Former CIA Officer Pleads Guilty to Chinese Espionage Conspiracy

via Free Beacon.

Former CIA operations officer Jerry Chun Shin Lee pleaded guilty on Wednesday to conspiracy to commit espionage for China in a case linked to the loss of numerous recruited CIA spies in China.

Lee, 54, a naturalized U.S. citizen living in Hong Kong, supplied documents and information to Chinese intelligence officers from April 26, 2010, to Jan. 15, 2018 when he was arrested, according to court papers in the case.

The former spy handler initially had pleaded not guilty. The plea deal avoids what was expected to be a lengthy trial that may have risked further exposing CIA secrets Lee supplied to China.

Lee faces a maximum sentence of life in prison for the charge. Sentencing in the case was set for Aug. 23.

The case is one of three Chinese espionage-related cases in recent months as part of a Trump administration crackdown on Beijing's intelligence operations.

G. Zachary Terwilliger, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said Americans entrusted with the government’s most closely held secrets have a tremendous responsibility to safeguard secret information.

"Instead of embracing that responsibility and honoring his commitment to not disclose national defense information, Lee sold out his country, conspired to become a spy for a foreign government, and then repeatedly lied to investigators about his conduct," Terwilliger said in a statement announcing the plea deal.

"This prosecution should serve as a warning to others who would compromise our nation’s secrets and betray our country’s trust."

Edward MacMahon, Lee's lawyer, declined to comment on the case.

Lee was recruited by the Chinese Ministry of State Security during a 2010 meeting in Shenzhen, China. At the meeting, two MSS officers offered him money in exchange for secrets. The MSS officers told Lee "they had prepared a gift of $100,000 cash and that they would take care of him ‘for life' in exchange for his cooperation," a statement of facts in the plea deal states.

Story here. 

I wonder how easy the Chinese find the average American to turn into a traitor?  I wonder how deeply they're found within every dept in our government?

I wonder exactly how many people this guy got killed for his few bars of silver?

Doesn't matter.

God forgives.

The USA shouldn't.  A public execution should be the price for his treachery but we've grown soft so he'll continue to live at the expense of the taxpayer in some federal prison (if he doesn't get parole....crime is getting to the point of actually paying with weak laws).

We're already at war with China.  Most of our population and leadership just won't admit it and just don't want to see it.

Worse?

We're losing.