ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) – Prosecutors seeking to execute al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui partially revived their case Friday after a judge reversed course and agreed to admit some evidence about aviation security.

U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema relented from her earlier order barring all such testimony. She had issued that ruling Tuesday as punishment for the misconduct of Transportation Security Administration lawyer Carla J. Martin, who coached witnesses and lied to the defense.

“It would be unfortunate if this case could not go forward to some final resolution,” Brinkema told trial attorneys in a telephone conference Friday. Moussaoui is the only person charged in this country in connection with al-Qaida’s Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Late Friday, Moussaoui’s lawyers asked Brinkema to further investigate Martin on Monday, before allowing any aviation testimony. Prosecutors agreed, if Martin is willing to testify. Brinkema did not immediately respond.

Meanwhile, two lawyers coordinating private lawsuits for property damages from Sept. 11 alleged that Martin’s actions were prompted by airlines fearful the government’s arguments in Moussaoui’s case might undercut their defense against paying civil damages.

Martin’s attorney, Roscoe Howard, acknowledged Friday she spoke with an United Airlines attorney about the terrorist-sentencing case and the civil case. “But I don’t think there is any collaboration between them,” Howard said.

The trial, begun March 6 and suspended for a week to deal with the misconduct, is to resume Monday with the jury back in court.

Brinkema accepted a compromise proposal by the government. It allows prosecutors to present limited testimony about what the government could have done to enhance aviation security before the Sept. 11 attacks if Moussaoui had not lied to FBI agents Aug. 16-17, 2001, about his al-Qaida membership and plans to crash a jetliner into the White House.

Prosecutors had told Brinkema their case would be gutted without at least some testimony on aviation security. Though they disputed her ruling that the aviation security evidence was contaminated beyond repair by Martin, prosecutors suggested using a new, substitute witness and documents that Martin had no contact with.

Prosecutors said a substitute witness could be found who worked at the Federal Aviation Administration at the time of Sept. 11 and could discuss how government used “no-fly” lists to bar specific terrorist suspects from airplanes.

Brinkema acknowledged substitute government witnesses would present problems for the defense, including finding rebuttal witnesses.

The testimony is crucial because prosecutors must prove that Moussaoui’s actions led directly to at least one death on Sept. 11 to obtain the death penalty. They argue that Moussaoui’s lies about his true intentions prevented the FBI from identifying some Sept. 11 hijackers in advance and prevented the FAA from taking airport security steps to keep them off airplanes.

Defense lawyers had urged Brinkema not to reconsider. They said federal law has required since 1790 that defense lawyers be notified of the government’s witnesses at least three days before trial in death-penalty cases. Allowing new witnesses mid-trial would leave them unprepared, the defense argued.

Brinkema ordered prosecutors to provide at least three days notice before calling any substitute witnesses to testify.

Moussaoui pleaded guilty in April to conspiring with al-Qaida to crash airplanes into U.S. buildings. But Moussaoui denies any role in Sept. 11 and says he was training for a possible later attack on the White House. The current trial is to determine whether he is executed or spends life in prison.

A hearing Tuesday revealed that Martin sent current and former FAA employees a transcript of the trial’s first day and coached them on how to testify about certain topics to deflect the kinds of attacks the defense mounted that day. In e-mails, Martin wrote that she believed the government’s opening argument overstated the FAA’s ability to prevent Sept. 11.

Martin has been suspended with pay by the TSA.

Robert Clifford and Gregory Joseph, who represent victims of Sept. 11 property damage, told a federal judge in New York that United Airlines lawyer Jeff Ellis received a transcript of the first day of Moussaoui’s trial from an American Airlines lawyer and forwarded it to Martin. After that, Martin sent the transcript to the Moussaoui trial witnesses with her own commentary and advice.

The e-mails by airline attorneys, however, do not ask Martin to take any action, nor do they explain why they were forwarding Martin a transcript that was available on the Internet for $119. The e-mails were released during Brinkema’s inquiry into Martin’s actions.

Clifford and Joseph said the government’s Moussaoui position could have a “devastating” impact on the airlines’ defense and urged the New York judge to investigate “the mutual back-scratching relationship that appears to exist between the (airline) defendants and the TSA.”

But U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein declined, referring the complaints to the court of appeals or Brinkema.

United spokeswoman Robin Urbanski said actions of United and its lawyers “have been entirely appropriate.”

American Airlines attorneys Desmond Barry and Roger Podesta said no one connected with American has communicated directly with Martin and the government’s Moussaoui stance was irrelevant to the company’s defense against civil damage suits.

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On the Net:

Court’s Moussaoui site:

http://www.vaed.uscourts.gov/notablecases/moussaoui/index.html

AP-ES-03-17-06 2012EST

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