Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/government-media-settle-with-scientist-over-privacy-lawsuit Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript A nuclear scientist accused of spying has settled with media firms and the federal government. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. JEFFREY BROWN, NewsHour Correspondent: Wen Ho Lee, the former nuclear weapons scientist once suspected of being a spy, settled his 6.5-year-old privacy lawsuit Friday, and will receive $1.6 million — from the government and from five news organizations — in a very unusual agreement.Lee had accused the Energy and Justice Departments of violating his privacy rights by leaking information that he was under investigation as a spy for China.Lee was fired from his job at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, but never charged with espionage. He was held in solitary confinement for nine months, then released in 2000, after pleading guilty to mishandling computer files.His lawsuit against the government had turned into a fight over a reporter's use of confidential sources.The Associate Press, the "New York Times," the "Los Angeles Times," the "Washington Post" and ABC News agreed to pay Lee $750,000 as part of the settlement, ending contempt of court proceedings against their reporters, who had refused to disclose the sources of their stories about the espionage investigation.And we get more on this case and the issues raised from Bruce Sanford, an attorney in private practice, who specializes in First Amendment media cases. He's not involved with any parties in the Wen Ho Lee case.Welcome to you. BRUCE SANFORD, First Amendment Attorney: Thank you. JEFFREY BROWN: This, as we said, was a case against the government. Why did reporters become so important? BRUCE SANFORD: Jeff, reporters got embroiled in this case when Wen Ho Lee tried to subpoena them in order to find out who had leaked information to them from the government about him and about the investigation against him. JEFFREY BROWN: And what was he trying to get from them that would help in his case? BRUCE SANFORD: Well, he was filing a Privacy Act claim against the government, which essentially says, the government has improperly disclosed information about me, or about the investigation against me.Linda Tripp, you'll remember, in the Monica Lewinsky scandal, also filed a Privacy Act claim against the government a few years back, and that case was settled.So, Privacy Act claims usually are filed by government employees against the government, trying to find out who leaked information about them.