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Can anyone explain why the lawyer is so keen on making Bill Gates to confirm that he thought that Java is a competitive threat?

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At the time, Microsoft's licensing disagreement with Sun over Java frameworks and integration with native code had some overlap with the DoJ's case: Was Microsoft attempting to eliminate a threat to their Windows monopoly with "embrace, extend & extinguish"?

I think the government ultimately dropped that angle.

IANAL but I suppose it is to paint a certain picture of BG's intentions regarding Java which would be then used to motivate the decision of the judge/jurors [0].

[0] Your legal system may varies but it's often about judging the intention and then the consequences.

So it can be used against him? How?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intention_in_English_law

If the lawyer can prove or make BG admits JAVA is a threat then BG's actions against JAVA can be seen as deliberate rather than accidental or unfortunate.

Because the "Oops I didn't think tweaking JAVA API so it works only on Windows would hurt SUN that is trying to sell a JAVA thingie that works everywhere" card wouldn't work that well and it would established deliberate questionable practice.

In this case it might or might not be something like that.

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