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Clinton 'Troubled' by Handling of Lee Case
In a rare rebuke of his own Justice Department, President Clinton said Thursday he could not justify the government's "quite troubling" treatment of fired Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Lee, who was released this week after nine months in solitary confinement.
"One day (Lee's) a terrible risk to national security, and the next day they're making a plea agreement for an offense far more modest than what had been alleged," he said of the case involving Lee, 60, a scientist who was accused of mishandling nuclear weapons secrets.
The president's remarks echoed the criticism of the Justice and Energy departments by Judge James Parker of Albuquerque. Before releasing Lee as part of a plea bargain on Wednesday, Parker complained that authorities had overstated the threat that Lee's actions had posed to national security in order to keep him in jail.
"I always had reservations about the claims that were being made denying (Lee) bail," Clinton said at the White House on Thursday. The president did not say whether he expressed such concerns to any of the law enforcement officials under him who were prosecuting Lee.
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