| Associated Press
MIAMI - U.S. government officials who know of sealed defense motions in the Jose Padilla terror case face court punishment if they disclose their contents to the prosecution trial team, a judge has ruled. District Judge Marcia G. Cooke issued the order after Padilla's defense attorneys expressed concern over a sealed motion they filed requesting evidence and assistance from Egypt's government as part of their case. Defense attorneys claimed they received a call from a U.S. government representative who said that if the government is ordered to respond to a defense motion and the defense does not withdraw the motion, the government would disclose the motion's contents to the prosecution trial team. "It is well established that the prosecution does not have the right to be kept abreast of the investigative efforts of defense counsel," the June 22 defense filing said. Cooke ordered Friday that no representative of the U.S. Attorney's Office or the Department of Justice should disclose any of Padilla's pending defense motions to prosecutors without a court order. Padilla and two co-defendants charges of conspiracy to kill, injure or kidnap people overseas as part of a global Islamic terrorist network. They have pleaded not guilty, with trial scheduled for this fall. U.S. Attorney's Office spokesman Matt Dates would not comment on the matter. Defense attorney Andrew Patel didn't return a call seeking comment. Padilla was designated an "enemy combatant" and held for 3 1/2 years without charge by the Bush administration shortly after his May 2002 arrest at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. He was accused then of plotting to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" in a major U.S. city. Padilla was added as a defendant in the Miami terror support cell case last year amid a legal struggle over President Bush's authority to hold him indefinitely. The Miami indictment does not mention the "dirty bomb" allegations. | 
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