CIA VETERAN TO CONTEST CHARGES IN SPY CASE.

Byline: Associated Press 

CIA officer Harold J. Nicholson will plead not guilty to charges of selling U.S. secrets to Russia, his attorney said Wednesday as he won additional court-appointed legal help to fight the accusation.

``We will be pleading not guilty and we intend to fight the charges vigorously,'' Nicholson's attorney, Jonathan Shapiro, said in interviews before and after a court hearing in suburban Alexandria, Va.

At Shapiro's request, U.S. Magistrate Thomas R. Jones Jr. agreed to appoint another attorney later this week to help with the defense. Shapiro, appointed Monday, is a veteran criminal lawyer but has only two lawyers in his firm and never has tried a spy case before.

Wearing a tan-and-blue jump suit stenciled ``Alexandria Jail,'' the bearded 46-year-old onetime CIA station chief sat silent during the 20-minute session as his attorney raised a series of issues with mixed success.

Shapiro complained about government publicity for the case, indicated he would seek bail for Nicholson at a preliminary hearing Monday and sought government evidence that he contended could refute government statements about Nicholson's failure of polygraph tests and unauthorized interest in Russia's Chechnya region.

A defiant stance is common for criminal defense attorneys at this stage but doesn't preclude a later effort to negotiate a guilty plea. Lawyers for the CIA's most damaging turncoat, Aldrich Ames, challenged the government at every pretrial court session, but ultimately Ames pleaded guilty in 1994 and accepted a life sentence in return for leniency for his wife.

Citing public statements by government officials trumpeting their case against the 16-year CIA veteran, Shapiro said, ``I don't think that's fair at all. It hurts our chance for a fair trial.'' Jones told him to submit a motion for a gag order.

Hours before the hearing, in a joint appearance on CNN with CIA Director John Deutch, FBI Director Louis J. Freeh was asked whether he was confident the government had a strong case. Freeh replied, ``Yes, we are.''

The judge said Shapiro could file a proposed budget for defense investigators. He declined, however, to guarantee that the government also would pay for family witnesses to travel from Oregon to testify in Nicholson's bid for bail Monday.

Shapiro asked to subpoena a tape recording of a CIA polygraph test of Nicholson and an unnamed CIA employee who worked with Nicholson as a trainer of CIA recruits.

``This evidence will refute some allegations in the FBI affidavit,'' Shapiro said. But he dropped his request for the time being after Assistant U.S. Attorney Rob Chesnut said the government would not raise either issue Monday in trying to show probable cause to have the case sent to a grand jury and in trying to deny bail.

An FBI affidavit says Nicholson failed three polygraph tests beginning in October 1995 when asked about unauthorized contacts with foreign spies. It added that he appeared to take deep breaths in an effort to foil one test.