Defense attorney Scott Fenstermaker is a despicable individual, deciding to represent one of the men admittedly responsible for the 9/11 attacks that killed 3,000 innocent people. He knows they’re guilty of the war crime — they’ve already admitted that they are. But he’ll try to get them as little punishment as possibly anyway, if any at all.

So we already know he’s a sleeze bucket with no human standards or morals whatsoever. But now, thanks to documents provided exclusively to Hot Air, we know he has a negative history with the Defense Department.

According to the papers leaked to Ed Morrissey by a Defense source, Fenstermaker had been removed from the military commissions civilian defense counsel pool back in August 2008. Why? Because of “counterproductive” interactions with the staff and failing to represent himself in an acceptable manner to the chief defense counsel.

After careful thought and consideration, and in accordance with the discretion granted me by the Regulation for Trial by Military Commissions, I have decided to indefinitely suspend your conditional qualification as a member of the civilian defense counsel pool. I note that you are not a fully qualified member of the counsel pool as your Single Scope Background Investigation is still pending. I also note that you do not have any cases currently pending before a Military Commission.

My decision to suspend your conditional qualification is based upon my professional judgment that your activities throughout the past year, as well as your interactions with certain of my uniformed defense counsel, have been counterproductive to the mission of my office. In addition, I have concluded that you have not been forthright with regard to your representational status of certain detainees, and your continued interference in these cases has made the job more difficult for assigned counsel.

It’s signed by “Steven David COl, USAR”. One Colonel Steven David of the United States Army Reserve has previously testified (PDF) to the House Armed Services Committee in his capacity as Chief Defense Counsel. Morrissey has a scan of the memo posted at Hot Air, in addition to a previous report from the New York Times that alluded to the existence of this memo.

Stay tuned to Hot Air. I’m pretty sure we’re just hearing the beginning of this story.