A top US scientist who once worked for the Pentagon and Nasa could face execution for allegedly offering to sell secrets to Israel for $2 million (£1.2 million), according to documents filed in federal court.Stewart Nozette, 52, was due to appear in court on Thursday for a hearing on whether he should remain in detention after he was arrested in a sting operation in which an FBI agent posed as an Israeli official.
Mr Nozette, who was arrested last week, has been charged with two counts of attempted espionage for allegedly trying to sell secrets relating to US national defence to a person he believed to be an Israeli intelligence officer, according to court documents filed late on Wednesday.
"The maximum penalty the defendant faces, if convicted, is death," according to the government filing supporting Mr Nozette's continued detention pending trial.
In Mr Nozette's talks with the agent, the scientist allegedly said he wanted "roughly two million dollars as compensation for his espionage".
Mr Nozette "delivered and communicated this classified information to an individual he believed was an Israeli intelligence officer in exchange for an alias, a foreign passport, and cash payments," and therefore should remain in detention, the court documents said.
In their final discussion, the undercover FBI agent handed Mr Nozette $10,000 in cash, which he tried to hide inside a hotel bathroom toilet tank when federal agents arrested him, the documents said.
The defendant "attempted to transfer some of our nation's most guarded and sensitive secrets, to which he had been granted access when he served in positions of trust for the United States."
There is "extremely strong evidence" that Mr Nozette would flee the country if he were released pending trial, the document said.
A prominent scientist credited with helping discover water on the moon, Mr Nozette had worked at Nasa, the Energy Department, and even served on the White House's National Space Council in 1989 and 1990, under then-president George H.W. Bush. Mr Nozette stopped working for the US government in 2006.
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