Clinton 'Troubled' by Wen Ho Lee Case

ByABC News
September 14, 2000, 3:46 AM

Sept. 15 -- Hours after Attorney General Janet Reno refused to apologize for the governments handling of the Wen Ho Lee case, President Clinton said Thursday he was quite troubled by prosecutors treatment of the former Los Alamos scientist.

I think that its very difficult to reconcile the two positions, that one day hes a terrible risk to the national security and the next day [prosecutors are] making a plea agreement for an offense far more modest than what had been alleged, the president said.

I dont think that you can justify, in retrospect, keeping a person in jail without bail when youre prepared to make that kind of agreement. It just cant be justified, Clinton said, adding that hes been troubled by the case for some time.