Armed Conflict Criminal Justice & the Rule of Law Terrorism & Extremism

8/23 Session #7: Accord on Motions to Compel

Raffaela Wakeman, Wells Bennett
Friday, August 23, 2013, 3:32 PM

We pick up with a quick clarifying point about vicarious liability: the idea, the military judge confirms with the Chief Prosecutor, is that the jury must find that a substantive offenses was committed, before holding the accused liable under a co-conspirator theory?  Right, answers Martins.

And then J. Connell III moves to compel.  Indeed, he has so moved in two particular instances, which he rises to discuss now with the military judge. The first of the pair is AE160, Connell’s bid to protect details of defense team payments from the prosecution’s eyes.

Published by The Lawfare Institute
in Cooperation With
Brookings

We pick up with a quick clarifying point about vicarious liability: the idea, the military judge confirms with the Chief Prosecutor, is that the jury must find that a substantive offenses was committed, before holding the accused liable under a co-conspirator theory?  Right, answers Martins.

And then J. Connell III moves to compel.  Indeed, he has so moved in two particular instances, which he rises to discuss now with the military judge. The first of the pair is AE160, Connell’s bid to protect details of defense team payments from the prosecution’s eyes.

The prosecution theoretically might access certain defense billing statements, that themselves could include sensitive information such as the locations of investigators, and other things. The defense attorney continues: we may decide to use an investigator as an expert witness, and that’s confidential stuff, your honor.  But lo, now we discover that the lawyer has buried the lede a bit: thankfully, says Connell, discussions with the opposing team have produced compromise language regarding billing statements. Peace having broken out, the judge eyeballs and then adopts the language proposed, without further debate on AE160.

Apropos of peace breaking out, it seems the second of Connell’s group is, in fact, a joint motion to produce the non-disclosure agreements employed for the privilege team in the Al-Nashiri case. (Connell merely desires to know what such agreements entail.)  Provided these don’t contain personal information, the prosecution doesn’t oppose the agreements’ disclosure to the defense.  Neither does the court---though Judge Pohl wonders aloud about precisely who might have the documents.  At any rate, the joint motion is granted, and court and counsel trot quickly to our next agenda item.

Raffaela Wakeman is a Senior Director at In-Q-Tel. She started her career at the Brookings Institution, where she spent five years conducting research on national security, election reform, and Congress. During this time she was also the Associate Editor of Lawfare. From there, Raffaela practiced law at the U.S. Department of Defense for four years, advising her clients on privacy and surveillance law, cybersecurity, and foreign liaison relationships. She departed DoD in 2019 to join the Majority Staff of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, where she oversaw the Intelligence Community’s science and technology portfolios, cybersecurity, and surveillance activities. She left HPSCI in May 2021 to join IQT. Raffaela received her BS and MS in Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2009 and her law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 2015, where she was recognized for her commitment to public service with the Joyce Chiang Memorial Award. While at the Department of Defense, she was the inaugural recipient of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s General Counsel Award for exhibiting the highest standards of leadership, professional conduct, and integrity.
Wells C. Bennett was Managing Editor of Lawfare and a Fellow in National Security Law at the Brookings Institution. Before coming to Brookings, he was an Associate at Arnold & Porter LLP.

Subscribe to Lawfare