Yesterday during the hearing, when JP brought up the JAC meeting, didn't Baez say that he wanted to request an in camera hearing and JP declined? Baez is extremely uncomfortable disclosing how that money was spent and I don't think it has anything to do with hiring experts or anything of that nature. I think he is scared to death to show the JAC where that money went. It should be interesting if we get to see this hearing.
In my limited experience with lawyers--I have found that they can practically say anything about their fees and have it be okey dokey. I left a message on an answering machine for an attorney once and he charged me 500 dollars to listen to the message. I am not making that up! It was not a Cindy Anthony 1/2 an hour message either, it was like 1 minute max. I complained to the bar and they did nothing. They said that was his hourly rate and he could charge one hour for anything he did. Seriously.
Another time a lawyer burned through my retainer in less than a day. I asked to see what he did to prove that he worked on my case. The answer was that he "researched" and he did not have to show me a thing. It seemed to me that lawyers can simply "think" about the case and charge for it! So, it won't be a problem for Mr.-thinks-he-is-so-brilliant-Baez to state that he has been pouring over forensics/death penalty statues blah blah for thousands of hours. 270,000 is peanuts to lawyers. Baez only got into this for the huge dollars. No one would have taken this case without huge dollar signs in their eyes. BUT! it WILL be interesting when they tell him that he has to be paid like a public defender now. I'm liking that.