--- title: Espionage: Government Failed To Keep Its Promises to Jonathan Pollard description: Today university campuses lionize those who disclose our secrets. canonical: https://time.com/3973135/jonathan-pollard-parole/ author: Seth Lipsky article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-27T15:59:14.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:58:24.424Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Espionage: Government Failed To Keep Its Promises to Jonathan Pollard og:description: Today university campuses lionize those who disclose our secrets. og:url: https://time.com/3973135/jonathan-pollard-parole/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Espionage: Government Failed To Keep Its Promises to Jonathan Pollard twitter:description: Today university campuses lionize those who disclose our secrets. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # How to Treat Jonathan Pollard in the Age of Edward Snowden > Sponsored content. 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[Watch (HLS stream): Why Is Jonathan Pollard Back in the News?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/zybkPZuz.m3u8) (2:30)  _Published 2014-04-01. President Obama is reportedly considering an early release from prison for Jonathan Pollard, an Israeli agent who spied on the U.S., to revive peace talks with Palestine._ by [Seth Lipsky](https://time.com/author/seth-lipsky/) ## Seth Lipsky Jul 27, 2015 3:59 PM UTC by [Seth Lipsky](https://time.com/author/seth-lipsky/) ## Seth Lipsky Jul 27, 2015 3:59 PM UTC The White House is denying that its decision to accede to the parole of Jonathan Pollard is animated by its hopes to assuage Israel in the face of the Iran appeasement, as the _Wall Street Journal_ [reported](http://Those hopes had been reported last week by t) last week. My instinct is with the _Journal_, but, in any event, the thing to remember about Pollard is that he should never have been given a life sentence in the first place. It’s not that Pollard’s breach of our Espionage Act wasn’t serious. It certainly was. But the charge to which he pled guilty comprised a single count of passing classified secrets to a friendly nation. In exchange for his plea, which saved the government the risk of losing in court or being forced to drop its case rather than disclose the secrets, the government made promises it failed to keep. This came to a head in the early 1990s. Pollard was arrested in 1985\. He pled guilty in 1986\. He drew life in 1987\. He sought to withdraw his plea in 1990\. And the Appeals Court judges who ride circuit in the District of Columbia disposed of his claims in 1992\. It was an incredibly distinguished panel, including Laurence Silberman, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Stephen Fain Williams. Yet two of the three judges took what can only be described as a powder, casting Pollard into prison for what the law calls life (30 years) on the grounds that he didn’t appeal the life sentence in a timely manner. The memorable opinion in the case was the dissent of Judge Williams, who concluded that the government that put Pollard away had broken the promises it had made in return for his plea. The promises were that it would bring to the court’s attention the value of Pollard’s cooperation, refrain from seeking a life sentence, and limit its allocution — its statements — regarding “the facts and circumstances” of Pollard’s crimes. Williams concluded that the government “complied in spirit with none of its promises” and, in respect of the third promise, “it complied in neither letter nor spirit.” One of the points Williams marked was the government’s suggestion that Pollard had committed treason. That came in a memo to the court from the defense secretary at the time, Caspar Weinberger, who asked the Court to mete out a punishment reflecting the “magnitude of the treason committed.” Yet Weinberg and the Court knew that whatever Pollard did was not treason. That’s because the Constitution prohibits Congress from defining treason as anything other than levying war against the U.S. or adhering to its enemies, giving them aid and comfort. Treason, Williams noted, carries the death penalty. It can be committed only with an enemy. The espionage statute to which Pollard pled encompassed aid to friendly nations and carried a maximum of life. What Pollard did was bad enough; I have no desire to sugarcoat it. But the constitutional fact of the matter is that it stopped well short of treason. The government poisoned the very proceeding in which it had promised not to seek a life term. So Pollard went away for a longer stretch than America has ever given anyone for a similar crime. No one need feel shy about calling it an injustice. Williams himself likened the government to the witches in Shakespeare’s Macbeth. He ended his opinion by quoting the famous curse against them — “And be these juggling fiends no more believ’d, / That palter with us in a double sense; / That keep the word of promise to our ear, / And break it to our hope.” In all my years covering the courts, I don’t think I’ve read an opinion quite like it. How ironic it is that Pollard, who went away before the rise of the World Wide Web, will emerge from prison — if he does emerge — into the age of Wikileaks. Today our university campuses are lionizing those who have disclosed our secrets in a protest against what they see as abuses by the government. They fear the very government from which Pollard purloined his packets. So what are all those who rode the high horse against Pollard going to do when Edward Snowden and Julian Assange are put in the dock? Pollard passed his secrets to an American friend. Assange ran a Web site that made our secrets available not only to friends but to enemies. Snowden did something similar, passing secrets to the press. They claim to be acting on high-minded principles. So did Jonathan Pollard. ## Transcript Jonathan Pollard has been in federal prison for almost three decades, but his freedom could be the bargaining chip needed to salvage what's left of the Israeli and Palestinian peace talks. Reports this week suggest President Obama is considering an early release from prison for Pollard, who was sentenced for life in 1985 and has been in prison ever since. But who is Jonathan Pollard and what are his crimes? And what does he have to do with Israeli peace talks? Pollard was an intelligence analyst with the US Navy in the 1980s. But in 1985, he was arrested on espionage charges for passing classified US information to Israel in exchange for cash A New York Times article notes, Mr. Pollard stole more top secret documents than almost any other spy in American history. After his arrest, Pollard accepted a plea deal. It's a one count of conspiracy to commit espionage. And in return Pollard would not receive life in prison. A U. S. federal judge rejected the plea agreement, and did sentence Pollard to life, siting the enormous damage to U. S. national security. According to an Israeli newspaper, Pollard is the only person in the U. S. history to receive a life sentence. Sentence for spying for an ally and the only American citizen convicted of such a crime to be sentenced to more than ten years in prison. Pollard's imprisonment has been a point of contention for U. S. Israeli relations for as long as he's been in prison. Back in 1998, during his first term, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu requested Pollard from former President Bill Clinton. That request was rejected, due to major pressure from intelligence officials, including CIA director at the time, who vowed to resign if Pollard was released. Which brings us to today. Multiple reports say President Obama is considering Pollard's release despite this controversial history. But as you might imagine, the White House is not discussing the issue. With regards to Mister Pollard, he is a, a person who was convicted of espionage and is serving his sentence. And I don't have any update on his situation. If the White House is not considering clemency for the convicted spy, it's going to need something to move along the peace talks. Time's Michael Crowley reports, Netanyahu agreed to release dozens of Palestinian prisoners. But has yet to do so. Netanyahu has no desire to set free he see as violent criminals, only to see the talks peter out at the end of April, with nothing to show for the domestically unpopular action. But the clock is ticking on this potential deal. Pollard is 59 years old and is said to be in poor health, he's also eligible for parole in November 2015. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3973135/jonathan-pollard-parole/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3973135/jonathan-pollard-parole/"},"headline":"How to Treat Jonathan Pollard in the Age of Edward Snowden","datePublished":"2015-07-27T15:59:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:58:24.424Z","description":"Today university campuses lionize those who disclose our secrets","url":"https://time.com/3973135/jonathan-pollard-parole/","keywords":["world affairs"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Seth Lipsky","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/seth-lipsky/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/world-affairs/","name":"world affairs"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3973135/jonathan-pollard-parole/","name":"How to Treat Jonathan Pollard in the Age of Edward Snowden"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Why Is Jonathan Pollard Back in the News?","description":"President Obama is reportedly considering an early release from prison for Jonathan Pollard, an Israeli agent who spied on the U.S., to revive peace talks with Palestine.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/zybkPZuz/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-04-01T20:01:52.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/zybkPZuz.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3973135/jonathan-pollard-parole/","duration":"PT2M30S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3973135/jonathan-pollard-parole/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```