LOU WATERS, CNN ANCHOR: Our breaking story of the hour is a deal struck in the U.S. court in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which will eventually free this man, Wen Ho Lee, who originally was charged with 59 counts of violating nuclear security. He is now charged with one felony count of mishandling classified data and has been sentenced by a judge to 278 days, one day less than he already has served in solitary confinement. Now, under this deal, prosecutors all but abandoned their crumbling case. For months they had been describing Lee as a threat to national security. In court, Lee read a statement in which he admitted using an insecure computer to download a document relating to national defense on to a tape. He said he knew his possession of the tape outside of the top-secret area where he worked was unauthorized. Lee said he kept the tape. Now the Lee forces will work with prosecutors to get to the bottom of the nuclear secrets download, what happened to the tape, where are the nuclear secrets. We are expecting to hear more about the case. Still many questions to be answered. Prosecutors and defense attorneys are expected to step outside of the courthouse in Albuquerque momentarily. We will have live coverage of that when that happens.
Wen Ho Lee to Plead Guilty to One Felony Count of Mishandling Classified Data, Set Free