Messenger Indicted in Soviet Spying Case

A messenger for a firm used by Congress to transcribe classified hearings was indicted Tuesday on two counts of espionage for delivering top-secret documents to Soviet officials.

Randy Miles Jeffries, 26, a former FBI clerk with a history of heroin and cocaine use, was indicted by a grand jury for delivery and attempted delivery of “documents relating to the national defense” to Soviet agents and to a “person not entitled to receive them,” the U.S. attorney’s office said.

Met With Undercover Agent

The FBI arrested Jeffries on Dec. 20 after he met in a downtown Washington hotel room with an undercover FBI agent posing as a Soviet official. According to FBI testimony, Jeffries had contacted the Soviets on Dec. 14 and delivered sample portions of secret and top-secret documents he had obtained from the trash can of his employer, Acme Reporting Co., a stenographic firm under contract to transcribe congressional hearings.

Jeffries had promised to deliver the rest of the documents for $5,000, the FBI said. G. Allen Dale, Jeffries’ court-appointed attorney, said in a hearing last month that Jeffries had left the documents in a locked briefcase with a friend who did not know of their contents and later destroyed them.

In an interview Tuesday, Dale noted that he has contended Jeffries did not in fact deliver classified documents to the Soviets. “I expect him to plead not guilty,” Dale said.

If convicted, Jeffries faces life imprisonment on the first count and 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine on the second.

The documents are believed to be transcripts of a closed hearing of the House Armed Services Committee on sensitive military communications. A witness employed by Acme told the FBI that Jeffries had been asked to tear up documents stamped secret and top-secret and involving strategic naval operations.

Copies Thrown in Trash

According to the FBI, the firm maintains copies of top-secret documents in its safe and disposes of them by ripping them up and throwing them in the trash.

Steven R. Ross, counsel to the clerk of the House, said Tuesday that he will recommend the House no longer use outside firms for transcribing classified hearings. He said Acme had been used by offices of the executive branch for several years and had received security clearance from the Pentagon, including a “very recent clean bill of health.”

“In the past, we felt we could rely on the representation made to us by the Pentagon,” Ross said. “It has become apparent from this incident that perhaps we place too much trust in the Pentagon clearance system.”

Contract Still Valid

Ross said the firm’s security clearance has been removed, although its contract with the House has not yet been suspended. The House has 12 full-time stenographers and contracts with up to 10 private firms to cover hearings when the congressional stenographers are busy. During the year, up to 40 hearings may require stenographers at one time, Ross said.

Jeffries was the 12th person arrested on spy-related charges last year. At the time of his arrest, he had been working for two months as a $500-a-month messenger for Acme. Before that, he had been unemployed and on welfare and had worked three months as a copying machine operator for a local law firm. From 1978 to 1980, Jeffries had an FBI clerical job that did not involve intelligence activities.