LETTER TO THE HONORABLE BENJAMIN A. GILMAN FROM WILLIAM J. CASEY REGARDING UNITED STATES V. FALVEY ET AL.

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP83M00914R002100160005-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 21, 2007
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: December 2, 1982
• Content Type: LETTER

For Release 2007/03/03: CIA=RDP83
26 Nov 1982
Jim, ER
John McMahon signed off
on these letters this morning
before copies were made. These
are your copies.
Michelle
 Approved For Release 2007/03/03: CIA-RDP83M00914R002100160005-1
Central Intelligence Agency
Wj hingmDC2Q5OS
OEXA 82-2630/b
2 DECI
Honorable Benjamin A. Gilman
House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515
Dear Mr. Gilman:
this is in response to your letter of 12 November 1982 expressing
concern over the recent acquittal of five individuals indicted for running
guns to Northern Ireland in United States v. Falvey et al. The five individuals
spuriously claimed in their defense that they were somehow acting for the
Central intelligence Agency.
I can assure you that the defendants' claims in this case of CIA
complicity with their activities were utterly untrue. As you know, in
preparation for this trial the CIA, at the request of the Justice Department,
conducted an exhaustive search of its records, which reflected absolutely no
CIA involvement of any kind with the alleged criminal activities of the
defendants. A CIA witness presented these facts in sworn testimony at trial
and sworn certificates of no record were entered into evidence. According
to press accounts, at least a few members of the jury were not persuaded
that CIA had absolutely nothing to do with the case.
We too are concerned that miscarriages of justice can result from
spurious claims by criminal defendants that they were secretly working for
the CIA at. the time of their. alleged criminal' activity. In this regard, you
may be interested to know that we have been considering ways to ameliorate
this problem, and that earlier this year we formulated a legislative
proposal to amend the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure to require defendants
to give pretrial notice to the government if they intend to claim that they
were acting on behalf of a federal instrumentality at the time of the
alleged crL e. This would give the government the opportunity to conduct
records searches and to prepare witnesses to rebut effectively any spurious
defense claim that the defendant was carrying out some secret mission. As
you know, pretrial notification requirements of this kind already exist for
the defenses of alibi and insanity. our proposal currently is being examined
by the Department of Justice.
We appreciate very much your interest in this matter. I hope that we
can find a solution to the problem of false claims by criminal defendants of
secret CIA involvement in their activities. Ultimately, of course, we must
rely on the inherent institutional strengths of the criminal justice system.
Sincerely,
&d. `pjskn ut J. . C
SO
William J. Casey
Director of Central Intelligence
7
roved For Release 2007/03103: CIA-R DP83M0091.4R002100 60005-1
 Approved For Release 2007/03/03: CIA-RDP83M00914R002100160005-1
Distribution:
Original - Addressee
1 - DCI
1 - DDCI
1 - EXDIR
1 - ER (82-13030)
1 - DDO
3 - OGC (Spork.in,
1 - C/PAD
1 - D/OEXA
1 - DD/OEXA
1 - OEXA Record
1 - OEXA Chrono
OGC:DSA:mw (24 Nov 1982)