Obama Justice Department Drops Spy Charges Against AIPAC Lobbyists

The defense had planned to call senior Bush officials to testify. Justice Department feared ‘damage to the national security,’ saying, ‘it is in the public interest to dismiss’

By Jeremy Scahill

Just a week after the Jane Harman-Israeli lobby-spy scandal broke out in the open, “The Obama Justice Department moved Friday to drop all charges against two former pro-Israel lobbyists who had been charged under the Espionage Act with improperly disseminating sensitive information,” reports The New York Times. “The move by the government came in a motion filed with the federal court in Alexandria, Va. which was to be the site of the trial that was scheduled to begin June 2.”

The reasons behind the decision to drop the charges are very interesting. From the Times:

[Steven J. Rosen and Keith Weissman], who were lobbyists with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a leading pro-Israel lobby, were charged with violating the World War I-era Espionage Act. The indictment said they violated the law by disseminating to journalists, fellow Aipac employees and Israeli diplomats information they had learned in conversations with senior Bush administration officials.

Judge T.S. Ellis 3d, who was to preside over the trial rejected several government efforts to conceal classified information if the case went to trial.

[…]

Over government objections, Judge Ellis said that the defense could call as witnesses several senior Bush administration foreign policy officials to demonstrate that what occurred was part of the ongoing process of information trading and did not involve anything nefarious. The defense lawyers were to call as witnesses Condoleezza Rice, the former secretary of state, Stephen J. Hadley, the former national security advisers and several others. Government policymakers indicated they were clearly uncomfortable with senior officials testifying in open court over policy deliberations.

[…]

The motion… said that before proceeding with the case the government was obliged to consider “the likelihood that classified information will be revealed at trial, any damage to the national security that might result from a disclosure of classified information and the likelihood the government would prevail at trial.”

[…]

The motion said that, “We have re-evaluated the case based on the present context and circumstances and determined that it is in the public interest to dismiss the pending superseding indictment.”

For background see:

BOMBSHELL: Rep. Jane Harman Caught on Tape Agreeing to Lobby for Alleged AIPAC/Israel Spies? Harman was allegedly caught on tape saying she would “waddle into” the AIPAC case in return for support from the Israeli lobby for her bid to become chair of the Intelligence Committee.

For humorous background, watch The Daily Show’s primer