'We're not like, against the Russians, are we?'
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The son of convicted ex-CIA spy Harold Nicholson claims he was "just the messenger" when he traveled around the world taking cash from his father's former Russian handlers, according to taped phone conversations the government played in court on Tuesday.
Harold Nicholson is serving his sentence at the federal prison in Sheridan, just south of Portland, to be close to his family, including his elderly parents, who live in Eugene.
At a hearing, federal prosecutors played recordings of Nathaniel Nicholson, a Lane Community College student and Harold Nicholson's youngest son, talking to relatives and friends on the phone, telling them the FBI had interviewed him but he had done nothing wrong and did not expect to go to prison.
At one point, an unidentified friend says Russians "have cool accents" and asks, "We're not like, against the Russians, are we?"
Nicholson and his father have pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiring to act as agents of a foreign government and money laundering after the younger man traveled to Mexico, Peru and Cyprus on behalf — prosecutors say — of his father.
Harold James "Jim" Nicholson was one of the youngest CIA officers to rise to station chief in the early 1990s. The Army veteran also trained CIA recruits.
The elder Nicholson was sentenced to more than 23 years in prison after pleading guilty in 1997 to conspiring to commit espionage, being paid $300,000 to pass CIA secrets to the Russians, including the identities of other CIA officers and recruits he had trained.
Harold Nicholson is accused of tapping his old contacts for more money by sending his youngest son to San Francisco, to Mexico City, to Lima, Peru, and to Nicosia, Cyprus, between October 2006 and December 2008.
Nicholson's former handlers were trying to find out how he had gotten caught and how much U.S. agencies had learned about Russian spying, investigators said when he was indicted in January.
On the recordings, Nathaniel Nicholson describes taking more than $45,000 from Russian officials, but he repeatedly says he does not believe he has done anything wrong.
He also tells his sister, Astralena, nicknamed "Star," that he passed along some of the money to her and their older brother, Jeremiah.
"Dude, I never thanked you for the money," she says. "I thought it was from daddy."
In the taped conversation, Nathaniel Nicholson also says he lied to his sister to protect her. He says he took messages to the Russians on tissue paper he smuggled out of prison visits with his father.
"You don't have to worry about anything on your part or anything like that 'cause you guys, you know, haven't done anything," he tells her.
When she asks him whether he has become a "snitch" against their father, Nathaniel Nicholson tells her, "I didn't even know what the information was," adding that "it was nothing illegal or anything like that."
Transcripts of other recorded conversations with his sister and with their brother were released in addition to the recordings played in court Tuesday for U.S. District Judge Anna Brown.
FBI Special Agent John Cooney testified that he and fellow Special Agent Jared Garth interviewed Nathaniel Nicholson at his apartment on Dec. 15, 2008, and questioned him about his travels.
Cooney said he repeatedly warned the younger Nicholson that it was a crime to lie to federal agents and that his account of his travels conflicted with evidence obtained during the investigation.
"Essentially he had lied to you up to that point, and you gave him a chance to come clean?" Assistant U.S. Attorney Pamala Holsinger asked Cooney.
"Yes," Cooney replied, saying he used the analogy of a "mulligan," or a "do-over," golf shot.
Cooney said that Nathaniel Nicholson eventually changed his story and signed a detailed statement, but he was not arrested until Jan. 28.
(Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.)
