The Justice Department is nearing a final decision on whether to bring criminal charges against a U.S. weapons lab scientist fired in March for security violations, CNN has learned. Attorneys for Wen Ho Lee will meet with government officials Tuesday to defend Lee against allegations he spied for China. The Taiwan-born computer scientist has not been charged with a crime and has denied providing secrets to China or anyone else.
China also denies the espionage allegation.
Lee was fired from his job at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, accused of downloading nuclear codes from a secure database to his own non-secure computer. But former federal prosecutor George Terwilliger believes the government should proceed against Lee. If Lee is charged, it probably won't be for espionage, but for gross negligence in handling classified information. According to law enforcement sources, that lesser charge is likely because Justice Department officials do not yet have direct evidence of Lee passing classified material to anyone. And there's no evidence of any payoffs.