COEUR d'ALENE - Before being told on Wednesday in U.S. District Court he would live out his days in prison, Edgar J. Steele lashed out at federal prosecutors, investigators and the judge in his case.

"This is a case about government misconduct," said Steele, 66, of Sagle. As an attorney, Steele has represented high-profile clients like the Aryan Nations' onetime leader Richard Butler during the 2000 trial that bankrupted the hate group.

"I am a political prisoner," said Steele in comments that lasted nearly an hour and a half.

He said he was targeted because of his advocacy of freedom of speech rights for politically incorrect clients. In May, a jury in federal court in Boise found him guilty of a foiled murder-for-hire plot against his wife of 26 years, Cyndi Steele.

The jury found he paid his handyman, 50-year-old Larry Fairfax of Sagle, in silver to put a massive pipebomb under her SUV so it would blow up when she was driving to her mother's house in western Oregon. Fairfax would get more if he killed Cyndi's mom, too.

Steele described Fairfax as an "oafish North Idaho handyman."

Steele has been jailed since June 11, 2010, when he was arrested.

Federal District Court Judge B. Lynn Winmill denied a government conspiracy against Steele ever existed.

"There's absolutely no evidence of that," Winmill said. He said the only way somebody could see a conspiracy in this case is if they have a distorted worldview.

U.S. Attorney for Idaho Wendy Olson said in a statement released to the media, "Mr. Steele was targeted for investigation, convicted at trial and sentenced to prison because of his own criminal conduct, and for no other reason."

The jury in his trial listened to audio recordings of Steele making statements to Fairfax, confirming his participation in the murder-for-hire plot. Fairfax testified that Steele paid him about $10,000 in silver coins as a down payment. Fairfax also testified that he had installed the pipe bomb on Cyndi Steele's vehicle in May 2010, at Edgar Steele's direction.

Fairfax pleaded guilty and was sentenced in May to 27 months in prison for possession of an unregistered firearm and manufacturing a firearm.

Assistant U.S. attorney Traci Whelan told the court during the sentencing hearing, "Never once has this defendant accepted responsibility for his conduct."

Steele said the federal prosecutors and investigators made up bogus motives for the murder-for-hire plot, including Steele seeking to cash in on a life insurance claim, and accusing him of trying to kill his wife so he could commence a relationship with a young Russian bride.

"I didn't have a motive," he said.

Steele accused investigators of fabricating the audio recordings of him talking to Fairfax about the murder plot. The audio recordings were acquired when Fairfax began working with the FBI and agreed to carry a hidden recording device in meetings with Steele at the Steeles' Sagle ranch on June 9 and 10, 2010.

Fairfax went to the FBI about the plot when he realized he was in over his head with Steele. He testified that he never planned to follow the plot to the end, just do what he needed to get the money. Fairfax testified he was in a desperate financial situation.

Fairfax said the pipebomb he made wouldn't have gone off, but an explosives expert at the trial said otherwise.

Steele accused the FBI of operating with a "win at any cost" strategy in its investigation of him.

Don Robinson, supervisor of the Coeur d'Alene office of the FBI and the North Idaho violent crime task force, said, "Mr. Steele represents a clear danger to society and (Wednesday's) sentence ensures he will no longer pose a threat to our community and its residents."

Before handing down the sentence, Winmill instructed Steele to stand. In the courtroom gallery, Cyndi Steele, crying, stood as well. She has maintained her husband is innocent.

Cyndi, granted the opportunity to speak as the victim in the case, told the court, "We have a great marriage."

She also said, "I am not a victim of my husband because my husband did nothing wrong."

She said she is a victim of the government.

Of his wife, Steele said, "I fell in love with her at first sight."

He added, "My heart jumps up now every time I catch sight of her."

Cyndi and Edgar Steele have two grown children, and Steele adopted a daughter Cyndi had from a previous relationship.

Steele served honorably in the U.S. Coast Guard. He earned a master's degree in business administration from the University of California, Berkeley, and a law degree from UCLA. As a lawyer later in his career he often handled First Amendment cases.