Five years after defense attorney Robert Simels was sentenced for his role in a witness intimidation plot built on a cooperator’s secret recordings, he now is trying to overturn the conviction by asserting prosecutors wrongfully delayed disclosure of relevant tapes and that his defense attorney, Gerald Shargel, offered substandard representation.

Maintaining his innocence and looking to set aside his 14-year sentence, Simels attacked the government’s “outrageous” behavior in building the case.