Posted on 11/24/2015 5:40:07 PM PST by markomalley
A former National Security Agency employee convicted of selling defense and communication secrets he gained during his career has been released from federal custody 30 years after his arrest.
The sentence for Cold War-era spy Ronald Pelton, 74, ended on Tuesday. He had been placed on home confinement several months ago to serve out the final stretch of his sentence and was released Tuesday from the custody of the Bureau of Prisons, agency spokesman Ed Ross said.
Pelton, a former NSA intelligence communications specialist, was arrested in November 1985 on charges of selling information to the Soviets about signals intelligence between 1980 and 1985 for $35,000 plus expenses. Prosecutors have said a Soviet KGB agent who defected and later returned to Moscow tipped investigators to Pelton.
(Excerpt) Read more at stripes.com ...
since the Soviet Union is no more this guy could work for the Communist Obama regime. He’ll fit right in
He should have been pushing up daisies the day after his conviction.
Makes me wonder; do we no longer have ropes and lampposts in the USA?
I have to ask; How do you complete a prison sentence for selling your country out ? Isn’t this disease more or less permanent ?
Damn I feel old. I remember when this guy was arrested. He's actually completed a 30 year sentence since then.
First Pollard, now Pelton?
Will Obama open all the prisons before he’s done?
35G’s plus expenses seems cheap in terms of selling out even in 80s money.
I don’t think this is a case of Obama issuing pardons. These guys served out their prison sentences.
Pelton was tried and convicted of espionage in 1986 and sentenced to three concurrent life sentences and a fine. If they had wanted to keep him in prison, they could have. The decision was made to let the guy walk out.
Pollard was given a full life sentence. In 2015, they decided to parole him. Again, if they wanted to keep him in, they could have. The decision was made to let the guy walk out. The Justice Dept had a chance to appeal the parole, and they did not.
I stand corrected. I mistakenly thought they served their full sentences.
I guess this means he won’t be getting clearance back.
//sarc
We are told that death penalties are not necessary because people don’t walk away from life imprisonment.
Those same harpies also don’t acknowledge that those imprisoned “without parole” will still fight the conviction as those who’ve been sentenced to death will do.
Why couldn’t they shoot him? Isn’t that what we used to do with spies?
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