US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee is under fire and in the headlines after it was revealed he met with notorious traitor and spy Jonathan Pollard at the US Embassy in July. The former American intelligence analyst was convicted of espionage for Israel and sentenced to life in prison in 1987.

Pollard's is widely viewed as one of the single most damaging spy cases in US intelligence history, as he passed along extensive classified information, including the NSA's ten-volume guide to US signals-intelligence collection methods. He also directly put American intelligence agents and officials in danger, as he revealed the identities of thousands of individuals who had assisted US intelligence services.

The CIA still considers Pollard a dangerous traitor to the nation. He had passed thousands of secret documents - enough to fill a large room-full, to Israeli intelligence in exchange for money and gifts. His defense after getting caught red-handed, which included video footage showing him stealing documents, was that the US government was withholding crucial information from its close Mideast ally.

Pollard had actually been arrested while trying gain asylum at the Israeli Embassy in Washington. Later, in prison, he was granted Israeli citizenship, also amid an Israeli lobbying campaign to see him go free.

He was released from prison in 2015 during the Obama years, in his mid-60s and after serving 30 years of his sentence. After a strictly monitored five-year period of parole, he fully gained his freedom and immediately moved to Israel in 2020, where he received a "hero's welcome" from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The New York Times reports this week:

The highly unusual meeting caught some U.S. officials by surprise, and appeared to be a sharp break with years of precedent for American diplomats.

The New York Times learned of the meeting from three U.S. officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information. When The Times asked Mr. Pollard about the meeting, he confirmed it.

Mr. Pollard said it was the first time that a U.S. official had hosted him at an American government office since his release a decade ago.

The same report indicated this alarmed and angered the CIA, but which hasn't issued official public comment on the matter. "The meeting with Mr. Pollard, a former naval intelligence analyst, was kept off Mr. Huckabee’s official schedule, two of the U.S. officials said. The fact that it occurred alarmed the Central Intelligence Agency’s station chief in Israel, three of the officials said," The Times continued.

However, the White House defended the ambassador, saying simply "The White House was not aware of that meeting" and that "The president stands by Ambassador Huckabee and the work he is doing for both the United States and Israel."

Pollard has openly described the Huckabee discussion as warm and said he used the opportunity to thank Huckabee for helping advocate for his release from prison, and for looking after his family while he was serving time in federal custody.

Huckabee has previously come under criticism from the MAGA movement for being 'Israel first' and not in truth America first. He has long maintained of Washington relations with Israel that "It’s a relationship unlike any other."