December 20, 1999 Press Release

THE FAMILY OF DR. WEN HO LEE ANNOUNCES FILING OF PRIVACY ACT LAWSUIT AGAINST THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, THE FBI AND THE DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

The family of Dr. Wen Ho Lee announced that a lawsuit was filed today in federal court in Washington, D.C. by Dr. Lee and his wife Sylvia against the Department of Justice (DOJ), the FBI and the Department of Energy (DOE) alleging violations of the Privacy Act of 1974.  The Privacy Act makes it illegal for government agencies to willfully or intentionally disclose confidential and personal information in their possession.

According to the Privacy Act, each unauthorized disclosure made by a government agency, or one of its officers or employees, constitutes a separate violation subject to criminal conviction and monetary sanctions.

The Complaint states that the suit seeks to make the DOJ, FBI and DOE and their employees accountable for a pattern of repeated Privacy Act violations. According to the Complaint, beginning in at least as early as 1999 and continuing to the present, the defendant agencies made numerous intentional and unauthorized disclosures about Dr. Lee and his wife to the media and third parties without their consent.  Moreover, the Complaint states the defendant agencies ignored repeated requests by Dr. Lee's counsel that they stop these unauthorized disclosures, and instead, continued to willfully and intentionally violate the Privacy Act over the objections of Dr. Lee and his wife.

According to the Complaint, the selective leaks of private information focused media attention away from findings of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board and certain congressional committees, among others, that the DOE had "the worst security record on secrecy" that the Board had ever encountered. In addition, the Complaint alleges that the unauthorized disclosures directed media attention away from allegations that the FBI had failed to detect the possible theft of classified nuclear weapons secrets from the nation's nuclear laboratories.

In addition, the Complaint alleges that these unauthorized disclosures caused the Lees to be unfairly and inaccurately portrayed by the media as spies for the People's Republic of China (PRC). The Complaint also cites press reports that internal FBI memos generated in late 1998 and early 1999 concluded that "it appears" that Dr. Lee was not responsible for providing the PRC with sensitive nuclear weapons secrets. Dr. Lee and his wife Sylvia are represented by the Santa Monica, California law firm of O'Neill, Lysaght & Sun and the Washington, D.C. office of Sidley & Austin. Anyone seeking further information or details regarding this suit may contact Brian Sun at 310-899-3324.