Clinton Advisers Are Said to Oppose Clemency for Convicted Spy Pollard

President Clinton’s advisers are recommending against clemency for convicted spy Jonathan Jay Pollard, an American Jew serving a life prison term for espionage on behalf of Israel, the New York Times reported in today’s editions.

The newspaper quoted unidentified Administration officials as saying they don’t know of any support for such a step from Justice Department prosecutors, senior CIA analysts or military officials.

One Administration official told the paper the White House had ordered an expedited review of the case by the Justice Department. A department spokesman, Myron Martin, told the Associated Press on Monday night he could not confirm whether a recommendation had been made or passed along to the White House.

In clemency pleas, the Justice Department’s pardon attorney compiles the evaluations of all federal agencies with comments on a case and submits them along with a recommendation to the President through the deputy attorney general, the No. 2 official at the department.

A U.S. official who demanded anonymity told the AP that the State Department had passed along to the Justice Department an assessment of the foreign policy considerations involved in Pollard’s clemency plea--but made no judgment as to whether the sentence should be commuted.

Federal prosecutors have said Pollard compromised a volume of classified information as great as in any reported espionage case.