Supporters of Jonathan Pollard, convicted spy, hope Trump will commute his sentence
By Stewart Ain November 13, 2020
Supporters and friends of Jonathan Pollard, the American Jew who served Israel as a spy, are hoping that before he leaves office, President Donald Trump will enable Pollard to emigrate to the Jewish state by commuting his sentence or pardoning him.
Pollard pleaded guilty in 1986 to conspiracy to commit espionage in connection with providing Israeli contacts with hundreds of classified documents he had obtained as a civilian intelligence specialist for the U.S. Navy.
After serving 30 years in prison, he began 15 years of parole, whose conditions stipulate that he not leave the country. He also has a curfew and the government monitors his computer use.
However, Pollard’s parole comes up for review by the U.S. Department of Justice every five years, and his five-year anniversary is on Nov. 21, said David Schoen, a defense attorney not connected to the Pollard case who practices nationwide and has worked on cases involving government security clearance.
Eliot Lauer, Pollard’s lawyer, could not be reached for comment.
Pollard and his wife are eager to learn the government’s plans, especially because he longs to move to Israel and has already become an Israeli citizen, but they haven’t an inkling of what the Justice Department might do, said a friend of the family who talked with them Thursday morning but spoke on condition of anonymity.
If the Justice Department makes no changes to his parole arrangements, Pollard could appeal to Trump for a commutation of his sentence, or a pardon. He could also appeal to the department itself, but going to Trump is the stronger strategy, Schoen said.
Pollard’s allies are already trying to involve Trump, beloved by many Jews for moves he’s made related to Israel, such as moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem.
In 2017, Trump commuted the 27-year sentence of another high-profile Jewish prisoner, Sholom Rubashkin, the former CEO of the largest kosher meat-processing plant.
“I think there is a good chance – based on his track record – that Trump may do something,” said Farley Weiss, president of the National Council of Young Israel. “There is no question that he has been the best president for Israel of any president in history.”
Weiss asked deceased Sen. John McCain, a Republican of Arizona, to help Pollard leave prison on parole after he had served 30 years of his life prison sentence. Now he’s tapping his contacts again on Pollard’s behalf.
Jewish supporters of both Rubashkin and Pollard claimed that their sentences were excessive. Farley called Pollard’s sentence a “miscarriage of justice.”
Just before he was sentenced, Pollard tried to cast himself as a kind of Jewish patriot, the Forward reported, trying to help Israel by compensating for the American intelligence community’s failings.
Others, including the Forward, have argued against leniency for Pollard.
“Jonathan Pollard is not a Jewish martyr,” wrote New Republic editor Martin Peretz.“He is a convicted espionage agent who spied on his country for both Israel and Pakistan (!) — a spy, moreover, who got paid for his work. His professional career, then, reeks of infamy and is suffused with depravity.”
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
