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time, Dotcom wasn't the object of the investigation but the presence of police back in the family home was disconcerting. “It was a weird feeling. It was much harder for Mona doing that, co-operating with the police. She told me later she really feels a lot of anger and felt a lot of anger sitting there with that. For me it was fine.”

Police would eventually find too much time had passed for charges to be laid against Banks — the law required this happen within six months. But they also found Banks had accepted the donations and then signed off on electoral returns in which donations he should have known about were listed as anonymous.

The Banks affair was devastating for the politician's credibility. The tendency for politicians' memories to fade became a running theme through the next year in politics. Banks was mocked, particularly after he refused to allow the transcript of his three-hour interview with police to be made public. It showed, opponents said, that he did have something to fear — and something to hide.

For Dotcom, though, Banks would help establish his own credibility. Dotcom has a view which is typically strategic — there is nothing he does without a glance to the future. The same consideration was made with the scandal around the Banks donation. “I knew people would look at this and see that I am telling the truth and because I am telling the truth, it puts a question mark on all the other things that happened to me

“I made sure for everything I said, that I had proof — to make sure whatever I am telling I have the facts to back it up. It was an opportunity for me to show people I am an honest guy. I am not a criminal.”

FACTS. THAT'S WHAT Dotcom knew he needed to resist the US. He needed access to the evidence against him so he could show the facts were different from those claimed by the Americans.

An application was made to the North Shore District Court, where the extradition hearing would take place, for access to the documents on which the FBI's case was based. The process, called “discovery”, is usually standard — it allows those accused of crimes to see the evidence against which they must defend themselves.

For an aspect of the case which seemed so dry, this had remarkable features. The first was the judge who presided over the court — David Harvey. A stray comment at a public event would later see him step down from the case, but he was considered the best and most able jurist

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