Opinion ID: 757025
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Government's Improper Arguments

Text: 231 Ajaj argues that the government's summation misrepresented the evidence, invited the jury to speculate, and was based on evidence the government knew or should have known to be false. 5 Specifically, Ajaj assails the government's argument that Ajaj facilitated Yousef's entry into the United States at Kennedy Airport. According to Ajaj, no testimony at trial established that Ajaj created a distraction or in any way affected the INS's processing of Yousef at Kennedy Airport. 232 Ajaj also argues that the government knowingly used false evidence of stamps on Ajaj's Jordanian passport to show that Ajaj traveled to the Middle East to obtain terrorist training. The passport, issued to Ajaj in August 1991, bore stamps indicating that Ajaj: (1) on May 16, 1992, left Pakistan and entered the United Arab Emirates; (2) traveled to Saudi Arabia later that month; (3) on June 13, 1992, exited the United Arab Emirates; and (4) on June 14, 1992, returned to Pakistan. The date of Ajaj's re-entry into Pakistan was corroborated by Ajaj's Pakistani Certificate of Registration, which also was dated June 14, 1992. At trial, the government alleged that Ajaj made the brief trip to Saudi Arabia in order to obtain a letter of introduction to Camp Khaldan, a terrorist training camp located on the AfghanistanPakistan border. The letter of introduction, dated May 21, 1992, requested that the leader of Camp Khaldan provide the bearer with training in the use of weapons and explosives. 233 Ajaj argues that the passport contained fraudulent stamps and was therefore an unreliable travel document. He contends that the government deliberately mistranslated or failed to translate several passport stamps in an effort to conceal their inauthenticity. For example, the government translated a Kuwaiti visa stamp issued on September 9, 1991 as a visit visa; in fact, properly translated, the stamp was a residence visa which, Ajaj argues, was impossible to obtain on that date as he was in the United States. Moreover, the government failed to translate the date of a Kuwaiti entry stamp, which, while partially obscured, is April 8th or 9th. Given that Ajaj's passport was issued in August 1991, that date would have to be April 8 or 9, 1992; Ajaj, however, was indisputably in Texas at that time. Ajaj argues that the government's own witness, INS inspector Mark Cozine, alerted the government to the defects in the passport when he testified at trial that the June 14, 1992, Pakistani entry stamp appeared to be counterfeit. Ajaj argues that the government, nevertheless, recklessly relied on the passport as evidence without confirming whether the passport stamps were authentic. 234 Furthermore, Ajaj argues that the government invited the jury to speculate as to his authorship of the handwritten notes in the notebooks. The government, which spared no expense during the trial, failed to obtain a handwriting expert and instead relied on the testimony of Carol Edelen, the government's fingerprint expert, to argue that Ajaj authored the notes in the handwritten manuals. Ajaj argues that the government deliberately failed to consult a handwriting expert and ignored the possibility that Ajaj did not author the handwritten notes. 235 Ajaj also argues that the government misrepresented to the jury that Ajaj lied to an Embassy official at the United States Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan. The government at trial argued that on July 1, 1992, after completing his terrorist training, Ajaj traveled to the United States Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, to inquire whether he could return lawfully to the United States. The government accused Ajaj of lying to Karen Stanton, an Embassy official, that he possessed a five-year visa that he had left at home in the United States. Stanton informed Ajaj that the Embassy could not assist him. Ajaj argues that no testimony at trial established that he had lied about a five-year visa and that he did in fact leave a visa in the United States. 236 On review, we conclude that the government's arguments were based squarely on the evidence and were within the bounds of the broad latitude the government is given to suggest reasonable inferences to the jury. See Zackson, 12 F.3d at 1183. Ajaj's contentions warrant only brief discussion. The government did not misrepresent that Ajaj had facilitated Yousef's entry into the United States at Kennedy Airport. At trial, Customs Inspector Malafronte testified that Ajaj, when questioned at Kennedy Airport about whether he was traveling with another, claimed to be traveling alone. Ajaj's lie, in conjunction with Ajaj's possession of the terrorist materials, provided a firm basis for the government to argue that Ajaj facilitated Yousef's entry into Kennedy Airport. Furthermore, the government's argument that Ajaj authored the notes in the handwritten manuals was based on Carol Edelen's fingerprint placement testimony, which the district court properly admitted. Ajaj presents no evidence of government malfeasance in failing to obtain a handwriting expert, nor does Ajaj offer an explanation for his own failure to consult one. 237 The government also was entitled to rely on Ajaj's passport as a travel document. Ajaj, beyond his own conjecture, presents no evidence to indicate that the government deliberately concealed irregularities in the passport stamps. In fact, the government's translation displayed discrepancies in the stamps that Attorney Campriello highlighted in summation to argue that the passport was unreliable as a travel document. Moreover, even assuming that a proper government translation would have revealed the apparent inauthenticity of several stamps, these irregularities would not have undermined the reliability of the passport as a whole. The specific United Arab Emirates and Pakistani stamps on which the government relied to argue that Ajaj traveled in the Middle East did not bear apparent indicia of inauthenticity. Indeed, the authenticity of those stamps was corroborated by Ajaj's Pakistani Certificate of Registration, which was issued on June 14, 1992, and which corresponded to the June 13 United Arab Emirates exit stamp and the June 14 Pakistani entry stamp in the passport. The authenticity of these stamps also was corroborated by Ajaj's statement to Karen Stanton at the United States Embassy in Islamabad that as of July 1, 1992, Ajaj had been in Pakistan for only a few weeks. 6 Although the government may have argued erroneously in summation that Ajaj lied to Karen Stanton at the United States Embassy about the location of a five-year visa, Ajaj did not object to this argument at trial. This point was of minor relevance to the government's case and hardly amounts to flagrant abuse.