If this trial has been running interminably or off-schedule, Kessler has absolutely no one to blame for that but herself.

Had she simply followed twice-established Federal precedent on civil RICO disgorgement, as she was supposed to do, instead of making up her own new law on the topic, this case probably would have been settled without a trial eight months ago.

In the meantime, the gov’t has had five full years to work up possible remedies, and has spent $140 million of the taxpayers money on this. The discovery in this trial to date involves tens of thousands of pages of documents, and is likely one of the most voluminous in the history of American Jurisprudence. The Gov’t has also had more than six months advance notice that disgorgement could be taken off the table, and plenty of time to develop different possible remedies during that time. Did they? No.

So now, after five years, at this eleventh hour they want new witnesses with new evidence admitted, but they are simultaneously claiming they are too poor to permit new discovery. They can’t have it both ways.

If Kessler wants to open up Pandora’s box and allow new witnesses this late in the game, she also has to permit tobacco to have reaonable discovery. That takes time. If she wants to limit the trial, she might take a look at the proposed testimony of the DOJ’s remedy witnesses, and save everyone’s time by not permitting much of it, as irrelevant to preventing future RICO violations.