The federal corruption trial of former state Probation Department commissioner John O’Brien is lurching toward its third month. Now, as the trial builds toward a climactic confrontation between O’Brien and Robert Mulligan, the former head of the state Trial Court, a new player is elbowing his way on to the scene. Christopher Bulger, a former O’Brien deputy and the only person fired in connection with O’Brien’s alleged misdeeds, is pouring some gas on the courtroom fire.

The Probation trial has featured plenty of embarrassing allegations about Beacon Hill, including tales of a senator getting a state job for his young girlfriend, the president of the Senate working to bump up the pension for a state Democratic official, Probation officials caving to State House pressure and hiring the drug-addicted son of a former lawmaker, the former speaker of the House declaring the Probation department open for the business of patronage, and a pair of Probation workers saying they gave illegal campaign cash to a state lawmaker.

As dirty as the Probation trial has been for Beacon Hill, though, it looks to be standing on shaky legal ground. O’Brien and two former deputies stand accused of racketeering, conspiracy, and mail fraud; prosecutors say they rigged Probation hiring in favor of political patronage hires. The judge in the case has indicated he may not even let the jury deliberate over the full slate of charges federal prosecutors have brought against O’Brien and his two co-defendants. “I don’t see evidence,” Judge William Young told prosecutors last week. “It may come but I don’t see evidence.”

This uncertainty heightens the stakes around the upcoming testimony of Mulligan, the Trial Court’s former chief justice for administration and management. Mulligan is the key to prosecutors proving O’Brien committed mail fraud. Now, with Mulligan waiting in the wings, Chris Bulger is alleging that the entire Probation trial sprouted from a feud between Mulligan and O’Brien.

Bulger, the Probation Department’s former top lawyer, gives an inflammatory interview to Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly this week. In it, he alleges that Mulligan tried to ruin O’Brien. Bulger claims Mulligan enlisted the Supreme Judicial Court, the Boston Globe, and Paul Ware, an outside lawyer who investigated Probation for the SJC, to this end.

Bulger, the son of the former Senate president, calls Ware’s Probation investigation a “hatchet job.” He argues, “I don’t see how a reasonable person could read his report and compare it to my testimony and not conclude that he flat out lied… I totally underestimated the level of Paul Ware’s malice towards me and Judge Mulligan’s ability to get Ware going on that, [and I] totally underestimated how badly they wanted to get me. The SJC gave Paul Ware absolute immunity to go out and destroy reputations and careers, and he did that.”

Bulger attributes the storm surrounding patronage at Probation to personal spite between Mulligan and O’Brien. “I truly believe a lot of this stems from Mulligan’s dislike for Commissioner O’Brien,” Bulger tells Lawyers Weekly. “Dislike may be too moderate of a term; it was contempt, frankly.” He also says he believes the Globe‘s Spotlight Team investigation into Probation was the result of a judicial vendetta: “As time passes and I’ve learned more, I’ve come to the conclusion there was someone within the Trial Court assisting the Globe and directing them towards those people that dislike [O’Brien].”

Asked what he knows of patronage inside Probation, Bulger replies, “What I assumed was there were phone calls coming into the office, and I assumed there were phone calls going into Mulligan’s office, and there were phone calls going into basically every state agency. That was my assumption.” And he has this to say about Mulligan’s looming court date: “I think Mulligan will suffer a blistering cross-examination. I can guarantee he does not want to be on the stand.”

–PAUL MCMORROW  

BEACON HILL

Attorneys representing former Probation commissioner John O’Brien call for a mistrial after a witness admits conferring with previous witnesses in violation of the judge’s orders, CommonWealth reports. A former Probation official says he went to the home of Robert Mulligan, the former chief justice for administration and management, to discuss hiring concerns at the agency, but says Mulligan didn’t feel he could do anything about the problem.

The Salem News breaks out what lawmakers are receiving in so-called per diem travel expenses for commuting to the State House.

A bill expected to pass on Beacon Hill targets welfare fraud, the Globe reports.

Rural lawmakers aren’t happy with Speaker Robert DeLeo’s gun bill.

MUNICIPAL MATTERS

Interim Brockton Police Chief Robert Hayden, who earlier this year broke his nose and needed stitches after falling while running, was hit by a car and transported by ambulance to the hospital as he was riding his bike in Hingham yesterday.

Three fortune tellers in Braintree who opened shop in the last year didn’t know they needed licenses to operate, which raises the question of how good they are.

CASINOS

The Globe explores Everett Mayor Carlo DeMaria’s ties to two shady characters, but draws no direct link to Wynn Resorts and its plan to build a casino in DeMaria’s town.

Despite the glut of casinos in the northeast, MGM Resorts International argues that its facility will be a big draw.

NATIONAL POLITICS/WASHINGTON

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh is going to serve as vice chair of a national income inequality task force, the Globe reports.

The Republican war on other Republicans rages on.

Baltimore institutes a curfew for teenagers.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio dressed up like a pirate this weekend. That is all.

ELECTIONS

Evan Falchuk, who is running for governor as an independent, wants to create a political party, the Globe reports.

Four gubernatorial candidates make their pitch to the New England NAACP.

After their failed bids for governor, Juliette Kayyem and Joe Avellone talk about what’s next.

BUSINESS/ECONOMY

An FCC annual report shows that, while many Internet service providers increased performance of their networks, not all delivered the advertised speeds to customers or did it consistently.

A Pioneer Institute report finds that the much heralded Massachusetts biotech and medical technology sectors have come at the expense of other industries.

HEALTH CARE

The Massachusetts Medical Society begins teaching a course on the use of marijuana to treat medical issues, WBUR reports. CommonWealth reported on the effort in its spring issue.

ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT

South Coast area residents are posting pictures and reporting sightings of what appears to be a beluga whale in the Taunton River, a pretty fair distance from its normal Arctic habitat.

MEDIA

Ray Flynn is no fan of Johnny Depp‘s new Whitey Bulger movie, which Flynn believes is opening old school busing wounds.