COEUR d'ALENE - A week before the 9th U.S. Court of Appeals hears oral arguments in Edgar J. Steele's appeal for a murder-for-hire conviction, his family released a video making a case for government misconduct.

The documentary-style video, which lists his wife, Cyndi Steele, as the executive producer, is titled "Witness to the Persecution: The Plot to Silence Edgar Steele."

Cyndi Steele remains her husband's biggest supporter, she said, and maintains he didn't hire a hit man to kill her. He was convicted of doing so by a federal jury in Boise in May 2011, and was sentenced to 50 years in prison in November 2011.

"Maybe I'm more passionate because time is running out for my husband," Cyndi Steele said Monday. He is 67 years old and being held in a federal prison in Victorville, Calif.

Cyndi Steele said, "Ineffective assistance of counsel is a huge issue" and gives her husband the best chance of getting another trial.

Robert T. McAllister, of Denver, who was Steele's primary attorney during his trial was disbarred about a month after the jury made its decision.

McAllister later pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit financial fraud and one count of bankruptcy fraud in U.S. District Court in Denver.

McAllister embezzled funds from a client, and generated phony bank statements in the process to cover it up, prosecutors said. He used false information in his Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition.

The Denver Post reported that McAllister told a judge he had provided ineffective counsel to Steele during the trial. McAllister told The Post that his "mental state had deteriorated," hurting his performance.

Dennis Riordan of San Francisco, Steele's attorney on the appeal, couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

Wesley Hoyt, of Englewood, Colo., who has at different times represented Cyndi Steele and Edgar Steele, said Monday that McAllister's performance was "deplorable."

"He knew he was in deep trouble" with federal investigators, Hoyt said. "Why wouldn't Mr. McAllister disclose to the court and his client that he was going to be disbarred?"

Among the Steele family's complaints about McAllister's performance was his failure to subpoena forensic audio expert George Papcun to ensure his appearance at trial.

Papcun was going to challenge the authenticity of secret recordings of the murder-for-hire plot gathered by the FBI with the cooperation of the hired hit man turned informant Larry Fairfax. Instead, Papcun vacationed in Bora Bora.

At trial, the jury heard audio recordings of Steele making statements to Fairfax, his handyman for help around the Steele family's ranch in Sagle. The jury determined this confirmed Steele's participation in the murder-for-hire plot.

Fairfax said at trial that Steele paid him $10,000 in silver coins as a down payment to kill Cyndi Steele and her mother.

Larry Fairfax attached a pipe bomb underneath her SUV, but it never detonated. It was discovered during an oil change shortly before Edgar Steele was due in court on June 15, 2010.

Supporters, including Steele's friend and neighbor Allen Banks, believe federal authorities wanted Edgar Steele dead. Banks said Steele was frail from recent serious surgeries, and authorities hoped the stress of his arrest and subsequent incarceration would do him in.

In the video, Banks said, "The problem of Edgar Steele and his big mouth would go away."

Steele, as an attorney, represented high-profile and politically incorrect clients like the leader of the Aryan Nations.

The family has maintained all along that the audio recordings were manufactured or tampered with in some way by the federal government. Cyndi and Edgar Steele's three children all believe he's innocent, as did his mother in law, who has since died.

In the video, Cyndi Steele said she is angry at the FBI because she said agents should have known a bomb was on her vehicle, but still allowed her to drive around with it. With the bomb in place, she said she drove herself and multiple different family members around, including a grandchild.

Prosecutors and the FBI were led to believe by Fairfax shortly before and during that time that Fairfax hadn't gone forward with any plans to kill Cyndi Steele. Those authorities have said they didn't know about the bomb under Cyndi's SUV until it was found, and then Fairfax told authorities he thought it had fallen off the car and she was no longer in danger.

Syrena Hargrove, of Boise, who is handling the appeal for the U.S. Attorney's Office, couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

According to the Steele family, it has cost more than $400,000 to defend him. Through May, the family has raised more than $105,000 in donations for his legal defense.

Oral arguments will be heard on Monday in Portland.