Wen Ho Lee Supporters File Pardon Petition
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Supporters of a Los Alamos scientist who was prosecuted for making copies of sensitive nuclear weapons data have gathered 15,000 signatures seeking a presidential pardon.
The petition was sent to President Bush on July 2 on behalf of Wen Ho Lee and was to be sent Friday to the Justice Department.
That's according to Cecilia Chang of Fremont, California, who launched the petition drive.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Almost 10,0000 signatures were gathered in the last few days of June. The first couple of years saw less than 6,000 collected.
Lee, a Taiwanese-born naturalized U-S citizen, issued a recorded statement in Mandarin Chinese thanking his supporters.
The signatures went to Bush with a cover letter saying Lee was the only American ever charged with felonies for alleged security violations without evidence of classified information being transferred to someone unauthorized.