Sons of Ethel Rosenberg make last-ditch plea for presidential exoneration
Ethel and Julius Rosenberg are taken from the courthouse after their guilty verdict. Photo from the Libary of Congress.
The sons of convicted spies Ethel and Julius Rosenberg stopped by the White House on Thursday and attempted to deliver a letter calling on President Barack Obama to publicly exonerate their mother.
Robert and Michael Meeropol stopped by uninvited and a guard turned them away, report the Associated Press and CNN. The brothers had brought with them a petition signed by more than 40,000 people and information about the case that ended with the Rosenbergs’ execution in 1953. They have also sent copies to an Obama senior adviser.
The Meeropols say they want a statement of exoneration rather than a presidential pardon, because the pardon would suggest their mother was guilty.
The Meeropols cite grand jury testimony released last year that shows Ethel Rosenberg’s brother, David Greenglass, told grand jurors that Ethel Rosenberg had never spoken to him about atomic bomb information he obtained while working at Los Alamos, New Mexico. That contradicted his testimony at trial in which he said Ethel Rosenberg typed up his handwritten notes about the bomb.
The Rosenbergs were convicted of conspiring to pass information about the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union.
Ethel Rosenberg supporters doubt that Donald Trump will exonerate the convicted woman, partly because a member of the prosecution team, Roy Cohn, was once a lawyer for Trump.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest offered little cause for hope in a press briefing on Thursday, CNN reports. “I think it’s fair to say that any action on this matter before the end of this presidency is unlikely,” he said. He was unaware of any work on the request but said, “I’m sure we’ll take a look.”
