In 2008 he was the lead prosecutor for the Department of Defense in military commission cases of Khalid Sheik Muhammed and Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi. These were put on hold pending 2009 amendments to the Military Commissions Act. The charges were dropped in 2009 when the administration intended to transfer the cases to federal court. Following the refusal of Congress to go along with a federal trial in New York, the government in 2012 began prosecution of military commissions again.