Stephen M. Truitt

Stephen M. Truitt is an American lawyer in Washington DC, retired from the Pepper Hamilton law firm.cite news
url=http://thetalkingdog.com/archives2/000935.html
title= October 14, 2007, TD Blog Interview with Stephen Truitt and Charles Carpenter
page=
pages=
publisher=The Talking Dog
author=
date=October 14, 2007
accessdate=2008-03-30
quote=]

Although retired from Pepper Hamilton, Truitt continues to practice general civil litigation as a solo. In addition, along with Pepper colleague Charles H. Carpenter, he has volunteered to serve pro bono to help Guantanamo captives, and represents two men currently held there: Hani Saleh Rashid Abdullah (a.k.a Sa id Salih Sa id Nashir) and Maher El Falesteny (a.k.a Mahrar Rafat Al Quwari). Former client Rami Bin Said Al Taibi [http://www.nationalsecuritylaw.net/Article.Hamdan%20Case%20--%20Roberts%20Recusal%20--%20Appeal%20(WSJ%208.30.05).htm Lawyers for one of those prisoners, Rami bin Saad al-Oteibi of Saudi Arabia, filed their motion under seal on Friday. A court security officer cleared it for public release yesterday. The motion seeks to intervene in the Hamdan case and asks for a new hearing before a panel without Judge Roberts.] was transferred to Saudi Arabia in 2007.

On behalf of Hani Abdullah, Carpenter and Truitt sought a report concerning possible destruction of evidence by DOD and the CIA, notwithstanding a court order not to destroy evidence.cite news
url=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/28/washington/28intel.html?em&ex=1206849600&en=039d06bc09e6e300&ei=5087%0A
title=Tapes’ Destruction Hovers Over Detainee Cases
publisher=New York Times
author=Mark Mazzetti, Scott Shane
date=March 28, 2008
accessdate=2008-03-29
quote=One of the court orders, issued in July 2005 by Judge Richard W. Roberts of the Federal District Court in Washington, required the preservation of all evidence related to Hani Abdullah, the Yemeni prisoner at Guantánamo, who is accused of attending a Qaeda training camp in 2001 and other offenses. Judge Roberts said in a January order that Mr. Abdullah’s lawyers had made a plausible case that Abu Zubaydah would have been asked about their client in interrogations.] cite news
url=http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2008/03/28/destroyed_tapes_come_back_to_vex_cia/9157/
title=Destroyed tapes come back to vex CIA
publisher=United Press International
date=March 28, 2008
accessdate=2008-03-29
quote=In a suit brought by Hani Abdullah, a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a federal judge has raised the possibility that the U.S. spy agency violated a court order to preserve all evidence relevant to the prisoner by destroying the tapes, The New York Times reported Friday.] cite news
url=http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_8077436?source=rss
title=Judge seeking details on CIA tapes
publisher=Contra Costa Times
author=Matt Apuzzo
date=25 January 2008
accessdate=2008-03-29
quote=Roberts issued a three-page ruling late Thursday siding with Carpenter, who represents Guantanamo Bay detainee Hani Abdullah. The judge said the lawyers had made a preliminary "showing that information obtained from Abu Zubaydah" was relevant to the detainee's lawsuit and should not have been destroyed.] cite news
url=http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/01/24/cia-tapes.html
title=U.S. judge orders White House to explain destruction of CIA tapes
publisher=CBC News
date=25 January 2008
accessdate=2008-03-29
quote=There's enough there that it's worth asking" whether other videos or documents were also destroyed, said attorney Charles Carpenter, who represents Guantanamo Bay detainee Hani Abdullah. "I don't know the answer to that question, but the government does know the answer and now they have to tell Judge Roberts.]

Truitt is a plaintiff in Wilner v. NSA.

Truitt and Carpenter also represented the Native Forest Council in its challenge of the Northwest Forest Plan for protection of the Northern Spotted Owl.

Truitt represented a number of companies that had claims against Iran arising from the Iranian Revolution before the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal, and was the first to address the full tribunal in the Forum Clause cases. He later represented a class of Tribunal claimants whose claims were espoused by the United States and settled. [Abrahim-Youri v. United States, 36 Fed. Cl. 482 (1996), aff'd, 139 F.3d 1462 (Fed. Cir. 1997), cert. denied sub nom. Gurney v. United States, 524 U.S.951 (1998).] He also represented the National Iranian Oil Company in an action against Ashland Oil, Inc. [ See http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DEFD81E3FF933A25751C1A96E948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all]

He is the grandson of former Vice President Alben Barkley, who shared the ticket with President Harry S. Truman in 1948, and coined the term ' ' for Barkley at age 10.

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