Defendant Denied Preferred Counsel Due to Clearance

The lawyer chosen by a former senior CIA official to defend him in court against corruption charges reportedly has been forced to remove himself from the case because he refuses to apply for security clearance.

A judge removed a high-profile defense attorney on Monday from the case of a contractor charged with conspiring to defraud the CIA because the lawyer refused to submit to background checks.

U.S. District Judge Larry Burns said Mark Geragos placed an undue burden on the court by refusing to obtain a security clearance. Prosecutors said they would have to spend six months sifting through 17,000 pages of evidence to remove classified material because Geragos didn’t have the clearance to see it.

The move may delay the trial against former top CIA official Kyle “Dusty” Foggo and his best friend, contractor Brent Wilkes, Burns said.

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