Lawyers for Supremacist Deride Case
CHICAGO — Lawyers for a white supremacist leader charged with trying to have a federal judge killed rested their case Tuesday without calling a single witness, criticizing the prosecution’s case as exceptionally weak.
Matthew Hale, 32, whose organization preached racial holy war, is charged with solicitation to commit murder and obstruction of justice. He never testified at the trial.
U.S. District Judge James T. Moody ordered closing arguments to begin this morning.
Chief defense counsel Thomas Anthony Durkin declined to discuss his strategy, saying only that he stood by his comments made that morning when he asked the judge for an immediate acquittal.
“This is the weakest case I’ve ever seen the government present in a big case,†Durkin had told the judge. “This is absolutely awful evidence.â€
Moody denied the acquittal request.
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