These kids got drawn into the patsy plot narrative simply because they were associated with him, and then threatened by the FBI if they don't sign the statements.
See: Government agents ‘directly involved’ in most high-profile US terror plots
"FBI searched for Tsarnaev in New Bedford, agent says" by Patricia Wen | Globe Staff May 13, 2014
The testimony from FBI agent John Walker, part of a pretrial hearing in a federal case against three of Tsarnaev’s friends, highlights the panic and uncertainty that reigned while Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was missing....
In defending his actions during the investigation, Walker, the FBI agent, acknowledged he did not seek a search warrant before entering the New Bedford apartment on April 19, but said there was not enough time given the crisis situation. He testified that he did get written approval from Kadyrbayev for one of the later searches.
He also insisted that he was polite with the two Kazakhstan young men, and never swore at them at any time, saying that swearing “is the mark of an uneducated person.”
Thanks for the compliment.
He said he was sometimes “stern” and “direct” with them, and at one time urged them to cooperate because “this is the biggest thing to happen in Massachusetts.”
He also suggested to the two men from Kazakhstan that they should not remain loyal to Tsarnaev.
“His life is over. Your life doesn’t have to be over,” he said, recalling his words to them.
The judge also refused to move the trials out of Massachusetts or even out of Boston, telling the defense lawyers he believed the key to a fair trial for the three men is not where the jurors live, but who is finally selected.
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Related: Tsarnaev and Friends
Looks like a limited hangout to me.
Tsarnaev friends seek OK on clothes
Judge allows Tsarnaev friends to wear civilian clothes to court
"FBI intimidated Tsarnaev friends, defense lawyers say" by Patricia Wen and John R. Ellement | Globe staff May 14, 2014
FBI agents who interrogated two college friends of suspected Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were portrayed by defense attorneys as highly manipulative, using intimidation and false friendliness to coerce two students from central Asia to talk before they realized the legal repercussions.
That is standard operating procedure.
The behavior of the agents came under scrutiny Wednesday, the second day of a pretrial hearing before US District Court Judge Douglas Woodlock to determine if statements made by Dias Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov, two former UMassDartmouth students from Kazakhstan, should be suppressed before their trials because they were not voluntarily made. The two men are accused of obstruction of justice after allegedly trying to hide evidence to protect Tsarnaev while he was on the run April 19.
Under cross-examination by Kadyrbayev’s defense lawyer, FBI agent John Walker acknowledged that both men spent about seven hours on April 19, 2013, shirtless and handcuffed, after being ordered out of their off-campus New Bedford apartment, where agents suspected Tsarnaev might be hiding. Agents ordered the men to remove their shirts during the evacuation, and another agent, Farbod Azad, acknowledged that Kadyrbayev had later asked for a blanket because he was cold, but was not given anything to cover his upper body.
Walker said that Kadyrbayev was viewed April 19 primarily as a witness whom they wanted to question about his ties to Tsarnaev, and that he was free to leave anytime.
“He was a witness you kept restrained and handcuffed?” asked Robert G. Stahl, Kadyrbayev’s attorney.
Kadyrbayev is expected to take the stand to back up his statements that he was improperly coerced to cooperate. His defense team is also scheduled to call an expert witness to testify that his English last year was inadequate to understand the interrogation.
Prosecutors have depicted the FBI agents as acting prudently, given the terrorist crisis that erupted April 19 when Tsarnaev’s older brother, Tamerlan, died in a shoot-out with police and Tsarnaev escaped, ultimately to a boat in a backyard in Watertown.
They are not toying with you.
At that time, the FBI agents said, they had yet to rule out the possibility that Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov were coconspirators, given their extensive sharing of cellphones and Internet accounts. Also, Azad testified Wednesday that only after hours of interrogation did Kadyrbayev admit he took a laptop and backpack, containing fireworks, from Tsarnaev’s dorm room. That would turn out to be a key finding that ultimately led to the recovery of the backpack in a landfill and is critical evidence in the trial against Tsarnaev scheduled for November.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Tsarnaev for his role in the April 15, 2013, bombings, which killed three and injured more than 260 others. The brothers also allegedly killed an MIT officer.
A third friend of Tsarnaev’s from UMass-Dartmouth, Robel Phillipos, is charged with lying to investigators about where he was and what he saw on the night of April 18. He was not a focus of Wednesday’s hearing, which centered on federal agents who interrogated Tsarnaev’s friends who lived in the New Bedford apartment.
The judge granted requests Tuesday for separate trials in Boston for Kadyrbayev, Tazhayakov, and Phillipos. The trial of Tazhayakov begins first, at the end of next month.
Agent Azad said he developed a friendly, even joking, relationship with Kadyrbayev, though he acknowledged that Kadyrbayev’s vocabulary had limitations that included not knowing the word fireworks. Agents ultimately made the meaning of that word known through drawings and hand gestures. Azad said Kadyrbayev had a relaxed demeanor throughout the interview and at no time said he did not understand the conversation.
“It was really voluntary,” Azad said.
Kadyrbayev’s defense lawyer, however, suggested the good will was fake and said his client was unfairly deprived of a lawyer during questioning. At one point when Kadyrbayev asked Azad during the interview, “Do I need a lawyer?” Azad said he responded that it was his decision, though he was not under arrest. Ultimately, the interrogation continued, and Kadyrbayev allegedly never brought up the topic again.
Both FBI agents testified that the following afternoon, on April 20, they went to the New Bedford apartment, and that Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov greeted them and freely allowed them into their home, with seemingly no ill will. Unbeknownst to them, the FBI had been working with a Homeland Security Investigations unit on arresting the pair for visa violations.
That is what they were holding over their heads to sign the admission. One guy wouldn't and he was murdered.
Agent Walker apparently told other agents earlier that day there was a plan to “hook them up,” a reference to ultimately handcuffing and arresting the two men.
Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov would be arrested that day, and the conspiracy to obstruct justice charges came days later after officers pulled Tsarnaev’s laptop from the landfill.
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"Tsarnaev friend consented to search, call suggests" by Martin Finucane | Globe staff May 16, 2014
A college friend of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev appears to acknowledge in a recording of a phone call he made from jail that he freely gave permission for the FBI to search his apartment in New Bedford.
“Everything that we did — everything that I did, everything that I signed, I signed it on my own,” Dias Kadyrbayev said, according to a transcript of a May 24, 2013, phone call he made from the Essex County Jail to a woman who appeared to be his girlfriend.
The phone call, in which Kadyrbayev spoke mostly in Russian, was translated by federal authorities. The transcript was submitted as a government exhibit in a hearing in which Kadyrbayev is seeking to have evidence suppressed in his obstruction-of-justice case.
Kadyrbayev is charged with obstructing justice by allegedly going to Tsarnaev’s dorm room at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and removing evidence, while authorities were looking for the Marathon bombers.
Defense attorneys have argued that some of the evidence against Kadyrbayev should be suppressed because he did not voluntarily cooperate with authorities. According to the defense, Kadyrbayev, a Kazakh national, was a naive foreign student with limited English skills who was defenseless against manipulative federal agents. The defense says he never fully understood his right to remain silent or to demand a lawyer.
Kadyrbayev acknowledges in the phone call that he “wasn’t obligated” to consent to the search of his apartment.
“[A law enforcement official] said, ‘Will you let us look in the apartment?’ I said, ‘Yes,’ ” Kadyrbayev said.
In another phone call, on May 15, 2013, Kadyrbayev indicates he was able to read a form notifying him of his right to stop talking at any time, but suggested he was too trusting.
“Well, I read it, but I . . . in general, I approached this with a kind heart, you know?” he said.
Kadyrbayev’s attorney, Robert G. Stahl, said Friday, “I can tell you that translations of a foreign language to English are difficult at best, and my client will be testifying as to the context and as to what those conversations truly meant.
“There will be an explanation for those statements, and they will be put in context.”
Tsarnaev, 20, along with his late brother, Tamerlan, is accused of planting the bombs that exploded on April 15, 2013, near the Boston Marathon finish line, killing three people and injuring more than 260 others. Prosecutors say the two brothers also killed an MIT police officer.
Three of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s friends from UMass Dartmouth are facing charges in connection with the removal of a laptop and a backpack containing fireworks from Tsarnaev’s dorm room.
Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov face charges of obstruction of justice. Robel Phillipos faces a lesser charge of lying to investigators.
All three are seeking suppression of evidence in their cases. The three men attended the suppression hearing this week, but only Kadyrbayev’s bid for suppression is still alive because he agreed to the judge’s condition that he testify and be subject to cross-examination about alleged improper actions by federal agents.
The hearing has been suspended so a language specialist can testify about Kadyrbayev’s English language skills before he testifies. The language specialist is not available until the end of the month.
“My client is looking forward to trial, and he hopes that the justice system works the way it’s supposed to and he’ll be returned to his family as soon as possible,” Stahl said.
Misplaced hope.
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"Tsarnaev friend seeks to suppress statements" by Patricia Wen | Globe Staff June 02, 2014
Speaking English with relative ease, despite a notable Russian accent, a former University of Massachusetts Dartmouth student from central Asia testified Monday that he was manipulated into giving incriminating statements to the FBI that led to his facing charges of obstructing justice in the Boston Marathon bombings.
Dias Kadyrbayev, 20, a college friend of bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, has allegedly admitted that he, along with his roommate, took Tsarnaev’s backpack containing fireworks from his dorm room on the night of April 18, 2013, and threw it in a dumpster behind their apartment in New Bedford. Tsarnaev was on the run at the time.
What is lost here is the alleged backpack that carried the bomb is different from either of the backpacks the Tsarnaev brothers were wearing.
However, Kadyrbayev, a native of Kazakhstan, wants those statements, which led to the recovery of Tsarnaev’s backpack in a landfill, suppressed by a federal judge prior to his September trial, on grounds that his poor English skills last year limited his understanding of his Miranda rights, among other things.
If he had understood, his attorney has argued, Kadyrbayev may have exercised his right to remain silent or seek a lawyer, instead of speaking freely on April 19 and 20, as he did with agents.
Under questioning by defense attorney Robert Stahl, Kadyrbayev said he asked at least twice during his interrogations if he needed a lawyer and was made to feel it was an unnecessary precaution by agents who encouraged a first-name buddy relationship with him. The hearing was held in federal court in Boston.
“Oh, you’re not under arrest, you’re just trying to help us out,” Kadyrbayev quoted one of the agents as saying.
On Monday, Kadyrbayev’s attorney also presented a linguistics expert, Aneta Pavlenko, who said her analysis of Kadyrbayev’s e-mails and texts, among other writings, prior to April 19 suggests that he had only an “intermediate” level of English comprehension then and it was “highly unlikely” he understood his Miranda rights.
That raises another odd question: how could he be attending a U.S. college then? I'm beginning to wonder whether all these kids were not FBI contacts in one form or another, or had previous contacts with government.
She pointed out that his English may be much better now, after spending a year in an American prison.
However, prosecutor Stephanie Siegmann portrayed Kadyrbayev on cross-examination as well-versed in English, particularly the spoken language, having studied extensively in his native country before studying abroad in England and the United States. She also noted that he was part of hours of legal hearings in the weeks after his arrest and never once asked for an interpreter, until Monday’s hearing.
Siegmann also noted that on the night of April 18, while Tsarnaev was on the run, Kadyrbayev’s computer showed frequent activity on CNN, Fox News, and CBS, suggesting he had no problem understanding English websites.
He was also admitted to the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth through a foreign-student program on the condition of an adequate proficiency in English.
The prosecutor also attempted to undermine the credibility of Kadyrbayev’s testimony by noting that he twice paid students to pose as UMass Dartmouth professors and tell his mother that he was doing well in his studies, even though he was failing nearly all of his classes.
One student was paid $100, and when the prosecutor asked how much he paid the second student, Kadyrbayev answered, “I don’t know . . . does it matter?”
According to prosecutors, Kadyrbayev and two friends — Azamat Tazhayakov, 20, who is also originally from Kazakhstan, and Robel Phillipos, 20, from Cambridge — went to Tsarnaev’s dorm room at UMass Dartmouth on the night of April 18, just hours after photos of Tsarnaev and his older brother, Tamerlan, were broadcast by the FBI. The deadly Marathon bombings occurred on April 15, 2013.
The trio allegedly took Tsarnaev’s backpack, containing fireworks and a laptop, and brought the items to a New Bedford apartment shared by the two Kazakhstan students. Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov later discarded the backpack.
Though all three friends face charges related to interfering with the government’s investigation of Tsarnaev — and will be tried separately in the months ahead — the pretrial hearing only involves Kadyrbayev because he is the only one who accepted the judge’s condition for such a hearing. The condition was that he take the stand and submit to cross-examination, on the content of his written affadavit about improper actions by federal agents.
Tsarnaev and his older brother, Tamerlan, are accused of planting the pressure-cooker bombs that exploded near the Boston Marathon finish line, killing three people and wounding more than 260. The brothers also allegedly killed MIT police Officer Sean Collier on April 18.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev died in a violent confrontation with police that night, while the younger brother was a fugitive for hours on April 19 and was later captured hiding in a boat in the backyard of a Watertown home.
That is the conventional myth of a narrative.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 20, is facing federal charges that could bring him the death penalty.
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"Tsarnaev friend called a liar; Tells judge ‘I’m ashamed’ of lies" by Patricia Wen | Globe staff June 03, 2014
A close friend of the Boston Marathon bombing suspect was portrayed by prosecutors Tuesday as a party-loving foreign student who lied regularly, including giving professors essays lifted from the Internet and doctored to evade antiplagiarism software used by universities.
Dias Kadyrbayev, a 20-year-old native of Kazakhstan, told a federal judge on the last day of a pretrial hearing that he was not proud of his lack of moral backbone. When asked by prosecutors how he felt about another deception — paying a friend $100 to pose as a professor and to falsely assure his worried mother in person about his failing grades — Kadyrbayev looked grimmer than he had at any other time during his two days on the witness stand. “I’m ashamed,” he said in federal court in Boston.
That would be quite different from my paper.
The honesty of this former University of Massachusetts Dartmouth student is at issue because he now contends that he was manipulated into cooperating with federal agents when he allegedly confessed that he and his roommate had taken the backpack of bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev the night of April 18 and thrown it into a dumpster. The backpack, containing fireworks, was later recovered by federal agents in a nearby landfill.
Kadyrbayev has asked US District Court Judge Douglas Woodlock to suppress those admissions prior to his upcoming trial in September. The judge is not expected to rule on this issue until a week or so before the trial begins.
Kadyrbayev alleges that he was never made fully aware of his right to remain silent or to seek a lawyer to protect himself from what he now faces: obstruction of justice charges carrying a maximum 20-year prison term. He has testified that he signed forms about being administered his Miranda rights, but that he never fully understood them because of his limited command of English last year.
He acknowledged signing three “advice of rights” forms when questioned April 19 and 20 but portrayed FBI and Homeland Security Investigations agents as treating them as trivial matters. He said the agents fostered a kind of casual relationship with him that did not invite close scrutiny of the documents.
“Can you just sign it?” Kadyrbayev quoted agents as saying to him.
Video footage also shows that Kadyrbayev was forced to remain shirtless through hours of questioning, which his defense attorney has suggested was an act of intimidation by FBI agents.
Kadyrbayev’s defense attorney has depicted his client as perhaps impulsively and recklessly loyal to Tsarnaev, but not a hardened criminal deserving of such serious federal charges.
Prosecutors say Kadyrbayev, as well as two of his friends, needs to be held accountable for interfering with investigation of one of the most serious terrorist crimes on American soil.
They say Kadyrbayev’s allegation that he did not know his Miranda rights flies in the face of a recorded conversation he had with his girlfriend, after he was incarcerated, in which he admits he “wasn’t obligated” to sign consent forms.
Prosecutors also have shown text messages written by Kadyrbayev that reflect a reasonable ease with English. They also include a potentially telling message sent the night of April 18. Around 8:45 p.m., Tsarnaev texted Kadyrbayev saying: “If yu [sic] want yu [sic] can go to my room and take what’s there.”
Federal authorities allege that the text was an invitation by Tsarnaev to take the backpack, among other things, and that Kadyrbayev had an opportunity then to alert police to Tsarnaev’s role and save the bloody fallout of that night. That included the killing of an MIT police officer, allegedly by the Tsarnaev brothers, and the shootout with police in Watertown that injured numerous officers and ultimately took the life of Tsarnaev’s older brother, Tamerlan.
Kadyrbayev is not the only UMass Dartmouth student facing charges related to interfering with the investigation. His roommate, Azamat Tazhayakov, is also charged with obstruction of justice, and another friend, Robel Phillipos from Cambridge, is accused of lying to police. The trio are alleged to have entered Tsarnaev’s dorm room on April 18, though the two Kazakh students face stiffer charges because they are accused of playing a more active role in hiding the backpack.
The pretrial hearing on suppressing evidence involved only Kadyrbayev because he was the only one willing to take the stand to back up his affidavit outlining improper actions by agents. The judge said the affidavits, along with oral testimony, were required before he would approve a pretrial suppression hearing.
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Related:
Tsarnaev Pal Says FBI Made Offer; Friend of Deceased Bomb Suspect Alleges He Was Held after He Refused to Wear Wire
Who is Konstantin Morozov?
Judge may wait to decide on Tsarnaev friend’s statements
Bomb discussion allowed in Tsarnaev friend’s trial
"Tsarnaev’s roommate found friends’ visit odd; Said trio spent time in shared dorm room" by Patricia Wen | Globe Staff July 08, 2014
An engineering student from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth testified Tuesday that one thing stood out for him in the days after the Boston Marathon bombing, and it had nothing to do with his roommate, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who betrayed no signs of being a guilt-plagued mass killer.
Because he isn't.
Andrew Dwinells said he found it strange when one of Tsarnaev’s friends approached him on the night of April 18 — hours after the FBI released photos of the bombing suspects — and asked for access to the room that Dwinells shared with Tsarnaev. This friend explained that Tsarnaev was leaving the country and needed some items retrieved.
After Dwinells let him in, this friend began rummaging through Tsarnaev’s things, and appeared to take a bag of marijuana from a desk drawer, Dwinells said, though he did not remember whether anything else was taken. Soon, two other UMass Dartmouth friends of Tsarnaev entered and briefly watched Tsarnaev’s television.
Later, when the trio left, Dwinells decided he should let Tsarnaev know about the odd visit.
“This was abnormal,” Dwinells said Tuesday in federal court in Boston.
The roommate’s testimony — his first public comments since learning that his roommate is the surviving Marathon bombing suspect — came Tuesday in the obstruction-of-justice trial of Azamat Tazhayakov, one of the three friends who entered the dorm room that day.
***************
In the days after the bombing, Dwinells noticed that Tsarnaev slept a bit longer than usual, but he otherwise went about his day-to-day routine as usual. He said he never noticed Tsarnaev with fireworks.
Dwinells was not alone in observing Tsarnaev to be strikingly calm after the bombing. According to FBI agent Sara Wood, who also testified Tuesday, Tazhayakov spent extensive time with Tsarnaev in the days after the bombing, mostly playing video games, and told her Tsarnaev behaved normally....
The way an INNOCENT MAN would behave.
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"Tsarnaev in spotlight at trial of college friend" by Patricia Wen | Globe staff July 08, 2014
About a month before the Boston Marathon bombings, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev told two college friends over dinner that “it was good to die like a martyr” and that he knew how to make homemade bombs with gunpowder, prosecutors said Monday.
On April 15, 2013, Tsarnaev sent a text message to one of the two friends about an hour after two deadly pressure-cooker bombs exploded near the Marathon finish line.
“Don’t go thinking it’s me, you cooked bastard,” Tsarnaev, at the time a little-known student at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, wrote to his friend Azamat Tazhayakov.
But prosecutors say Tazhayakov had plenty of reason to suspect that his friend Tsarnaev had played a role in the bombings....
What I suspect is a planted text.
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Related: Tsarnaev friend’s texts, searches at issue in trial
The article was a total rewrite, but I salvaged this in one form or another:
Roommate Andrew Dwinells said he once heard Tsarnaev talking about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks as a government conspiracy. In his second day of testimony, Dwinells said he never thought his roommate was unpatriotic — Tsarnaev commented after watching a television show about 9/11 — and that he never imagined Tsarnaev could be responsible for the terror explosions on April 15, 2013, near the race’s finish line.
More evidence the kids were set up.
Jurors today also began watching a videotaped interview with Bayan Kumiskali, girlfriend of Dias Kadyrbayev and also a native of Kazakhstan. Kumiskali described the friendship between the Kadyrbayev and Tsarnaev: “They’d smoke marijuana and just hang out.”
She now "somewhere overseas," not sure where, but the pot smoking certainly not the sign of an Islamic radical.
Tsarnaev friend disliked suspect’s older brother, according to testimony
"Testimony ended Monday in the trial of a former University of Massachusetts student and friend of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and jurors are expected to begin deliberating Wednesday on whether Azamat Tazhayakov took part in a criminal scheme to cover up evidence after the bombing, or whether he just tagged along while another friend privately plotted to obstruct justice. FBI Agent John Walker, the last witness to testify for the prosecution, admitted that Tazhayakov should look out for himself and cooperate with authorities. Defense attorneys say that their client effectively obeyed, telling agents all he knew without a lawyer present, and is now being prosecuted for his honesty."
Tsarnaev friend’s FBI interviews were voluntary, judge rules
Case linked to Marathon bombings goes to jury
Jury out until Monday on Tsarnaev friend’s case
Tsarnaev friend guilty of conspiracy, obstruction
A fait accompli.
NEXT DAY UPDATES:
"Azamat Tazhayakov, 20, a former student at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth sat stoically as he listened to the verdict Monday afternoon, occasionally looking back at his parents from Kazakhstan, who were seated several rows behind him. Tazhayakov’s father, an oil executive from the central Asian country, showed little visible emotion, while his wife openly sobbed. Defense attorneys insisted that Tazhayakov was a sweetly disposed teenager consumed with playing video games and getting high."
He was goofing off while away at college.
Also see: Azamat Tazhayakov verdict could affect related court cases
You better make a deal and sign what the government wants you to sign or you see what will happen!
Tazhayakov family struggles with son’s loss of innocence
Like the agenda-pushing myth movers care about the kid's family.
On to the big show:
Tsarnaev friend gets trial date in Marathon investigation case
"Tsarnaev lawyers ask judge to investigate alleged leaks in case" by Milton J. Valencia and Travis Andersen | Globe staff May 02, 2014
Federal prosecutors urged another judge to reject a request from three friends of Tsarnaev to move their trial on lesser charges outside Massachusetts. Prosecutors, in the filing in US District Court in Boston, said the three friends — Azamat Tazhayakov, Dias Kadyrbayev, and Robel Phillipos — failed to show in their motion for a change of venue that pretrial publicity has “displaced the judicial process in this case.”
“While this case has received local and national press coverage, there is no reason to doubt that the court can empanel a fair and impartial jury drawn from Eastern Massachusetts,” prosecutors wrote.
Tazhayakov and Kadyrbayev attended the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth with Tsarnaev. They are charged with obstructing justice by removing evidence from Tsarnaev’s dormitory after the bombings, including a laptop and a backpack containing fireworks. Phillipos, who also attended the university, is charged with lying to investigators who questioned him about the alleged removal of items.
In a motion last month, a lawyer for Tazhayakov requested a change of venue for his client, arguing that “there exists within this district among a significant percentage of residents . . . so great a prejudice against the defendant that he cannot obtain a fair and impartial trial.”
Phillipos and Kadyrbayev later joined the motion.
The filing cited extensive pretrial publicity of the charges facing Tsarnaev and the lesser counts brought against his three friends. News stories and blog entries have focused on the trio “with nearly equal hostile fervor” as Tsarnaev and the obstruction allegations have “become psychologically identical with Tsarnaev’s crime, the bombing itself,” defense counsel wrote.
Prosecutors countered that “a juror of reasonable intelligence, properly instructed, will have no difficulty distinguishing between the allegations at issue here and the Marathon bombing.”
We know how that ended for one of them.
*****************
In a separate filing Friday, lawyers for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the accused Boston Marathon bomber, have asked a federal judge to hold a hearing to probe alleged grand jury leaks and public comments that “have plagued this case since its inception.”
“The public comments and leaks threaten Mr. Tsarnaev’s right to a fair trial, and the court should direct the prosecution to put a stop to them,” Judy Clarke, one of Tsarnaev’s lawyers, said in a filing late Friday.
It's called poisoning the jury pool.
Prosecutors did not immediately respond to the request. The new filing is one of several recent motions and responses that have been filed by both sides in the high-profile case.
Tsarnaev, 20, is being held without bail at the federal prison at Fort Devens in Ayer, facing multiple charges that carry the possibility of the death penalty. He is set to go on trial in November on charges of setting off the April 15, 2013, bombs, which killed three people and injured more than 260.
In the filing, Clarke cited a recent National Geographic Channel television documentary that featured former Boston FBI special agent in charge Richard DesLauriers and which showed previously unreleased video footage of Tsarnaev leaving a backpack at the scene of the bombings.
Except his backpack was gray and the bomb was in a black backpack some security contractor was carrying.
“In a somber voice, Agent DesLauriers describes the video footage as ‘a dramatic and tragic video. It was disturbing,’ ” Clarke wrote. She noted DesLauries is seen saying that the footage “brought tears to our eyes. It brought tears to our eyes each time we watched it.”
She also argued that some of the information that has been released to news media was secret grand jury evidence that has not yet been disclosed to the defense team.
Then the case should be thrown out!
“The prejudice flowing from the inappropriate release of these investigative materials has been aggravated by emotional descriptions and opinions of law enforcement regarding the alleged evidence and the defendant,” Clarke said....
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Related:
"Accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev e-mailed his mother before attempting to flee the area after the bombings, saying he would see her in the afterlife “if I don’t see you in this life,” according to court records. Prosecutors disclosed the e-mail in court files Monday opposing a Tsarnaev motion to suppress evidence that was found during the searches of his Cambridge home, his dormitory room, and his computers and e-mails. Prosecutors said the searches were conducted properly and with valid warrants. A hearing is slated for June 18."
She also knew about 9/11 conspiracy theories.
Also see:
Tsarnaev lawyers seek to suppress statements
Tsarnaev’s texts with friend offer new glimpse of case
Lawyers spar over strategy disclosures in Tsarnaev case
Tsarnaev to seek change of venue for federal trial
Tsarnaev seeks change of venue in bombing case
Trial venue change risky
42 percent don’t think he’s guilty -- in BOSTON!
Tsarnaev Wins Bid on Juror Fairness
Tsarnaev trial must be scrupulous, even if that means moving it
Prosecutors oppose Tsarnaev’s request to move trial
Time for me to get moving.
UPDATE: Tsarnaev friend faces gun charge
