Key Evidence in Rosenberg Case To Be Secret, Judge Rules

A judge signaled yesterday that he would order the release in the coming months of much of the secret testimony in the notorious espionage case against Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.

But U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein said he would make an exception for a pivotal witness whose questionable testimony helped send Ethel Rosenberg to the electric chair: her 86-year-old brother.

The decision on the brother, David Greenglass, came at a Manhattan hearing at which leading historical groups argued that the biggest spy case of the Cold War era was important enough to qualify for a rare exception to secrecy rules protecting grand jury testimony.

Prosecutors already had consented to the unsealing of transcripts of 36 of the 46 grand jury witnesses — a plan the judge was expected to approve by today in a written order. The 36 are dead or gave permission for the disclosure.

But in the case of three living witnesses who objected — Mr. Greenglass and two lesser figures — the judge said he agreed with the government's stance that their privacy "overrides the public's need to know." He cited letters to the court from an attorney for Greenglass claiming the case still haunts his family.

Mr. Greenglass and his wife, Ruth Greenglass, after confessing to being part of a scheme to smuggle atomic secrets to the Soviets, agreed to testify against the Rosenbergs. During the 1951 trial, the couple linked Ethel Rosenberg to the plot by saying they saw her transcribing the stolen research data on a portable typewriter in her New York apartment.

By cooperating, David Greenglass was spared a possible death sentence and served 10 years in prison. Ruth Greenglass, who died this year, was never charged.

The Rosenbergs were executed in 1953.

Since then, decoded Soviet cables have seemed to confirm that Julius Rosenberg was a spy, but doubts have remained about Ethel Rosenberg's involvement.

Georgetown University law professor David Vladeck, who represented the historical groups, argued yesterday that David Greenglass forfeited his right to keep his testimony secret by "thrusting himself" into the limelight with media interviews in recent years. In the interviews, Mr. Greenglass said he made up the trial account about the typewriter to protect his wife and she may have improvised the tale to appease prosecutors.

"If indeed the government was a party to that, then the public needs to know," Mr. Vladeck said.