Gov't Lawyer Excused From Mossaoui Hearing

[brooklynite]

By MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN, Associated Press Writer
5 minutes ago

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - A lawyer at the center of the prosecutorial misconduct controversy enveloping the trial of confessed al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui got her interrogation delayed Tuesday after telling a federal judge that she had not been able to line up her own attorney.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema excused Carla J. Martin of the Transportation Security Administration from a hearing that the judge had scheduled to give federal prosecutors a chance to save their bid to have Moussaoui executed.

Brinkema called a halt to Moussaoui's sentencing trial Monday, castigating the government prosecution team for witness coaching. Martin was subsequently identified as the lawyer involved, and Brinkema said that her conduct made it very difficult for the trial to go forward.

...snip...

Prosecutor David Novak, who had disclosed Martin's actions over the weekend, agreed they were "horrendously wrong."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060314/ap_on_re_us/moussaoui

[AlCzervik]

1. Does anyone find this whole episode just strange?

[BOSSHOG]

2. Living under constitutional law is hard work

However, right wing dumbasses with access to microphones are aghast at this. limbaugh blathered yesterday about the nonsense going on here. Playing by the rules is hard work. Do it the "conservative" way, just make up shit as you go and shout and holler like a badass when someone objects.

[havocmom]

3. Mistrial MIHOP? Hard to believe someone in her position

could be just naturally dumb enough to pull the stunts of emailing transcripts to future witnesses.

[sendero]

4. Couldn't she be sanctioned..

... or disbarred for such an action?

[havocmom]

6. Dunno. Lawyer ethics and rules are not my forte.

OldLeftieLawyer or Raven might be good ones to ask.

[Lerkfish]

7. we asked that at the same time.

yeah, I want lawyers to weigh in. I think its felony tampering with a witness.

[sattahipdeep]

8. Another "ethics" violation? n/t

[Lerkfish]

5. lawyers; isn't tampering with witnesses a felony and cause for disbarrment

:shrug: I'm just askin.

[rusty_parts2001]

9. My opinion FWIW

The judge wants to know exactly what the govt attorney did, and get it under oath. Then, she (the judge) can craft the appropriate remedy. My guess is that she will strike the government witnesses that were briefed on the prior testimony and the opening arguments. That may be enough to torpedo the govt case for the death penalty. The appropriate sanction for the govt lawyer will be some sort of license sanction, i/e. disbarment or suspension, but criminal punishment seems unlikely.

[BR_Parkway]

12. The judge was also overturned on an earlier ruling by the appeals

court during this trial - she's going to make absolutely sure every t is crossed, every i dotted before she makes any ruling.

[OrangeCountyDemocrat]

10. Well....Fitzgerald Was Not On This Case.

This is what happens when an Incompetent Administration, running and 100% Controlling an Incompetent Government, picks their own attorney to run what should be considered a Major Significance Trial of basically the lone Terrorist survivor from 9/11.

But this administration is a joke. Watch, perhaps this guy will get off completely next.

[tanyev]

11. Not a lawyer, but I don't see any possibility that this is incompetence.

Either they thought they could get away with it to make their case, or they wanted to shut the case down.

[rodeodance]

13. well, why would they want it shut down?

[tanyev]

14. Didn't want to reveal to the public how flimsy their case was?

Or if they have a legit case, then the same motives of hyper-secrecy regarding everyone at Gitmo and anywhere else they have them stashed. They do not want the public to know anything. We just need to trust them.

[papau]

15. Testimony was being given that they had all the 9/11 info in Aug and

they did not need his info.

So his not confessing did not lead to 9/11

9/11 was a result of a Decision by Bush to ignore the incoming data - for whatever reason.

This was just beginning to come out.

Killing the trial by making an "error" just gives Bush a liberal Judge bashing line - rather than giving the media a toehold on Bush treason.

[endarkenment]

17. He did confess.

He confessed to taking flying lessons on al qaeda's dime and to not knowing anything about 9-11. The government presented no real evidence that he did know about it or that he had contact with any of the purported hijackers. They seem to have relied on other factors - such as the 'if we had only known we could have stopped it' nonsense that they seem to have been trying to line up all their witnesses to say.

Browsing the wiki entry for moussai I find this startling entry:

"In March of 2006, during the Moussaoui trial, several stunning developments made headlines, including FBI agents stating that the bureau was aware, years before the attacks in 2001, that al-Qaida planned to use planes to destroy important buildings<2>, and the decision to consider dismissal of the death penalty by presiding U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema. Brinkema announced her decision in response to a violation of a pretrial order barring witnesses from exposure to any opening statements or trial testimony by the attorney for the Transportation Security Administration, Carla Martin. Martin had sent e-mail to seven Federal Aviation Administration officials describing opening statements of the prosecution and commentary on government witnesses from the start of the testimony<3>. Judge Brinkema stated, "In all the years I've been on the bench, I have never seen such an egregious violation of a rule on witnesses," and described the situation as a "significant error by the government affecting the . . . integrity of the criminal justice system of the United States in the context of a death case."

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

Guess what? here is our same attorney Carla Martin violating court orders and ethics earlier in this same legal proceeding. What a coincidence. Seems like she is tasked with getting Moussaoui
executed at any cost.

[papau]

19. Thanks for the info - from the talking heads I thought his death was to be

considered deserved because he did not confess in time to prevent 9/11.

That is an excellent wiki entry!

But I really think Carla was trying to shut it down so we would not have a formal Judge's opinion referencing the data ignored by Bush prior to 9/11.

[endarkenment]

16. To avoid an appeal? nt.

[endarkenment]

18. Carla Martin had earlier run in with Judge Leonie Brinkema

I just figured this out in another post. This whole trial has been crap. Read the Wiki entry:

"In March of 2006, during the Moussaoui trial, several stunning developments made headlines, including FBI agents stating that the bureau was aware, years before the attacks in 2001, that al-Qaida planned to use planes to destroy important buildings<2>, and the decision to consider dismissal of the death penalty by presiding U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema. Brinkema announced her decision in response to a violation of a pretrial order barring witnesses from exposure to any opening statements or trial testimony by the attorney for the Transportation Security Administration, Carla Martin. Martin had sent e-mail to seven Federal Aviation Administration officials describing opening statements of the prosecution and commentary on government witnesses from the start of the testimony<3>. Judge Brinkema stated, "In all the years I've been on the bench, I have never seen such an egregious violation of a rule on witnesses," and described the situation as a "significant error by the government affecting the . . . integrity of the criminal justice system of the United States in the context of a death case.'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zacarias_Moussaoui