Lawyers for five Blackwater Worldwide security guards accused of killing Iraqi civilians hope to end the case quickly with a knockout legal punch.

As soon as the defendants surrendered Monday at the U.S. District courthouse in downtown Salt Lake City, the defense attorneys filed briefs arguing that the federal government has no authority to prosecute the men.

Speaking on behalf of the lawyers for the five men, attorney Mark Hulkower called the charges politically motivated and predicted all of the defendants will be cleared.

"In Baghdad, they fought for their lives," Hulkower said outside the courthouse. "Here, they will fight for their freedom."

A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., on Thursday indicted the men on 35 counts each of manslaughter, attempted manslaughter and weapons violations. The charges, filed under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act of 2000 (MEJA), stem from a September 2007 shooting that allegedly left at least 14 dead and 20 wounded.

In its court filings, the defense team says MEJA applies only to alleged offenses committed by contractors supporting the mission of the Department of Defense overseas -- and that Blackwater was a contractor for the Department of State.

However, Patrick Rowan, the Department of Justice's assistant attorney general for national security, said 2004 amendments to MEJA cover contractors or employees of federal agencies who are supporting the Defense Department's mission.

The defendants, who made an initial court appearance Monday, suffered a setback when U.S. Magistrate Paul Warner denied a motion to hold a probable-cause hearing in Utah on whether there was sufficient evidence to go forward with the case.

Attorney Paul Cassell had argued that it would be a "huge burden" for the men to travel to Washington, D.C., to defend themselves. He said none of them lives in the District of Columbia and the decision on whether the case should even proceed should be made in Utah, where defendant Donald Ball lives and where the five men surrendered.

However, Warner ruled the indictment itself was a finding that there was probable cause that a crime had been committed.

And, based on that decision, he declined to consider the argument that the government lacked authority to prosecute the case and the request that proceedings be held in Salt Lake City. Instead, Warner said, the defense could press those arguments at further hearings held in Washington, D.C.

Asked whether the defense prefers the case to be litigated in Utah because it is a more gun-friendly state, David Schertler, an attorney for Dustin Heard, said "absolutely not."

"The other guys [besides Ball] live in Tennessee and Texas, which are just as gun-friendly," he said. "The problem is, Washington, D.C., is not the appropriate venue. None of the five have connections to Washington, D.C., and the prosecutor has arbitrarily picked that venue."

pmanson@sltrib.com