sluggo
06-24-2009, 02:30 PM
Two people asked a Pentagon official cooperating with prosecutors in an investigation into the American Israel Public Affairs Committee to fake his own death to avoid testifying against two pro-Israel lobbyists charged in the case, according to the Justice Department.
Pentagon analyst Lawrence Franklin pled guilty in October 2005 to participating in a conspiracy with AIPAC officials Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman to obtain and distribute classified information. The Justice Department dropped the case against Rosen and Weissman last month as a trial approached.
"Just prior to the entry of his guilty plea, Franklin was approached by two individuals who made a pitch to Franklin about faking his death by suicide and disappearing, thus thwarting any cooperation in the case against Rosen and Weissman," prosecutors wrote in a brief filed in connection with a motion to reduce the 12-year prison term Franklin was originally sentenced to.
[/URL][url]http://www.politico.com/blogs/joshgerstein/0609/DOJ_Aipac_case_witness_asked_to_fakesuicide.html#c omments (http://www.politico.com/blogs/joshgerstein/0609/DOJ_Aipac_case_witness_asked_to_fakesuicide.html#c omments)
Pentagon analyst Lawrence Franklin pled guilty in October 2005 to participating in a conspiracy with AIPAC officials Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman to obtain and distribute classified information. The Justice Department dropped the case against Rosen and Weissman last month as a trial approached.
"Just prior to the entry of his guilty plea, Franklin was approached by two individuals who made a pitch to Franklin about faking his death by suicide and disappearing, thus thwarting any cooperation in the case against Rosen and Weissman," prosecutors wrote in a brief filed in connection with a motion to reduce the 12-year prison term Franklin was originally sentenced to.
[/URL][url]http://www.politico.com/blogs/joshgerstein/0609/DOJ_Aipac_case_witness_asked_to_fakesuicide.html#c omments (http://www.politico.com/blogs/joshgerstein/0609/DOJ_Aipac_case_witness_asked_to_fakesuicide.html#c omments)