Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz told
Newsmax TV on Tuesday that "nobody's doing anybody any favors" in the granting of parole to Jonathan Pollard after serving 30 years in prison for spying for Israel.
"It's a horrible scandal," Dershowitz told "Newsmax Prime" host J.D. Hayworth. "He should've been let out 25 years ago. Nobody ever who has ever pleaded guilty to spying for an ally has ever gotten double-digit sentences."
Story continues below video.
Note: Watch Newsmax TV on
DirecTV Ch. 349, DISH Ch. 223 and
Verizon FiOS Ch. 115. Get Newsmax TV on your cable system —
Click Here Now
"He had a plea bargain," he added. "He was promised that the government would not seek life imprisonment. The government broke that plea bargain, introduced an affidavit by Caspar Weinberger, saying he deserved life in imprisonment."
Weinberger was defense secretary when Pollard's activities came to light in 1985.
"He got life imprisonment," Dershowitz said. "Even for parole eligibility for life imprisonment, most people get out after 18, 20, 22 years."
"Pollard should've been released years and years and years ago — even if you believe all the worst-case scenarios about him. He is being kept in prison as a bargaining chip, and that's just not the way justice should work."
Pollard, 60, is a former U.S. Navy intelligence officer who will be released in November, a federal parole board ruled Tuesday. He has remained jailed despite efforts by successive Israeli governments to secure his early release.
He will be required to remain in the United States for
five years under the terms of his parole, his attorneys said.
Pollard's attorneys said the decision by the U.S. Parole Commission was unanimous and was "not connected to recent developments in the Middle East" — including the Tehran nuclear deal.
Ret. Army Col. Derek Harvey, former adviser to former CIA Director and retired four-star Gen. David Petraeus, told Hayworth that he agreed with Dershowitz on Pollard's cause.
However, he added that he did not believe that the parole would affect whether Israel supporters would favor Democrats in next year's presidential election.
"There was almost uniform agreement that it's not going to be a major issue," Harvey said. "They would prefer that he stayed in prison to set an example, but at the end of the day he's in poor health, he served 30 years — which I believe was his minimum — and this is a fact that the administration's lawyers did not oppose the parole.
"I'd also point out that the government has also offered Israel over $20 billion of new military assistance for a threat that they say is going away," Harvey added. "The threat is Iran. They're talking out of both sides of their mouth."
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.