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Feds Drop Spying Charges Against AIPAC Lobbyists
Earlier rulings made conviction unlikely: gov't
By Kevin Spak
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Posted May 1, 09 10:12 AM CDT
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(Newser)
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Government prosecutors say they will move to dismiss the espionage case against a pair of former AIPAC lobbyists linked to Rep. Jane Harman, the Washington Post reports. Prosecutors said they probably wouldn’t be able to secure a conviction because of the “additional intent requirement imposed by the court,” and were worried about the “inevitable disclosure of classified information” a trial would bring.
Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman were charged in 2005 for conspiring to pass classified information to journalists and the Israeli government. The trial was set to begin June 2, but pretrial rulings in two courts allowed the defense to produce classified evidence and required the government to show the men knew disclosing the information would harm the US—conditions prosecutors said made the case untenable.