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Abscam conviction overturned : Judge cites FBI's ‘ontrageonsg keke : : ae si : _ tee, niques against Rep. Kelly : " By Robert Pear — Figs Wonece $= 15-8 2- New York Times News Service 2 WASHINGTON = A federal district judge’ yester- ~ day overturned the Abscam conviction of former Rep. _Richard Kelly, saying that the government had used “outrageous” techniques to induce the congressman into accepting a $25,000 bribe. Judge William B. Bryant said that agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation should have stopped importuning Kelly after he had rejected their initial’ bribe offers. Instead, the judge said, they persisted in applying pressure to the Florida Republican until he finally accepted the cash and stuffed it into his . pockets. te L The government, in effect, was “testing the virtue”.of Kelly when there was no reason to suspect his virtue, Bryant said, adding that the government } bad exceeded the outer limits of “fundamental z fs ‘| . “Law enforcement exceeds its bounds when it Richard Kelly: Piet ne a 9, $25,000? manufactures crime and creates criminals, the judge AL In ‘4 ined iB teuyauey said in his 25page opinion.*” °*. ““""~ “ “Government agents, har the busfness if Bryant granted Kelly's request for a judgment of corrupting public officials who are free of suspicion, acquittal, overruling the guilty verdict returned by a_ essentially subvert our government, and on its face jury on Jan. 26, 1981. Kelly had been convicted of this presents an unwholesome spectacle,” Bryant bribery and conspiracy after a seven-week trial. He declared. “This is particularly true with respect to the was the only Republican among the seven members of | way in which Kelly was handled.” - \ ; Congress convicted on charges arising from the FBI's In St. Petersburg, Fla., Kelly reacted somberly investigation of political corruption. yesterday to the reversal of his conviction, saying the (When federal agents and informers first ap. FBI “did a super good job.of snookering everybody,”’ prozched Kelly, Bryant said, “no one in the govern- ~ “T think the whole episode is a very serio i ment had even the remotest suspicion about the situation as far as the country is concerned. We ni exigjence of any prior, ongoing or imminent criminal the FBI. We need to believe in the FBI,” he said. ‘ activity of this type.” In other words, he said, “there:. “The most ‘astounding thing is that they simp! “was nothing to trigger traditional law enforcement didn’t have any evidence at all... it was all created by activities until the government made its overtures.” id Kell > . woe ydkn tt