# United States v. Fernandez > [!note] Stub > This is a short entry that hasn't been fully written yet. 913 F.2d 148 (4th Cir., decided **6 September 1990**) — the case cited for the proposition that the dismissal sanction in the [[Classified Information Procedures Act]] can actually end a prosecution. Joseph F. Fernandez, the CIA chief of station in San José, Costa Rica from 1984 to 1986, was indicted in 1989 on counts alleging false statements to the agency's inspector general about an airstrip and to a presidential commission about his knowledge of the Contra resupply effort. The prosecution was brought by the Office of Independent Counsel, not by the Justice Department. The district court found two categories of classified material — three joint United States–Costa Rica projects, and the locations of CIA facilities — relevant and helpful to the defence, and rejected every substitute the government proposed, including a late "key card" alternative. The **Attorney General filed the § 6(e)(1) affidavit objecting to disclosure on 22 November 1989**, which obliged the court to bar Fernandez from using the material. The indictment was dismissed with prejudice two days later, on 24 November 1989. A Fourth Circuit panel of Chapman, Wilkinson and Wilkins affirmed, Wilkinson writing: no abuse of discretion in admitting the evidence, in rejecting the substitutions, or in dismissing, because the classified information was essential to the defence. The structural point, drawn out in [[How Classified Evidence Reaches a Criminal Trial]]: the official who held the disclosure veto was not the official whose case was lost. In an ordinary prosecution the Attorney General files that affidavit against his own Department's indictment, and § 6(e)(2) lets the objection be withdrawn rather than the case dismissed. ## See also - [[Classified Information Procedures Act]] · [[How Classified Evidence Reaches a Criminal Trial]] - [[Iran-Contra Affair]] · [[Independent Counsel]] · [[United States v. Yunis]] - [[United States Courts of Appeals]] · [[Judiciary Hub]]