There's yet another delay in the trial of two men charged with murdering two underworld rivals in 2004 in the parking lot of the Pali Municipal Golf Course.

The federal racketeering trial of Rodney Joseph Jr. and Ethan "Malu" Motta was supposed to start this morning but has been put off until at least Tuesday because of the government's last-minute disclosure that an FBI informant secretly tape-recorded Motta in October 2004.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Brady said the existence of the tape and its contents wasn't discovered by his office until last weekend and defense lawyers were immediately notified.

The three-hour recording — said to be of very poor quality — was made at a benefit held on the Big Island to raise legal defense funds for Motta, who at that time was free on $1 million bail and facing state murder and attempted murder charges in connection with the Pali golf course shootings. The federal government took over the case in 2006.

Motta attorney Charles Carnesi questioned the legality of the surreptitious recording since any questioning of Motta should have been conducted with the knowledge and participation of his defense lawyer.

Brady said the recording was only supposed to have involved suspected criminal activities unrelated to the Pali case, but he acknowledged that there may have been "admissions" made by Motta about the murders and also about matters covered by the attorney-client privilege.

U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway instructed Brady to prepare a transcript of the recording for defense lawyers and scheduled another hearing on the issue for tomorrow morning.