The Government has filed new terror charges against New York lawyer Lynne Stewart.

The Court dismissed the original terror charge against her last July. That charge alleged that she helped her client, Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, pass messages from prison.

The new charges accuse Ms. Stewart of conspiring to provide material support with a co-defendant, Mohammed Yousry, a translator, to the same client, Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, who is serving a life sentence in prison after being convicted of plotting to blow up New York landmarks. Ms. Stewart and Mr. Yousry are also charged with concealing their support for the sheik.

When Attorney General John Ashcroft announced the original charges in 2002, he called it the first use of a rule allowing the Bureau of Prisons to monitor conversations between lawyers and inmates who are threats to commit "future acts of violence or terrorism." The judge who dismissed the charges in July found them to be constitutionally vague.

What's particularly chilling about the Lynne Stewart case is that the Government's evidence is based on attorney-client communications taped by the Government, pursuant to guidelines issued by Ashcroft.

More details on the new charges are available here.