Lieberman's Dual Loyalty Problem

Dr. Morris Pollard - Jewish Press - April 7, 2000
University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame Indiana

Assemblyman Sam Colman's open letter of March 8, 2000, to Senator Joseph Lieberman, is an appropriate inquiry of his recorded opposition to freedom for Jonathan Pollard. I hope that he will respond.

On September 21, 1997, Senator Lieberman presented a local Jewish Foundation lecture on the Notre Dame campus, entitled: "The Values Vacuum in American Life."

Following the lecture I sat with him in a secluded area and asked him why he refused to support freedom for my son Jonathan? His response, delivered in quivering tones, revealed that he was "uncomfortable with the thought of dual loyalty". Politely, I asked if he was equally uncomfortable with government misconduct in the prosecution of Jonathan? My question was based on the May 28/92 opinion of Appeals Court Judge Stephen Williams that "because the Govenment's breach of the plea agreement was a fundamental miscarriage of justice requiring relief under 28 U.S.C., Pollard's sentence should be vacated and the case remanded before a new judge, even though the fault here rests on the prosecutor, not the sentencing judge."

There was no response from the senator.