---
category: Law Enforcement & Legal
summary: Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York who prosecuted
  Ari Ben-Menashe for conspiracy to sell C-130 aircraft to Iran.
tags:
- Person
- Lawyer
- LawEnforcement
---

[Baruch Weiss](/people/baruch-weiss/) was an Assistant [U.S.](/places/united-states/) Attorney for the Southern District of [New York City](/places/new-york-city/). He was the prosecutor in the trial of [Ari Ben-Menashe](/people/ari-ben-menashe/) and [Richard St. Francis](/people/richard-st-francis/) for conspiracy to sell C-130 aircraft to [Iran](/places/iran/).[^1]

[Weiss](/people/baruch-weiss/) initially classified [Ben-Menashe](/people/ari-ben-menashe/) as dangerous, but later admitted it was a mistake. He signed an agreement with [Ben-Menashe](/people/ari-ben-menashe/) to talk without a lawyer present, granting him immunity for the conversations. [Weiss](/people/baruch-weiss/) insisted that [Ben-Menashe](/people/ari-ben-menashe/) was a low-level translator acting for personal profit, but the taped conversations and [Ben-Menashe's](/people/ari-ben-menashe/) employment records, including letters of recommendation, contradicted this claim.[^1]

[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. TrineDay, 1992.