to show the jury that Fradella is a huckster. Now he's going over conversations Fradella had with former business associate, and fellow corruption convict, Aaron Bennett. 

9:42 a.m.: Defense attorney Robert Jenkins up for cross examination now. Before pleading guilty to several corruption counts in New Orleans, Fradella pleaded guilty to insider trading. Those charges were wrapped up into his plea agreement in New Orleans. Jenkins is trying to get Fradella to admit that his deals are predicated on his cooperation against Nagin. 

And the cooperation against the mayor might have had other benefits for Fradella, Jenkins implies. 

"Not only did you plead guilty in those cases, your companies have had a host of civil law suits against you over the years, isn't that correct," Jenkins asks.  

9:40 a.m.: Pickens is going over Fradella's plea agreement. He's highlighting especially the requirement that Fradella's testimony be "completely truthful." What happens if you lie, Pickens asks. "The entire plea agreement can be thrown out," Fradella answers gravely. 

9:36 a.m.: In all, Fradella directed $112,500 to Nagin for the consulting services. 

9:31 a.m.: Nagins duties for the company would be to set up meetings with public officials in local, state and national office in an effort to get projects for Green Energy. "He was well known throughout the country," Fradella said. 

He never brought any work in for Green Energy, though. 

9:24 a.m.: Both the mayor and the public works director told Fradella that if they put up the capital for the lighting project, they could get a no bid contract. In exchange, the company would get a fat fee and a maintenance contract. 

In exchange for Nagin's support, Nagin wanted a golden parachute after he left office in the form of a "consulting" contract, Fradella said. The agreement was made in 2010 while Nagin was in office, but the contract wasn't signed until shortly after Nagin left. 

Nagin was also given 500,000 shares of stock in the lighting company, Green Energy Management. 

9:16 a.m.: Fradella, ever the matchmaker between Nagin and those seeking to do business with the city, also tried to hook up Michael Samuel (also a principal in the Market Street development) with the city's Public Works Department. Samuel, who owned a company that installs LED lighting, was looking to get a no-bid contract from the city. 

Fradella, it sounds like, also had an ownership stake with this lighting company.  

9:15 a.m.: Fradella: After his associate Michael McGrath's offices got raided in 2009, he warned Nagin not to call McGrath on McGrath's cell. 

9:13 a.m.: Fradella now detailing meetings with Nagin and supporters of another development project. Once again, the government is trying to prove that Nagin gave Fradella and Home Solutions for their alleged bribes. 

9:11 a.m.: In 2008, Fradella's company, Home Solutions, bid on some work related to Landry High School, but they were disqualified. The school had been damaged badly during Hurricane Katrina. Even though it was a project for the school system, Fradella reached out to the mayor for help with the disqualification. Nagin responded, in an email, "Understood, we will weight (sic) in on the company's behalf. This is outside my direct influence areas so we'll see."

9:05 a.m.: Frank Fradella is back on the stand. Attorney Richard Pickens questioning.  He's now trying to demonstrate that Fradella got something from Nagin in exchange for all the money and granite that Fradella sent his way.