Changes

With a position which required him to encode and decode sensitive telegrams, Kent had access to a wide range of secret documents. He began to take many of the more interesting ones home with him. Meanwhile, he was also becoming active in politics. Kent's views are uncertain but many have assumed that he took an [[isolationist]] line, and that he was prepared to help [[United Kingdom|British]] anti-war campaigns. Early in 1940, through [[Anna Wolkoff]], he met [[Archibald Maule Ramsay]], an [[anti-semitism|anti-semitic]] [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] [[Member of Parliament]], and joined Ramsay's group "The Right Club". Ramsay gave him the Right Club's membership list for safe-keeping.

With a position which required him to encode and decode sensitive telegrams, Kent had access to a wide range of secret documents. He began to take many of the more interesting ones home with him. Meanwhile, he was also becoming active in politics. Kent's views are uncertain but many have assumed that he took an [[isolationist]] line, and that he was prepared to help [[United Kingdom|British]] anti-war campaigns. Early in 1940, through [[Anna Wolkoff]], he met [[Archibald Maule Ramsay]], an [[anti-semitism|anti-semitic]] [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] [[Member of Parliament]], and joined Ramsay's group "The Right Club". Ramsay gave him the Right Club's membership list for safe-keeping.

Kent's abstraction of documents had been noticed and on May 20 he was arrested in a dawn raid at his flat (1,500 documents were found there). Ambassador [[Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr.]] agreed to waive [[diplomatic immunity]] and Kent was tried ''in camera'' under the [[Official Secrets Act]] 1911. On November 7, 1940 he was convicted and sentenced to seven years' imprisonment. The trial and imprisonment of Kent, and the co-operation of the US authorities, led isolationist groups in the USA to claim that he had been framed and that the trial was an attempted cover-up of an attempt to get the USA to join the war.

Kent's abstraction of documents had been noticed and on May 20 he was arrested in a dawn raid at his flat (1,500 documents were found there). Ambassador [[Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr.]] agreed to waive [[diplomatic immunity]] and Kent was tried ''in camera'' under the [[Official Secrets Act]] 1911. On November 7, 1940 he was convicted and sentenced to seven years' imprisonment. The trial and imprisonment of Kent, and the co-operation of the US authorities, led [[isolationist]] groups in the USA to claim that he had been framed and that the trial was an attempted [[cover-up]] of an attempt to get the USA to join the war.

At the end of the war Kent was released and deported to the USA. He there insisted that he had always been a staunch anti-communist, but was nevertheless interrogated by the [[FBI]] in 1951, where he told no more than had been disclosed at his trial. The FBI investigation has been criticised as naive. Afterwards, Kent was associated with far-right newspapers linked to the [[Ku Klux Klan]] and expressing anti-Jewish opinions. He died in [[Texas]] in 1988.

At the end of the war Kent was released and deported to the USA. He there insisted that he had always been a staunch anti-communist, but was nevertheless interrogated by the [[FBI]] in 1951, where he told no more than had been disclosed at his trial. The FBI investigation has been criticised as naive. Afterwards, Kent was associated with far-right newspapers linked to the [[Ku Klux Klan]] and expressing anti-Jewish opinions. He died in [[Texas]] in 1988.