WASHINGTON - Attorney General Michael Mukasey has decided to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court this month, asking the justices to reinstate the conviction of millennium bomber Ahmed Ressam, the Justice Department reports.
In January of last year, the 9th Circuit overturned one of nine counts against Ressam, an al-Qaida trainee who plotted to bomb the Los Angeles International Airport days before the new millennium. It threw out his conviction for carrying an explosive while committing a felony, ruling that the government failed to establish a link between the underlying crime and the act of carrying an explosive.
Mukasey, 66, will be the first attorney general to argue a case before the Supreme Court since Janet Reno in 1996. As a former federal judge, Mukaskey has presided over high-profile terrorism trials in New York.
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