U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee reportedly held a quiet, off-the-books meeting in July with convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard at the American Embassy in Jerusalem.
The off-the-books meeting startled officials in Washington and inside the U.S. intelligence community, who viewed the encounter as an extraordinary breach of long-standing boundaries, The New York Times reported. According to three U.S. officials familiar with the matter, the CIA station chief in Israel raised alarm after learning Huckabee and his senior adviser David Milstein brought Pollard into a secure American facility for what Pollard described as a “friendly” conversation.
Pollard told the NYT it was the first time in 10 years that any U.S. official had hosted him inside an American government office. He confirmed the meeting only after the newspaper approached him.
The White House was not notified in advance, according to one senior official and two people briefed on the meeting. Those officials said West Wing aides reacted with shock when they learned Huckabee invited one of the most infamous spies of the Cold War into the embassy. The State Department did not say whether anyone approved the meeting.
The White House did not know that U.S. Ambassador Huckabee met with Pollard, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday. Leavitt told reporters the administration had no advance notice of the meeting but said “the president stands by our ambassador, Mike Huckabee, and all that he is doing for the United States and Israel.”
Pollard, now 71, served 30 years in federal prison for passing stacks of classified material to Israel between 1984 and 1985 — documents so voluminous that then-Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger wrote they could fill a space 6 feet by 6 feet by 10 feet. Weinberger said Pollard’s leaks compromised sensitive intelligence sources and endangered U.S. forces around the world.
Pollard moved to Israel five years after his 2015 parole, after the Trump administration declined to extend his travel restrictions. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed him at the airport as a national hero. Pollard has since embraced hardline politics, repeatedly urging Israel to extend its sovereignty over Gaza.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Gage Skidmore/Creative Commons/Flickr)
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