Appeal Is Delayed Because Transcripts Might Contain Secrets

The dilemma facing Ford and Hecht is unusual but not unprecedented, said Steve M. Dettelbach, a white-collar criminal defense lawyer in the Washington office of the national firm Baker Hostetler. Before going into the private sector, Dettelbach was counsel to Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) on the Senate Judiciary Committee and was an assistant U.S. attorney in Maryland; he left that post in 2001.

"Judges and prosecutors and defense attorneys are left with the system Congress has set up to balance the competing interests of individual liberty and national security," Dettelbach said. "The very nature of this prosecution is a great illustration of that balancing."

Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said federal prosecutors who work on counterespionage cases report that prosecutions involving unlawful possession or dissemination of classified documents have increased since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Boyd said no statistics on such prosecutions were available.

"We are seeing increased cases in which classified materials are being mishandled, distributed or possessed unlawfully. We are hoping prosecuting these cases will have a deterrent effect. We're probably more vigilant as well," Boyd said.

Ford, a former uniformed Secret Service officer, worked as a computer expert at the NSA from summer 2001 until early 2004. According to evidence presented by federal prosecutors at Ford's trial, FBI agents -- acting on a tip from a woman who once dated Ford -- raided his Waldorf home and found two cardboard boxes containing classified information.

FBI agents also found classified material in a safe in Ford's bedroom, according to trial testimony.

Hecht argued to jurors that it would have been impossible for Ford to take home classified documents without the proper authority to do so, and that he did not take the documents home. Hecht suggested that a woman who Ford once dated was connected to the NSA and had planted the documents, without his client's knowledge, in Ford's home.

Prosecutors never alleged that Ford tried to sell or give the documents to anyone.

Messitte and the jurors were allowed to view some of the classified material, but none was disclosed in open court or in court papers. Jurors were required to take an oath that they would not disclose the material they viewed, and Hecht was required to obtain top-secret security clearance.

NSA staff members attended the trial and scooped up classified documents at the end of each court day.