DETROIT - A Nigerian man who pleaded guilty to trying to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner using a bomb in his underwear wants a new legal adviser, preferably a Muslim.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab asks a Detroit federal judge to dismiss his standby counsel, Anthony Chambers. Abdulmutallab says their relationship is strained.
He's been acting as his own lawyer, but Chambers was appointed to assist him. Abdulmutallab pleaded guilty in October to attempting to bring down a Christmas 2009 Amsterdam-to-Detroit flight with 290 people aboard.
He faces a life sentence when he is sentenced on Jan. 19.
Chambers tells The Detroit News Abdulmutallab is a "misguided young man with a distorted sense of reality." He denies misleading him. A hearing is scheduled Jan. 6.
