A poker player sometimes gives away the strength of his hand with a "tell."
It's an unwitting signal — the way he eats an Oreo cookie, for example — that reveals to other players whether he's bluffing or holding a really good hand.
For Wake County prosecutors, the tell may have been asking a question a second time.
During their first session with former House speaker Jim Black, they asked if he received any gifts from lobbyists. Black did not mention the $500,000 loan he received from lobbyist Don Beason.
In the follow-up interview, he was again asked about gifts or loans. Defense attorney Ken Bell then spoke up, as he noted during his cross examination of Black on page 116:
"And do you also recall that after they had asked those questions that it was me who told them that they hadn't asked a question that you had some information about, which was a loan from a lobbyist?"
However that second question was worded, it may have been a "tell" that inadvertently let Bell know that prosecutors already knew about the loan.
