Lee Case Getting Reviewed

Attorney General Janet Reno told President Clinton she has asked for an internal review of Justice Department actions in the Wen Ho Lee case, White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said Friday.

Reno and Clinton met privately at the White House to discuss the case, which the president has called troubling. The two spoke for about 45 minutes, Lockhart said.

"She has asked the Office of Professional Responsibility to do a thorough review, as is their practice ... when questions have been raised about a prosecution like this one by a judge or others," Lockhart said.

The office Lockhart referenced is an internal watchdog at the Justice Department.

Last week, Clinton said the nine months that former Los Alamos nuclear scientist Lee spent in detention "just can't be justified."

The 60-year-old Lee, a former Los Alamos laboratory scientist, went free last week after pleading guilty to one felony of mishandling weapons secrets. Lee placed sensitive information on portable computer tapes, some of which are now missing.

The federal judge in the case castigated prosecutors for keeping Lee behind bars so long but Reno refused to apologize and said Lee could have ended his detention earlier by agreeing to plead guilty and tell the government what he did with the secrets.

"The attorney general gave the president a sense of where they are as far as looking at this. I think they both agree the most important thing going on now is the debriefing process and trying to find out just what happened to the computer tapes," Lockhart said.

Before the meeting, Reno said Clinton had been receptive and understanding during a brief telephone discussion of the Lee case.

"We didn't go into detail, but we had a good conversation," Reno told her weekly news conference Friday.

Aides to Reno said the telephone conversation occurred Wednesday and lasted five to 10 minutes.

"We had a chance to discuss it, and he was thoughtful and supportive," Reno said of the call. "I think anybody who looks at this case and doesn't know the circumstances of it is going to say, 'Why?' And I think that's what the president kind of naturally asked."

FBI Director Louis J. Freeh said "the safety of the nation demands that we take this important step" under which Lee was sentenced to the 278 days he had served. The government dropped 58 other counts, which could have carried a term of up to life in prison.

Hours after Reno spoke, Clinton expressed an opinion far closer to that of U.S. District Judge James Parker, who said Lee's detention "embarrassed our entire nation." The judge's comments were seen as vindication to others who had questioned the government's handling of the case much earlier.

Since the judge's pronouncement, more details revealed by 60 Minutes showing how little evidence the government had against Lee — plus how others had ommitted similar transgressions — made the government's case seem even more tenuous.

For his part, Clinton said he found it difficult in retrospect to reconcile how the government could "keep someone in jail without bail, argue right up to the 11th hour that they're a terrible risk, and then turn around and make that sort of plea agreement."

"It just can't be justified. ... I too am quite troubled by it," Clinton said.

Asked Friday why Clinton wasn't aware of the details earlier, Reno replied, "The president of the United States has taken great care not to infringe in law enforcement decisions to avoid a political charge that it's politically influenced. He has been very good about that. ... I can't think of any case in which he has interfered in any way that I consider inappropriate."

"Like everybody else, he said, `How do you go from here to here, and why did it happen?'" Reno added. Based on the telephone conversation and the scheduled face-to-face session, she said, "I think he'll understand."

©2000 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed