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May 1, 2009

Charges to be dropped in AIPAC case

Brian Schwarz and Thomas Lifson
The unprecedented charges brought against two former lobbyists for AIPAC are being dropped, after the two defendants, the first non-government civilians ever charged under the 1917 espionage act, have had to spend an estimated 5 to 10 million dollars in legal fees.

AT has been warning for years that the government's case was shaky, and some key rulings have gone against the prosecutors' case.
Jerry Markon writes in the Washington Post:

Prosecutors said they will ask a judge to dismiss the case against Steven J. Rosen and Keith Weissman because a series of court decisions had made it unlikely they would win convictions. The two are former lobbyists for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, an influential advocacy group.

Rosen and Weissman were charged in 2005 with conspiring to obtain classified information and pass it to journalists and the Israeli government..... Some lawyers and First Amendment advocates have said the case would criminalize the type of information exchange that is common among journalists, lobbyists and think-tank analysts.

This feckless prosecution has deeply wounded the pro-Israel movement in the United States. AIPAC washed its hands of the two defendants, and they have now, in turn, sued AIPAC.

The use of novel legal theories to prosecute actors in the political system ought to be subject to close scrutiny before cases are brought. 

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