Official Central to AIPAC Case Quits
May 17, 2007 WASHINGTON (JTA) -- The deputy U.S. attorney general who indicted two former AIPAC staffers on classified information charges resigned on Monday.
Paul McNulty was the U.S. attorney in eastern Virginia in August 2005 when he indicted Steve Rosen, the former foreign policy chief for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and Keith Weissman, its former Iran analyst, under a never-used 1917 statute that criminalizes the receipt of classified information.
Within weeks, he was promoted to deputy attorney general. McNulty resigned Monday after being embroiled in weeks of controversy over the firing of at least eight U.S. attorneys.
McNulty testified in February that the White House was not involved in the firing of the attorneys. When it was revealed that senior White House staff had indeed played a role, McNulty said he had not been adequately prepared by Justice Department staff.
In a development in the AIPAC case, the organization reached a deal with lawyers for Weissman, its former Iran analyst, to pay for his defense against Espionage Act charges.
Weissman retains his right to sue AIPAC if he is acquitted or if charges are dismissed. No such deal has yet been achieved with Abbe Lowell, the lawyer for Rosen, AIPAC's former foreign policy chief. Negotiations between Lowell and AIPAC have apparently been complicated by Lowell's recent move to a new law firm.
