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if that ever happens, where we are going to launch the nukes.”

For Dotcom, the claim is important because it has the potential, if true, to keep him free of the United States. Those facing extradition have protection if they can show they are victims of political interference or the crime they are being forced to face is a political crime. Dotcom claims there are political motivations behind the bungled raid and that the US political system’s reliance on Hollywood has Biden pulling strings to meet its needs.

But without direct evidence, there is only circumstantial evidence, showing Dotcom, his co-accused and Megaupload had ongoing and meaningful contact with various parts of government’s machinery since mid-2010.

Journalist Gordon Campbell, writing for his blog on Scoop.co.nz, told readers in July 2013 that Key had been given “too much credit … Key continues to claim that he never heard of the internet entrepreneur before January 19, 2012, and is defying Dotcom to prove otherwise. Clearly, that’s an impossible task. Because if someone wants to insist that he couldn’t see, couldn’t hear and knew nothing, NOTHING of the elephant in his room even when it was stomping on the furniture then … fine. No one can prove the content of the inner workings of John Key’s mind. It’s just that he would have to be operating at village idiot level for over six months for his position to be remotely credible.”

Campbell is right — no one can prove the inner workings of Key’s mind.

But it also ignores the other side of the equation, which asks Key to prove a negative.

How could Key possibly prove he did not know someone?

Both men are playing for huge stakes. Key has already played his cards and declared himself the winner.

Dotcom continues only to raise the stakes.

THERE WERE SOME matters which did not escape Key’s oversight.

In October 2012 he was on his way to Hollywood again, on a four-day visit to studios in Los Angeles. The plan was to showcase New Zealand and all it offered to film makers ahead of the release of the first of the Hobbit movies in November.

The trip was a coup for Key, with Oscar-winning Titanic director James Cameron hosting him at the home of Cameron’s business partner Jon Landau, along with about 30 other studio bosses and senior executives. Papers released through the Official Information Act later

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