Providence, RI – The widow of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev has hired a prominent criminal lawyer with experience defending terrorism cases as she continues to face questions from federal authorities.
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Katherine Russell added New York lawyer Joshua Dratel to her legal team, her attorney Amato DeLuca said Wednesday. Dratel has represented a number of terrorism suspects in federal courts and military commissions, including Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detainee David Hicks, who attended an al-Qaida-linked training camp in Afghanistan.
“Mr. Dratel’s unique, specialized experience will help insure that Katie can assist in the ongoing investigation in the most constructive way possible,” DeLuca said in a written statement.
He said Russell, who has not been charged with any crime, will continue to meet with investigators as “part of a series of meetings over many hours where she has answered questions.”
Providence-based DeLuca and Miriam Weizenbaum have been representing Russell, who is from Rhode Island. They specialize in civil cases such as personal injury law.
An FBI spokeswoman wouldn’t comment when asked Wednesday whether Russell is cooperating.
DeLuca has said Russell had no reason to suspect her husband and his brother in the deadly April 15 bombing.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, ethnic Chechens from southern Russia, are accused of planting two shrapnel-packed pressure cooker bombs near the marathon’s finish line, killing three people and injuring about 260. Tamerlan was killed in a getaway attempt after a gunbattle with police. Dzhokhar, who was captured hiding in a tarp-covered boat outside a house in a Boston suburb, was charged with using a weapon of mass destruction to kill. Their mother has said the allegations against them are lies.
Russell, 24, married Tamerlan Tsarnaev in 2010, and they had been living in Cambridge, Mass., with their 2-year-old daughter when the bombing happened. Russell has been staying in her family’s home in North Kingstown, just south of Providence, since her husband and brother-in-law were identified as suspects in the case.
Hicks, an Australian, spent more than five years at Guantanamo. He pleaded guilty in March 2007 and served a nine-month sentence in Australia.
My personal feelings do not count here. It is necesary to remember that we are in the USA. Hiring an Atty is not in and of itself an admission or sign of guilt.
If I were to meet her without her legal staff I would love to ask what she knew, how stupid she really thinks we can believe her to be and if she could ever get that smirk off her face. People dies and many others have had their physical and economic future harmed terribly.
Why is he being referred to as bombing suspect ?
Never talk to the FBI without having your lawyer in the room.
To #1 - Any time anyone is harassed or continuously hounded by any governmental agency (i.e. the IRS, Police, Feds, etc.), they should always hire an Attorney to protect themselves. Otherwise, anything one may inadvertently state, could be used against you in Court. Years ago, the FBI harassed an individual named Richard Jewell, for months, as they thought that he was behind the Atlanta bombing at the Olympic site, in 1996. Jewell as just a security guard, who was later proved to be completely innocent. The FBI made Jewell’s life miserable. In the end, Jewell sued, and collected millions from a number of organizations, such as newspapers, who incorrectly defamed him.
Who is paying for lawyers?
She lived on a wellfare.