A two-hour hearing in Spain’s high court Friday on the US extradition request of wealthy leftwing activist and philanthropist James “Fergie” Chambers turned out to be a study in contrasts.

Chambers’s defense took most of the session to query the US citizen and detail irregularities in the Trump administration’s extradition request – several of which the Guardian has reported on – as well as the figures of Spanish law that would lead the three-judge panel to deny the request; while the prosecutor sped through his case, head down, asking Chambers no questions at all.

Notably, neither the judges or the prosecutor asked Chambers to address the insinuation in the extradition request that the wealthy activist had supported Hamas.…