Ex-CIA officer, Chun Shing Lee, accused of spying for China and sharing classified information expected to enter GUILTY plea
Ex-CIA officer Jerry Chun Shing Lee, is expected to plead guilty on Wednesday in Virginia court, according to court filings
Lee, 53, been charged with selling this information to Chinese intelligence, last May he was indicted by federal grand jury on an additional count of espionage
Lee, a naturalized U.S. citizen, who was an agent for the CIA for 13 years from 1994 to 2007, in 2018 had pled not guilty to spying for China
He was initially charged with illegally possessing two handwritten notebooks containing the names and phone numbers of covert CIA agents
Prosecutors say two Chinese intelligence officers offered to pay him for information in 2010 and delivered instructions to him through 2011
Jerry Chun Lee is accused of selling the identities of American agents to the Chinese eight years ago
Betrayal of US spies by the former CIA agent linked to 2010 – 2012 scandal that saw China wipe out agency’s network in that country, crippling America’s intelligence network
The Hong Kong resident was arrested at JFK in January, FBI has been investigating him for six years after finding names of agents in a bag
Ex-CIA agent Jerry Chun Shing Lee, 53, is expected to plead guilty on Wednesday to spying for China in a change-of-plea hearing
A former CIA officer accused of spying for China is scheduled to plead guilty to conspiring to divulge U.S. secrets.
Jerry Chun Shing Lee, 53, is expected to plead guilty at a change-of-plea hearing on Wednesday in Alexandria, Virginia, according to court filings.
The naturalized U.S. citizen, who lives in Hong Kong, was an agent for the CIA for 13 years from 1994 to 2007.
He served as an overseas case officer where his primary duty was to ‘recruit clandestine human intelligence sources’.
Related Article:
Jerry Chun Lee is accused of selling the identities of American agents to the Chinese eight years ago Betrayal of US spies by the former CIA agent linked to 2010 – […]
Lee pleaded not guilty last year to charges of conspiring to deliver defense information to a foreign government.
He’s accused of illegally possessing classified information and leaking it to Chinese intelligence.
He was arrested in New York in January 2018 for possessing that information in two handwritten notebooks including the names and phone numbers of covert CIA employees and informants.
Then he was indicted by a federal grand jury on an additional count of espionage last May.
Prosecutors say two Chinese intelligence officers in Shenzhen, China offered to pay Lee for information in 2010. They promised to take care of him for life financially if he cooperated and an immediate cash gift of $100,000.
Hong Kong media have identified former CIA agent Jerry Lee as the man on the right in a blue tie in this photo. He has been accused of handing the identities of American agents to his Chinese handlers
After that meeting Lee’s Chinese contacts delivered more than 20 envelopes between 2010 to 2011 spelling out specific tasks for him to perform, most of which asked him to reveal sensitive information.
He allegedly continued to receive instructions from them until at least the following year.
The indictment states that Lee traveled to China in July 2012. The next month, on a trip from Hong Kong to the U.S., the indictment says he was carrying top secret information in his luggage, including the real names of CIA assets.
Court records show that Lee was under investigation for more than five years leading up to his arrest in January 2018.
Since then, the case has proceeded largely in secrecy with closed hearings and sealed court motions pertaining to classified information. A trial that had been scheduled to begin Tuesday was wiped off the docket last week, an indication that a plea deal might be in the works.
Lee was an agent for the CIA for 13 years from 1994 to 2007. He’s accused of leaking information to the Chinese starting in 2010
His lawyer, Edward MacMahon, declined comment when asked to provide any details on the plea agreement.
The investigation into Lee was a part of a FBI-CIA task force investigation that concluded that the Chinese government penetrated the CIA’s method of clandestine communication with its spies, according to NBC.
The Chinese then used that knowledge to arrest and execute at least 20 CIA informants, according to several U.S. government officials.
Jerry Lee [photo], a CIA agent for the CIA for 13 years [1994 to 2007], is accused of leaking information to the Chinese starting in 2010
American officials suspect China then shared that information with Russia, which employed it to expose, arrest and possibly even kill American spies in that country, said the current and former officials, who declined to be named discussing a highly sensitive matter.
After making those conclusions, the CIA temporarily shut down human spying in China and overhauled the way it communicates with its assets around the world, according to former government officials familiar with the case.
Mallory a former Central Intelligence Agency and Defense Intelligence Agency officer, was convicted of conspiring to sell secrets to a Chinese spy
Earlier this year court filings showed that Lee had an accomplice in his alleged espionage against the U.S.
The second individual, an unindicted co-conspirator, was disclosed in an order by the judge in January. The FBI made images of the contents of seven different devices belonging to the co-conspirator on April 28, 2013, according to the order.
The imaging, a form of copying of the device data, occurred almost a year after agents found the notebooks in 2012 in a hotel room where Lee was staying.
The judge’s order did not indicate if the co-conspirator is a Chinese national or an American or their alleged role in the spy scheme.
Lee’s plea comes as another ex-CIA officer is awaiting sentencing after being convicted of spying for China.
Kevin Mallory, 61, of Leesburg, Virginia, was convicted of providing top secret information to Chinese handlers in exchange for $25,000.
Prosecutors are seeking a life sentence for Mallory, while defense lawyers are requesting a term of no longer than 10 years.
Leave a Reply