Media pay damages to Los Alamos physicist Wen Ho Lee, but admit no wrongdoing

The New York Times : The New York Times , Washington Post , the LA Times , the Associated Press , and ABC News will pay $750,000 towards the $1.65 million federal government settlement with Wen Ho Lee , a former physicist of Los Alamos National Laboratory. Lee filed a lawsuit against the federal government in 1999 over an invasion of his privacy in which details about his life were leaked by the government to the media during a court case that year in which he was acused of espionage. Lee spent nine months in prison, the majority in solitary confinement chained to a bed, before being released. Lee was eventually not charged with espionage but did strike a guilty plea to one count of mishandling classfied data. During the initial confinement, the government leaked information about Lee to the media such as his employment history, finances, travels and polygraph test. Lee did not name the news media as defendants in the suit, but the news organizations, who were being fined $500 per day for being in contempt of court, settled with Lee so that they would not have to reveal their government sources. The media money, unlike the $895,000 obtained from the government, can go directly to Lee. The rest, by a condition put in place by the government, will be used to cover legal fees for Lee’s attonerys, and taxes.The news organizations, in a statement released to the press, say that the settlement was not connected to their coverage of the case against Dr. Lee.Related news stories from Physics Today Browne Leaves Los Alamos Directorship, Perplexed but Resigned February 2003 APS and AAAS Leaders Protest “Inhumane” Treatment of Suspected Los Alamos Spy in Jail, Awaiting Trial April 2000 Los Alamos Director Talks About Security Problems, Morale, and Recruiting Young Scientists at Lab February 2000Confronted by Clinton and Congress over security, Richardson drops objections to DOE agencyAugust 1999, page 49