The son of a disgraced CIA agent convicted of funneling classified information to the Russians has pleaded guilty to charges of helping his imprisoned father collect overdue bills for his dad’s nefarious activities.
The 25-year-old son, Nathaniel James Nicholson of Eugene, Oregon, traveled throughout the world using coded e-mail messages to plot meeting locations with the Russians, and received tens of thousands of dollars on behalf of his convicted spy father, Harold James Nicholson, according to a January indictment. (.pdf)
The younger Nicholson faces up to 25 years in prison. But in exchange for leniency up to a sentence of probation, the son has agreed to testify against his father if there is a trial. The younger Nicholson pleaded guilty late Thursday to conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign nation and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
"Nathaniel Nicholson acknowledged his role in the ongoing conspiracy with his father to collect money from the Russian Federation for his father's past espionage activity," acting U.S. Attorney Kent S. Robinson said in a statement.
The father, nicknamed "Batman," is already serving 23 years after pleading guilty more than a decade ago to furnishing the Russians "documents, photographic negatives and information relating to the national defense of the United States, with the intent and reason to believe that the same would be used to the injury of the United States and to the advantage of the Russian Federation," according to an FBI affidavit (.pdf). As part of the agent’s plea deal, he admitted that, during his 16-year tenure, he received $300,000 from the Russian Federation for supplying the identity of CIA operatives in Moscow, including their code names.
At the time of his 1997 conviction, he was the highest-ranking CIA officer convicted of spying. He faces life in prison under the latest charges.
In 2006, according to court records and the FBI, the father enlisted his son, the youngest of three children, to collect his unpaid bills from the Russians. The son flew from Portland, Oregon, to numerous destinations, including San Francisco, Mexico City, Peru and Cyprus — bringing back tens of thousands of dollars in greenbacks. The money was dispersed to family members, according to court documents.
At one point, according to the authorities, the son returned to the United States from Peru in possession of a small notebook containing "clandestine communication instructions" on how to communicate in code via an internet e-mail account about future meetings with the Russians.
The authorities became suspicious after an inmate at the federal penitentiary in Sheridan, Oregon, tipped them the convicted CIA agent was trying to contact the Russians. The authorities began to eavesdrop on the son’s mobile phone, internet searches and e-mail, court records show. The son often visited his father in prison, the records say.
Photo: pmtorrone
