WASHINGTON — Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales indicated Monday that the Justice Department might still file criminal charges against U.S.-born "enemy combatant" Jose Padilla, even if the courts ordered his release.
The Justice Department is appealing last week's decision by a federal judge that the Bush administration's nearly three-year detention of Padilla without charges or regular access to a lawyer violated the law.
Padilla has been in a military brig almost continuously since his May 2002 arrest by federal authorities in Chicago in connection with a suspected plot to launch a radioactive "dirty bomb" attack on the U.S.
The administration has argued in court that it has the right to detain Padilla indefinitely based on the inherent power of the president as commander in chief. But the court ordered the government to charge him, name him as a material witness or release him within 45 days.
"Certainly, pursuing criminal charges would be an option that the United States would have," Gonzales said in a meeting with reporters. "That decision has not been made yet."
But whether federal officials can build a criminal case against Padilla has been in doubt. The government has obtained a wealth of information about his activities. Much of it, however, was obtained from Padilla when he was in military custody and did not have access to a lawyer -- raising questions about the admissibility of such evidence in court.
The department in June aired a detailed accounting of how Padilla had befriended Al Qaeda leaders and plotted to blow up high-rise apartment buildings in the U.S.
The public disclosure of that information, Justice Department officials said, was done in part to defuse criticism that Padilla was being held unjustly.
Justice Department officials at the time said it would be difficult to bring criminal charges against Padilla.
"We obviously can't use any of the statements he's made in military custody, which will make that option challenging," James Comey, the deputy attorney general, said in making the Padilla report in June.
Gonzales said Monday that another concern was whether the government could make a case against Padilla without jeopardizing "sensitive intelligence collection sources" that provided information about him. Court rules normally would give Padilla the right to challenge his accusers.
