$1 Million Bail For Wen Ho Lee

U.S. District Judge James Parker Thursday agreed to free former Los Alamos laboratory employee Wen Ho Lee on $1 million bail and under severe restrictions.

Lee, 60, is charged with 59 counts involving downloading files from Los Alamos National Laboratory to unsecured computers and tape. The Taiwan-born American citizen could face life in prison if convicted at trial, scheduled to begin Nov. 6. He has been in jail since his arrest Dec. 10.

In the order, Parker writes that he concluded "that there now is a combination of conditions that will reasonably assure the appearance of Dr. Lee as required and the safety of the community and the nation."

The U.S. attorney's office had no comment on the judge's ruling. A Justice Department spokeswoman said the order was under review. An Energy Department official said it was a matter for the courts to decide, and declined further comment.

Lee attorney Brian Sun said he expects the government to appeal the judge's release order. Prosecutors have contended Lee could help someone build a bomb or help a country bolster its nuclear program if he is released from jail.

Parker plans a hearing Tuesday on the conditions of release he has proposed.

Lee is not expected to be released before then, reports CBS News Correspondent Sharyl Attkisson.

The conditions include the following:

• Lee would be required to remain at his White Rock home under electronic monitoring.
• federal authorities could inspect his mail and monitor his telephone calls.
• The only other person who could live there would be his wife, Sylvia Lee. His children could come for visits prearranged with the court and federal law enforcement authorities.
• Mrs. Lee could leave only after notifying authorities of where she was going and why and when she planned to be back. Law enforcement agents would be allowed to search her both before and after her trip.
• Lee could leave only in the company of at least one attorney to go to court or to Los Alamos lab to help with his defense.
• Lee would be required to telephone federal court offices in Albuquerque twice a day to report.

Some 15 friends and relatives appeared before Parker last week to offer their property for bail. That property, combined with Lee's own, was worth about $2.2 million, defense attorneys said.

During last week's hearing, an FBI agent whose testimony was a key in denying bail to Lee previously acknowledged making mistakes in his earlier testimony.

The testimony had portrayed Lee as guileful when the jailed Los Alamos lab physicist supposedly told a colleague he wanted to use that scientist's computer to print a resume.

Messemer also agreed Lee passed non-FBI polygraph tests with flying colors, but contended the polygraphs did not follow guidelines accepted by the FBI.

s Attkisson reported for CBSNews.com in February, the Department of Energy said Lee had passed a December 1998 polygraph, then called it "incomplete." Lee failed a subsequent FBI polygraph test.

Critics of Lee's arrest and prosecution say it was done in an atmosphere of anti-Chinese sentiment and suspicion following the January 1999 Cox Commission report, which claimed that China was trying to infiltrate Los Alamos to learn secrets.

The FBI claims Lee "downloaded and removed from the Los Alamos National Laboratory" files that contained information on nuclear weapons material, "exact dimensions and geometry of nuclear weapons," codes used to evaluate nuclear tests and descriptions of nuclear test problems.