Lynne Irene Stewart (October 8, 1939 – March 7, 2017) was an American defense attorney who was known for representing controversial, famous defendants. She herself was convicted on charges of conspiracy and providing material support to terrorists in 2005, and sentenced to 28 months in prison. Her felony conviction led to her being automatically disbarred. She was convicted of helping pass messages from her client Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, an Egyptian cleric convicted of planning terror attacks, to his followers in al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, an organization designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the United States Secretary of State at the time; the designation was later revoked in May 2022.
She was re-sentenced on July 15, 2010, to 10 years in prison in light of her perjury at trial. She served her sentence at the Federal Medical Center, Carswell, a federal prison in Fort Worth, Texas.
Stewart was released from prison on December 31, 2013, on a compassionate release order because of her terminal breast cancer diagnosis.
Stewart was born in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of Irene and John Feltham. Her mother was of German and Swedish descent, while her father had English and Irish ancestry. She grew up in Bellerose, Queens and graduated from Martin Van Buren High School in 1957. She attended Hope College in Holland, Michigan but left without a degree. Stewart graduated from Wagner College on Staten Island with a B.A. in political science in 1961. She earned a Juris Doctor from Rutgers School of Law–Newark in Newark, New Jersey in 1975. She was admitted to practice law in New York in 1977.
Stewart was admitted to the New York State Bar on January 31, 1977. For much of her career as a lawyer, she represented a number of economically disadvantaged clients as well as more high-profile cases. Stewart was a self-described "movement lawyer" who took a wider interest in promoting the general political interests of those she represented, rather than only dealing with the specific charges against them. Stewart defended Weather Underground member David Gilbert, who was found guilty for his role in the 1981 Brinks armored car robbery in which two police officers and a security guard were murdered.
In 1991, Stewart was subpoenaed to explain alternative fee arrangements with a gang member whom she had been defending on a drug trafficking charge. Stewart refused the subpoena and eventually pleaded guilty to criminal contempt in the second degree, a misdemeanor charge that would not result in her disbarment.
Another high-profile client was former Black Panther member Willie Holder, who hijacked Western Airlines Flight 701 on June 2, 1972; he claimed to have a bomb and demanded the release of Angela Davis and $500,000.
Along with William Kunstler, Stewart represented Larry Davis, who had been charged with the attempted murder of nine NYPD officers during a shootout, as well as the murder of four Bronx drug dealers. Stewart and Kunstler secured Davis an acquittal on the more serious murder and attempted murder charges, but Davis was found guilty on a lesser felony weapon possession charge. After the trial, Stewart ended her relationship with Kunstler, feeling marginalized by Kunstler hogging the publicity of the case and not giving her due credit. Even Davis believed that Stewart was more instrumental in his acquittal, stating that "everyone thinks Kunstler beat the case. Lynne Stewart beat the case."
Stewart also unsuccessfully defended former Gambino crime family underboss Sammy "the Bull" Gravano on ecstasy trafficking charges.
Stewart said that all her high-profile clients shared the distinction of being revolutionaries against unjust systems or were people whose cases expose those injustices. As a courtroom adversary, former assistant US Attorney Andrew C. McCarthy found Stewart to be "eminently reasonable and practical" and commented that "when she gave her word on something, she honored it — she never acted as if she thought one was at liberty to be false when dealing with the enemy."
After the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the FBI began to investigate Omar Abdel-Rahman (also known as the Blind Sheikh). The FBI recorded Rahman issuing a fatwa that encouraged acts of violence against US civilian targets, particularly in the New York and New Jersey metropolitan area. Rahman was arrested on 24 June 1993. The targets were the United Nations Headquarters, the Lincoln Tunnel, the Holland Tunnel, the George Washington Bridge, and the FBI's main New York office at the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building. There were also plans to bomb Jewish targets in the city as well as assassinating U.S. Senator Al D'Amato and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
In November 1994, former Johnson administration attorney general Ramsey Clark met with Stewart and asked her to take Rahman on as a client after Rahman dismissed his court-appointed lawyer and his other lawyers, William Kunstler and Ron Kuby, were taken off the case for conflict of interest. Stewart was reluctant at first, but Clark convinced her to take the case, arguing that otherwise "the Arab world would feel betrayed by their friends on the American left." Interviewed by the Washington Post about her embrace of Rahman's case, she said, "my own political sense tells me that the only hope for change in Egypt is the fundamentalist movement." Kuby, who had represented Rahman earlier, disagreed with Stewart's characterization, stating, "I love Lynne, but no one in the world could fairly posit the sheikh as a progressive or liberal on any issue." Stewart contended that she understood fundamentalists because attorney general "John Ashcroft is one."
During Rahman's trial, she argued to the jury that Rahman had been framed for his political and religious teachings and not, as the prosecution alleged, for conspiring in any violent acts against the United States. Rahman was convicted of seditious conspiracy on October 1, 1995, and in 1996 he was sentenced to life in prison. Stewart reportedly wept when the jury announced its decision.
Violation of "Special Administrative Measures"
As part of Stewart's defense of Rahman, and her serving for several years on post-conviction issues, she was subject to modified "special administrative measures" which govern communications between suspects and their legal counsel. Stewart had accepted the condition that, in order to be allowed to meet with Abdel Rahman in prison, she would not "use [their] meetings, correspondence, or phone calls with Abdel Rahman to pass messages between third parties (including, but not limited to, the media) and Abdel Rahman". The special administrative measures, or SAMs, were modified in the wake of the September 11th attacks and were designed to prevent communications that could endanger US national security or lead to acts of violence and terrorism.
According to a federal grand jury indictment, Stewart along with interpreter Mohamed Yousry, an adjunct professor in Middle East studies at York College CUNY, and postal clerk Ahmed Sattar passed messages between Rahman and his supporters in violation of the SAM, thereby conspiring to defraud the United States in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371. The indictment also charged Stewart with violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2339A and 18 U.S.C. § 2, and making false statements (18 U.S.C. § 1001), and Ahmed Sattar with being an active Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya leader who served as a vital link between Rahman and the group's members. Stewart was accused in the indictment of passing Rahman's blessing for a resumption of terrorist operations to al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya members in Egypt after they inquired whether they should continue to honor a ceasefire agreement with the Egyptian government. According to video surveillance of Rahman's cell Stewart, Yousry and Rahman had been tricking the correctional officers into believing that Stewart and Rahman were having a routine conversation relating to his case, when Rahman was dictating statements to Yousry with Stewart joking that she should get an award for acting.