Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan today rejected an application from the head of the Federal Defenders of New York to appoint an attorney for Abu Anas al-Libi.
The judge said a lawyer can be appointed only after an arrested defendant arrives in New York and proves he cannot afford a lawyer.
Kaplan says the government denies an official arrest has taken place.
The 49-year-old al-Libi was seized last Saturday and was being questioned aboard a Navy warship. He is charged in Manhattan in bombings that killed 224 people, including a dozen Americans.