On Dec. 23, 2010, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee filed a 53-page motion [.pdf] asking Judge Eric Christian to sanction former employee Steven J. Rosen over the illicit possession and release of sensitive internal AIPAC documents. Rosen’s $20 million defamation suit against his former employer seeks compensation for derogatory public statements AIPAC made to justify firing him after he was indicted under the Espionage Act in 2005 and their joint defense agreement collapsed.
AIPAC is determined to treat the Rosen defamation lawsuit as that of a “disgruntled former employee” while dodging more relevant questions about its own handling of government classified information. Rosen has continually introduced highly sensitive AIPAC documents into court filings while threatening to put more about AIPAC’s most sensitive operations into the public domain. On April 30, 2010, both parties to the suit entered into a comprehensive protective order [.pdf] that permitted plaintiff Rosen and the defendant to “classify” documents and depositions as “confidential” and “attorney’s eyes only.” But as early as May 14, 2010 [.pdf], AIPAC’s legal team began asking Rosen to return a cache of “confidential, privileged, and proprietary documents that belong to AIPAC.” Their protests and threats [.pdf] of additional legal actions have never ceased.
Proprietary documents AIPAC claims Rosen has in his possession include AIPAC’s benefits and personnel policy handbook, AIPAC’s bylaws [.pdf] (already released by Rosen), a memorandum of an AIPAC luncheon with National Security Council member Lisa Johnson, an internal memo about how limits on individual contributors would affect U.S. political campaigns, another internal memo about the individual political activities of AIPAC members, and Keith Weissman’s employee performance review. Johnson worked in the Bush 43 NSC Near East and South Asian Affairs division [.doc] under Bruce Ridell and Zalmay Khalilzad. Former AIPAC employee Keith Weissman was indicted for espionage alongside Rosen in 2005. AIPAC claims, “Most offensive is that Mr. Rosen has stolen the private employment evaluation of another employee and produced it in this litigation with no regard for that employee’s privacy and personal information.”
