By law, DOJ has to hold a meeting and allow defense counsel an opportunity to be heard before the decision is made. The heinousness of the crime should only be one factor in their decision.

Unfortunately, Obama, like Clinton before him, is already forecasting nothing will change their mind.

He thinks that New York can handle the trial, but that the city cannot handle the security theater:

Bloomberg isn't afraid that the security of the city will be jeopardized by the trial; he's afraid that security for the trial will jeopardize the city.

The prevailing attitude in New York after the attacks was that they shouldn't be allowed to disrupt ordinary life any more than necessary. But the Feds are talking about the need to erect more than 2,000 interlocking steel barriers, and flooding the court district with uniformed officers. The preliminary estimate is that security alone could cost $1 billion over five years. In a word, that's crazy.

There are two reasonable alternatives here. The first is to scale down the security theater to a size commensurate with the actual risks - this is hardly the first high-profile trial to be held in the southern district. But if we're not going to be reasonable about security, we might as well move the trial to a location that can be secured more easily and with less adverse impact.

The Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in New York City is an administrative facility housing male and female pre-trial and holdover inmates.

MCC New York is located in lower Manhattan, adjacent to Foley Square and across the street from the Federal courthouse.

Still, I find Bloomberg's objection now strange.  Especially considering he was an advocate for severely restricting traffic in lower manhattan and implementing congestion pricing there.  I realize there is a difference between long-term strategic planning and a temporary restriction.  But hearing the traffic argument from him just seems odd, considering his record there.