A disgruntled former CIA operative accused of dishing confidential documents to a New York Times reporter likely could spill more government secrets if not kept locked up pending his trial, the Justice Department warned in a court filing that casts the ex-operative as untrustworthy and dangerous.
The newly unsealed detention request underscores the federal government's unease about Jeffrey Sterling, claiming his "underlying selfish and vindictive motivations'' could spur him to disclose more government secrets now that he faces a 10-count indictment in Virginia.
"The cost to national security and the danger posed to lives of certain individuals is simply too high not to require the defendant's detention in this matter,'' according to the filing, which was unsealed late Monday.
Given the criminal charges, "it is incomprehensible to believe that [Sterling] will not retaliate in the same deliberate, methodical, vindictive manner,'' said the filing.
"The threat of continued criminal activity by this defendant requires his detention.''
Federal prosecutors had filed the motion in advance of Sterling's detention hearing on Monday in St. Louis, where he was arrested last week before the Dec. 22 indictment was made public. During the four-minute hearing, Sterling agreed to be returned to Virginia as soon as it's medically safe to fly with his recently surgically replaced knee.
A magistrate judge ordered Sterling to remain held without bond pending a full detention hearing once federal marshals escort him back to Virginia, where the Justice Department likely will renew its assertion that Sterling stay behind bars until tried.
Sterling's attorney said Tuesday that he would push for his client's pre-trial release on bond, insisting his client — fired by the CIA in 2002 after a stormy relationship with the agency — "is no threat to the community.''
"If he was such a danger in the last 10 years, they could have charged him with something'' before last month, said Edward MacMahon Jr.
Sterling, 43, is scheduled to be arraigned Friday in Virginia, though his whereabouts Tuesday were unclear. MacMahon said he was unaware whether Sterling had been extradited, and the U.S. Marshals Service keeps details of prisoner transfers hushed, citing security concerns.
Between the time Sterling joined the CIA in 1993 and when he was fired in 2002, Sterling worked on the agency's Iran Task Force as an operations officer, handling a human asset while involved in a clandestine program meant to prevent countries from obtaining nuclear weapons.
The indictment did not say specifically what information was leaked, but the dates and other details indicate the case centered on suspected leaks to James Risen, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The New York Times. His 2006 book State of War revealed details about the CIA's covert spy war with Iran. The book details how the CIA used a Russian scientist to try to deceive the Iranians but the plan apparently backfired. Prosecutors claim Sterling provided the author with false and misleading information.
MacMahon has refused to discuss whether Sterling was a source. Risen did not cooperate with investigators nor testify.
The leaks, according to the U.S. government's detention motion, came despite Sterling's numerous agreements in writing not to disclose classified information, knowing that doing so was illegal.
Sterling, who is black, claimed in a 2002 lawsuit against the CIA that his white supervisors racially discriminated against him for much of his career and blocked key assignments that would have allowed him to advance within the agency. Trained to recruit Iranians as spies, Sterling said he was fired after refusing an assignment. The CIA denied race was a factor in his dismissal, and a federal judge dismissed the case on grounds that the litigation would require disclosure of highly classified information.
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