By
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Lawyers for Robert Philip Hanssen complained to Attorney General John Ashcroft that he violated federal guidelines when he responded to questions about seeking the death penalty against Hanssen, a former FBI agent accused of spying for Moscow.
Plato Cacheris, who is representing Hanssen, told Ashcroft that his comments during a news conference Tuesday were "inappropriate" and violated Justice Department guidelines barring federal prosecutors from threatening to seek the death penalty in plea bargain negotiations.
The government has already indicated in court filings in the case against Hanssen, who is charged with espionage, that he could face the death penalty or life in prison. Asked in the news conference whether the Justice Department had decided whether to seek the death penalty, Ashcroft said he didn't want to discuss specific cases.
But he went on to say that in cases involving national security the government would have to look at what is the appropriate sentence given the severity of the crime and the need to get information from the defendant.
"We would also take very seriously the need or opportunity to ascertain things important for us to know about the nature of what happened that might be available to us in the context of a plea bargain," Ashcroft said.
Cacheris said rules in the U.S. Attorneys manual about plea bargains state, "The death penalty may not be sought, and no attorney for the government may threaten to seek it, for the purpose of obtaining a more desirable negotiating position."
"Your public comments are not appropriate, especially in a context where Mr. Hanssen has not been indicted and counsel have received no notice of the Department's intention to seek the death penalty," Cacheris said in a letter to Ashcroft Wednesday.
Mindy Tucker, Ashcroft's spokeswoman, said the attorney general was speaking about the death penalty in general, not specifically about the Hanssen case. She said Ashcroft would respond to Cacheris in writing.
Hanssen was arrested March 18 at a Virginia park where he had left a package containing intelligence documents, allegedly for his Russian handlers.
The FBI has accused Hanssen, 56, a 25-year veteran agent and the father of six, with passing along to Soviet and later Russian agents 6,000 pages of documents on secret programs that described how the U.S. gathers intelligence, technologies used for listening, people who work as double agents and other highly sensitive matters. The government alleges that Hanssen's activities began in 1985 and continued until he was arrested.
Cacheris has said Hanssen will plead innocent.
