I just got back from the courthouse picking up my press pass for 5280 to cover the trial of former Qwest CEO Joseph Nacchio which begins Monday. There will be a lot of national press folks in town for it, including Bloomberg News, the Wall St. Journal and NPR. The Rocky Mountain News and Denver Post will also be covering it. The highlights for me will be opening statements and the testimony of those who accepted immunity or plea deals in exchange for cooperation against Nacchio. Since I do have my own cases, I won’t be there full time. But at least I won’t have to pay for airline tickets and hotels like I did for the Scooter Libby trial in Washington. Here’s a profile of Herbert Stern, Nacchio’s lead counsel. You can read about the lead prosecutor, Cliff Stricklin, here. Nacchio is charged with 42 counts of insider trading resulting from the sale of $100 million in Qwest stock in 2001. In 2000, Qwest was trading at $66.00 a share. In 2002, it was down to $5.00. Qwest bought U.S. West in 2000.