Lawmakers Upset Tsarnaev Was Mirandized

Due process is such a hassle

A federal magistrate judge has set off a firestorm of criticism for ending the interrogation of the surviving Boston Marathon bombing suspect before, lawmakers contend, law enforcement officials had concluded their initial interview.

On Monday morning, Magistrate Judge Marianne B. Bowler visited Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's hospital bedside to preside over his first court appearance, reading him his Miranda rights and informing him of his right to remain silent. That ended the suspect's cooperation in questioning that the Department of Justice's High-Value Interrogation Group had begun under a public safety exception to Miranda, when it can legally question a suspect without a lawyer present.

Tsarnaev, a naturalized U.S. citizen, had only just begun answering questions in writing.

"He stopped cooperating," Rep. Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Intelligence committee, said today. "The FBI will tell you, they don't believe that they got the information, all the information that they would have liked about the public safety factor in the interrogation."