Updated

A lawyer representing the Turkish government says he'll continue exposing what he calls the "unlawful conduct" of a reclusive Muslim cleric in Pennsylvania whom Turkey's president accuses of orchestrating a coup attempt.

Robert Amsterdam released a statement Thursday, one day after a federal judge in Scranton, Pennsylvania, dismissed his lawsuit against Fethullah Gulen (feh-TOOL'-lah goo-LEHN').

The suit contended Gulen ordered sympathetic police, prosecutors and judges in Turkey to target members of a rival spiritual movement critical of his teachings.

The legal action was filed as part of a crackdown on the Turkish cleric and his followers by President Recep Erdogan (REH'-jehp UR'-doh-wahn).

Amsterdam says he is studying the judge's ruling, who he says dismissed the suit on procedural grounds.

Gulen's attorneys had called the suit an attempt by Erdogan to silence Gulen, who has criticized the Turkish leader.