There hasn't been a witness this forgetful since an Alzheimer-stricken Ronald Regan took the stand a few years after he left the presidency: Microsoft CEO Bill Gates, who sat through three intense days of videotaped testimony in late August, is coming off rather badly as more and more of his videotape has been shown at his company's antitrust trial. Gates testimony is so embarrassing that Microsoft's attorneys have done everything they can to stall--or completely prevent--its release. Once again this week, they asked the judge to limit the playing of the videotape, stating that it was being used to humiliate Gates.
"I think the problem is with your witness, not with the way in which his testimony is being presented," Judge Jackson replied, noting that the Gates testimony was a fascinating comparison with the other evidence. "I think it's evident to every spectator that, for whatever reasons, in many respects Mr. Gates has not been particularly responsive to his deposition interrogation."
Indeed, Gates was anything but forthright with the DOJ attorneys who questioned him. In the portions of tape shown so far, he's evaded simple questions, debated the meaning of common words and professed to not remember key events in the company he micromanages. It's been an odd turn of events for the richest man in the world. Oddly enough, few outside the courtroom seem to have even noticed: Like Bill Clinton, Gates has only seen his popularity rise with his recent legal problems
