Nozette Update

Some new details:

Prosecutor Anthony Asuncion said Nozette told the agent he had passed classified information to Israel in the past. Nozette is not charged with doing so. "He told the agent that he had indeed communicated classified information," Asuncion said. "He had admitted to the agent actual espionage."

Nozette's lawyer, John Kiyonaga, said there was no basis for that accusation, and noted the government's charges don't contain any such allegations. He also argued the video recordings were misleading because they left out significant parts of a longer conversation...

Prosecutors also say Nozette kept a stash of gold Krugerrand coins worth tens of thousands of dollars in a safe deposit box in California more evidence, they say, of his risk of flight.

If he had already passed information, why did he also say that he assumed his sting interlocutor was from the Mossad and that he had been waiting for that day to come? Still: no more background on Nozette's political links, if any. Did he write speeches for Quayle? And if he did, is there a technical explanation, rather than a political one?

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