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WASHINGTON (AP) - A federal judge has denied a government bid to dismiss a lawsuit by a former confidential informant working for the United States in Colombia.
Astrid Hurtado's lawsuit claims that the U.S. government abandoned her when she got into legal trouble for her undercover money laundering operations, and she wound up spending three years in a Colombian jail. She's seeking $15 million in damages.
The Justice Department had sought the suit's dismissal. The department argued that Hurtado failed to plausibly allege that U.S. government officials she worked for had the authority to obligate the U.S. to protect her.
But in a ruling Monday, Judge Elaine D. Kaplan of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims called the government's argument "unpersuasive."
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