Pollard's Attorneys Request Unsealing of Secret Files

Justice4JP Release - October 2, 2000

Re: United States v. Jonathan Jay Pollard
Crim. No. 86-0207 (AER)

September 22, 2000

Dear Ms. Lewis:

This law firm represents Jonathan Pollard.

We are writing to seek your consent to the unsealing of Mr. Pollard's complete court file. The U.S. Attorney who prosecuted the case, Mr. Joseph diGenova, has recommended in a letter to us dated September 20, 2000 that the entire court record of this case be made available to the public. I enclose a copy of his letter.

To review the history of this case, Mr. Pollard was arrested in 1985 and charged with delivering classified information to Israel, a U.S. ally. He pleaded guilty in May 1986. As part of the sentencing process, the government and the defense submitted various memoranda to the court. A Court Security Officer reviewed the submissions and redacted from the public record certain information he determined to be classified. Those classified materials are under seal, have never been made public, and have never been seen by any attorney for Mr. Pollard since he was sentenced on March 4, 1987.

The time has come for these materials to be unsealed. We are pleased that Mr. diGenova, who served as the chief prosecutor on the case, recommends that they be made public.

We hope you will agree to this request. If not, we request that you at least agree that the sealed materials be made available to us as counsel for Mr. Pollard, subject to our receiving security clearance, for which we have applied. As indicated in his letter, Mr. diGenova agrees that counsel should have access to these sealed materials.

We request your consent so that we can submit an agreed-upon order to the Court for signature. We look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience, so that we may proceed promptly.

Very truly yours,
Eliot Lauer
Jacques Semmelman

cc: Mr. Thomas Zeno