F.B.I. HOLDS ANOTHER SPY SUSPECT, EMPLOYEE OF HOUSE TRANSCRIBERS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000201840005-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 21, 2012
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: December 22, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/21 CIA-RDP90-00965R000201840005-5
ARTICLE AP ED
ON PAGE -TI
NEW YORK TIMES
22 December 1985
F. B.1. Holds Another Spy Suspect,
Employee of House Transcribers
By STEPHEN ENGELBERG
Special to The New York Times
WASHINGTON, Dec. 21 - An em-
ployee of a company that transcribes
secret sessions in the House of Repre-
sentatives has been charged with
spying for the Soviet Union after offer-
ing to sell an undercover agent secret
documents, the Federal Bureau of In-
vestigation said today.
The bureau said the,,suspect, Randy
Miles Jeffries, a 26-y old Washing-
ton resident, had told The undercover
agent he had already delivered por-
tions of documents to the Russians, in-
cluding one that was classified as top
secret. Michael Giglia, an agent of the
Federal Bureau of Investigation, testi-
fied today at a hearing in Superior
Court that Mr. Jeffries had asked for
$5,000 for the complete set of three
documents.
Mr. Jeffries was arrested at a Holi-
day Inn at 9:11 P.M. Friday, the F.B.I.
said in a statement issued early today.
After today's hearing, a Superior Court
judge today ordered him held without
bail pending a hearing Monday morn-
ing in Federal District Court. He was
the 11th American arrested on spying
charges this year.
Routine Background Check
A spokesman for the Acme Report-
ing Company, Mr. Jeffries's employer,
said that Mr. Jeffries was a former
F. F.B.I. employee who had been hired by
Acme about six weeks ago as a "de.
livery person."
She said she did not know what posi-
tion Mr. Jeffries had held with the
F.B.I., when he left its employ, or
whether he had been dismissed. The
bureau said today he had worked from
1978 to 1980 as a clerk in its identifica-
tion division, which handles finger-
prints: The spokesman said there was
indication that his resignation came at
the bureau's request.
A statement issued in the name of
Charles L. Richer, chairman of the
board of Acme, said that the company
was one of the largest court-reporting
organizations in the United States and
that "the regular background check
performed before baring did not turn up
any problems" with Mr. Jeffries.
According to Mr. Giglia's testimony
today, Mr. Jeffries had "access to
reproduction equipment.".
Representative Lee H. Hamilton, an
Indiana Democrat who is chairman of
the House Permanent Select Commit-
tee on intelligence, said today that he
had been notified that Acme has tran-
scribed closed hearings of the House
Armed Services Committee.
Analysis of Procedures
Mr. Hamilton said that the Intelli-
gence Committee is investigating ways
to improve security procedures in the
House. He said that several House
committees hold secret hearings in
which classified material is presented
by various agencies. These sessions,+
are taken down by stenographers, who
then prepare printed records.
He said that several private compa-
nies transcribe secret hearings and
added that the stenographers must re-
ceive security clearances.
It could not immediately be deter-
mined if Mr. Jeffries had been required
to obtain a security clearance.
"We are now in the process of analyz-
ing all of the procedures of the House
from a security viewpoint," said Mr.
Hamilton. "This is one of things we
have been concerned about."
Representative Dave McCurdy, an
Oklahoma Democrat who serves on
both the Intelligence Committee and
the Armed Services Committee, said
that the texts of the military panel's
closed hearings would include both
testimony and reproductions of classi-
fied documents.
According to the F.B.I. statement,
Mr. Jeffries tried to deliver classified
documents to the office of the Soviet
military attache on Dec. 14. United
States counterintelligence agents rou-
tinely monitor people who enter Soviet
offices in this country. One Federal of-
ficial suggested that he was working
for the Soviet military intelligence
agency. He said that Vitaly Yurchenko,
the former official of the K.G.B., the
Soviet state security agency, had not
been involved in this case.
United States officials have said that
Mr. Yurchenko, who returned to the
Soviet Union after apparently defect-
ing, had provided information which
helped in the capture of others spying
for Moscow.
William Webster, Director of the
F.B.I., said in the statement that "we
continue to have tremendous success
with the interdiction of persons at-
tempting to deliver our secrets to the
hostile intelligence services."
Six days after his visit to the military
attache's office, Mr. Jeffries was con-
tacted by an undercover agent who
said he was a Soviet spy who had ap-
proval from Moscow to "continue deal-
ing with Mr. Jeffries," according to
Mr. Giglia of the F.B.I., who testified
about the bureau's investigation of Mr.
Jeffries.
He said Mr. Jeffries told the under-
cover agent that he "had access to a
bag full of top secret and secret docu-
ments which were ripped up but could
be put back together." He said he had
already delivered 60 "sample pages"
to Soviet officials and that "he. antic-
pated being able to deliver documents
on a monthly basis as they became
available."
Mr. Giglia quoted Mr. Jeffries as
saying he had three documents "under
his control" which had not yet been
ripped up. He offered to pick these up
and deliver them to the undercover
agent.
Mr. Giglia quoted an official of the
Acme company as saying it keeps
copies of its Top Secret and Secret
documents in its safe. When they are no
longer needed, they are ripped up by
hand and discarded.
Neighbor Tells of Problems
Scottie Barrett, who lives in the same
apartment building as the Jeffrieses in
Northwest Washington, described her-
self as "best friends" with Mr. Jeffries,
his wife and their three children. She
said Mr. Jeffries recently completed a
drug rehabilitation program. A pre-
trial report filed in Superior Court said
Mr. Jeffries was convicted in 1983 of
possession of heroin and received a sus-
pended sentence, The Associated Press
reported today.
Mrs. Barrett said Mr. Jeffries had
recently run into financial difficulties,
she said, and "always talked about
money and getting back on the top."
She said that Mr. Jeffries and his
wife, Naomi, recently had some mari-
tal disagreements over, among other
things, the management of the family's
money. Mrs. Barrett said that the
family has two girls and a boy. The el-
dest child; a daughter is attending kin-
dergarten, while the youngest, the son,
is less than a year old, she said. .
Since the end of the summer, she
said, Mr. Jeffries said he had gotten a
new job and he and his wife had started
attending services at a local Jehovah's
Witnesses congregation.
r,_ Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/21 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000201840005-5