Former CIA Officer Indicted on Espionage Charges
Ami Rojkes Dombe
| 09/05/2018
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Former CIA officer Jerry Chun Shing Lee, who was charged earlier this year with retaining classified information, is now accused of espionage. He was indicted on Tuesday in federal court in Alexandria, Va. after being held in Alexandria’s jail since January.
According to the Washington Post, prosecutors allege that in 2010, three years after Lee left his CIA job, two Chinese intelligence officials offered to pay him for information. Prosecutors say Lee prepared documents in response to the Chinese requests, made unexplained cash deposits, and lied in interviews about his travel to China and actions there.
Many in the CIA have long believed that Lee played a role in the exposure and deaths of several agency sources in China, according to current and former officials. However, officials were divided over whether there was enough evidence to convict him, and even if there was, whether it was worth revealing sensitive tradecraft to do so. Tuesday’s indictment did not address any effects of Lee’s alleged espionage.
According to his indictment from January 2018 (Justice.gov), Lee traveled several times to Hawaii in 2012 with two small books “best described as a datebook and an address book.”
“The datebook contained handwritten information pertaining to, but not limited to, operational notes from asset meetings, operational meeting locations, operational phone numbers, true names of assets, and covert facilities. […] The address book contained true names and phone numbers of assets and covert CIA employees, as well as the addresses of CIA facilities.”
“The CIA classification authority determined that the books contained classified information, up to and including Secret information and, in at least one instance, Top Secret information, the disclosure of which could cause exceptionally grave damage to the National Security of the United States.”
facebook.com/Central.Intelligence.Agency
Former CIA officer Jerry Chun Shing Lee, who was charged earlier this year with retaining classified information, is now accused of espionage. He was indicted on Tuesday in federal court in Alexandria, Va. after being held in Alexandria’s jail since January.
According to the Washington Post, prosecutors allege that in 2010, three years after Lee left his CIA job, two Chinese intelligence officials offered to pay him for information. Prosecutors say Lee prepared documents in response to the Chinese requests, made unexplained cash deposits, and lied in interviews about his travel to China and actions there.
Many in the CIA have long believed that Lee played a role in the exposure and deaths of several agency sources in China, according to current and former officials. However, officials were divided over whether there was enough evidence to convict him, and even if there was, whether it was worth revealing sensitive tradecraft to do so. Tuesday’s indictment did not address any effects of Lee’s alleged espionage.
According to his indictment from January 2018 (Justice.gov), Lee traveled several times to Hawaii in 2012 with two small books “best described as a datebook and an address book.”
“The datebook contained handwritten information pertaining to, but not limited to, operational notes from asset meetings, operational meeting locations, operational phone numbers, true names of assets, and covert facilities. […] The address book contained true names and phone numbers of assets and covert CIA employees, as well as the addresses of CIA facilities.”
“The CIA classification authority determined that the books contained classified information, up to and including Secret information and, in at least one instance, Top Secret information, the disclosure of which could cause exceptionally grave damage to the National Security of the United States.”
