The son-in-law of Osama bin Laden has been convicted on charges of conspiring to kill Americans. Sulaiman Abu Ghaith is the most senior al-Qaeda member to be tried in a U.S. civilian court in the years since 9/11. During testimony, he described meeting with bin Laden inside a cave in Afghanistan just hours after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, but denied having prior knowledge. Ghaith’s court-appointed lawyer said his appearance in videos threatening the U.S. doesn’t prove his involvement in actual plots.

Stanley Cohen: “It’s not about words; it’s not about association. There are clear requirements under the law. You know, if you want to turn around and indict people for words, there’s about 270 congressmen and women right now that have said some pretty incendiary things about a lot of things; maybe we should start there.”

During the trial, the court rejected testimony from alleged 9/11 plotter Khalid Sheikh Mohammed that Abu Ghaith had no role in al-Qaeda’s violent operations. He faces a sentence of up to life in prison.