Former federal terrorism prosecutor faces charges
The lead prosecutor in a Detroit terrorism trial that the government once heralded as a signal victory in the war on terrorism has been indicted on obstruction of justice and other charges related to the case.
The federal indictment says that former prosecutor Richard Convertino and a State Department security officer, Harry Smith, conspired to mislead the jury about evidence during the 2003 trial of the case, United States v. Koubriti, in which three Middle Eastern men were accused of operating a "sleeper cell" and convicted on a variety of terrorism and fraud charges. Theirs were the first and only jury convictions stemming from the FBI's investigation into the 9/11 terrorist attacks. But the federal judge handling the trial, Gerald Rosen, threw out the convictions after the Justice Department issued a scathing report accusing Convertino of withholding evidence that could have been beneficial to the defense.
Convertino, 45, and Smith, 49, were charged with conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and making false declarations in the case. Smith was a security officer at the American Embassy in Amman, Jordan. He helped in the Koubriti investigation and also testified as one of Convertino's witnesses at the trial.
As part of his prosecution, Convertino had alleged that the layout of an Amman hospital closely matched a sketch found in the three defendants' apartment and that the men had "cased" the hospital for a possible terrorist strike. But defense attorneys disputed that assertion and challenged Smith about the supposed absence of photographs that would show discrepancies between the sketch and the site.
In the case against Convertino and Smith, the government says they failed to disclose photographs of the Queen Alia Hospital to the defendants and lied that they could not obtain photographs of the hospital, even though Smith had not only taken his own photos but, not satisfied with the quality, had asked colleagues to shoot some more pictures for Convertino. The indictment charges that Convertino concealed the additional photographs during the trial.
The grand jury also charged Convertino with obstruction of justice in a second criminal case in the Eastern District of Michigan, described only as United States v. John Doe. In that case, prosecutors said Convertino allegedly gave false information to a judge during a sentencing hearing to obtain a sharply reduced sentence for a defendant. Convertino has described the charges that have been leveled against him as a smear campaign by the government.
Convertino is suing his boss in Detroit as well as former Attorney General John Ashcroft and other Justice Department officials, accusing them of "gross mismanagement" of terrorism cases. His attorney, William Sullivan, said today that the indictment is "manifestly false" and another example of "government reprisal for his whistleblower lawsuit."
Sullivan said the Koubriti case was just another example of how Convertino had "dedicated himself to preserving the safety of his community." Matthew Leitman, Smith's attorney, said that his client is a "dedicated public servant" who has "risked his life to defend his country and its elected officials" and that he would be vindicated in court.
Throughout the Koubriti trial, defense attorneys complained that Convertino had engaged in prosecutorial misconduct. He denied it. But Rosen, angered by Convertino's failure to obey his strict orders on disclosure of evidence potentially beneficial to defendants, ordered Ashcroft to conduct a complete review of the case, which resulted in Rosen's throwing out the convictions of the three men.