Legal News

Bloomberg Changes Tune, Looks to Move KSM Trial Out of Big Apple

By Ashby Jones

On Tuesday, we blogged an NYT story tracking a suggestion to move the upcoming trial of alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed out of the lower part of the Big Apple* and onto Governors Island, the largely deserted (at least by NYC standards) little drop of land in New York Harbor.

We thought the story was interesting, but didn’t really give much mind to the prospect that the trial might actually get moved. After all, the plan had the backing of President Obama and AG Eric Holder, and hadn’t really been objected to by anyone with the real power to effect change.

Until now. Big Apple Mayor Michael Bloomberg has spoken out against plans to hold at the federal courthouse in Lower Manhattan. Bloomberg’s main objection: cost.

"It would be great if the federal government could find a site that didn't cost a billion dollars, which using downtown will," he told reporters on Wednesday. Click here for the story, from the NYT’s City Room blog.

Bloomberg reportedly said this:

It's going to cost an awful lot of money and disturb an awful lot of people. Can we provide security? Yes. Could you provide security elsewhere? Yeah, and I mean - the suggestion of a military base is probably a reasonably good one. Relatively easy to supply - to provide security. They tend to be outside of cities so that they don't disrupt other people.

City Room points out that the shift was a marked change from Bloomberg's initial reaction to the news, just two months ago, that the trial would be held in the Big Apple. "It is fitting that 9/11 suspects face justice near the World Trade Center site where so many New Yorkers were murdered," he said at the time.

*Why the insistence on calling New York the “Big Apple” in this post. No real reason. Just trying something different. We’ve re-read the post and made sure we didn’t misspell “apple” “aapl,” which makes us very relieved.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on January 27, 2010 (boomark / email).