Original subtitles

In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate

equally important groups. The police who investigate crime, and the district

attorneys who prosecute the offenders.

These are their stories.

Everybody in this room has made a lot of money.

Tom wouldn't shut up last week about the 82 Deku Bokayui he drank over dinner.

Camilla, I've been to your Hampton's house, or should I say estate?

For the record, we bought it pre -pandemic.

I know asking lawyers to give away money is a difficult proposition.

So I suggest we all consider it a pro bono opportunity for our souls.

Now, I'd like to close with something to think about.

America's civic institutions, our schools and universities that shape our

into citizens, our hospitals that take us in no matter how broken or broke we

might be.

And yes, our courts, which safeguard our rights and resolve our disputes

peacefully. These institutions are the bedrock of our national conscience.

And today, they face a cynical and coordinated attack.

Look, I've been kicking around this firm for a long time. I'm no bleeding heart.

You all know it.

But enough is enough.

So when do we say enough?

I say now.

Tonight.

Because if we allow these institutions to falter, if we let them fail, it's not

just lawyers and politicians who will pay the price.

It's everyone.

It's America.

Patriotism is not obedience.

Patriotism is courage.

For God's sake, Wallace.

What you call courage is going to be the end of this firm. We've been here for

140 years, Roger.

We'll lose what?

30 %?

35 % of our gross revenue?

Okay, everybody take a breath. We're in a jam here. We're all looking for the

right solution.

Hear him out.

Some things are more important than source credit and billable hours.

And everyone in this room believes that.

Because way back when, every single one of us woke up one day and decided that

the American system of jurisprudence was pretty neat.

I know I speak for every single person in this room.

When I say that it is an amazing thing to be a part of, and it is an

worth defending to the bitter end.

What I'm saying is we must hold the line.

Roger Wallace.

Let me get an attorney.

Senior partner at Blackwell and Kett.

See, there's no ring.

Does anyone else live here?

He was engaged.

We just spoke with his fiancée. She was on the road for work.

On her way back to the city now.

All right, well, let me know as soon as she gets in, all right? Mm -hmm.

Time of death?

Body temp and rigor says he died sometime last night.

10, 11 p .m.

Perp came and went through there, looks like. No fourth entry.

Phone and wallet on the desk.

Cash in the wallet.

Okay, so there's some kind of altercation.

He falls from the table, more likely he's pushed.

Yeah, MLI said the guy's got a bunch of cuts on his back from the glass. It's

pretty superficial.

He's hurt, but he's alive.

Rolls over, tries to get up, gets to his feet, and that's when somebody hits him

in the head.

There's no weapon in evidence.

But he used to live right there, though.

Who found the body?

A guy named Kevin Bradley, managing partner of the victim's law firm.

He's out back.

Wallace and I worked together for, I don't even know, 23 years.

I poached him from Caldwell Warren.

I don't always get it right, but I sure did that day. Hell of a lawyer.

Good man.

Why'd you come over this morning? It's Saturday.

We hit a bucket of balls most every week. We go to the range at Chelsea

Kind of a Saturday routine.

Bitch about our swings so we can stop bitching about work for a minute.

Can I show you something inside?

Did you have any enemies?

Take your pick. He was a bare -knuckle M &A guy. Made a lot of money, stepped on

a lot of toes.

Wore it like a badge of honor.

Don't step in, but do you know what might have been on the shelf over there

where the dust is?

Sure, I got one in my office. It was a deal toy.

A what?

A deal toy. It's like a trophy, sort of. When we close a big deal, the firm

makes a couple of them to commemorate it.

A scalp.

I don't think we say that anymore, detective.

We like deal toy.

This one should have come with a warning label.

No cameras behind Wallace's house, but we scrubbed the vicinity around the time

of death and we got a hit.

Pretty sure this is our killer.

Male, looks like, but they're silhouetted, so it's hard to make out

features. This alley accesses the garden behind Wallace's house and the door to

his home office where he was killed. And the murder weapon could be in there.

Watch what happens next.

Whoa. This guy got a good look at our killer. Exactly.

Now, the facial wreck's no good because the video's not clear enough, but our

witness has on this vintage jacket from 2009, the last time we won the series.

Who's we?

I'm a Mets girl.

And here I thought we were getting to be friends.

Anyway, the jacket is distinctive, so we're able to track our witness via

cam. Five blocks after he bumps into the killer, our witness enters an apartment

building, and that's where we lose him. Well,

go find him.

You coming with?

You're stuck with me until we can get you a new partner.

Sure, I remember. Dude was booking it. Dropped his phone.

Do you remember what he looked like? Pretty good. I mean, it was dark, it was

fast, but yeah.

He was tall, slim, ethnic -looking, maybe Hispanic.

Anything else? Any detail helps.

He had blood on his shirt and his face.

Oh, that detail certainly helps.

Would you recognize him if you saw him again?

For sure.

All right, thank you. We will be in touch, Mr. Chilton.

So we're in the game.

Hey, Lou.

Finally got access to Wallace's calendar and email. So far, just standard big

firm lawyer stuff.

Partner meeting at 5, dinner with alternative credit banker.

Nothing too sexy.

I think the sexy stuff happened earlier.

What do you mean? Talked to the VIX assistant, and apparently he and some

named Lopez got into a heated argument yesterday in the late morning. Lopez,

me check the calendar.

Yeah, here it is.

11 a .m.

Wallace met with newspaper publisher Eddie Lopez.

Do you mind?

I will.

Maybe it pops up in the email.

Eddie Lopez, you bad boy.

Bingo.

Eddie Lopez, NYPD.

I see that. What's this about?

Roger Wallace.

What about him? He's dead.

World's a better place.

That's interesting.

It's four hours before he was killed. You sent them this email.

I hope you die.

Boy can dream, can't he?

Let's take a ride, Eddie.

I hope you die?

Subtle, right? Yeah, it really is.

For what it's worth, you matched the description of the killer that we got

an eyewitness.

I did send that to Wallace, and I meant it.

That prick was playing all kinds of games, trying to take something that's

important for me.

And these are tough times to be running a little neighborhood newspaper, so we

turned to this holding company, we borrowed some cash, and Wallace puts all

these tricks in the deal.

Forces us into foreclosure so that they can buy the paper.

I swear, Wallace knew exactly what he was doing the whole time.

That's what he did for a living.

Well, I guess he was pretty great at it, wasn't he? Ruining people's lives.

Please, he's a lawyer, not an assassin.

Maybe you should have known who you're getting in bed with, huh?

You screwed us, and I'm not over it. I can see that.

Look, what we do, it matters.

We're not running a business.

I mean, this is an institution.

It's a public crime.

What do you think happens to a place that no longer gets any news coverage?

Politicians got their hand in the cookie jar.

Nobody's left to catch them.

Okay.

Where were you last night?

Eddie Lopez's alibi seems pretty solid. Yeah, he didn't feel right for it.

My dad retired to that section in Queens.

He reads that paper every morning, a dead tree edition.

Is that right?

Mm -hmm.

And last year, this builder started dumping toxic trash near where my dad

and he's got all this respiratory stuff from working down at Ground Zero, and

the only way we found out about it and stopped it was because of that paper.

I mean, these things, they do matter.

Wallace's fiancee just landed at JFK.

She'll be home in 30.

Shotgun.

We just put in a bid on a house in Nantucket.

The next chapter of life was going to be really great.

Ms. Chimenti, we need to figure out how this happened.

Who did this?

We could use your help.

Now, I know Mr. Wallace ruffled some feathers.

Did he ever mention something at work? Maybe someone on the other side of a

contested deal? Oh, please.

Roger could handle that stuff with half his brain tied behind his back.

Hell, it's what got him out of bed in the morning.

It was his own law firm he had to worry about.

What does that mean?

All I know is that in the last couple of weeks...

The knives were out.

Roger was convinced he was going to get stabbed in the back, and the guy leading

the charge was Kevin Bradley.

The managing partner.

I thought they were tight.

Golfing buddies.

They were.

But what's that saying?

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer?

In any event, something changed.

Roger started calling him Brutus.

Brutus.

Little over the top, no?

You tell us.

It is not untrue that it has been a very tense two weeks.

Our firm does work, takes on clients that you might consider right and left

everything in between.

The engine is profit, not ideology.

Okay.

Don't know if you've noticed, but the political environment in this country

gotten a little heated lately.

A little bit.

Two weeks ago, we got word certain people in Washington were not happy with

of the clients we chose to represent.

The administration threatened to ban us from doing business with the federal

government, a huge chunk of our revenue.

Unless... Unless we coughed up $80 million worth of pro bono work that was

friendly to the administration.

A bribe.

One man's bribe is another man's donation.

It was like an ax came down, split our firm in two. Some partners, like me,

wanted to make the deal. Some, like Wallace, wanted to hold the line.

I liked him, and I respected him. He had a lot of guts, wasn't afraid of the

repercussions. But the truth is, if Roger had his way, it would cost the

about $200 million per year in lost revenue.

What about you?

How much would you lose?

About $5 million.

Well, that's not nothing.

I get it, but I've been a partner for a long time. I've made...

A lot of money.

So a $5 million hit doesn't move the needle?

Correct.

Must be nice.

All the same, why don't you tell us where you were last night?

If that guy's telling the truth... Roger Wallace was a hero.

Actually had the courage to say enough is enough.

Imagine that, a lawyer with principles.

Might have gotten him killed, too.

Well, that's the problem with principles.

Run it down.

Maybe we'll prove ourselves wrong.

Hey, got a warrant for the cell towers.

Database of every phone that pinged in the area of Wallace's town home the

of the murder. I ran it for Kevin Bradley.

No dice there, plus his alibi looks pretty good. Okay.

Back to square one?

Well, not quite, because I also ran it against every partner at the law firm to

see if anyone was around that night, and I got a hit.

Turns out not Latino, like our witness thought. Guy's from the United Arab

Emirates, but he's lived in the U .S. most of his life.

Okay.

Well, cell phone data alone isn't enough to make an arrest, but show that

picture to our witness, Chilton.

See if he recognizes him.

Detective Bradley, I told you I had nothing to do with this. I'm not here

you, Mr. Bradley. Step aside.

Nasser Al -Halak, NYPD. We're under arrest for the murder of Roger Wallace.

This is outrageous. Mr. Al -Halak is one of the most prominent attorneys in

Manhattan. Well, turns out he's also a murderer.

That's you running from a murder scene.

Imagine the weapons in the bag. You drop your phone. This nice gentleman hands

it back to you.

And he sees your face.

He gave us a positive ID.

He also said there was blood on your face. Also, your phone puts you in the

around the estimated time of death.

Okay, this is how I think it went down.

Wallace was a very influential voice at the firm, so when the partners got

together to figure out what to do, he convinced most of them to hold the line,

to reject Washington's demands.

And that was real bad for you.

Because most of your practice revolves around federal contracts.

Are you done?

Can I leave?

Sadly, no.

I think you went over to Wallace's at night to talk.

Things got heated.

He came after you, maybe. I don't know, but he ended up on that table, cut and

bleeding, and you panicked.

Grabbed the nearest heavy object and...

Bash his head in.

You're wasting your breath, Lieutenant.

Is that so?

I have diplomatic immunity.

Release me.

Put

him

in the holding cell.

Step aside.

Who's in charge here?

What's going on? What is this? Mr. Al -Halak is my client, and I demand his

immediate release.

It doesn't work that way, pal. We're charging him with murder. You're

him with nothing. He has diplomatic immunity.

It's okay, I'm here. Hey, step outside.

All of you, step outside.

Mr. Al -Halak's father is the UAE chief envoy. My father was a construction

foreman. What's your point? You have no right to detain him. Actually, we have

every right to detain him.

If you want to speak to your client, you can do so using the proper channels,

but you're not doing this here.

Not now.

Not ever. The alternative is we can arrest you and you can find your own

What do you think?

So...

This guy Al -Halak thinks he can get away with murder because his father's a

diplomat in the UAE?

Certain circumstances, the children of diplomats have diplomatic immunity as

well. Al -Halak is 40 years old. I know. He's citing a loophole in which the

adult children of diplomats can continue carrying the shield of immunity if they

are financially dependent on their parents. Which is absurd. I agree. But

on the law, he's got a decent claim.

Well, I suggest you do some research and find a way to make this claim a lot

less decent.

Mr. Price, you've been sworn in as special assistant U .S. attorney for

proceeding? I have, Your Honor. Thank you. Let's hear from the plaintiff

Mr. Ferguson.

Thank you, Your Honor.

Nasser Al -Halak is immune from prosecution by the state of New York

father, His Excellency Omar bin Rashid Al -Halak.

is a federally registered diplomat from the United Arab Emirates.

The courts have traditionally used visa rules in guidance on these matters.

Those rules provide diplomatic visas to dependents, regardless of age.

But don't take my word for it. May I, Your Honor?

This is the U .S. State Department's declaration asserting my client's

diplomatic immunity.

Mr. Price, historically this declaration carries weight in this courtroom.

Are we done here?

Respectfully, Your Honor, no.

Sometimes the State Department gets it wrong.

Mr. Al -Halak has made an extraordinary claim about the nature of dependence,

which demands an examination of his lifestyle.

Why so extraordinary?

Start with his home, which his family owns, free and clear, condominium on 7th

Avenue valued at $16 million.

Exactly, Mr.

Al -Halak's family.

owns that home it's our position that he relies financially on his family and is

therefore dependent and immune from prosecution in fact your honor if mr

insists on going down this road my client is actually in debt thank you for

raising that he's right your honor mr offalock is in quite a bit of debt it's

all family debt promissory note

obligating him to pay back his father.

And the reason for that debt is he is an overly indulgent playboy. He makes

roughly $5 million a year, and he lives a lifestyle of someone who makes $50.

But don't take my word for it. Here's Mr. Al -Halak two weeks ago in the

platinum suite he rented at the Monaco Grand Prix.

There are numerous other escapades. Your Honor. Mr.

Al -Halak is only in debt, and therefore dependent.

Because he lives like a rock star and burns through his money. Your Honor. Mr.

Al -Halaq's reliance on his parents was not due to incapacity or an inability to

support himself, as the law requires.

It's self -inflicted hardship, to the degree that it's a hardship at all.

Hey, good work.

The good news is we can put this guy on trial. The bad news is the case isn't

very strong. No murder weapon. The motive is opaque.

I assume there's a but here. But we have a strong witness who can ID him and tie

him to the video we have of the suspect fleeing the crime scene. Okay, good.

Go get him.

Hey, guys.

Hey, Nick.

How's it going? Come on in.

Permit just landed for your campaign kickoff. We got Hamilton Custom House.

going to be great. It's a perfect venue for us.

All we have to do now is fill it with 400 of your closest and richest friends.

I can't believe we're doing this already.

The election's not for two Novembers.

Well, like it or not, campaigning is now a full -time job.

Good news is we just got our first poll back.

You've got a solid approval rating.

Solid? That doesn't sound great.

No, it's good.

Not great. Better than bad.

I'll take it, I guess.

Sorry to interrupt.

Sir, I have a senior counsel for judicial strategy from Washington.

Jack Terrell?

He just showed up. Said he can wait, but... All good.

Talk soon?

Send him in.

Diplomatic immunity exists for a reason. They've been around for thousands of

years. To be original, don't kill the messenger.

Diplomats, emissaries, these people should be free to operate and negotiate

without being subject to local laws. That's how this crazy world keeps

on its axis.

What are we really talking about here, Jack?

Nostra al -Halak's family is important.

His great -uncle literally helped unite the Emirates 50 years ago, helped found

their nation. He's on, like, Mount Brushmore, the UAE.

So... You really need to try this guy for murder. He killed a good man.

Bashed his head in. In his own home.

My bosses in Washington are concerned.

They want you to drop the case.

Excuse me? If you prosecute this guy, the UAE will cancel a $100 billion arms

deal with the United States. What the hell are you talking about? Missiles,

radar systems, C -130s built by a dozen American companies. All that goes away.

Tens of thousands of jobs in places where the economy is suffering. Western

Pennsylvania, West Virginia. But you know what really gets hurt?

The defense capability.

Of our most vital partner in the most dangerous part of the world. We cannot

risk that.

Nick, I can't express how important this is.

Respectfully, Jack.

Go to hell.

Nick. You work for very important people. I get it.

You're doing your job.

But I work for a dead man, and I cannot ethically or legally abandon that man's

cause, certainly not to protect an arms deal.

That's not the way this works. You know that.

And if your deal with the UAE is so fragile that my prosecution of a

for murder threatens the whole thing, maybe you shouldn't be in business with

these people.

You're making a mistake.

I'm showing you what has been marked as Exhibit 11A.

Can you identify this object?

It's a trophy of sorts.

Black woman Katniss for Wallace's law firm executed an $8 billion merger

two luxury boat companies. That's why there's a sailboat on there.

And the firm made a small number of these to commemorate the deal.

And this one was given to the firm's managing partner, Kevin Bradley.

Did Mr. Wallace work on that deal?

He did, yes. He was the architect of the deal.

Can you explain for the jury what we are seeing here?

This is a space left in the dust on Mr. Wallace's shelf after his copy was

removed. And you believe it was removed?

By the killer. Used to murder him. To bludgeon him to death.

The object weighs 6 .2 pounds, which is consistent with the victim's head

injuries, which were his cause of death.

We were also able to recover traces of paint in the victim's head wound that

matched the paint used to make the object.

Detective, you were also able to obtain the number of every cell phone that

pinged off of towers near Mr. Wallace's home on the night of the murder. Is that

correct? Yes, we determined that Mr. Wallace died sometime between 9 .15 and

p .m. And one of the numbers that was in the vicinity at the time of death

belonged to the defendant.

Nothing further, Your Honor.

Your witness, Mr. Ferguson.

Detective Riley, did you recover what you claim is the actual

murder weapon as opposed to this copy?

No. And you have no idea of knowing when Mr. Wallace's copy went missing?

We have strong reason to believe that it was taken. It's equally possible that

Mr. Wallace could have gotten tired of looking at it days earlier and tossed

Isn't that true?

I suppose.

In fact, all of this talk about this being the actual murder weapon is

purely conjecture. It's a theory. How many people were in the vicinity of Mr.

Wallace's home between 9 .15 and 11 p .m. the night he died, according to your

cell phone data?

Approximately 1 ,800.

1 ,800.

And you interviewed exactly none of these people other than my client,

That is correct. But surely you searched each of their homes in an attempt to

find the alleged murder weapon.

No, we didn't because we felt that we had already found the killer, Mr.

Nothing further, Your Honor.

Mr. Bradley, who could see this live channel and participate in it? Our

and senior attorneys.

Can you read for the jury a message posted by the defendant at 3 .14 p .m.

the day of the murder?

Roger Wallace is an existential threat to this firm.

Strong words.

The stakes were real.

Mr. Wallace wanted to stand firm against these unusual requests.

But that would have come with a cost, correct?

Yes. If we had refused to reach an agreement, our firm would have been

from doing business with the federal government. And isn't it true that no

partner at your firm stood to lose more in that scenario than Mr. Al -Halak?

Yes. Is it fair to say that his entire book of business would have evaporated

overnight? Yes.

And in the end, after Mr. Wallace, the most influential voice at your firm,

calling on you to hold a line, after that voice was silenced, What did you

We made a deal.

You caved.

We agreed to donate $80 million worth of pro bono work.

Nothing further, Your Honor.

Mr. Ferguson, you read the jury a message my client posted on

Slack.

Could you read this one, too?

If Wallace gets his way, it's over. We'll all be out on the street.

Also written by Mr. Ahalok?

No, it was not.

Well, who wrote those words, then?

Camilla Lamb, a partner in our litigation department.

What about this one?

Wallace is a great lawyer and a political dinosaur.

Not going to happen on my watch.

That was written by a corporate partner, George Oakley.

So let's say for...

Argument's sake, that this internal dispute was in fact the motivation for

tragic murder of Roger Wallace. Of course, we've seen no evidence of that.

Objection? Sustained.

Watch it, Mr. Ferguson.

If we buy that claim, in theory, there are any numbers of partners

other than Mr. Ahalok who were upset with Mr. Wallace's point of view, who

were emotional.

Yeah, that's correct.

Nothing further, Your Honor.

Mr. Bright, call your next witness.

People call Robert Chilton.

Mr.

Bright?

Your Honor, it appears that our witness, Robert Chilton, is not here.

So, what is it?

I was trying to tell your friend here. You were trying to tell Lieutenant Brady

what? I've just been doing some thinking, and I don't think what I told

right. You know, I've been hitting the sauce a good amount the first time.

That's not true.

We didn't smell any alcohol on you. There was no evidence that you'd been

drinking. You were completely lucid.

All I can tell you is there's no way I saw blood on that guy. It was too dark

for that.

Come on, Robbie.

You picked him out of a six -pack.

Then I got lucky.

There were six photos, so I had a one in six chance.

Detective Riley said you didn't hesitate. You picked out Al Halak right

I don't know what to tell you. How about the damn truth, Mr. Chilton?

This is a murder trial.

An innocent man is dead. You can send his murderer to prison.

You don't get to just change your mind.

Well, here we are.

So that's it?

That's his new position?

If we put Mr. Chilton on the stand, this is what he will tell the jury.

Obviously, someone got to him.

I have a pretty good idea who.

We have no proof, of course.

So now what?

There are no good options. If we force Chilton to take the stand and he lies,

have to impeach using his prior statement.

Then we have a mess on our hands at best.

Or we don't put Chilton on the stand. That's not ideal either. He was our key

witness.

So we tackle this another way.

What do you mean?

We fight back.

Any closer to figuring out who got to this guy?

Maybe.

Check this out. I've been trying to track Chilton's movements using street

and Argus and all that.

Here he is last night at 11 .30 p .m. Okay, so he hopped on a train. You got

figure out where he hopped off. That's the thing. He didn't hop on a train.

He goes down into the station for 14 minutes, and he comes right back up to

Street.

That station has that abandoned platform down there, which is technically closed

off, but, I mean, it's really easy to get to.

No lights, no cameras, no cell service.

I mean, if I had to pick a place for a clandestine meeting... That's where I'd

go.

Yeah, but with who?

Any luck with the geofence data?

Maybe.

Check out this guy just texting you, Louis Trammell.

QM2L? Yeah.

Looks like he lives out in Bayside. He's a lawyer.

Former lawyer.

Was disbarred for drinking during a trial.

Hmm. There's a keeper.

I mean, he got staged, right? Needed a little liquid courage?

Look at this.

Your boy, Louis Trammell, used to work at the Office of Judicial Strategy under

Jack Drell.

Nick Baxter's old pal.

What does the geofence data tell us about this guy?

Looks like he entered the 18th Street Station five minutes before our witness.

He was waiting for him.

Sir, the Manhattan District Attorney is here.

Nick Baxter's here?

Hey, Jack.

Can we talk?

I won't take much of your time.

Yeah.

Find us a privacy.

So I want to show you something.

Do you know who that is?

What am I saying? Of course you do.

You've known Louis Trumont for 25 years.

Hell, you gave him an award for antitrust enforcement.

That was before he got disbarred.

What the hell are you... Now, this is really interesting.

There's Tramiel walking into the 18th Street train station.

Five minutes later, our star witness, Robbie Chilton, who saw Avalok outside

dead guy's home, walks into the same station.

Neither man catches a train, which is a weird thing to do at a train station.

Instead, they both walk back up to the street level.

14 minutes later and part ways.

Sure feels like a payoff to me.

I'm just following orders.

Was Al -Halak's lawyer involved too?

Nick. Yes or no?

This can go one of two ways.

The easy way, where you tell me everything and I do what I need to do.

Or the hard way, where I turn over this evidence.

Yes.

He was involved.

So we'd like to offer a plea.

A plea?

Yeah. Nasser Al -Halak pleads guilty to man one and will agree to 12 years in

prison.

Why would I possibly accept a plea? plea you just told me your star witness went

poof my client's going to walk because if you don't take the plea then i'm

gonna come after you for witness tampering what the hell are you talking

have photos of the 18th street subway station meeting i have video i have

proof so

We make a deal that makes sense for everybody, including your client, or I

go to the end of the earth to put this witness on the stand and force him to

tell the truth.

About the payoff.

Okay, I get it.

I'll talk to my client.

We're making a deal? Man won 12 years.

Nick, you said we were going to fight.

It doesn't sound like fighting. It sounds more like folding. It's more

complicated than that. Okay, well, then help me out here. Explain, because... I

can't.

Right, right. Perfect.

Make the deal, Nolan.

It's done.

I'm not going to pretend justice was served with all the locks on his way to

prison.

We've known each other a long time now.

Yes,

we have. Did some good things together for this crazy world?

I'd like to think so.

But on this one?

I failed you.

You failed yourself, Jack.

Look, man.

I know you were trying to be a good soldier, but I don't know what you were

thinking. How did you think this was going to end? No.

No, that's not what I meant.

I failed to help you understand the gravity of the environment we're in now.

When I came to you, asked you to drop this case, that wasn't some friendly

request from an old pal.

I see.

This is how things work now. People get in line.

People need to bend the knee or else there are repercussions. And I think

something for you to really think about, like ponder, you know, where

your allegiances really are at the end of the day.

whether it's really worth being your own guy in this day and age.

I think I'm good.

And if I'm being honest, I don't know how to do it any other way.

Well, things have worked out pretty good so far.

The time will tell.

Thanks for the press -off.

You made a deal?

Twelve years?

Truth is, if he is well -behaved in there, he will probably be out in seven.

He murdered my fiancée.

I know this is not what you wanted.

We did the best we could.

I'm sorry.

I know you're upset.

You're damn right I am.

Could have won this thing.

Or, at the least, exposed these corrupt bastards. They bought off a material

witness. You just want to pretend it didn't happen?

You should have talked to me, Nick. You didn't even ask for my damn opinion.

I couldn't.

That's not true.

I didn't want to.

I did what I thought was best for everyone, all things considered.

And I didn't want to drag you through the mud or expose you to any legal or

political risk.

I was trying to protect you, Nolan.

Good luck with the campaign event tonight.

Yeah.

About that...

Turns out several of my key donors just pulled out.

And the U .S. Park Service revoked our permit for the night.

So, all dressed up, nowhere to go.

How about you and me get some dinner?

Maybe a few cocktails?

I feel a bit underdressed.

Let's do it.

What

exactly

are we dealing with here?

Liv, you need to see this.

So you all are victims?

There are more.

A lot more.

Law & Order SVU. New next on NBC and Peacock.