Prosecutors Say Lee ‘Stole . . . Secrets’

Jailed scientist Wen Ho Lee stole America’s nuclear secrets and could, if released, give those secrets to a foreign country, the government contended in a federal court document filed Thursday.

Prosecutors are asking U.S. District Judge James Parker to uphold last week’s order preventing bond for the fired Los Alamos National Laboratory computer expert.

“Lee stole America’s nuclear secrets sufficient to build a functional thermonuclear weapon. Lee absconded with that information on computer tapes, seven of which are still missing. Those missing tapes, in the hands of an unauthorized possessor, pose a mortal danger to every American,” says the pleading submitted by U.S. Atty. John Kelly and Assistant U.S. Atty. Robert Gorence.

“There are no conditions of release that can reasonably assure the nation’s security,” they said.

Defense attorneys contend the tapes were destroyed. Prosecutors said there was no evidence of that.

Lee has pleaded not guilty. He was accused of lying to federal investigators several times over the last 16 years, including about the circumstances of two trips to China. Prosecutors said he at first denied being approached by Chinese intelligence officers and later admitted he had lied.

Lee’s attorney, Mark Holscher, did not return several messages left for him Thursday.

Harvard law professor Alan M. Dershowitz said the case was “very, very weak” and that Lee should be released on bail.

“They’re coming up with a series of jaywalking charges on the theory that if they come up with enough jaywalking charges, eventually they will get a prison sentence,” Dershowitz said Thursday by phone from Boston. “What the government’s afraid of is he’s going to win, not that he’s going to flee.”

A federal judge must consider the moral character, family ties, employment history, length of residence and any criminal record before refusing a defendant bail.

A bail review hearing was scheduled for Monday.

Lee is accused of 59 violations of the Atomic Energy and Espionage acts.