Espionage Trial of INS Official Begins in Miami

A U.S. immigration official passed a government secret to a friend with ties to Cuba for money and to prove his value as a business associate, a federal prosecutor said Wednesday.

Mariano Faget, 54, a veteran Immigration and Naturalization Service official, is charged with violating the U.S. Espionage Act by revealing classified information and lying about contacts with Cuban officials.

He faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

In opening the prosecution’s case, Assistant U.S. Attorney Dick Gregorie told the jury that as a high-ranking official, Faget had access to secret government files. Faget was acting district deputy director in Miami.

“You’re going to have to decide which side Mr. Faget is on,” Gregorie said.

Defense attorney Edward O’Donnell told jurors that Faget acted in good faith out of concern for his old friend and would never have done anything to compromise national security.

O’Donnell quoted his client as telling the FBI when he was arrested Feb. 17: “I want you to know that what I did was to protect my friend. I would do nothing to jeopardize the security of my country.”

The FBI began surveillance of Faget in February 1999 after he went to a bar and met a Cuban diplomat who the agency suspected was an intelligence official. A year later, Faget was told as part of an FBI sting that the Cuban official wanted to defect and that the information was classified.

When Faget then used his personal cell phone to alert his longtime friend, Pedro Font, he did so out of concern for Font’s safety, not to alert Cuban officials, O’Donnell said.

Font was meeting that day with top Cuban diplomat Jose Imperatori, and Faget wanted Font to have the information for his own protection, O’Donnell said.