WASHINGTON — A former C.I.A. case officer faces life in prison after he was convicted on Friday of betraying his country to spy on behalf of China.
Kevin Mallory, 61, of Leesburg, Va., was found guilty of espionage charges and lying to the F.B.I. about his contacts with Chinese intelligence.
The verdict capped a nearly two-week trial that offered a rare glimpse into the murky world of American espionage cases, which typically do not go to trial because of the difficulties involving highly classified information.
“There are few crimes in this country more serious than espionage,” said G. Zachary Terwilliger, the United States attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. “This office has a long history of holding those accountable who betray their country and try and profit off of classified information.”
Mr. Mallory’s lawyers have steadfastly denied the charges. They claim that Mr. Mallory, a former C.I.A. clandestine officer and a private consultant, is a patriot who planned to use his recruitment to lure Chinese intelligence handlers into the C.I.A.’s grasp. Mr. Mallory left the C.I.A. in 2012.
“This was an intelligence operation against Chinese intelligence,” Mr. Mallory’s lawyer Geremy Kamens said Thursday during closing arguments. “In reality, Kevin Mallory was working against the Chinese.”
The jury was not convinced, deliberating for a day before deciding to believe the substantial evidence prosecutors presented in the federal courtroom in Northern Virginia.
In early 2017, a Chinese headhunter sent Mr. Mallory a message about contracting work using a networking site. But the job Mr. Mallory thought he was exploring turned out to have a far different purpose.
He was passed to a Chinese intelligence operative working for a think tank who wanted him to become an informant. And over the next four months, Mr. Mallory, who is fluent in Mandarin Chinese, traveled to Shanghai, had covert communications with the operative on a Chinese-provided phone and passed information — including an unclassified white paper on American intelligence policy — to his handlers, the authorities said.
But Chinese attempts to protect the contents of the phone from prying eyes failed because of an apparent technical problem. The F.B.I. was able to analyze it and found a handwritten index describing eight documents. Four of the documents listed in the index were found on the phone, with three containing classified information.
The twist in Mr. Mallory’s spy career was that he told the F.B.I. and the C.I.A. parts of the story and provided his phone to agents. This was evidence that Mr. Mallory was not a spy, his lawyers said.
The prosecution said that story was “totally and completely absurd.” Mr. Mallory, prosecutors said, selectively disclosed his contacts in order to have a potential defense in case federal investigators caught on to his true plan: to trade American secrets for cash.
“His intent was never to help,” John Gibbs, a federal prosecutor, said Thursday. “His intent was to lie.”
At the time he was recruited, prosecutors say, Mr. Mallory was thousands of dollars in debt and behind on his mortgage, making him a prime target for intelligence operatives looking to trade money for secrets. In Mr. Mallory’s case, the Chinese gave him $25,000, the authorities said.
Mr. Mallory is scheduled to be sentenced in September.
The high-profile case is among several recent ones involving Chinese attempts to recruit former American intelligence officials. In January, the F.B.I. arrested Jerry Chun Shing Lee, another former C.I.A. officer, who had repeated contacts with Chinese intelligence. He has been charged with illegally possessing classified information and conspiring to spy for the Chinese.
Last week, prosecutors charged Ron Rockwell Hansen, a former Defense Intelligence Agency case officer, with attempted espionage. The F.B.I. began investigating Mr. Hansen’s activities in 2014.
CIAnigger BTFO for being China's bitch
Stop disrespecting the CIA, they keep us safe from terrorists and helped god emperor win.
why did you post this?
neat
Threadly reminder that Trump is a kike and all his shills and supporters need to go back to r/the_ZOGnald where reddit cancer belongs.
Is that the going rate for turning coat? I would imagine that if I were a shitbag enough to turn traitor my price would be atleast double my yearly salary.
I stopped lurking so often because the bot to oldfag ratio was untenable.. good to see mods haven't done a fucking thing since then.
are u a bot?
Does AI call out the ZOG now?
It's surprising how little money gets some people to turn traitor. In theory, security clearances are supposed to weed out people who have financial pressures that might make a payout attractive. It's probably impossible to fully weed out those who are just outright niggers and really want to spend 25k on some bling.
Pretty easy to see that the "Trump is a kike shill" stuff is pure astroturf when they show themselves in threads that have fucking nothing to do with him.
On topic, this stuff is par for the course for the CIA. We should be encouraging a total witch hunt through all the alphabet agencies since this stuff is very common. Sure we'd catch a few of the niggers who aren't on the take (yet) in the dragnet but we need to do it before we enter a full blown war with a compromised intel service.
Yea.. In the military you get told often that if you have a decent security clearance you better not take out any ill advised loans or miss payments because you will lose your clearance. And such a low payment implies he was either one greedy son of a bitch or desired to betray
The shill's next line will be "kampfy isn't here anymore". They're still trying to take advantage of kampfy being removed to subvert the board, it isn't working but god bless them for trying
The US military is a Black nigger. Fuck you USA
So why isn't he being executed?
Then they should be able to prove it. How many did he turn and how much did he hand over in the attempt?
Fuck off shitskin.
it has for some time, you off-topic Astroturf fucktard
I agree, all of these (((intel agencies))) should be absolutely scared shitless to the point that they would kill themselves over the anxiety of just thinking about being a traitor.
looks like the overseas team is still on the clock
my guess is because dead men can't be re-interrogated if any discover more potential intel was leaked. Dead men are too quiet about their past.
my understanding is that these guys are just egomaniac pricks that do it for the rush or just have a vendetta from a bruised ego.
i miss when news stories had hidden memes in them
be public servant
be private citizen
Sources and methods is who you know.
Sources and methods is where you are.
Sources and methods is what you do.
Sources and methods is when you do it.
Sources and methods is how you do it.
Sources and methods is why.
Take control of your life.
Holy shit, so all that 1337 china hacker meme shit is really just these faggots covering for themselves.
great dubs, great truth
It has for years.