Full Release - IRmep

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. 07-29-2010 BY 60324 uc baw/sabJ1sg~
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-----Original Message-----
Sent: Wed Feb 15 18:45:50 2006
Subject: NY Sun article -t
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Big Impact Seen In Israel Spy Case
BY JOSH GERSTEIN - Staff Reporter of the Sun February 13" 2006
URL: http://www.nysun.comlarticle/27429 ~
Lawyers for two former pro~Israel lobbyists under indictmen~ for leaking classified ~
information have denounced the prosecution as an assault on the First Amendmen~ and warned~~~
that a vas~ array of policy advocates and journalists could ,be in jeopardy if the case
goes forward.
The two lobbyists, Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman, were fired from their jobs at the
American Israel Publi~ Affairs Committee last year as the probe unfolded. A former
Pentagon. official charged wich providing classified information to the pair, Lawrence
~ranklin, is cooperating .:with prosecutors after pleading guilty. He was sentenced last
month to more than 12 years in prison.
In a brief filed in January and released last week, the lawyers for Messrs. Rosen and
Weissman argue that the statute barring unauthorized' release of classified material has
never been applied to private citizens.
"The breathtaking application of that law to this set of facts breaks new legal ground,"
the defense team wrote. "There has never been a successful prosecution of an alleged leak
by persons outside government persons with no contractual or legal obligation to preserve
classified information."
Messrs. Rosen and Weissman are scheduled to go on trial in federal court in Alexandria,
Va., on April 25. The indictment charges tha~ they received classified information from
Franklin and other officials, and passed that data on to members o~ the press and agents
of a foreign government. ~/
Prosecutors have not offered a public description of 'the information that was alleg~dly ~{~
relayed, nor have they disclosed which reporters or foreign agents were al~egedly
involved. ~owever, Franklin was the Iran desk officer at the Defense Department and some ~ I'
~{ the d~t~ he has a~tted to passing on ~ppear to h~ve pertained to Iranian influence in
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