Saying the decision isn’t “going to get any easier for them,” Mayor Bloomberg yesterday urged Attorney General Eric Holder to announce once and for all where the Obama administration intends to hold the trials of five terror suspects.
The mayor was reacting to a caller to his weekly WOR radio show who complained that the lengthy decision process was fraying nerves in New York, especially downtown where the feds had originally wanted to stage the trials and then seemingly withdrew from consideration.
But on Wednesday, Holder startled the city by testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee that “New York is not off the table.”
“I’ve given them my opinion,” the mayor said. “They can do what they want. I do think they should do it in the sense of making a decision one way or another. I hope the decision is to have the trials elsewhere.”
The administration said a month ago that it would decide within weeks about a location. Holder repeated that time frame on Wednesday.
The decision to hold a trial in New York City drew strong opposition when it was proposed late last year, with Bloomberg saying the cost for security and the imposition on residents is too severe.