Testifying could be tricky for Salvatore F. DiMasi

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I f ex-House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi takes the stand in his own federal corruption trial, it will be a dangerous crapshoot in which he’ll have to use all his famous powers of persuasion to convince jurors that his devotion to public service left him broke and desperate — but not crooked, according to legal experts who said prosecutors have built a high evidentiary wall for the fallen pol to climb over.

“A financial motive is probably the oldest motive in the history of criminal justice. His lawyers could say, ‘Look, this is a person who was a dedicated public servant, who gave up a lucrative law practice and suffered financially. But just because he’s in debt does not mean he’s corrupt,’ ” said Boston attorney Randy Chapman, a former president of the Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

The defense team for DiMasi, his financial planner Richard Vitale and lobbyist Richard McDonough is slated to begin its rebuttal of the feds’ corruption case today. Prosecutors and their witnesses have said the trio banked hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks for helping a Canadian company, Cognos, sell the state $17.5 million worth of software by having DiMasi strong-arm everyone from legislators up to Gov. Deval Patrick .

The latest defense witness lineup, discussed behind closed courtroom doors last week, is under seal. The original list includes House Speaker Robert DeLeo, celebrity chef Todd English and Judith Meredith, a respected lobbyist for non-profit groups and legislative champion of the poor.

“I don’t know if they have any surprise blockbusters on their witness list. That adds a real dimension of intrigue to this,” said legal commentator William Kickham.

Jurors may not infer guilt from a defendant’s silence, Kickham pointed out, but he added, “You can’t remove the impression they may have received. If the witness list does not contain someone extremely powerful, extremely persuasive, then to have (DiMasi) sit there like a potted plant after all the prosecution has put forward could do him harm.”

One tact it appears the defense might take based on court filings is that DiMasi was ultimately powerless to procure business for Cognos, because that level of decision making is solely with the executive branch.

Leading Boston white-collar crime attorney Thomas Dwyer Jr. said DiMasi’s lawyers need to re-emphasize that the Cognos software had value and the technology was needed. But he said the complexity of politics makes it hard for public officials to win over jurors.

“In cases like this, defense lawyers usually put on other witnesses who can make your client appear human,” Dwyer said.

“You want to portray any defendant as someone who has humanity — or even fallibility.”

But Chapman said DiMasi is “a professional politician. He’s a trained lawyer. He should be able to articulate very clearly what was going on here. It could be the turning point in the case.”

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