By saying that you want a lawyer, it makes the results of interrogations without a lawyer very hard to use in court. If you're dealing with investigators that know the law and want a conviction, they'll hold off on questions until a lawyer is present. If you can't get a lawyer to be present, then that's a potential impasse.

Yeah, but if you notice, they fucked up this guys life without ever even bringing him to court. They aren’t dealing with an investigation where they are going to bring charges against this guy... they don’t think he is guilty of anything.

They are trying to brow beat him into being an informant. Their threat is the no fly list, which they were able to use without needing to go to court.

Yeah, in this case it wouldn't have helped. These were not investigators that cared about getting a conviction.

Right, which is why I am confused why people are focusing on his not having a lawyer present during questioning. That wasn’t the issue... he wasn’t tricked into incriminating himself during questioning. A lawyer could not have helped him in this situation.

So why are people saying he should have asked for a lawyer? Sure, I guess, but that doesn’t help this situation at all. Why not suggest he should also eat a healthy breakfast before going to the FBI office? Yes, that is good advice in general, but doesn’t really matter for this situation.

I can't speak for other people, but I was giving a general answer to your "What if you are poor?" question. For most people who are interrogated, even if they can't afford a lawyer, it is in their best interest to request one because good investigators won't risk compromising their case to get testimony they can't use.

Ah, fair enough

No one here was looking for a conviction because there was no crime.

The goal here was coercion via intimidation.

Then you decline to answer any questions without the advice of counsel. They can choose to arrest you or let you go, but they can't compel you to answer their questions without advice of counsel if you invoke that request.

Did you read what happened here? He refused to cooperate, and they put him on the no fly list. They didn’t charge him with any crimes, so they don’t have to worry about any testimony being inadmissible.

You are right, they can’t arrest him... which they didn’t try to do. They did something way worse, which was to put him on the no fly list and strand him out of country.

Avoiding being arrested was not the problem.

This isn’t an investigator trying to get information to bring to court, this is the FBI trying to coerce the guy into being an informant. They don’t care about his actual testimony at this point.

He did not consult with anyone even after threats...

Instead he sent his family to lebannon and flew there himself.

Would have been cheaper just to lawyer up...

Lawyer should be able to help at least track down which agents did this, call bureau to confirm investigation and complain if things are sketchy, help avoid the no fly list or help get you off it... advice...