McTiernan seeks to avoid guilty plea in wiretaps case

The Sacramento Bee reports:

John McTiernan, director of such hit movies as “Die Hard” and “The Thomas Crown Affair,” requested a withdrawal Monday of his guilty plea in a Hollywood wiretaps case.McTiernan pleaded guilty in April 2006 to making “knowingly false” statements to an FBI agent about Anthony Pellicano, the celebrity private eye he admitted hiring to wiretap a business associate.

But before his expected sentencing before a federal judge Monday, McTiernan’s attorneys filed a motion to withdraw the plea, saying the filmmaker pleaded guilty because he didn’t receive adequate legal representation at the time.