Judith Coplon Socolov (May 17, 1921 – February 26, 2011) was a spy for the Soviet Union whose trials, convictions, and successful constitutional appeals had a profound influence on espionage prosecutions during the Cold War.

[2] She was recruited for Soviet espionage at Columbia University by Flora Wovschin and Marion Davis Berdecio.

[2] She transferred to the Foreign Agents Registration section, where she had access to counter-intelligence information, and was allegedly recruited as a spy by the NKGB at the end of 1944.

She added that she hoped she was working specifically for us, since she considered it the highest honor to have an opportunity to provide us with modest help.

FBI agents arrested Coplon on March 4, 1949, in Manhattan, as she met with Valentin Gubitchev, a KGB official employed by the United Nations while she was carrying what she believed to be secret US government documents in her purse.

[8][11] The appellate court, sitting in New York, concluded that while the evidence showed that she was guilty, FBI agents had lied under oath about the bugging.

The legal irregularities ensured that she was never retried, and the government ultimately dropped the case in 1967 along with the return of her bail money of $40,000.

[12] Samuels examines four kinds of traitors: professional, people loyal to their birth lands, crackpots, and idealists.

"[12] NYT Book Review editor Sam Tanenhaus wrote in March 2011: At the time of her trial, Ms. Coplon drew a great deal of interest, particularly in the lively tabloid press of the day.

A 27-year-old cum laude graduate of Barnard, employed in the internal security section of the Justice Department, she seemed the model postwar "government girl," fetchingly clad in snug sweaters and New Look skirts .

She went on to pass a master’s degree in education, published bilingual books and taught creative writing to women in prison.