11:25 AM CDT, August 18, 2009 HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — An attorney for a New Jersey blogger facing charges in two states for allegedly making threats against lawmakers and judges says he worked with the FBI to deliberately make provocative statements.
Defense attorney Michael Orozco told reporters after a hearing in Hartford, Conn., that his client, Hal Turner, published the antagonistic words so that people who acted on them could be arrested.
Prosecutors have acknowledged that Turner was an informant who spied on radical right-wing organizations. But a federal prosecutor in Illinois last month said Turner's contacts with the FBI ended long ago.
Turner is accused in Connecticut of urging people to "take up arms" against state legislators. He is in federal custody in Illinois, where he is accused of threatening three federal judges.