The only person who didn't stand when Judge Daniel Irick entered the courtroom was George Gibney.
In the sparsely attended courtroom 5C, on the fifth floor of the Federal Building in downtown Orlando, Mr Gibney wasn't hard to spot. He was the one in the navy blue uniform handed to inmates when they are admitted to the Orange County Jail.
And he was in a wheelchair.
He looked old, frail and surprisingly pale for a resident of the Sunshine State. His former neighbours in Altamonte Springs told local media he rarely left the house he lived in.
The skin on his arms was wrinkled, the muscle atrophied. He was clean shaven, but his grey hair was unkempt. And he was not wearing glasses, like he was in every photograph and TV appearance we’ve seen over the decades.
His defence lawyer, Aisha Nash of the Public Defender's office, told Judge Irick that Mr Gibney was "in desperate need" of glasses. He couldn't read the document at the heart of Friday’s brief court appearance - an affidavit, signed by him, waiving his right to a hearing to contest his extradition to Ireland.
No reason was given for his change of mind on the matter. Friday's hearing was originally scheduled as a detention hearing, at which Mr Gibney would have an opportunity to challenge his continuing detention and seek bail, while preparing to contest the extradition warrants.
But at the start of the week the US Attorney’s office filed a 23-page memorandum to the judge, stating that Mr Gibney could not show any reason why he should be given bail.
The memo also set out, in great detail, established case law and practice in dealing with foreign extraditions in the United States. It left little wiggle room for Mr Gibney - or anyone else facing extradition from the US - to put up an argument.
US jails are not famous for being hospitable places.
In effect, Mr Gibney had a choice of spending months in jail here in Florida trying to fight the US government’s desire to execute the extradition warrant.
Or he could accept his fate and be returned swiftly to Ireland for trial.
He chose the latter.
Mr Gibney spoke very softly in court. His wheelchair was parked next to Ms Nash at the defence counsel’s table on the right hand side of the court. Two US Marshals sat nearby.
At the judge’s request, they manoeuvred Mr Gibney’s wheelchair so he could speak into a microphone and be heard in the not terribly large courtroom. To their left, sat Amanda Daniels, an assistant US Attorney from the Orlando office of the Florida Middle District US Attorney’s Office.
Her boss, in whose name proceedings against Mr Gibney were issued, is Gregory Kehoe, the US attorney for the Middle District of Florida, one of the three districts in the state. He was appointed to the role at the end of March by Attorney General Pam Bondi. Her boss is President Donald Trump. It’s a short enough chain.
Mr Kehoe, in a 20-year career as a prosecutor with the Department of Justice, has served in a number of overseas postings, including as an advisor to the Iraqi Special Tribunal, an ad hoc court formed to prosecute Saddam Hussein.
The US attorney’s memo argued that the only role of the court in extradition proceedings is to see if the paperwork was correct, not to litigate the charges set out in the warrant. Not to hear witnesses or examine evidence. That is the job of the court in Ireland which issued the charges.
The memo also firmly pointed out that apart from a few closely defined judicial elements, the decision to extradite or not is made by the executive branch of the US government, namely the Department of State, which is responsible for relations with foreign governments, including operating bilateral treaties - which is what an extradition treaty is. Ultimately US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has the final say on Mr Gibney’s extradition.
When An Garda Síochána sought prosecution of Mr Gibney on 78 charges of indecent assault and one charge of attempted rape - and the prosecution was approved by the Director of Public Prosecutions - the file was passed to the Department of Foreign Affairs.
It sent the relevant documents to the Irish Embassy in Washington DC, which then sent it in the form of a "Diplomatic Note" to the State Department last October.
A State Department legal advisor issued a declaration on 19 February this year, stating that an extradition treaty between the US and Ireland has been in existence since 1983 and was amended by an EU-US Agreement on Extradition.
The US has liaison offices in The Hague, Netherlands, the headquarters city for both Europol, the police intelligence exchange, and Eurojust, the public prosecutors group.
One of Eurojust’s functions is to smooth out extradition proceedings between EU states and between the EU and the US. Eleven US law enforcement agencies have staff in The Hague to liaise with Europol, including the FBI and ICE - the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency that has become controversial in recent weeks, with an immigration crackdown ordered by President Trump and which has seen the army deployed in California to support ICE raids.
ICE also had a small role in the George Gibney story, back in 2010, though it lacks the zeal of the agency’s more recent work.
Mr Gibney’s time in the US now seems to be drawing rapidly to a close. The expectation now is that Mr Gibney may be back in Ireland by the end of the month. Once he is formally charged there, nobody will be allowed to publish his name in relation to those charges or the reporting of any court case that follows, to protect his presumption of innocence (the complainants in the case will be afforded the same protection).
Meanwhile here in the US, with its First Amendment Constitutional protection of free speech, the 302-page dossier that led Judge Daniel Irick to issue an arrest warrant for Mr Gibney on 24 June is available on the website of the US Courts Service.
For less than the price of a couple of Sunday newspapers, users can download the bundle, which includes the 79 arrest warrants for Mr Gibney issued by the Dublin Metropolitan District Court in June 2023.
During the judge’s questioning of Mr Gibney over his understanding of his affidavit waiving his right to challenge his extradition, he appeared to become confused on two occasions.
The first was when the judge asked if he spoke and understood English. There was a long pause before his defence lawyer leaned in and said something off-microphone. Mr Gibney then answered "yes".
The second occasion was when he was asked if he understood that he could challenge the extradition request. Mr Gibney replied "Oh, I will". Again, his lawyer leaned in and said something to him. Mr Gibney then turned back to the microphone and simply said "yes".
After an 11-minute hearing, Judge Irick closed case 6:25-mj-1639, In Re-Extradition of George Gibney.
He ordered his continued detention by the US Marshals Service, until the Irish come to take him back.
Two US Marshals then wheeled George Gibney out of court through the door used by the judge and people in custody.
