Oy -- it's been a few years since I read the novel in question, but essentially, she notes that he's the only authority for some of the things during his consulate, and that the reactions to a trial that he implies happened before Cataline only make sense if it happened afterward. (Or possibly the other order around -- as I said, it's been a few years.) OTOH, Cicero's blowing a lot of cuttlefish ink to distract from how badly he mishandled the crisis.

I think this was in Caesar's Women. She devotes an appendix to her argument.

---L.