Evidence on Miller Points 2 Ways, His Lawyer Says

A former FBI agent succeeded in infiltrating the Soviet KGB, but his superiors turned his victory to ashes by accusing him of being a Soviet spy, his attorney said Wednesday.

In describing how he will defend Richard Miller, the only FBI agent ever charged with espionage, attorney Stanley Greenberg told the jury that the government’s charges can actually be interpreted as a vindication of the 20-year agency veteran.

“Everything you see and hear is going to be a double-edged sword,” he told the jury.

“It could be construed as in support of Mr. Miller’s case or the government’s, depending on whether you start with a presumption of innocence or a presumption of guilt.”

He flatly denied that Miller gave any classified documents to the Soviets and said FBI agents who questioned him before his arrest tricked him into incriminating himself.

‘Confused’ and ‘Deceived’

“The evidence will show that the men who interrogated him confused him, deceived him and tricked him to get him to make statements that did not get at the truth of the matter but to their preconceived notions, which are best summed up by the code name of their operation against him--’Whipworm,’ ” Greenberg said.

Whipworms are parasites that live in the guts of animals.

Richard T. Bretzing, head of the Los Angeles FBI office, who is also a Mormon bishop, used Miller’s loyalty to the church to try to force a confession from him by warning him that he was facing “eternal damnation,” Greenberg said. But Miller did not give in, he said.

“He never admitted any attempt to harm this country or benefit another country,” Greenberg said of Miller, who was excommunicated from the Mormon church for having extramarital affairs.

Greenberg cautioned the jury to use “common sense, intelligence and your knowledge of human nature” in evaluating Miller’s actions. He told the jurors that the corruption of the spying battle between the KGB and the FBI contributed to Miller’s distress.

“You need to understand how and why the FBI operates as it does and what impact that has on the information you will hear, which was gathered by the FBI, and what impact that had on Mr. Miller’s statements,” Greenberg said.

‘Dishonest and Immoral’

“What they (the Soviets) do to us and what we try to do to them is unethical, dishonest and immoral, and you have to look at the evidence in this case in that context,” he said.

Miller, 48, is accused of passing secret FBI counterintelligence information to a Soviet immigrant. That woman, Svetlana Ogorodnikova, and her husband, Nikolai Ogorodnikov, pleaded guilty and are serving prison terms for conspiracy to commit espionage.

Part of Miller’s defense is that he was pretending to appear recruitable so he could use Ogorodnikova to infiltrate the KGB and salvage his mediocre career in the FBI.

Prosecutors claim that Miller was seduced by a sexual relationship with the petite blonde and the promise of $65,000 in cash and gold. They say that he planned to give more FBI documents to top Soviet intelligence officials at a meeting in Warsaw, allegedly arranged by Ogorodnikova, but he was arrested first.

Greenberg, however, argued that Miller had been running a “dangle” operation, a common undertaking for FBI agents who want to appear recruitable in order to break into foreign intelligence. The only difference, Greenberg said, is that Miller’s methods were “unorthodox” and that he did not have the permission of his supervisors.

Greenberg said that by the time Miller was arrested, he had achieved the first step in infiltrating the KGB by attracting the serious interest of Soviet Vice Consul Alexander Grishin, a co-conspirator who was not indicted because of his diplomatic immunity.