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Share Article via Email Hiding behind his lawyers and hoping to avoid questioning about his role in SpyGate, former confidential human source Stefan Halper implies in his most recent court filing that the Russia collusion story peddled during the 2016 election and after was “substantially truth.” Later this morning, a federal judge in Virginia will consider Halper’s latest attempt to toss the lawsuit Svetlana Lokhova filed against him in December of 2020, which claims that the former confidential human source defamed her and alleges tortiously interference with a book contract she had. This lawsuit represents the second case Lokhova filed...

A Chinese national was sentenced today to five years in prison and ordered to forfeit more than $4.2 million for laundering drug proceeds generated by large-scale cocaine trafficking in the United States.Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian C. Rabbitt of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney G. Zachary Terwilliger for the Eastern District of Virginia; Special Agent in Charge Wendy C. Woolcock for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) Special Operations Division; Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey T. Scott of DEA's Louisville, Kentucky Field Division; Chief Jason Crosby of the Criminal Investigations Division of the U.S. Department of State’s...

With all the battering prosecutors have taken recently from judges who worry they are too cavalier with the rights of defendants, it’s worth noting a disputed case where the prosecutors apparently got it right – but the judge won’t admit it.In early 2009, U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema of the Eastern District of Virginia appeared poised to dismiss a criminal contempt of court case against a confessed supporter of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist group.In a Feb. 20, 2009, hearing, Brinkema harrumphed about the government’s contempt case against former University of South Florida professor Sami Al-Arian, saying there was...

The judge who presided over Zacarias Moussaoui's trial questioned the government's decision to seek a death sentence against the Sept. 11 conspirator, and offered a strong defense of federal courts' ability to handle terror trials. U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema said in a speech Friday at the American University law school that the government's decision to seek a death sentence against Moussaoui appeared to be politically motivated, and that the zealous pursuit of a death sentence opened up numerous issues of exposing classified information that otherwise could have been avoided. "The war on terror is an important piece of political...

When an admitted al-Qaida operative pleads guilty to conspiracy to murder thousands of innocents, it's obvious he deserves the death penalty — except to extremist federal judges like Brinkema. Zacarias Moussaoui was arrested for immigration violations by the FBI less than a month before the attacks, after suspicions arose about his attending a Minnesota flight school. Last year, he admitted to conspiring with al-Qaida in the plot. The case against him is solid as a rock: The 9-11 attacks could have been stopped if Moussaoui had confessed instead of lying to the FBI after his arrest. Yet U.S. District Judge...

ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 14 — The government lawyer whose coaching of witnesses has thrown the death sentencing trial of Zacarias Moussaoui into turmoil took the witness stand briefly today but declined to testify until she retained a lawyer after the judge said her actions could expose her to criminal charges. Judge Leonie M. Brinkema conducted the highly unusual hearing in the middle of the Moussaoui trial to determine what steps to take after revelations that the attorney, Carla Martin, advised seven government witnesses over their forthcoming testimony. Ms. Martin's actions have jeopardized the Justice Department's case to have Mr. Moussaoui...

The Clinton-appointed federal judge who tossed out half the government's death penalty case against convicted 9/11 "20th hijacker" Zacarias Moussaoui on Tuesday has a history of liberal rulings and was once named by Sen. Bob Dole to the "Clinton Hall of Shame." Even before Judge Leonie Brinkema decimated the government's case by ruling that evidence from key witnesses had been tainted by prosecutorial misconduct, veteran terrorism prosecutor Andrew McCarthy warned Brinkema not to overreact. Writing about the furor over the prosecution's blunder on NationalReviewOnline Monday, McCarthy said: "It is a tempest in a teapot that is obviously being blown out...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - Prosecutors acknowledge their only hope of salvaging the death-penalty case against confessed terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui is to reverse a judge's ruling barring key witnesses from testifying. But the government's avenues of appeal may be limited. Assistant U.S. Attorney Rob Spencer told U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema it would be a waste of time for the government to proceed if her ruling, which tossed out half of the government's case, is allowed to stand. "We don't know whether it is worth us proceeding at all, candidly, under the ruling you made today," Spencer said in an unusually blunt...

<p>Judge allows government to continue to seek death penalty against Zacarias Moussaoui...</p>

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - An angry federal judge considered Monday whether to dismiss the government's death penalty case against confessed al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui after a federal attorney coached witnesses in violation of her rules. "I do not want to act precipitously," U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema said in scheduling a special hearing on the case Tuesday, but she said that it was "very difficult for this case to go forward." Brinkema said a lawyer for the Transportation Security Administration sent e-mail to seven Federal Aviation Administration officials outlining the prosecution's opening statements and providing commentary on government witnesses from the...

Judge Gives U.S. Wiretap Response Deadline COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- A federal judge gave the government two months to respond to an Ohio trucker's request that his terrorism conviction be thrown out on the grounds that the government illegally spied on him. U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema cited "the potentially weighty issues raised in the defendant's motion" in an order Wednesday that set a 60-day timetable for the government to respond to Iyman Faris' arguments. Faris' challenge is among the first to seek evidence of warrantless electronic eavesdropping by the National Security Agency, a practice that began after the Sept....

A federal judge has selected six sites for survivors and relatives of victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to watch the death penalty phase in the case against Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person charged in the United States in the 2001 assaults on Washington and New York. The proceedings will be broadcast via closed-circuit television to federal courthouses in Manhattan and Long Island, Newark, Philadelphia, Boston and Alexandria, Va., U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema said in an order Tuesday. The selection of the sites is the latest development in the case against Moussaoui, 37, who pleaded guilty in April...

U.S. Judge Reduces 'Va. Jihad' Sentences New Terms Still Called 'Draconian' By Jerry Markon Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, July 30, 2005 A federal judge yesterday reduced the sentences of three members of a "Virginia jihad network," ordering the resentencings to comply with a recent Supreme Court ruling that allowed judges more discretion on such issues. U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema was pleased that she had the chance to lessen sentences she had criticized as excessive...

The Fourth Circuit's decision on the Moussaoui decision has been released. The introductory paragraph reads: "For the reasons set forth below, we reject the Government’s claim that the district court exceeded its authority in granting Moussaoui access to the witnesses. We affirm the conclusion of the district court that the enemy combatant witnesses could provide material, favorable testimony on Moussaoui’s behalf, and we agree with the district court that the Government’s proposed substitutions for the witnesses’ deposition testimony are inadequate. However, we reverse the district court insofar as it held that it is not possible to craft adequate substitutions, and...

<p>December 1, 2003 -- WONDER why Muslim terrorists have targeted Muslim nations such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia? Try reading the rants of Zacarias Moussaoui, the bored al Qaeda jihadist sitting in a U.S. jail.</p> <p>Moussaoui, the Osama bin Laden loyalist charged as the "20th hijacker," has scrawled hundreds of motions from his Alexandria, Va., cell, offering a glimpse into the twisted mind of a terrorist.</p>

<p>October 29, 2003 -- ALEXANDRIA, Va. - Iyman Faris, an Ohio truck driver who now denies casing the Brooklyn Bridge to see if it could be destroyed, was sentenced yesterday to 20 years in prison for providing support to al Qaeda. U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema handed down the maximum sentence possible after rejecting a request by Faris, 34, and his lawyer to withdraw the guilty plea he had entered May 1.</p>

Muhammed Aatique, a Montgomery County telecommunications engineer accused of training with a Pakistani terrorist group, pleaded guilty yesterday to aiding a conspiracy and gun charges. The case involves the largest number of alleged terrorists at home since the government launched its crackdown on terrorism after 9/11.

<p>An al Qaeda sleeper agent "wrapped in his cloak of American citizenship" has secretly pleaded guilty to aiding Osama bin Laden by scouting out bridges and railroads for destruction in New York and Washington, Attorney General John Ashcroft said yesterday.</p>

<p>ALEXANDRIA, Va. - A judge ordered the government Thursday to immediately give terrorism suspect Zacarias Moussaoui its top-secret plan for allowing him limited access to a senior al-Qaida prisoner.</p> <p>The government attempted to submit the material to the court and keep it from Moussaoui for the time being. Classified as ``Top Secret/Codeword,'' the information was offered as a substitute for allowing Moussaoui to interview captive Ramzi Binalshibh via video hookup.</p>

September 11 trial near collapse From Roland Watson in Washington WASHINGTON'S hopes of convicting the only man charged with a role in the September 11 attacks in a public trial were close to collapse last night. The District Judge from Alexandria, Virginia, presiding over the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui said that she doubted the Bush Administration's ability to prosecute the case given the "shroud of secrecy" thrown over the details. Judge Leonie Brinkema said that she was disturbed that the Government had classified so many court papers and orders. She agreed with the defendant's scepticism that the case could proceed...