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——— A v1, meeting is misleading. A more accurate view is that Criden was disappointed by Amoroso's failure to give up the money to Criden and Thompson, even though Thompson had not commit-~° | ted himself to assist the sheik on immigration. In effect, what Amoroso and Weinberg did Was to give Criden a second chance to demonstrate Thompson's corruption. Perhaps he had not sufficiently prepared Thompson for the meeting; perhaps Thompson had temporarily lost his nerve. In any event, Criden said he was confident that proper assurances could be made and that delivery of the money could be made in Thompson's presence based on those assurances.. An overall evaluation of the two Thompson meetings, linked by the interim meeting between Criden, Amoroso and Weinberg, was uniquely a problem for - the jury, and raises no constitutional issue. Moreover, in the actual context of the trial, the events of October 9th were not the conduct: for: which . ' Thompson was charged or convicted. They, together with the testimony by Congressman John Murtha, merely provided background to show that Thompson had aided and abetted _- Murphy in Murphy's receipt of a $50,000 payoff at a subse- ‘quent meeting. Ultimately, Thompson's arguments come down to a contention that the evidence against him lacked reliability