chinese spy

very interesting story just came across the wire from Reuters

A U.S. State Department employee is expected to appear in federal court in Washington on Wednesday to face charges in a FBI counterintelligence investigation, two U.S. officials told Reuters.

The employee, Candace Claiborne, works in the State Department office that handles Caucasus Affairs, government records showed.

Huh. I see. What does the Caucasus Affairs branch of the State Department handle? Well. it’s under the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, which covers Europe, Turkey, Cyprus, the Caucasus Region…and Russia. The Caucasus Affairs part itself is responsible for Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, and supports the U.S. Co-Chair of the Minsk Group.

What were the details of Ms. Claiborne’s arrest, you ask? According to an FBI press release, it was as follows

Claiborne is being charged with “obstructing an official proceeding and making false statements to the FBI, both felony offenses, for allegedly concealing numerous contacts that she had over a period of years with foreign intelligence agents,” a Justice Department release said…

Claiborne, who has a top-secret security clearance, failed to disclose her foreign contacts abroad despite being required to do so. 

Claiborne is accused of repeatedly contacting two Chinese intelligence agents, who “provided tens of thousands of dollars in gifts and benefits to Claiborne and her family over five years.”

The press release said the agents provided Claiborne with gifts, including “cash wired to Claiborne’s USAA account, an Apple iPhone and laptop computer, Chinese New Year’s gifts, meals, international travel and vacations, tuition at a Chinese fashion school, a fully furnished apartment, and a monthly stipend.”

So, we have what looks to be a Chinese spy who works on Russian affairs inside the State Department. You think the Chinese would have a vested interest in pushing the Russian Narrative out there so that everyone would ignore the threat from their corrupt and, frankly, more powerful regime?

Claiborne was paid almost $2,500 by a Chinese agent in 2011 in exchange for information about U.S. economic policy in relation to China, according to court documents.

(In case anyone forgot, Hillary Clinton was the Secretary of State in 2011.)

You bet they would.

Claiborne has worked at the State Department since at least 1999…

https://www.state.gov/documents/organization/191087.pdf

She also received a scholarship from the State Department in the previous year as a result of her membership in the State Department Federal Credit Union…

https://www.state.gov/documents/organization/191069.pdf

Internet searches seem to show that she’s a woman in her 60’s, so there’s no telling how long she’s worked at the State Department. In case you didn’t know, State employees are often deployed around the world as spies. It’s possible that the Communist Chinese regime flipped her to their side and she was eventually noticed by the FBI. Something had to have happened, since she was busted with intelligence gathered from a FISA warrant.

Needless to say, this whole thing is intriguing and I’ll keep my eye on it as developments roll in.