Prosecutor Calls Miller KGB Claim ‘Bamboozle’

A defense lawyer’s assertion that former FBI Agent Richard W. Miller was not spying for the Soviet Union, but instead was secretly trying to infiltrate the KGB, is a “bamboozle” and “one of the most inherently incredible defenses that any juror has ever had to consider,” U.S. Atty. Robert C. Bonner said Friday.

In a five-hour closing argument spanning two days, Bonner urged a federal court jury not to let Miller, 49, “walk away from even one” of the seven counts of conspiracy, espionage and bribery with which he is charged.

The jury will begin its deliberations Monday. The first FBI agent ever so accused, Miller will face a sentence of up to life in prison if he is convicted.

‘Temper Tantrum’ Charged

In a sidelight on the trial’s final day, one of Miller’s attorneys was fined $500 for contempt of court after what U.S. District Judge David V. Kenyon called a “temper tantrum” during Bonner’s final argument.

Defense attorney Stanley Greenberg countered with a request for a mistrial based on prosecution and judicial misconduct. He alleged that Kenyon was unable to be fair because of personal friction that has existed throughout the trial.

Kenyon became angry when Greenberg arose during Bonner’s summation and accused him of misstating a comment from Greenberg’s opening statement to jurors. When the judge told him to sit down, the attorney refused and at one point slammed his hand down on the counsel table in anger.

“The court finds that Mr. Greenberg was in contempt,” Kenyon declared after jurors had left the courtroom. “Having a temper tantrum in the courtroom is inappropriate and disruptive. . . .”

Attorney to Appeal

Kenyon ordered that the $500 fine be paid within 48 hours. He later extended the deadline for one week when Greenberg said he planned to appeal the contempt citation.

Greenberg was cited earlier in the trial for contempt but a hearing was delayed until the trial is over.

“Don’t let the wool be pulled over your eyes,” Bonner said, referring to the argument by Miller’s lawyers that the agent was trying to revive a failing career through an unauthorized scheme to establish himself as a double agent.

“Overwhelming evidence suggests this story . . . is preposterous, a kind of bamboozle defense that’s being put forward here,” Bonner said.

Miller’s other attorney, Joel Levine, had urged jurors on Tuesday to think of his client as someone akin to the motion picture characters played by Clint Eastwood or Eddie Murphy, “where the hero violates every rule and regulation and he gets his man.” Miller, however, was unable to pull off his plan, his lawyer said.

Analogy Dismissed

But Bonner dismissed the analogy.

“I’m not going to compare this case . . . to Clint Eastwood or Eddie Murphy,” the prosecutor said, “because that’s not what we’re talking about. . . .”

Miller was targeted by the KGB--the Soviet secret police--for recruitment as a spy, Bonner argued, because of his position on the counterintelligence detail in the Los Angeles FBI office. Financial problems and marital infidelity made the agent vulnerable to the advances of convicted Russian spy Svetlana Ogorodnikova, 36, beginning in late May, 1984, the prosecutor said.

Miller gave Ogorodnikova several classified documents, Bonner said, including one detailing FBI counterintelligence procedures. Miller hoped for a payment of $50,000 in gold and $15,000 in cash, Bonner said, but Ogorodnikova actually gave him only small amounts of money, other gifts--and sex.

Basic Question

“Was he (Miller) pursuing the interests of the FBI when he and Svetlana Ogorodnikova had sex?” Bonner asked the jury. “Or was he pursuing his own venal, personal interests?”

Miller, Ogorodnikova, and her husband, Nikolai, were arrested on Oct. 2, 1984, five days after Miller had confessed his involvement with the Russian immigrant to his superiors. Miller did so, Bonner said, only after learning that he had been under surveillance by fellow agents.

The Ogorodnikovs pleaded guilty to espionage conspiracy last June 26.

Summoned as a defense witness, Svetlana Ogorodnikova disavowed her earlier admissions and denied that she was a KGB operative and that she had tried to recruit Miller to the Soviet cause.

“She had powerful motives to lie,” Bonner said. “She is not going to be a person to get up on the witness stand and alienate the government to which she is loyal--and that’s the Soviet Union.”

Although Miller did not testify, Bonner repeatedly referred to statements the agent made to his superiors in the days before his arrest.

More than 100 witnesses testified during the 14-week trial, Miller’s second. The first ended last November when a jury deadlocked in favor of conviction.