NOW THAT that the United States and China have signed a trade bill, the two countries are officially on friendly terms, or at least are permanent trading partners. But that wasn't necessarily true when the federal government first accused Wen Ho Lee, a scientist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, of downloading classified documents. Then, China still seemed like it might fill the enemy vacuum vacated by the former Soviet Union.

Does it matter to Lee's case? Perhaps. The rush to judgment almost always proceeds faster when the nation feels threatened by a foreign enemy.

New evidence, moreover, reveals that the government's case against Lee is largely circumstantial and far weaker than initially presented.

FBI Agent Robert A. Messemer now admits that he made "inadvertent" errors when he testified about Lee's behavior, mistakes that convinced the judge to withhold bail.

Lee did not ask to use a different computer to download a resume. Never happened. Nor did he hide his contacts with Chinese scientists during officially sanctioned, professional visits to Beijing. But Messemer had never consulted Lee's trip report before he testified.

Lee not only passed polygraph tests, which were double-checked, but also received the highest possible ratings for credibility when he denied passing secrets or engaging in any form of espionage.

Finally, Lee met with the FBI 20 times until FBI interrogators began to threaten him with the death penalty if he didn't cooperate with them.

The prosecution still contends that downloading files was a deliberate act of deception, but a nuclear weapons expert has now testified that the files were not so secret or all that valuable. The government also argues that Lee wrote letters inquiring about jobs at foreign institutes, casting doubt on his lack of loyalty. But none of the letters have appeared.

We have no way to assess the validity or veracity of the government's case or Lee's defense. Nor do we know if prosecutors have rushed to judgment because of Lee's Chinese ancestry.

What we do know is that in the United States a person is innocent until proven guilty. Prosecutors have not provided a compelling reason to keep Lee behind bars while he awaits his day in court.