Ex-CIA officer gets 19 years in China spy conspiracy
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A former CIA case agent was sentenced to 19 years in prison Friday for an espionage conspiracy in which prosecutors say he received more than $840,000 from China to divulge the names of human sources and his knowledge of spycraft.
The sentence imposed on Jerry Chun Shing Lee, 55, was significantly longer than the 10-years sought by defense attorneys.
Lee pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit espionage, but prosecutors and defense lawyers disagreed about whether there was proof Lee carried out any actual espionage. Lee’s lawyers disputed that their client’s conduct was anywhere near as severe as the government described.
Prosecutors say Chinese intelligence officers gave Lee more than $840,000 over a three-year period beginning in 2010, and that Lee likely gave them all the information he had from a 13-year career as a CIA case officer. They sought a prison term of more than 20 years.
Defense lawyers say the government never proved that the money came from China or that Lee ever carried out any plans to deliver government secrets.
FBI lawyer suspected of altering Russia probe document
WASHINGTON — An FBI lawyer is suspected of altering a document related to surveillance of a former Trump campaign adviser, a person familiar with the situation said Friday.
President Donald Trump, who has long attacked as a “hoax” and a “witch hunt” the FBI’s investigation into ties between Russia and his 2016 presidential campaign, immediately touted news reports about the allegations to assert that the FBI had tried to “overthrow the presidency.”
The allegation is part of a Justice Department inspector general investigation into the early days of the FBI’s Russia probe, which was ultimately taken over by special counsel Robert Mueller and resulted in charges against six Trump associates and more than two dozen Russians accused of interfering in the election. Inspector General Michael Horowitz is expected to release his report on Dec. 9. Witnesses in the last two weeks have been invited in to see draft sections of that document.
The release of the inspector general report is likely to revive debate about the investigation that has shadowed Trump’s presidency since the beginning. It is centered in part on the FBI’s use of a secret surveillance warrant to monitor the communications of former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
“This was spying on my campaign — something that has never been done in the history of our country,” Trump told “Fox & Friends” on Friday. “They tried to overthrow the presidency.”
Netanyahu’s woes mirror those of his ally Trump
JERUSALEM — He was accused of using his high office to advance his personal political interests. He derided the investigation as a “witch hunt” fueled by “fake news” — an “attempted coup.” He counted on his right-wing base, his hand-picked attorney general and his media savvy to weather the crisis.
Not U.S. President Donald Trump, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was indicted Thursday on corruption charges.
Netanyahu’s indictment on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust marks the culmination of three long-running corruption cases. In the most serious, he is accused of accepting bribes from a telecom magnate by promoting regulations worth hundreds of millions of dollars in exchange for favorable media coverage on a popular news site owned by the company.
The announcement of the charges coincided with the final day of public impeachment hearings by the U.S. House of Representatives, in which officials provided a mountain of evidence to support allegations that Trump used the powers of his office to pressure Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden.
Trump and his supporters have furiously denied any wrongdoing, alleging a deep state conspiracy fanned by a hostile media aimed at reversing the 2016 election.
Attorney general unveils plan on missing Native Americans
PABLO, Mont. — Attorney General William Barr announced a nationwide plan Friday to address the crisis of missing and slain Native American women as concerns mount over the level of violence they face.
Barr announced the plan, known as the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Initiative, during a visit with tribal leaders and law enforcement officials on the Flathead Reservation in Montana.
Native American women experience some of the nation’s highest rates of murder, sexual violence and domestic abuse. The National Institute of Justice estimates that 1.5 million Native American women have experienced violence in their lifetime, including many who are victims of sexual violence. On some reservations, federal studies have shown women are killed at a rate more than 10 times the national average.
The Justice Department’s new initiative would invest $1.5 million to hire specialized coordinators in 11 U.S. attorney’s offices across the U.S. with significant Indian Country caseloads. The coordinators would be responsible for developing protocols for a better law enforcement response to missing persons cases.
Montana’s coordinator, a former FBI agent, already has started in his position.
Boy Scouts mortgage vast New Mexico ranch as collateral
The Boy Scouts of America has mortgaged one of the most spectacular properties it owns, the vast Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico, to help secure a line of credit as the financially strapped organization faces a growing wave of new sex-abuse lawsuits.
The BSA said Friday that it has no plans to sell the property, and that the land is being used as collateral to help meet financial needs that include rising insurance costs related to sex-abuse litigation.
However, the move dismayed a member of Philmont’s oversight committee, who says it violates agreements made when the land was donated in 1938. The BSA disputed his assertion.
Top BSA officials signed the document in March, but members of the Philmont Ranch Committee only recently learned of the development, according to committee member Mark Stinnett.
In a memo sent to his fellow members, Stinnett — a Colorado-based lawyer — decried the financial maneuver and the lack of consultation with the committee.
Syracuse U, shaken by racism, welcomes the holiday break
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Benny Callahan didn’t leave her dorm for two straight days this week.
The Syracuse University freshman didn’t feel safe, she said, away from home and under siege, it seemed, by day-after-day reports of racism in campus residence and academic halls.
“My parents are freaking out,” Callahan, who is black, said as she prepared to head home to Jersey City, New Jersey, for a Thanksgiving break that, for many, couldn’t come soon enough.
Campus and city police, along with New York State Police and the FBI, are trying to solve more than a dozen reports of racist graffiti and vandalism targeting black and Jewish people, Asians and Native Americans at the private university in upstate New York since Nov. 7.
Thursday alone brought news of four more reports: racist graffiti on two floors of the Day Hall dormitory targeting black people. A sticky note in the Flint residence hall degrading Native Americans. Graffiti targeting Asians at Comstock Art facility.