Wen Ho Lee Freed Following Plea Agreement; Judge Blasts Government's Handling of Case
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Yard work and fishing replaced solitary confinement for Wen Ho Lee, but part of the deal that set the scientist free puts him back in the hot seat in less than two weeks. Lee must tell the U.S. attorney what happened to tapes containing sensitive information on nuclear weapons. But for now a sigh of relief. CNN's Tony Clark is in New Mexico this morning -- Tony.</s>TONY CLARK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. This is Wen Ho Lee's first full day of freedom since his arrest last December. Last night, there was a big party -- welcome home party on his block, and today and in the days ahead he says he wants to go fishing in.</s>WEN HOW LEE, FMR. LOS ALAMOS SCIENTIST: I want to say thank you to everybody who supported me, and I want to say thank you to all the neighbors. They supported me so much and they make me very strong when I was in jail, and I really appreciate everybody.</s>CLARK: Flags and signs decorated the homes on Lee's block. Next-door neighbors Don and Gene Marshall (ph) threw a backyard party in his honor.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody wanted to say Wen Ho, there our people that support you, you know, there are people that, you know, want to welcome you back and, you know, we're glad to have you back.</s>CLARK: In court, the 60-year-old former Los Alamos mechanical engineer pleaded guilty to one count of illegally possessing documents and writings relating to national defense. In exchange for his plea and agreement to cooperate, prosecutors dropped the 58 other counts against Lee.</s>GEORGE STAMBOULIDAS, ASST. U.S. ATTORNEY: Justice is the winner today. This was a fair disposition, a favorable disposition for the government, a fair disposition for Dr. Lee and for the nation who can rest assured that their national security interests have been vindicated and are being well-pursed.</s>CLARK: But Judge James Parker, in a blistering statement from the bench, said he was led astray by the Department of Justice into ordering Lee held in solitary confinement. Parker said Justice and Energy Department officials have embarrassed him and the nation, adding: "I apologize for the unfair manner in which you were held." Dr. Lee's son Chung was on the front row of the courtroom.</s>CHUNG LEE, WEN HO LEE'S SON: It was thrilling. And at the same time, it was very -- I became very sad because I thought about the past year, about my dad being shackled and in solitary confinement. It was very, very rewarding to hear Judge Parker say that.</s>CLARK: Rewarding as well for Wen Ho Lee who returned home to the warm welcome of his friends.</s>WEN HO LEE: The less nine-months have been a little tough for me...</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're not kidding.</s>WEN HO LEE: ... but I think I'll survive, you know.</s>CLARK: The agreement does restrict what Wen Ho Lee can do in terms of the lawsuit against the government. It restricts his ability to seek restitution for the nine months he was there for the 58 charges that were dropped against him. There is still the opportunity and the plan for him to sue the government in a private civil suit over the way he was treated -- Carol.</s>LIN: All right, Tony. Well obviously this didn't go exactly the way prosecutors had hoped. Can you talk about any more fallout from the case?</s>CLARK: Well, the judge was very -- gave a blistering attack of the way this was handled. You know, he said the testimony that he received last December when he put Wen Ho Lee in solitary confinement changed again. He was embarrassed by that. And he said he had seen some documents that the defense would never see that will never come to light, and seemed to give some indication that he may have even been willing to drop some of the charges against Wen Ho Lee. It just seems, from the start, the prosecution's case was presented as much tougher than, as time went by, it ended up being.</s>LIN: All right, thank you very much, Tony Clark.