Obama lawyer has egg on face after defendant in what he said was a "politically-motivated persecution" pleads guilty to supporting terrorism

Former Florida college professor Sami Al-Arian’s epic, nearly-20-year struggle with U.S. authorities came to a low-key end this week as he was deported to Turkey...

...The Kuwaiti-born Al-Arian ultimately pled guilty to a single count of supporting a terrorist organization and agreed to be deported...

In 2010, Obama White House lawyer and envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference Rashad Hussain initially said he had no recollection of statements attributed to him at a 2004 conference decrying Al-Arian’s prosecution as one of several “politically-motivated persecutions” by the Bush administration. However, after POLITICO obtained a recording of the event, Hussain acknowledged the remarks and said they “were ill-conceived or not well-formulated.”

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