China: Suspected Acquisition of U.S. Nuclear Weapon Secrets

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agreement if the government suspected Lee of lying. Both sides agreed to withdraw
pending motions, including that of the defense on selective prosecution.
In a dramatic conclusion to the case, Judge Parker noted “the fact that [Lee] lost
valuable rights as a citizen” and apologized to Lee for the “unfair manner [he was]
held in custody.” Parker said that he found it “most perplexing” that the government
now “suddenly agreed” to Lee’s release, despite its earlier warnings of risks to
national security. The judge blamed the Executive Branch, particularly top officials
of the Departments of Energy and Justice, saying they “embarrassed our entire nation
and each of us who is a citizen of it.” 171 As a result of the Judge’s remarks, Attorney
General Reno launched two internal reviews of the prosecution of Lee. 172
Moreover, President Clinton criticized the pre-trail detention of Lee, saying “I
always had reservations about the claims that were being made denying him bail.” 173
(See also Role of the White House below.)
In response, U.S. Attorney Norman Bay argued that the case was about “a man
who mishandled huge amounts of nuclear data and got caught doing it.” He added
that justice was served because Lee must “tell us what he did with the tapes ...
something he refused to do for approximately the past 18 months.” 174 Attorney
General Reno said that the agreement was “in the best interest of our national security
in that it gives us our best chance to find out what happened to the tapes.” 175 FBI
Director Louis Freeh stated that it was four weeks before the plea agreement — even
before the last bail hearings — that the plea bargaining began and that “determining
what happened to the tapes has always been paramount to prosecution.” 176
Later, it was revealed that the delay in the plea agreement resulted from Lee’s
disclosure on September 11, 2000 that he had made copies of some or all of the tapes
and revisions to the agreement to cover information about the copies. 177
171 Richard Benke, “Wen Ho Lee Set Free After Pleading Guilty to One Count,” AP,
September 13, 2000; Vernon Loeb, “Physicist Lee Freed, With Apology,” Washington Post,
September 14, 2000.
172 Vise, David A. and Ellen Nakashima, “Two Internal Reviews Launched in Lee Case,”
Washington Post, September 23, 2000.
173 White House, “Remarks by the President on Patients’ Bill of Rights Upon Departure,”
September 14, 2000.
174 Marcus Kabel, “Wen Ho Lee Freed Amid Apologies from Judge,” Reuters, September
13, 2000.
175 Department of Justice, “Statement of Attorney General Janet Reno on Today’s Guilty
Plea by Wen Ho Lee,” September 13, 2000.
176 FBI, “Statement by FBI Director Louis J. Freeh Concerning Wen Ho Lee Case,”
September 13, 2000.
177 Pincus, Walter and Vernon Loeb, “U.S. is Probing Lee’s Multiple Copying of Data,”
Washington Post, September 20, 2000.