Ex-U.S. attorney arraigned in 9/11 case

[AGENDA21]

A former federal prosecutor and a State Department agent were arraigned Friday in Detroit on obstruction of justice charges, accused of misleading a jury in the first terrorism trial to result from the federal probe of the 9/11 attacks.

Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Convertino, 45, and Harry Smith III, 49, stood mute to the charges before U.S. Magistrate Judge Donald Scheer in federal court. Scheer entered not guilty pleas on their behalf and freed the men on $25,000 unsecured bonds. He also ordered them to surrender their passports.

The jury convicted two men of terrorism charges in the 2003 trial, but the U.S. Attorney's Office persuaded the trial judge to throw out the convictions the next year, saying Convertino withheld key evidence from the defense. The reversal was an embarrassment for the Bush administration, which had hailed the convictions as a victory in the war on terror.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060422/NEWS05/604220309/1007

Does anybody know which 2003 trial is being talked about here..?

[maddezmom]

1. more detail here:

WASHINGTON (AP) - A botched Detroit terrorism case that already has embarrassed the Bush administration is taking a new twist: A fresh FBI analysis of the evidence undercuts the recent indictment of the former chief prosecutor in the case.

The 13-page report by FBI Agent Paul George concludes that satellite photos of a Jordanian hospital closely match hand-drawn sketches found in 2001 inside the Detroit apartment of four North African immigrants who the government claimed had surveyed the site as part of a terrorist plot.


~snip~


Justice officials also acknowledge they don't possess one of two sets of photos taken in the case and don't know if they exist anymore. Aerial photos believed to have been taken by helicopter before the trial are missing, but prosecutors do have a set of ground and helicopter photos of the Jordanian hospital they say were e-mailed to Convertino before the trial.

Convertino says he is being prosecuted solely because he sued then-Attorney General John Ashcroft in 2004, alleging mismanagement of the war on terror.


more: http://www.startribune.com/587/story/384534.html