The Department of Justice's claim that Apple led a conspiracy to raise e-book prices is on the verge of going to trial. It will be decided by a judge without the help of a jury—and that judge is already leaning toward ruling against Apple.

"I believe that the government will be able to show at trial direct evidence that Apple knowingly participated in and facilitated a conspiracy to raise prices of e-books, and that the circumstantial evidence in this case, including the terms of the agreements [between Apple and publishers], will confirm that," US District Judge Denise Cote said during a pretrial hearing yesterday, according to Reuters.

The US government accuses Apple of being the "ringmaster" in a conspiracy with e-book publishers to fix the standard prices of e-books at $12.99 and $14.99, above Amazon's typical rate of $9.99. Book publishers HarperCollins, Hachette, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, and Penguin have already settled and promised to repay consumers a total of $164 million.

Apple denies being part of any conspiracy. Cote said her statement about the strength of the government's evidence is her "tentative view." Reuters called the judge's statement "an unusual move before a trial" which "could add to pressure on Apple to settle the lawsuit."

Apple lawyer Orin Snyder said in a statement, "We strongly disagree with the court's preliminary statements about the case today… We look forward to presenting our evidence in open court and proving that Apple did not conspire to fix prices."

The antitrust case, US v. Apple et al., will go to trial starting June 3 in US District Court for the Southern District of New York. It is expected to last three to four weeks and will be tried without a jury. Penguin had objected to the case being tried without a jury, but Cote denied Penguin's motion for a jury trial. Penguin has since agreed to pay $75 million to consumers to settle the antitrust claims in the case.