WASHINGTON — Ron Motley could have come straight out of a John Grisham novel, a charismatic Southern trial lawyer with the swagger of a man who had bet big in life and usually won.
He rose to wealth and fame by vanquishing one seemingly unbeatable legal foe after another. He beat the asbestos industry, then he beat Big Tobacco.
Finally, he focused on what was arguably his toughest target of all: Saudi Arabia, which he saw as helping finance the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
In 2002, he filed suit in federal court on behalf of the families of Sept. 11 victims against the government of Saudi Arabia and members of the Saudi elite, including a wide range of Saudi financial institutions and wealthy individuals. The lawsuit accused the government, as well as banks, charities and even members of the Saudi royal family of financing Osama bin Laden’s terrorism.
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By far the most mysterious episode in the case revolves around some of the investigators brought in by Mr. Motley to investigate Saudi Arabia. Working through a small investigative firm called Rosetta Research and Consulting, which was formed to work on the case, some of the investigators also became involved in operations with the F.B.I. and later the Drug Enforcement Administration. Most notably, they were involved in an operation to lure an Afghan drug lord to the United States. In 2005, they persuaded the Afghan, Haji Bashir Noorzai, to come to New York, where he was then arrested by the Drug Enforcement Administration. He has since been convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
The role of the investigators from the Sept. 11 lawsuit in the Noorzai operation was baffling and embarrassing to many top officials in the government, and the connections between the investigators and the F.B.I. prompted an investigation by the Justice Department’s inspector general, which never made the investigation’s findings public. Mr. Motley and his firm, Motley Rice, ultimately cut their ties, and Rosetta collapsed.
Today, the lawyers for the Sept. 11 families have seen so many changes of fortune that they are careful not to describe Mr. Moussaoui’s statements as a breakthrough. But in carefully chosen words of optimism, the lawyers do describe the new statements as adding to the evidence they need to make their case.
