The twenty-minute clock had begun.
The declaration had struck like a bolt—unexpected, disruptive, and final.
Judge Wexler's ruling would come not in a week, not in a month, but in twenty minutes.
A ruling on the most consequential corporate case in recent American history—perhaps global—would be decided in less time than it takes to board a plane. Shock rippled through the room like an electric current. Lawyers turned pale. Aides rushed to confer. And among the spectators—CEOs, bankers, diplomats, senators—chaos bloomed.
