For several seconds Hollister watched himself leaning through the window. Byron's hands remained visible, his answers clear and consistent. The sergeant said nervousness was difficult to capture on camera, that an experienced officer recognized cues other people missed. Porter made a note and asked why the report stated that Byron had changed his destination when the audio recorded the same destination every time.
"Those reports are prepared under pressure," Hollister said. "A deputy might use shorthand. That doesn't mean he's lying." Porter replied that an officer's official report was not supposed to describe behavior that had not occurred. Hollister's lawyer interrupted to insist that minor discrepancies could not establish criminal intent, and Porter agreed that intent would have to be proved rather than presumed.
She moved to the comparison of the three hundred forty stops. Hollister listened to the racial breakdown without expression, then said he targeted suspicious vehicles and that the highway's traffic patterns were outside his control. Porter asked why white motorists carrying substantial cash had often been allowed to leave while Black and Latino motorists carrying less were searched. He answered that every stop was different, but he could not identify the distinguishing facts in several examples she placed before him.
Next came the seizures. Porter showed him Denise Whitmore's withdrawal receipt, Earl Sutton's bill of sale, and Marcus Green's pay records. Hollister said he did not remember individual cases from so long ago. When Porter played Denise's body-camera footage, his face tightened at the sound of his own voice telling the nurse that her mother should have raised her better.
"Do you remember her now?" Porter asked. Hollister looked at his attorney and answered that he did not recall the full circumstances. Porter did not argue. She marked the response and moved to the next recording, allowing his unwillingness to engage with the evidence to become part of the record without turning the interview into a contest of insults.
The financial documents occupied the final portion of the meeting. Porter displayed an accounting of unexplained evidence-room discrepancies and cash deposits made into Hollister's personal accounts. His attorney requested clarification of the date ranges, questioned the assumptions underlying several calculations, and advised Hollister not to answer questions that might expose him to criminal liability. Hollister followed that advice.
When the interview returned to the Tahoe stop, Porter asked what Hollister understood about the driver at the time. He answered that he knew the vehicle was federally registered, but he had not believed the man was important enough to deserve special treatment. Porter repeated the phrase important enough and asked whether the law assigned different rights based on a person's title. Hollister said that was not what he meant.
"You have since been informed that the driver was Byron Davis, the newly confirmed FBI director," Porter said. Hollister stared at her for a long moment. The room was quiet except for the recorder and the faint hum of ventilation. Finally, he said, "That doesn't change what I saw."