A controversy has emerged over who will speak for 9/11 defendants in the controversial New York trial.
Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff reports that “New York defense lawyer Scott Fenstermaker has made big headlines in recent days after telling The New York Times that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) and four accused 9/11 co-conspirators intend to plead not guilty in their upcoming trial so they can use the courtroom as a forum to attack U.S. foreign policy. (Fenstermaker is the lawyer for one of the defendants, Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, KSM’s nephew, in a civil case challenging his detention.)”
“The comments kicked off a storm of controversy because they seemed to bolster complaints by conservative critics that the 9/11 defendants will use Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision to try them in federal court as an opportunity to preach jihad,” Newsweek reports.
“But the U.S. military lawyers appointed to represent the other four 9/11 defendants tell NEWSWEEK that Fenstermaker hasn’t met with their clients, has no authority to speak for them, and has no insight into what they might do at the trial.”
