New York Attorney Lynne Stewart lost her bid to suppress wiretaps and videos yesterday. The federal court in New York ruled that the electronic surveillance was proper under FISA.

In July, the Court threw out terrorsim charges against Stewart. She remains charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States making false statements.

More than 85,000 audio recordings of voice calls, faxes and computer transmissions were made by the government during its seven-year investigation as it worked to build a case that Stewart and the three men were conduits for the sheikh to his terrorist followers, and helped him, among other things, to communicate to them his desire for a resumption of terror attacks.

The defendants argued before Koeltl that the government violated the U.S. Constitution and procedures under FISA, 50 U.S.C. § 1801 and following, and that evidence obtained in the surveillance should be not used at trial.

Stewart was not named as a target in the surveillance applications under FISA. As to the 20 videotapes of her, her client Sheikh Abdel Rahman, and an interpreter at the jail, the Judge ruled:

.... Stewart "simply ignores the cases ... that have squarely held that surveillance authorized and conducted in accordance with FISA does not violate the Fourth Amendment rights of those whose communications are intercepted."

Our full Lynne Stewart coverage is here.