BRIEFCASE CONTAINING EVIDENCE IN SPY CASE DESTROYED, LAWYER SAYS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504210016-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 9, 2012
• Sequence Number: 16
• Publication Date: December 26, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/03/09: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504210016-6
WASHINGTON POST
26 December 1985
Briefcase Containing Evidence
In Spy Case Destroyed, Lawyer Says
D.C. Messenger Held Pending Grand Jury Findings
By Ruth Maras
Waa6i.etoe l staff writer
A briefcase full of documents that
may have been crucial-evidence in
the espionage case against a Dis-
trict man charged with passing se-
cret Hour documents to the Soviet
Union has been -deiboyed, the ac-
cused man's lawyter told a, federal
magistrate ymelerdayr
U4 Magilitrate Jean F. Dwyer
ordered Randy ? Miles Jeffries, a
messenger for a stenoiraphic com-
pany that transcribes secret pro-
ceedings of the House Armed Ser-
vices Committee, to be held without
bond, pending federal grand jury
deliberations on charges that he
delivered and attempted to deliver
national defense secrets to the So-
viets.
Shortly before his arrest Friday
night, Jeffries, 26, told an FBI un
dercover agent posing as a Soviet
operative that he had left with a
"trusted friend" a locked briefcase
containing three classified docu-
ments, an FBI agent testified in fed-
eral court here yesterday. '
Defense lawyer G. Allen Dale
told the magistrate that he had met
Monday night with an unnamed in-
dividual who said he had received
the briefcase in question, did not
know what it contained, and de-
stroyed it "at the suggestion of
someone on the phone." pale said
outai4e the court that the destruc-
tion took place before Jeffries' ar-
rest.
In ordering Jeffries held without
bond, Dwyer said she could not be
sure the documents had been de-
stroyed and that "leaves us with an
unanswered question, and one that I
dare not answer incorrectly," in
case the papers still exist and Jef-
fries tries to pass them to the So-
viets.
One of the documents Jeffries
allegedly offered to sell the under-
cover agent was a top secret tran-
script of a hearing'before a House
Armed Services subcommittee
about command, control, commu-
nications and intelligence programs,
According to papers filed in court
yesterday, the transcript of that
hearing was prepared by the Acme
Reporting Co., where Jeffries
worked, and "contains testimony of
high-level Defense 'Department of-
ficials."
Command, control, communi-
cations and - intelligence-pro-
nounced "Cee-Cubed-Eye" in the
Pentagon-is one of the Military's
most secret program areas and, in
the nuclear field, one of the Rea=
gan administration's top priorities.
The administration named an as-
sistant secretary of defense for
C3I, Donald C. Latham, and the
Pentagon has spent billions of dol-
lars modernizing the systems.
In layman's terms, strategic C3I
means "the button" and all the sys-
tems needed to make the button
work in a crisis.' Embraced by the
term are the radars, satellites and
other systems that would detect an
enemy missile attack; the command
centers from which a U.S. nuclear
strike would be controlled, includ-
ing the. NORAD mountain fortress
in Colorado and the flying command
plane kept. on constant alert; and
redundant communications systems
to pass orders from the president
through his military commanders to
the missile silos, bombers and sub-
marines that would launch an at-
tack:
Some material relating to C3I is
mundane and well known, and even
matters discussed in closed commit-
tee hearings often contain few se-
crets. But much about the strategic
C-II system is considered extremely
sensitive, because it involves U.S.
nuclear war plans, intelligence ca-
pabilities and the vulnerabilities of
communication systems.
At the hearing, Dale contended
that the government lacked proof
that' Jeffries either delivered clas-
sified documents or tried to deliver
them, other than Jeffries' own un-
corroborated statements, which
alone would be insufficient to con-
vict him.
Dwyer, who at a hearing Monday
described the government's evi-
dence as "about as thin" a case as
she had seen in recent years, said
yesterday, "Frankly, I don't see that
the case has gained very much
weight overnight."
But she cited the statement of a
co-worker of Jeffries' at the Acme
Reporting Co. that he had seen Jef-
fries leave the firm with a stack of
classified documents under his coat
a few hours before a man matching
Jeffries' description was seen en-
tering the Soviet Military Office at
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/03/09: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504210016-6
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/03/09: CIA-RDP9O-00965ROO0504210016-6
2552 Belmont St. NW. "That in it-
self gets us past the probable cause,
but just barely," Dwyer said.
U.S. District Judge Joyce Hens
Green last night denied Jeffries' ap-
peal of the decision to hold him with-
out bond. She said in a five-page or-
der that government testimony "pro-
vided substantial probable cause to
believe" that Jeffries had committed
espionage and that the "weight of
evidence against the defendant is
persuasive."
Assistant U.S. Attorney Rhonda
Fields argued that the case was
"very strong," including videotapes
of Jeffries at a meeting with an FBI
undercover agent posing as a Soviet
"Frankly, I don't
see that the case has
gained very much
a--
. weight overnight."
in which Jeffries allegedly offered to
sell the agent classified documents
and admitted giving the Soviets
samples ? of the documents on two
other occasions.
At the hearing, FBI agent Michael
Giglia testified that Kevin Collins, a
co-worker of Jeffries at Acme, told
agents he had seen Jeffries leaving
the company at 1220 L St. NW, with
classified documents on Dec. 14. He
said Jeffries told him he wanted to
contact the Soviets to sell the doc-
uments, Giglia said.
Later that day, at 4:11 p.m., a
"sensitive source" overheard a tele-
phone call from a person identifying
himself as "Dano" to the Soviet Mil-
itary Office, offering to sell docu-
ments to the Soviets. Dwyer refused
to let Giglia answer a defense ques-
tion about the nature of the source,
but Dale said later he could not think
of any way the FBI would have
known about both sides of the tele-
phone conversation other than by
intercepting the call.
At 4:45 p.m., a man fitting Jef-
fries' description was seen entering
the office, and stayed there for about
30 minutes, Giglia testified. He said
the cab driver who brought the man
to the office later told the FBI he had
picked up the passenger in the 200
block of Rhode Island Ave. NW, a
block away from Jeffries' home at
143 Rhode Island Ave. NW.
Three days later, Giglia testified,
the "sensitive source" reported that
Dano had called the military office
to inquire "if a decision had been
made yet."
On Dec. 20, Giglia said, an FBI
agent posing as a Soviet official
telephoned Jeffries' home. He said
the agent, who identified himself as
"Vladimir" and who spoke with a
Russian accent, asked Jeffries if he
was Dano and if he remembered
visiting the military office.
Jeffries answered "uh huh" to
both questions, Giglia testified. He
said, however, that Jeffries was sus-
picious of the call because he had
been given a "contact plan" for a
meeting in April and a "code word"
to be used for identification. Jeffries
nevertheless agreed to meet the
agent at 9 p.m. at the Holiday Inn.
He said Jeffries told the agent
that he had met with the Soviets
twice, the first time giving them 13
pages each of three documents, and
the second time another 15 pages.
At the second meeting, he said, the
Soviets said the' documents "were
good material and they were inter-
ested in them."
Jeffries was arrested at 9:11 p.m.
as he was leaving the room, alleg-
edly to pick up the classified doc-
uments to sell to the purported So-
viet agent, Giglia said. He said no
classified documents were found in
a search of Jeffries' hone, although
about 20 books and brochures about
the Soviet Union were found there.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/03/09: CIA-RDP9O-00965ROO0504210016-6