Opinion ID: 781722
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Yousef's Pre-Trial Motions

Text: 301 Yousef challenges the District Court's denial, following a hearing, of his pre-trial motions to dismiss his indictment and to suppress the statements he made to United States agents on the plane that carried him from Pakistan to the United States. See United States v. Yousef, 927 F.Supp. 673, 676-78 (S.D.N.Y.1996); Yousef, 925 F.Supp. at 1065-67, 1073-77.
302 Yousef challenges the District Court's denial of his motion to dismiss the indictment and its refusal to hold an evidentiary hearing based on his contention that alleged torture by Pakistani captors was attributable to the United States. We review a district court's decision denying a motion to dismiss an indictment de novo. See United States v. Fernandez-Antonia, 278 F.3d 150, 156 (2d Cir.2002) (alien's motion to dismiss indictment pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1326 involves mixed questions of law and fact and therefore is reviewed de novo ); United States v. Leyland, 277 F.3d 628, 631 (2d Cir.2002) (denial of a motion to dismiss on double jeopardy grounds reviewed de novo because it presents a question of law); United States v. Cuervelo, 949 F.2d 559, 567 (2d Cir.1991) (motion to dismiss based on allegations of outrageous governmental conduct reviewed de novo ). We review a district court's factual findings for clear error. See United States v. Casado, 303 F.3d 440, 443 (2d Cir.2002). 303 Yousef submitted an affidavit, dated January 15, 1996 (nearly a year after his February 1995 arrest), in support of his motion to suppress his post-arrest statements and to dismiss the indictment. Yousef Aff. in Supp. of Mot. to Suppress ¶ 38 (Yousef Aff.). In the affidavit, Yousef asserts that he was kidnapped in Pakistan in November 1994. Id. ¶¶ 2-4. Yousef alleges that he and some of his family members were tortured until he agreed to put his fingerprints on various documents and books, write out letters in his own handwriting, and make telephone calls. Id. ¶¶ 5-21. Although Yousef does not specifically allege it, we assume these claims pertain to the incriminating documents found in and phone calls made from the Philippines and introduced at the Philippine Airlines bombing trial. See Airline Bombing Case, Background, section II, ante. He also alleges that he was held continuously by Pakistanis until he was turned over to United States officials in Islamabad in February 1995, id. ¶¶ 23, 25, 27-29, 37, and that at various times while in Pakistani custody he was interrogated by people claiming to be with the FBI, one of whom forced him to sign a Miranda waiver, id. ¶¶ 25, 30-31. 304 Yousef argues that his torture by Pakistanis is attributable to the United States because the Pakistanis who captured and tortured him were acting as agents to the United States or, in the alternative, because the United States and Pakistan were engaged in a joint venture to track and trap him. Consequently, Yousef argues, the District Court was required to dismiss the indictment against him or, in the alternative, to suppress his post-arrest statements as involuntary and coerced. 305 In support of this claim, Yousef relies on a line of cases for the proposition that when the United States engages in conduct that shocks the conscience in order to bring a defendant within the jurisdiction of the United States, a district court must divest itself of jurisdiction over the case and dismiss the indictment. See United States v. Toscanino, 500 F.2d 267, 272-73 (2d Cir.1974). In Toscanino, we held that United States agents' alleged involvement in the defendant's forcible abduction or torture by agents of a foreign government in connection with his extradition to this country to stand trial, if proved, would constitute a deprivation of due process and would require a district court to divest itself of jurisdiction over the case. See id. at 275. We also held, however, that a hearing concerning such allegations would be required only if the defendant offer[ed] some credible supporting evidence, including specific[] evidence that the action was taken by or at the direction of United States officials. Id. at 281; see also United States v. Toscanino, 398 F.Supp. 916, 916-17 (E.D.N.Y.1975) (following remand from Court of Appeals, refusing to hold hearing because only supporting evidence was defendant's affidavit, which failed to show participation by United States officials). 306 The District Court denied Yousef's motion to dismiss without holding a hearing for two reasons. First, it found Yousef's allegations of torture to be incredible in light of evidence that Yousef had traveled to Bangkok during the time period that he was alleged to have been in captivity and because several of Yousef's factual assertions were contradicted by the testimony of the United States agents involved in Yousef's arrest in Pakistan. In particular, agents testified that Yousef was arrested at the Su Casa guest house in Islamabad on February 7, 1995, which was inconsistent with Yousef's assertion that he had been in captivity since the previous November. See Yousef, 927 F.Supp. at 677. 307 We find no clear error in this factual finding, which was supported by additional evidence presented to the District Court, including the fact that Yousef disclaimed any medical problem or injury when he was examined by a doctor following his transfer to United States custody, see Yousef, 925 F.Supp. at 1066-67, and that Yousef did not mention his purported captivity or torture to the United States agents at the time he was taken into United States custody, see id. at 1066 n. 1. Indeed, as stated above, Yousef first asserted his claim of torture nearly a year after his arrest. See Yousef Aff. ¶ 38. We also note that the 1996 Philippine Airlines bombing trial yielded substantial eyewitness testimony and evidence of travel records placing Yousef outside of Pakistan during the time he claims to have been in captivity. See Airline Bombing Case, Background, sections I-II, ante (discussing evidence presented at Philippine Airlines bombing trial). 308 The District Court's second basis for denying the motion to dismiss was that, even taking Yousef's factual assertions as true, Yousef had failed to allege United States involvement in his kidnapping, captivity, or torture sufficient to make them attributable to the United States. See Yousef, 927 F.Supp. at 677. We find no error in this conclusion. As the District Court noted, apart from the undisputed presence of United States officials at the time of his arrest in February 1995, Yousef's only allegation of United States involvement in his captivity and torture is that sometime during the middle of his alleged captivity, notably after most of the alleged mistreatment had taken place, he was placed in a room and was interrogated by an English-speaking Pakistani and a man who claimed to be an FBI agent from the United States, and that later, when he was being interrogated by FBI agents just prior to being transferred to their custody, he recognized one of the FBI agent's voices, as a man who was with `No. 3' [Yousef's asserted primary torturer] when I was first being detained in the desert. Yousef Aff. ¶¶ 25, 31; see Yousef, 927 F.Supp. at 677. This claim was contradicted by the FBI Legal Attache responsible for Pakistan, who testified at the suppression hearing that no FBI agents investigating Yousef were present in Pakistan prior to February 6, 1995. See Yousef, 927 F.Supp. at 677. Even if we accept Yousef's allegations as true, however, his claim necessarily fails because his affidavit does not allege that the FBI agent he claims was in Pakistan either knew about or participated in his torture. See id.
309 In denying Yousef's motion to suppress his statements, the District Court reviewed the circumstances surrounding his arrest and held that the fact that Yousef had originally been given incomplete Miranda warnings did not taint the voluntariness of the statements he made after being given complete Miranda warnings and signing a waiver. See Yousef, 925 F.Supp. at 1074-75. The District Court noted that the Government never sought to introduce any statements Yousef made before he was given full Miranda warnings. Id. 310 Yousef does not challenge this particular holding. Instead, he argues that any Miranda waiver he gave was invalid because (1) he invoked his right to counsel during an extradition proceeding in Pakistan, which took place after he was indicted for the World Trade Center bombing and, hence, after his Sixth Amendment right to counsel had attached; (2) his right to counsel also attached in 1992, when the New York law firm of Willkie Farr & Gallagher (Willkie Farr) was appointed to represent him in immigration proceedings, and thus he was represented by counsel at the time of his interrogation; and (3) he was denied his right to due process by the FBI agents' failure to provide him with counsel before interrogating him. Yousef also argues that, as a consequence of his alleged kidnapping and torture by Pakistanis acting as agents of the United States government, his subsequent post-arrest statements were coerced and involuntary, and hence inadmissible. 311 Only the first of these arguments was raised in the District Court. In reviewing a preserved challenge to the denial of a motion to suppress, we review de novo the legal issues presented [and] we accept the district court's factual findings unless clearly erroneous, ... view[ing] those facts in the light most favorable to the government. Casado, 303 F.3d at 443; see United States v. Harrell, 268 F.3d 141, 145 (2d Cir.2001); United States v. Peterson, 100 F.3d 7, 11 (2d Cir.1996). As for Yousef's unpreserved claims, we review them for plain error. See Fed.R.Crim.P. 52(b). 312 1. Attachment of Sixth Amendment Right to Counsel Upon Indictment for the World Trade Center Bombing 313 The Sixth Amendment's right to counsel attaches at the initiation of adversary judicial proceedings, such as the filing of an indictment. United States v. Gouveia, 467 U.S. 180, 188, 104 S.Ct. 2292, 81 L.Ed.2d 146 (1984); United States v. Abdi, 142 F.3d 566, 569 (2d Cir.1998). Once the right has attached, the Sixth Amendment renders inadmissible in the Government's case-in-chief statements elicited by the Government outside the presence of a defendant's counsel that are not accompanied by a waiver of this right. See generally United States v. Henry, 447 U.S. 264, 273-74, 100 S.Ct. 2183, 65 L.Ed.2d 115 (1980). In addition, in Michigan v. Jackson, 475 U.S. 625, 106 S.Ct. 1404, 89 L.Ed.2d 631 (1986), the Supreme Court adopted the prophylactic rule that once a defendant invokes his Sixth Amendment right to counsel in a government-initiated interrogation, any subsequent waiver of that right is presumed invalid, even if the waiver is knowing and voluntary. See id. at 635, 106 S.Ct. 1404. Statements elicited in violation of this rule are inadmissible in the government's case-in-chief. Cf. Michigan v. Harvey, 494 U.S. 344, 345, 110 S.Ct. 1176, 108 L.Ed.2d 293 (1990) (limiting the applicability of the Jackson rule to statements proffered in the prosecution's case-in-chief). 314 Yousef argues that because his Sixth Amendment right to counsel attached when he was indicted in 1993 for the World Trade Center bombing, the written Miranda waiver he gave to United States agents was void and, therefore, his post-arrest statements should have been suppressed. 65 It is settled law, however, that the attachment of the Sixth Amendment right to counsel, by itself, does not preclude a defendant from validly waiving his right to counsel. See Patterson v. Illinois, 487 U.S. 285, 298, 300, 108 S.Ct. 2389, 101 L.Ed.2d 261 (1988) (holding admissible statements given after indictment, where defendant had been given Miranda warnings and had not asked for counsel). Rather, as the Court in Jackson held, it is the defendant's invocation of his right to counsel that vitiates the validity of a waiver subsequently obtained during a government-initiated interrogation. See Jackson, 475 U.S. at 635, 106 S.Ct. 1404; see also id. at 635 & n. 9, 106 S.Ct. 1404 (leaving open the possibility that a valid waiver could be provided outside the context of a government-initiated interrogation). Yousef does not dispute that, while en route from Pakistan to the United States, he provided a written waiver of his Miranda rights prior to making his statements to FBI agents. Accordingly, unless Yousef can establish that he invoked his right to counsel, this claim must fail. 2. Invocation of Right to Counsel 315 Yousef contends that he invoked his right to counsel during his extradition proceeding before Pakistani officials with United States officials present. However, this bald assertion has no factual support in the record. None of the United States agents who testified at the suppression hearing stated that they had attended an extradition hearing or that they had heard Yousef invoke his right to counsel. One agent told the Court that, following an initial interview with FBI agents, Yousef remained in Pakistani custody until he was turned over to the United States the next day. See Yousef, 925 F.Supp. at 1066. Another agent testified that, to his knowledge, no United States official was present at any extradition proceeding. The only evidence suggesting that Yousef ever invoked his right to counsel appears in the affidavit he submitted, wherein, after explaining that he had been brought to a Pakistani police station, he states the following: 316 30. While I was there, a Pakistani officer came in with FBI officials. One of the FBI officials said It is he. I was then blindfolded again and taken out. 317 31. I was then chained up in a room. Present were several officials who identified themselves as FBI and Pakistani security officers. One of the FBI agents started asking me questions and the other wrote out a  Miranda warning and ordered me to sign it. I was questioned by those agents for several hours. Significantly, I recognized one of the FBI agent's voices as a man who was with No. 3 when I was first being detained in the desert. 318 32. I was then turned over to the Pakistani officials who continued to interrogate me. The Pakistani officials brought a video camera, and filmed me sitting there. 319 33. At one point, when I was with the Pakistani intelligence officers, I told them I wanted an attorney. They responded that it was not a matter for them to decide. 320 34. Later that evening, I was taken to a room that was the office of the commander of that special division. A man entered the room and identified himself as a judicial officer, appointed by the Pakistani Minister of the Interior. Also present in the room were several Pakistani guards and a person who was recording the proceeding. There were no lawyers present. 321 35. The judicial officer read to me the charges pending against me in the United States. As he read each of the charges, he asked me if I had committed any of them. I answered his questions, saying No or That is not true. I asked the judge what was going to happen next. He told me I would first stand trial in Pakistan because of my Pakistani citizenship, and if the validity of the charges was confirmed, I would be turned over to the United States. 322 Yousef Aff. ¶¶ 30-35 (emphasis added). Yousef alleges that Pakistani officers then forced him to sign several papers and that he was held in prison for several more hours before he was transported to the airport and into United States custody. See id. ¶¶ 36-37. 323 As Yousef's counsel acknowledges, a request for counsel in the context of an investigation conducted solely by foreign officials does not, in itself, amount to an invocation of the right to counsel with respect to United States proceedings. See United States v. Coleman, 25 M.J. 679, 686-87 (A.C.M.R.1987), aff'd, 26 M.J. 451 (C.M.A.1988); cf. United States v. Covington, 783 F.2d 1052, 1055-56 (9th Cir.1985) (holding that no constitutional violation occurs when a foreign law enforcement officer fails to cease questioning upon a defendant's invocation of the right to counsel). 66 Accordingly, Yousef's claim is deficient because he does not allege in his affidavit that any United States officials were present when he assertedly asked the Pakistani intelligence officers for an attorney or when the Pakistani judicial officer questioned him. Although Yousef's counsel asserts that Yousef invoked his right to counsel during his extradition proceedings before a Pakistani judicial officer, see Yousef Br. at 89, there is no evidence that any United States official was aware of this request and, therefore, Yousef has failed to establish that his request had any cognizable legal effect under American law or the Sixth Amendment thereunder. Moreover, even if Yousef's request before a foreign law enforcement officer were legally significant, Yousef has failed to allege in his affidavit that he even asked the Pakistani judicial officer for an attorney. 324 United States law enforcement officers are not required to monitor the conduct of representatives of each foreign government to assure that a request for extradition or expulsion is carried out in accordance with American constitutional standards. United States v. Lira, 515 F.2d 68, 71 (2d Cir.1975). Thus, the District Court properly concluded that [a]ny request Yousef made of the Pakistani government prior to his surrender to United States officials ... cannot be extended to require the United States officials to proceed as if that request was made of them. Yousef, 925 F.Supp. at 1076. Yousef does not allege that he ever asked United States officials for an attorney either before he provided a written waiver of his Miranda rights on board the plane that took him to the United States, or at any time during his statement to FBI agents following that waiver. 325 We conclude that Yousef did not invoke his right to counsel before any United States official and, therefore, that the admission of his post-arrest statements, which were provided after he had been given full Miranda warnings and had signed a written waiver of his rights, did not violate his Sixth Amendment right to counsel. See Patterson, 487 U.S. at 300, 108 S.Ct. 2389. 326 3. Sixth Amendment Rights Based on Assignment of Asylum Counsel 327 Yousef next contends that his post-arrest statement should have been suppressed because FBI agents knew that pro bono counsel had been appointed to represent him in deportation proceedings upon his arrival in the United States in 1992, and thus should not have questioned him regarding the World Trade Center bombing in the absence of counsel. While acknowledging that the Sixth Amendment is offense specific, see, e.g., McNeil v. Wisconsin, 501 U.S. 171, 175, 111 S.Ct. 2204, 115 L.Ed.2d 158 (1991), Yousef maintains that his Sixth Amendment right to counsel attached for purposes of the deportation proceedings and extended to the World Trade Center bombing charges because Yousef's deportation hearing was based on his illegal entry into the country and an asylum claim, and thus was closely related to the Travel Act charge contained in the World Trade Center bombing indictment, which alleged that he entered the country with an intent to commit violent crimes, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1952. 328 This claim fails for several reasons. To begin with, the closely related exception on which Yousef relies to tie his immigration representation to the World Trade Center charges was recently rejected by the Supreme Court. See Texas v. Cobb, 532 U.S. 162, 164, 168, 121 S.Ct. 1335, 149 L.Ed.2d 321 (2001) (reaffirming the tenet that Sixth Amendment right to counsel is offense specific, and rejecting the closely related exception). Moreover, there simply is no Sixth Amendment right to counsel and no claim for ineffective assistance of counsel in connection with deportation proceedings, which are civil in nature. See United States v. Paredes-Batista, 140 F.3d 367, 377 (2d Cir. 1998) (Sixth Amendment right to counsel does not apply to civil deportation proceedings); Montilla v. INS, 926 F.2d 162, 166 (2d Cir.1991) (noting that [b]ecause a deportation proceeding is civil, not criminal, in nature, various constitutional protections are not required, including Sixth Amendment right to counsel); see also INS v. Lopez-Mendoza, 468 U.S. 1032, 1038-39, 104 S.Ct. 3479, 82 L.Ed.2d 778 (1984) (because deportation proceeding is civil in nature, various protections that apply in the context of a criminal trial do not apply in a deportation hearing); Michelson v. INS, 897 F.2d 465, 467 (10th Cir.1990) (no Sixth Amendment right to counsel in a deportation proceeding). 329 Finally, in what can only be characterized as a comedic interlude, Yousef argues that pro bono counsel's withdrawal in March 1993, on the grounds that Yousef could not be located and had failed to appear at his deportation hearing, constituted ineffective assistance. Yousef contends that counsel was ineffective by failing to give Yousef notice of the withdrawal. Although it is clear that Yousef's claim of ineffective assistance has no bearing on the present case, we note the obvious irony of the fact that Yousef's pro bono counsel could hardly have notified him of his withdrawal because Yousef had already fled the country, his whereabouts unknown. 330 4. Purported Due Process Requirement of Appointment of Counsel 331 Yousef also argues that the United States was obligated to provide him with counsel upon taking him into custody, and that failure to do so violated his right to due process. Yousef offers no direct support for this argument and, instead, seeks to employ the Mathews balancing test developed in the context of civil proceedings to argue that his liberty interests outweighed any burden that would be placed on the United States if required to provide him with counsel. See Mathews v. Eldridge, 424 U.S. 319, 335, 96 S.Ct. 893, 47 L.Ed.2d 18 (1976) (applying a balancing test to determine what pre-deprivation safeguards were required in an administrative proceeding to guarantee a party's right to procedural due process). We reject this argument as inconsistent with the entire body of law that has developed under Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966), including the principle that an individual can waive his or her rights against self-incrimination and to have an attorney present during questioning. Id. at 444, 86 S.Ct. 1602; see generally Dickerson v. United States, 530 U.S. 428, 120 S.Ct. 2326, 147 L.Ed.2d 405 (2000). Here, Yousef affirmatively waived his right to counsel, after being given full Miranda warnings. To allow a defendant to waive his Miranda rights and then later argue that his right to due process was violated because the government failed to ignore that waiver and appoint counsel anyway would simply defeat the purpose of giving Miranda warnings, which is to provide a criminal suspect with the informed choice either to exercise his Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights or to waive them. 332 5. Voluntariness of Yousef's Post-Arrest Statements 333 Finally, at various points in his brief, Yousef appears to argue that his post-arrest statements should have been suppressed because they were involuntary and coerced as a result of the torture he allegedly suffered. We hold that, because this argument was not raised in Yousef's pre-trial suppression motion, it was waived. See Fed.R.Crim.P. 12(b)(3) (requiring that motions to suppress evidence be raised prior to trial); Fed.R.Crim.P. 12(f) (failure to raise 12(b) motions before trial constitutes waiver thereof); cf. United States v. Crowley, 236 F.3d 104, 108-10 (2d Cir.2000) (failure to raise specificity challenge to indictment before trial, as required by Rule 12(b)(2), constituted waiver under Rule 12(f)). Yousef has not demonstrated cause for the waiver, nor is any plain error apparent from the record. See Fed.R.Crim.P. 12(f), 52(b). 334