U.S. Ambassador Huckabee Hosted Convicted Spy Jonathan Pollard at Jerusalem Embassy, NYT Reports

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee hosted convicted spy Jonathan Pollard for a private meeting at the American embassy in Jerusalem this past July, a session that has ignited sharp criticism inside the intelligence community and raised fresh questions about diplomatic protocol.

The New York Times first reported the encounter Thursday, citing three U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Pollard himself confirmed the meeting to the paper and described it as warm.

Now 70, Polard served 30 years in federal prison after his 1987 conviction for passing thousands of highly classified documents to Israel while working as a Navy intelligence analyst.

Prosecutors called it one of the most damaging espionage cases in American history.

The former spy told the Times the July sit-down marked the first time since his 2015 release that a U.S. official had received him inside an American government facility.

Pollard said he used the occasion to thank Huckabee personally.

"It was a friendly meeting," Pollard told the publication.

He added that he expressed gratitude to the ambassador for advocating his release years earlier and for looking after his family during his decades behind bars.

Sources told the Times the session never appeared on Huckabee’s official schedule and caught multiple agencies off guard.

Three officials said the meeting alarmed the CIA station chief in Israel. The agency has declined public comment.

The White House, when asked about the encounter, stated plainly that it had no prior knowledge.

"The president stands by Ambassador Huckabee and the work he is doing for both the United States and Israel," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.

Former U.S. Ambassador Daniel Kurtzer, who served in Jerusalem from 2001 to 2005, called the decision inexplicable.

"It just defies any kind of logic," Kurtzer told the Times. "There was no reason to rehabilitate him."

The U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem pushed back on the reporting in a written statement, asserting that Ambassador Huckabee "holds meetings with numerous people" and declaring the Times account "filled with inaccuracies."

Embassy officials declined to elaborate on the Pollard session itself.

Pollard was released on parole in 2015, completed strict supervision in 2020, and immediately relocated to Israel, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu greeted him on the tarmac as a hero.

A sitting American ambassador’s decision to host one of the country’s most notorious convicted spies inside an official U.S. facility has left the intelligence community stunned and critics searching for answers.

The State Department has yet to explain whether any approval was sought or granted. For now, the ambassador has the full public backing of the president, but the fallout inside Washington appears far from over.