According to "The Blog of Legal Times", a partially declassified brief to the appeal court by one of Belkacem's lawyers, of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, had challenged Leon's reasoning because he had relied on "unfinished, conclusory intelligence reports and uncorroborated assertions from anonymous sources." Fleming's brief had challenged Leon's ruling because he had not required the government to search for exculpatory evidence related to Belkacem. Fleming asserted that when the government had conducted its search, the classified evidence it provided to him in April 2009 eroded the government's allegations.