Judge has already ruled that fraud was done. This part of the trial is just to figure out the penalties. The more they can muddy waters as to who, exactly did the fraud, the more they can hope the judge treats them like absurdly negligent morons rather than criminal masterminds.

It’s like there’s this committee of Trumps, and they’re going one by one, asking “who shat in the punchbowl?” None of the kids can remember doing it, and their daddy just thinks it’s a travesty that we’re even talking about the steaming load. The evidence is all there, everyone knows what happened, but it’s hard to know how much of a team effort it was and whom to punish.