Monday, December 12, 2005

False Statements—Guilty Plea

Former senior State Department official Donald Keyser has pleaded guilty to making false statements about a trip to Taiwan and a relationship with a Taiwanese intelligence officer.[1] Mr. Keyser has also pleaded guilty to illegally removing classified documents, including some classified at the “top secret” level, from the State Department to his home.[2]

Mr. Keyser was the former principal deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, and the false statement charges stem from a few, specific incidents.[3] He never disclosed that, from 2002 until September of 2004, he had a personal relationship with Isabelle Cheng, an officer with Taiwan’s National Intelligence Bureau in Washington.[4] According to court documents, Mr. Keyser regularly met with Ms. Cheng, and occasionally traveled with her, including a trip to Taiwan in September of 2003.[5] He also made false statements when he returned from Taiwan in 2003; he did not include the island on a Customs form which requires a list of the countries a person has visited.[6] Finally, during a security investigation in 2004, Mr. Keyser “falsely claimed that he had not engaged in conduct which may make him vulnerable to coercion, exploitation, or pressure from a foreign government when, in fact, he had done so.”[7]

There are scant details about what was contained in the documents, but it seems that “FBI agents monitored [Mr.] Keyser in the summer of 2004 and found that he frequently met with [Ms.] Cheng and her boss at … Washington-area restaurants, where they would exchange papers.”[8]

Making false statements is a covered by (a)(2), which makes it a crime for a person, “in any matter within the jurisdiction of the executive” branch of the US government, to knowingly and willfully make any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation. The punishment for violating this section 1001(a) is a fine, imprisonment for up to 5 years, or both.

Illegally removing classified documents is a federal crime covered by (f)(1), which makes it a crime for a person who has been entrusted with having certain documents relating to the national defense, to permit the documents to be removed from their proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of his trust, through gross negligence. The punishment for a violation of section 793(f) is a fine, imprisonment for up to ten years, or both.

Mr. Keyser’s sentencing is scheduled for February 24, 2006.[9]


[1] , Reuters, Dec. 12, 2005.
[2] Id.
[3] Id.
[4] Id.
[5] Id.
[6] Id.
[7] Id.
[8] Matthew Barakat, , Associated Press, Dec. 12, 2005.
[9] Id.

posted by McNabb Associates, P.C. @ 4:43 PM