Opinion ID: 757025
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Moharam

Text: 193 Moharam was a paid government informant who provided information regarding one of Abouhalima's co-conspirators, Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman. Abouhalima argues that his constitutional rights were violated when Judge Duffy, during an ex parte conference, ruled that the government could withhold from the defense the terms of [Moharam's] deal with the government. 194 Before Moharam testified, the government informed Judge Duffy, ex parte, that between June 1991 and July 1992 Moharam was paid $550 for information about Abdel Rahman. The government requested that it be permitted not to disclose Moharam's role as an informant, based on concerns for the safety of Moharam and his family, the relatively small sum involved and the abundance of impeachment material already provided to the defendants. 195 Judge Duffy ordered the government to disclose that Moharam was an informant and that he had received $550 cash and various other financial support for information, but not that Moharam had provided information specifically about Abdel Rahman. Judge Duffy precluded disclosure of the connection to Abdel Rahman because of concerns about the damaging effect on the defendants if evidence about Abdel Rahman--who was charged in another highly publicized criminal case with, among other things, seditious conspiracy to wage a war of urban terrorism against the United States--was injected into this trial. Accordingly, it was a sound exercise of discretion to suppress at trial that it was Abdel Rahman about whom Moharam had provided the government with information. 196 Furthermore, Abouhalima's claim that Judge Duffy stifled exploration of Moharam's financial interest in the case is misguided because Judge Duffy allowed extensive cross-examination regarding Moharam's status as a paid informant. Abouhalima cross-examined Moharam concerning many aspects of Moharam's financial relationship with the government and Abouhalima was able to exploit skillfully in summation the potential financial interest Moharam might have had in this case. 197 Abouhalima also maintains that he was wrongfully prejudiced because Judge Duffy did not require the government to disclose Moharam's penal interest in the case, or the reason why Moharam decided to cooperate with the government. Abouhalima's counsel suggested to the judge during a pretrial conference that Moharam had been arrested in 1991 for illegal activity and that his co-operation with the government was motivated by his arrest. This allegation was unsupported; indeed the government maintained it was untrue. There is nothing in the record to show that the reason Moharam decided to cooperate with the government was relevant to the case now before us or should have been disclosed to the defense. Therefore, Judge Duffy did not err when he determined that the details of Moharam's agreement with the FBI and the subject matter of his informant work, with the exception of his financial interest, need not be disclosed. Furthermore, the court's decision did not impinge on Abouhalima's confrontation rights because Abouhalima conducted an extensive cross-examination and attacked Moharam's credibility from many angles. The trial court acted within its sound discretion. See Scotti, 47 F.3d at 1248.