Accused Spy Faces Streamlined Indictment

A federal grand jury on Thursday returned a one-count indictment against Harold Nicholson, the career CIA officer who was arrested on Saturday, charging him with conspiracy to commit espionage for Russia.

Law enforcement officials said the the indictment, which came as a mild surprise, was not an effort to bring substantive new charges against Nicholson. Rather, they said, it was a tactical step designed to streamline the prosecution of the accused spy.

Nicholson’s lawyer has said that the CIA officer will plead not guilty to the charges and will present a vigorous defense. If convicted, he faces a sentence of life in prison without parole.

Nicholson, a 16-year veteran who was a branch chief in the CIA’s counterterrorism center, has been in custody since he was arrested on Saturday afternoon outside Washington. At that time he was charged with spying in a criminal complaint signed by a magistrate.

The indictment, returned by a federal grand jury in Alexandria, Va., is designed to make it easier for prosecutors to concentrate on building their main case against Nicholson without devoting as much effort to early skirmishes.

For instance, the indictment may enable prosecutors to avoid a preliminary hearing, which had already been scheduled for next week, in which they would be required to foreshadow their case.

Officials said it was likely that prosecutors would return to the grand jury in coming weeks to seek a broader espionage indictment against Nicholson.

Nicholson is accused of selling the Russians a large volume of classified material, including the identities of newly trained agents, in return for $120,000.

The case was uncovered by FBI and CIA counterintelligence officials, who based their case on intensive physical and electronic surveillance after Nicholson had given deceptive answers on polygraph exams, taken trips unrelated to his work and had unexplained income.