New York – A federal appeals court on Wednesday rejected a bid by Jonathan Pollard, a former U.S. Navy intelligence officer convicted of spying for Israel, to relax his parole conditions.
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The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said the U.S. Parole Commission acted within its discretion in requiring Pollard to wear an electronic tracking device, obey a 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew, and allow his computers to be monitored.
Pollard, 62, was paroled in November 2015 after serving 30 years of a life sentence for espionage.
He had said the parole conditions were too severe because he was neither a flight risk, nor a threat to disseminate or even remember classified information he learned decades ago. Pollard also said the conditions have prevented him from getting a job.
But the court said parole officials could consider both Pollard’s alleged “propensity to dissemble,” as well as the assessment by former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper that documents compromised by Pollard remained classified.
Pollard’s parole conditions “minimized the risk of harm he continued to pose for United States intelligence,” the three-judge appeals court panel said.
Eliot Lauer, a lawyer for Pollard, said in an email he was disappointed in the outcome, and that the court declined to “confront the Commission on the manifest injustice of these onerous and unnecessary restrictions.”
A spokeswoman for Acting U.S. Attorney Joon Kim in Manhattan declined to comment.
U.S. authorities accused Pollard of having in 1984 and 1985 provided Israeli contacts with suitcases full of classified documents in exchange for thousands of dollars of payments.
Pollard pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge in 1986 and was sentenced to life in prison the next year. Prior to being paroled, he had been held in custody since his 1985 arrest.
Now living in New York City, Pollard must remain in the United States for five years, and cannot move to Israel to join his wife, who lives there.
Israel has long sought his release, and in a gesture of solidarity granted Pollard citizenship in 1995.
Wednesday’s decision upheld an August 2016 ruling by U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest in Manhattan.
The case is Pollard v. U.S. Parole Commission et al, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 16-2918.
Pure anti Semitism.
Aside from all sorts of other problems, I will limit this to one simple example. The new reported that the powers-that-be had allegedly agreed to supply a better monitor that would not require recharging on Shabbat. The news also reported that allegedly no such monitor has yet been provided. I feel it is self-evident that such deception in order to violate Pollard’s constitutional rights to freedom of religion (even when incarcerated the rights remain) on its own casts an appalling light on all other aspects of what is going on.
And yet Obama was able to release all the radicals with no after thought what so ever and they are back in the field advising the next generation how to kill, and disrupt. Is some thing wrong with this picture? All Pollard wants to go home, and I don’t think he will advise the next generation to kill or maim anyone, or is it just another Jew hating group of people who hates Jews and Israel and I will show them attitude. He served his time, and the radicals released never served their actual time released early.
The harsh treatment of spies is enough to make people think twice before becoming spies. I suppose that is the purpose of such treatment.
Not fair!!
Obama released violent drug dealers; Clinton pardoned Marc Rich, who was a fugitive (his wife was a big fund raiser for Clinton). Did Netanyahu raise the matter of Pollard with Trump? What about Ambassador Friedman? Why are they reluctant to raise that matter?
Why was the trans spy lavished with a full pardon while American-Israeli citizen (dubbed “Israeli spy” by the biased media) Jonathan Pollard treated like a criminal?