A senior Navy intelligence official and a California race-car mechanic were convicted in federal court for their roles in pushing through a secret Navy contract to build hundreds of untraceable rifle silencers for an unspecified, classified program.
Navy civilian Lee Hall of Sterling was convicted yesterday of conspiracy and theft of government money for steering the nearly USD 2 million no-bid contract to his boss' brother, Mark Landersman, who was convicted of a single conspiracy count.
Prosecutors presented evidence that Landersman received information off the Internet from his brother on how to make silencers and had costs of only USD 10,000, though defense lawyers presented testimony that Landersman spent thousands of hours in prior years working on prototypes for a more durable silencer.
Prosecutors say the silencers didn't work and in some cases amplified sound, and in closing arguments described them as worthless "scrap metal."
Defense lawyers said the silencers flunked testing because they hadn't been cleaned before use.
Defense attorneys said the deal was legitimate and had been authorized.
Hall's lawyers said that in the convoluted world of classified defense contracts, the defendants were doing their best to fill an immediate need.
The defense suggested that the silencers couldn't be bought on the open market because of the secretive nature of the program, and that having regular silencers with serial numbers that could be traced back to US manufacturers would have defeated the purpose.
It was never exactly clear why Hall said he wanted the silencers.
According to court documents, Hall at one point told others that the silencers were needed for Seal Team Six, the elite unit that killed Osama bin Laden. But the Seals said they never ordered the silencers.
Evidence in the trial remains classified, and in open court, witnesses and lawyers were coached only to speak of "The Program," an unspecified operation that apparently had a need for untraceable silencers.
