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To: Phsstpok
There was no trial. Ames and his wife entered a plea bargain.

I'm not surprised, but I think I remember there being an evidentiary ruling allowing the results of the search of his house to be used before that.

There may be, but I'm not aware of it. My belief stems from a GAO report, portions below.

        REPORTNUM:   GAO-01-780
            ACCNO:   A01392
            TITLE:   FBI Intelligence Investigations: Coordination Within
                     Justice on Counterintelligence Criminal Matters Is Limited
             DATE:   07/16/2001
          SUBJECT:   Domestic intelligence
                     Electronic surveillance
                     Federal intelligence agencies
                     Interagency relations
                     Law enforcement agencies
                     Military intelligence
                     Search and seizure

... These officials suggested that the application of the primary purpose test had not raised potential coordination problems between the FBI and the Criminal Division until the Aldrich Ames case. In 1994, Aldrich H. Ames, a Central Intelligence Agency official, was arrested on espionage charges of spying for the former Soviet Union and subsequently Russian intelligence. The FISA Court authorized an electronic surveillance of the computer and software within the Ames' residence. In addition, the Attorney General had authorized a warrantless physical search of the residence. At that time, FISA did not apply to physical searches. DOJ obtained a guilty plea from Ames who was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Criminal Division and FBI officials said that some in DOJ were concerned that, had the Ames case proceeded to trial, early and close coordination between the FBI and the Criminal Division might have raised a question as to whether the primary purpose of the surveillance and searches of Ames' residence had been a criminal investigation and not intelligence gathering. According to these officials, had this question been raised, a court might have ruled that information gathered using the FISA surveillance and/ or the warrantless search be suppressed, thereby possibly jeopardizing Ames' prosecution. To date, this issue remains a matter of concern to the FBI and OIPR. OIPR officials indicated that while such a loss had not occurred because Ames had pleaded guilty, the fear of such a loss, nonetheless, was real. ...

Stemming, in part, from concerns raised over the timing and extent of coordination on the Aldrich Ames case, the Attorney General in July 1995 established policies and procedures for coordinating FBI foreign counterintelligence investigations with the Criminal Division. 19 One purpose of the 1995 procedures was to ensure that DOJ's criminal and counterintelligence functions were properly coordinated. However, according to Criminal Division officials and conclusions by the Attorney General's Review Team, rather then ensuring proper coordination, problems arose soon after the Attorney General's 1995 procedures were promulgated. As discussed, those problems stemmed from the FBI's and OIPR's concerns about the possible consequences that could damage an investigation or prosecution should a court make an adverse ruling on the primary purpose issue.

In January 2000, the Attorney General promulgated coordination procedures, which were in addition to the 1995 procedures. 20 These procedures were promulgated to address problems identified by the Attorney General's Review Team during its review of the FBI's investigation of the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Criminal Division officials believed that the 2000 procedures had helped to improve coordination, especially for certain types of foreign counterintelligence investigations.

According to DOJ officials, following the conviction of Aldrich Ames, OIPR believed that the close relationship between the FBI and the Criminal Division had been near to crossing the line between intelligence and criminal investigations, thereby risking a decision against the government if a court had applied the primary purpose test. To address the concerns raised, in part, by the FBI's contacts with the Criminal Division in the Ames case, the Attorney General promulgated coordination procedures on July 19, 1995.

^19 Attorney General memorandum dated July 19, 1995, 'Procedures for Contacts Between the FBI and the Criminal Division Concerning Foreign Intelligence and Foreign Counterintelligence Investigations.'

^20 Memorandum for the Attorney General, dated January 18, 2000, 'To Recommend that the Attorney General Authorize Certain Measures Regarding Intelligence Matters in Response to the Interim Recommendations Provided by Special Litigation Counsel Randy Bellows.'

http://www.fas.org/irp/gao/gao-01-780.html


The "Gorelick Wall Memo" (March 1995) is on the subject of data sharing between working groups (as is the AG's memo dated July 19, 1995), but Gorelick's memo is focused on two cases.

http://www.cnss.org/9.11commissionintelligence.htm

1,043 posted on 01/29/2006 2:21:59 PM PST by Cboldt
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To: Cboldt

I thought the president's defense of wiretapping terrorists on FTN today was very good. Very forceful. He echoed a lot of the points made here in FR.


1,050 posted on 01/29/2006 2:39:21 PM PST by cake_crumb (Leftist Credo: One Wing to Rule them All and to the Darkside Bind them)
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To: Cboldt

I'm grabbing all your posts here. Great research. Again, thank you. b.


1,125 posted on 01/29/2006 8:36:30 PM PST by Barset
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