Ex-State Department worker, wife face prison sentences Friday for stealing US secrets for Cuba

Ex-State Department worker, wife face sentencing

WASHINGTON — A retired State Department worker faces up to life in prison and his wife a lengthy prison term at their sentencing Friday for spying for Cuba over nearly 30 years.

Walter and Gwendolyn Myers both pleaded guilty in a case in which the couple is said to have stolen U.S. secrets because of a shared communist ideology and an adoration of the Cuban revolution.

Federal prosecutors say the plea deal was driven by the government’s need to find out all of the information the two supplied to Cuba.

Prosecutors also say that pursuing the same criminal charges at a trial would have risked further significant harm to national security.

The government has not revealed the secrets the couple took.