Forthcoming budget said to include $200 million for terror trials

President Barack Obama hopes to include in next year's budget a $200 million fund to help cities defray the costs of hosting domestic terror trials.

The move follows weeks of criticism from lawmakers around the country, particularly in New York, who fear those proceedings could pose immense costs to their respective cities and states.

But Democrats and Republicans alike are sure to balk at the president's new budget request, which a White House official first revealed to The Associated Press on Saturday.

The cost of holding trials in New York City for the five 9/11 terror suspects, including self-proclaimed mastermind Khlaid Sheikh Mohammed, is likely to exceed $200 million annually, New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said earlier this month.

If that trial ultimately spans two years, as many predict, and the Justice Department decides to prosecute other terror suspects domestically, the total costs of those cases combined could surpass the federal government's latest offering.

However, White House officials have considered relocating at least the proposed 9/11 trials elsewhere, in response to concerns among lawmakers that the case could inconvenience the local community and post a security risk to the entire state.

Still, the president's budget nonetheless reaffirms the White House's committment to try many of its terror suspects domestically, despite increasing political pushback from Republicans to do otherwise.

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