By Allan Lengel
ticklethewire.com
With trial set to begin next week, a federal judge has ruled that an FBI agent accused of lying about his ownership in a building the FBI leased in Oxford, Miss., cannot allege in court that the charges were the result of a vendetta by then-U.S. Attorney Jim Greenlee, the Associated Press reported.
The ruling comes just days before the Nov. 8 trial for FBI agent Hal Neilson in U.S. District Court in Aberdeen, Miss.
The feds indicted Neilson in January on charges that he failed to disclose his interest in the Oxford FBI Building, an office he headed up, and lied about it later.
U.S. District Judge Sharon Aycock ruled that the defense provided no evidence that Neilson was charged as a result of a vendetta by Greenley, and that the allegation was irrelevant to the case, AP reported. Greenley is no longer the U.S. Attorney.
Neilson claims the U.S. Attorney came after him after he criticized the office for investigating a number of residents with Middle Eastern names.
