Legal Commentary

Zazi Ends Talks With FBI, Blasts False Media Reports

By Jeralyn

Najibullah Zazi and his attorney "abruptly broke off talks with FBI agents this morning."

"Mr. Zazi and Mr. Folsom will not be meeting with the FBI today," Folsom's spokeswoman Wendy Aiello told The Denver Post Saturday morning. She said they've decided that it is in his best interest given the progress of negotiations so far, Aiello said.

Zazi did give a phone interview to the Denver Post this morning in which he denied the media accounts which say he confessed to anything: [More...]

[H]e has not admitted any link to the terrorist group, to participation in insurgency training in Pakistan or to involvement in a terrorist plot. "It's not true," Zazi said. "I have nothing to hide. It's all media publications reporting whatever they want. They have been reporting all this nonsense."

He has a point. Law enforcement is leaking like a sieve about his statements. The FBI has insisted he and his lawyer refrain from commenting about specific questions he is being asked, yet officials from NY to Denver are reporting incriminating details about his answers to every major media outlet.

Supposedly the whole point of Zazi's talking to the FBI was to clear his name. The leaked details are having the opposite effect.

There's Zazi the complete innocent. Or, Zazi the unwitting pawn of Afghan or Pakistani terrorists. Or, Zazi the knowing participant. Had he stayed silent in the first place, no one would know what to believe. Now, due to media reports emanating from law enforcement or the Justice Department which have him confessing to terror ties and seeking a plea deal, he is quickly losing the battle in the court of public opinion. His tell-all strategy seems to have fallen apart. If his back-up strategy was in fact to get a plea deal, that seems to have fallen apart as well.

Developing....updates to follow.

• New Denials From Zazi's Attorney
• Zazi to Return for Fourth Day of Questioning
• Report: Najibullah Zazi in Plea Negotiations, FBI to Question Zazi's Father
• Another Full Day of FBI Questioning for Najibullah Zazi, More Friday
• Zazi to Be Questioned Further by FBI Today
• FBI Executes Search Warrants on Subject of Denver Terror Probe

Full post as published by TalkLeft on September 19, 2009 (boomark / email).