United States v. Clegg

846 F.2d 1221 (9th Cir. 1988)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Clegg (D) taught at an American school in Islamabad. D claims individuals from various agencies of our government, solicited, encouraged and assisted his efforts to supply weapons to Afghan rebels resisting Soviet occupation of their country. With this official stamp of approval, D smuggled arms through Pakistan to the Afghan rebels. He was arrested in Pakistan. United States marshals escorted him back to this country. Clegg (D) was charged with exporting firearms in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(a)(1) (1982) and 22 U.S.C. § 2778(b)(2), (c) (1982). D seeks to prove that he acted in reasonable good-faith reliance on statements of United States officials that led him to believe he was lawfully transporting guns. D requested the government to produce documents that allegedly contained information of his activities. The government opposed the motion as it was not relevant and would likely be subject to the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA), 18 U.S.C. App. III, §§ 1-16 (1982). After in camera inspection, the district court ruled the classified documents were material and discoverable and that proposed alternative materials were deficient and unacceptable. The 9th Circuit affirmed the district court's ruling. United States v. Clegg, 740 F.2d 16, 18 (9th Cir. 1984). On remand, D gave notice pursuant to section 5 of CIPA of his intention to disclose at trial certain classified information. After an in camera hearing, the district court ruled that all unclassified and classified information relevant to D's defense was admissible at trial. The district court decided that certain classified information was relevant and admissible to D's proposed defense based on good-faith reasonable reliance on the apparent authority of government officials. P appealed that ruling.