Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman, indicted in 2005, have been charged
with conspiring to obtain classified information and relay this to
journalists and Israel. A Pentagon official, Lawrence Franklin, who relayed
information on Al Qaida and Iran to the two then-AIPAC lobbyists, was
sentenced to 12 years.
Under Ellis's ruling, the defense would be allowed to subpoena Ms. Rice,
National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley and former senior Pentagon
officials when the trial begins on Jan. 14. The former officials were
identified as Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, Defense
Undersecretary Douglas Feith and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage.
Others ordered to testify included U.S. ambassador William Burns, a
former assistant secretary of state, Deputy National Security Advisor Elliot
Abrams and Kenneth Pollack, former director of Persian Gulf affairs for the
National Security Council.
"For over two years, we have been explaining that our clients' conduct
was lawful and completely consistent with how the U.S. government dealt with
AIPAC and other foreign policy groups," Abbe Lowell and John Nassikas, the
attorneys for the former AIPAC staffers, said in a joint statement. "We are
gratified that the judge
has agreed that the defense has the right to prove these points by calling
the secretary of state and all of these other government officials as our
witnesses."
The defense has argued that the current and former U.S. officials
provided Rosen and Weissman — the first non-government civilians charged
under the 1917 law — with information similar to that cited in the federal
indictment. Attorneys said U.S. officials used AIPAC to relay messages to
Israel and others.
"Defendants," Ellis wrote in his ruling on Nov. 2, "are entitled to show
that, to them, there was simply no difference between the meetings for which
they are not charged and those for which they are charged and that they
believed that the meetings charged in the indictment were simply further
examples of the government's use of AIPAC as a diplomatic back channel."
The prosecution has sought to block testimony by Ms. Rice and other
officials. Legal analysts said the prosecution was expected to invoke
national security concerns in federal efforts to halt the subpoenas.
"The government's refusal to comply with a subpoena in these
circumstances may result in dismissal or a lesser sanctions," Ellis wrote.
