Lonetree Seeks Suppression of 2 Statements

A lawyer for Marine Sgt. Clayton J. Lonetree asked the military judge at his client’s court-martial Monday to suppress two damning statements Lonetree made to authorities who investigated the sex-for-secrets scandal.

The statements, one made on Christmas Day, 1986, in Vienna and the other later that winter during a five-day interrogation in London, should not be admitted at trial because Lonetree was improperly advised of his rights against self-incrimination, defense attorney William M. Kunstler said.

If the statements are thrown out by the judge, Navy Capt. Philip Roberts, Kunstler told reporters: “I don’t think (the prosecution) has anything left. The statements are crucial.”

The judicial review of the statements could take up to six days, said Kunstler, who made the motion during a closed session of Lonetree’s court-martial at the Quantico Marine base in northern Virginia.

Affair, KGB Contacts

Contents of the two statements have not been disclosed by the military, but Kunstler admitted that they were incriminating and said they involved a love affair with a Soviet woman and contacts with KGB agents.

“What he did do was so inconsequential that I don’t think it rises to the level of what you call espionage,” he said.

Kunstler accused the military of closing the proceedings concerning the statements to “make it appear like vast secrets were involved, that Clayton Lonetree was involved in such stupendous spying that it can’t be disclosed to the public.”

The proceedings remained closed until their conclusion Monday. The court-martial was scheduled to resume this morning.

Lonetree, 25, of St. Paul, Minn., is accused of passing sensitive information to the KGB when a guard at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.

Also at Quantico on Monday, a hearing was resumed for Marine Cpl. Robert J. Williams, who is charged with making false statements in connection with the scandal. It first met for one day two weeks ago.