Journalists in Lee Case Don’t Reveal Sources

Five journalists for national media have refused in depositions given in recent weeks to disclose the names of confidential sources who provided them with information about former nuclear weapons scientist Wen Ho Lee, lawyers involved in the case say.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson on Oct. 9 ordered the journalists to reveal who in the government may have disclosed derogatory information to them about Lee.

Lee has sued the Energy Department and the FBI to recover damages for alleged harm to his reputation caused by leaks of confidential information during an espionage investigation.

In not naming their sources, the reporters cited the importance of confidentiality in ensuring the free flow of information to the public.

Last month, Jeff Gerth and James Risen of the New York Times refused to reveal their sources. Last week, H. Josef Hebert of Associated Press, Robert Drogin of the Los Angeles Times and former CNN reporter Pierre Thomas also did not reveal sources.

In early 1999, several news organizations named Lee, who worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory, as the chief suspect in an alleged espionage probe.

The FBI acknowledged that it botched the investigation by focusing on Lee to the exclusion of others, and in 2000 dropped 59 counts of felony espionage. Lee eventually pleaded guilty to a single felony count of copying classified documents