Lynne Stewart
Posted on 07/22/2003 5:57:58 PM PDT by NativeNewYorker
A federal judge announced Tuesday that two of the main charges filed against a controversial civil rights lawyer accused of helping a terrorist are being dropped.
Attorney Lynne Stewart is accused of promoting terrorism by helping one of her clients, convicted terrorist Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, pass messages to his associates.
A federal judge is dismissing two of the five counts against Stewart on the grounds that the charges she conspired to support a terrorist organization were "unconstitutionally vague." The judge has ordered a hearing on the remaining counts.
In response, a spokesman for U.S. District Attorney James Comey released a statement reading: “We continue to believe that the statute prohibiting material support of terrorism is constitutional, and we are reviewing our appellate options."
Stewart maintains she did nothing wrong and that her jailhouse visits to Rahman were protected by the First Amendment. Rahman is serving a life sentence for conspiring to blow up New York City landmarks.
Stewart's trial had been scheduled for early next year.
Lynne Stewart
Born 1945 in New York, NY
Federal Judicial Service: U. S. District Court, Southern District of New York Nominated by William J. Clinton on April 26, 1994, to a seat vacated by Shirley Wohl Kram; Confirmed by the Senate on August 9, 1994, and received commission on August 10, 1994.
Education: Georgetown University, A.B., 1967
Harvard Law School, J.D., 1971
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