I'm not "kidding myself". I understand that many judges may have been prosecutors in the past. I'm not saying that their personal feelings probably lead them to feel that Ligambi and Borgesi are guilty as sin. But if a judge were to sandbag to personally develop a hardon for Ligambi and Borgesi would open them up to multiple appeals and a review de novo. Trust me, the last thing Robreno wants is to negatively influence the trial. In many states an attorney can file a motion to the bias judge's peers. There are plenty of judges that are "soft on crime" order the trial reviewed de novo.

I'm glad you could find one article citing biased judges. It doesn't mean it will be the case here. I've listened to a majority of the first trial. While I'm not excellent at Civil Procedure of Federal Law, nothing he ordered (other than remanding defendants to stay locked up) could be determined as "egregious favoritism". Even allowing Nicky Skins tapes was legal. But man… Eddie and the rest of the Defense Attorneys have won many of their motions.

Now on the other hand, if you wana view this trial as a baseball game with your LCN hat on… go ahead and yell at the "blind umpire". But he hasn't strayed from Judicial norms of a Federal Trial Judge.