Convicted Radical Lawyer Defiant When Heat Not on Her
The NY Times calls Lynne Stewart a “radical defense lawyer.” Add two-faced to that. During her sentencing hearing was docile and quite scared:
In a brief statement to the judge before the sentence, Ms. Stewart, shaking and barely suppressing tears, refrained from political comment or discussion of her case, but noted that she would never be permitted to practice law again.
“The end of my career is truly like a sword in my side,” she said. “I don’t want to be in prison,” she pleaded. “Permit me to live in the world and live out my life, productively, lovingly, righteously.”
Things changed after Judge John Koeltl only gave her 28 months in prison for smuggling messages for convicted terrorist Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman:
“This is a great victory against an overreaching government,” Ms. Stewart said, returning to her familiar feisty rhetoric, as she was embraced by her husband, Ralph Poynter, and her three grandchildren. “I hope the government realizes their error, because I am back out,” she said. “And I am staying out until after an appeal that I hope will vindicate me, that I hope will make me back into the lawyer that I was.”
Ms. Stewart said she was grateful to the judge for giving her “time off for good behavior.” She had been ready to go straight to jail when she came to court, she said, carrying a pair of sweat pants in a plastic bag. She said if she eventually has to serve the 28-month sentence, “I could do it standing on my head.”
For more Rick Moran documents the full and brazen anti-Americanism of Stewart. Justin Levine notes Stewart’s situational tone from having her fate in the hands of a judge to back in the day when she was free to be a full-throated anti-American. Finally, Michelle Malkin made Stewart the subject of today’s Vent.
“Lawyer, Facing 30 Years, Gets 28 Months, to Dismay of U.S.”
