Intel analyst offers expert testimony to Obama on Pollard

Prof. Codevilla says Pollard was the only one sentenced to life for passing information to ally

Gil Hoffman - The Jerusalem Post - December 12, 2013
With J4JP clarifying note - Released December 17, 2013

Text of Codevilla Letter follows the text below


Prof. Angelo Codevilla, who was on the professional staff of the Senate Intelligence Committee at the time of the arrest of Israeli agent Jonathan Pollard, wrote US President Barack Obama, offering him expert testimony on the case.

In the letter, which was obtained Thursday, Codevilla wrote Obama that Pollard was the only person ever sentenced to life in prison for the crime of passing information to an ally without intent to harm the United States. He responded to accusations that Pollard might have been guilty of more than that crime.

"Having been intimately acquainted with the materials that Pollard passed and with the sources and methods by which they were gathered, I would be willing to give expert testimony that Pollard is guilty of neither more nor less than what the indictment alleges," Codevilla wrote.

Justice4JP adds:

[The importance and uniqueness of Professor Codevilla's letter is as follows: Over the years, by keeping the file secret, the US government has been able to subvert all attempts by Jonathan Pollard to clear his name by clarifying the record about what he did and did not do. As a result, some elements of the public continues to harbor the suspicion that he is guilty of far more serious crimes than have been openly admitted or publicized. This is what Professor Codevilla refers to in his second-to-last paragraph. Codevilla is aware that this three-decades-long government smear campaign against Pollard which continues to hide behind a veil of secrecy is totally unfounded, unfair and unsupported by the classified documents. It is a matter of public record that no charges against Pollard were dropped by the plea agreement and the only thing he was charged with was

one count of passing classified information for the benefit of an ally with no intent to harm the US

. There was no evidence to support any other charges. That is why, in attempting a kind of show-trial, the US used the plea agreement, which it violated and Jonathan honored, as a device to sentence Jonathan falsely as if he had spied for an enemy - which of course was not the case. Codevilla has in-depth knowledge of all the material in the file and he is willing to provide expert testimony to the president that will demonstrate that Jonathan is not guilty of all the other crimes that he has been falsely accused of by innuendo or in leaks to the media or in whispering campaigns by government sources. Codevilla states that he will demonstrate through expert testimony that Pollard is guilty only of that crime which he was indicted on, and to which he pleaded guilty:

one count of passing classified information for the benefit of an ally with no intent to harm the US

-- a crime which usually carries a two to four year sentence.]

JPost continues:

Pollard received a boost earlier this week when former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, a close ally of Obama, called upon him to commute Pollard's sentence when he commutes others ahead of Christmas.

View original article.

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Boston University
Department of International Relations
152 Bay State Road
Boston, Massachusetts 02215
Tel: 617/353-9278
Fax: 617/353-9290

November 5, 2013

The Hon. Barack H. Obama
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington DC 20500

Dear Mr. President

I join many Americans more distinguished than I in asking your mercy for Jonathan Pollard, now serving his 29th year of a life sentence (seven of which were in solitary confinement).

Others have pointed out that Pollard is the only person ever sentenced to life imprisonment for passing information to an ally, without intent to harm America, a crime which normally carries a sentence of 2-4 years; and that this disproportionate sentence in violation of a plea agreement was based not on the indictment but on a memorandum that was never shared with the defense. This is not how American justice is supposed to work.

My plea, like those of former DCI James Woolsey, former Attorney General Michael Mukasey and that of former Senator Dennis DeConcini, who chaired the Senate Intelligence Committee, is based on my experience as senior staffer on that committee.

Having been intimately acquainted with the materials that Pollard passed and with the "sources and methods" by which they were gathered, I would be willing to give expert testimony that Pollard is guilty of neither more nor less than what the indictment alleges.

That is why I join in begging you to exercise your Constitutional right to commute Pollard's sentence to time served.

Sincerely

Angelo M. Codevilla
Professor Emeritus