Richardson Regrets How Scientist Was Treated
A former Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist who was held in solitary confinement for nine months was “badly treated,” Gov. Bill Richardson says in his new autobiography.
Richardson was former President Clinton’s Energy secretary when Wen Ho Lee, a naturalized U.S. citizen, became the target of an FBI investigation into Chinese espionage in 1999. Lee was indicted on 59 counts but released in September 2000 after pleading guilty to a single felony charge of illegally retaining national defense information.
At Lee’s hearing, the judge apologized to him and rebuked the Clinton administration for its handling of the case.
“Here was the government putting this skinny 60-year-old guy into solitary confinement for nearly a year. I have come to realize that it was wrong and I should have spoken out more,” Richardson wrote.
Get the L.A. Times Politics newsletter
Deeply reported insights into legislation, politics and policy from Sacramento, Washington and beyond. In your inbox three times per week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
