Ex-CIA spy for Chinese has 2 convictions thrown out

A federal judge has thrown out two convictions against a former CIA officer who conspired to sell secrets to Chinese spies, saying prosecutors failed to establish the crimes happened in the Eastern District of Virginia.

Kevin Mallory, a longtime intelligence agent who went to trial last month, remains guilty of conspiracy to commit espionage and making false statements. But he is no longer guilty of actually sharing or trying to share national defense information, or NDI, with the Chinese.

Mallory, 61, will be sentenced on the remaining counts Sept. 21, when he still faces up to life in prison.

Mallory traveled twice to China to meet with a Chinese spy calling himself Michael Yang and with others. On the second trip, Yang gave a customized Samsung phone to Mallory so they could communicate covertly, which Mallory later handed over to the FBI. Agents found several documents containing classified information as well as conversations indicating Mallory had sent some of the papers to Yang and tried to send others.

At trial in suburban Alexandria, Virginia, Mallory argued unsuccessfully that his true intent was to lure the Chinese spies into a trap and hand them over to U.S. law enforcement.

Judge T.S. Ellis called the evidence “overwhelming” that Mallory and Yang “agreed to work together to transmit NDI to Chinese nationals.” But, Ellis said, the government never established where Mallory was when he sent those messages, which FBI experts said happened in the middle of the night between May 1 and May 2, 2017.

“The only evidence adduced at trial related to defendant’s location on those dates was the testimony of Special Agent [Stephen] Green, the case agent, who testified that the defendant was ‘in the United States’ on May 3, 2017,” Ellis wrote in his Thursday ruling. “These pieces of evidence do not establish defendant’s location at the time of the transmission of NDI, and without evidence establishing defendant’s location at the time of the essential offense conduct, the government has failed to establish venue.”

Mallory lives in suburban Leesburg, within the Eastern District of Virginia, but Ellis said a jury cannot assume he was home when he sent the documents.

“Of course, many people are home at midnight, but many are not,” the judge wrote. “And the government presented no cell tower or surveillance evidence showing defendant’s location at the time of transmission, nor did the government present evidence about defendant’s tendency to be at his residence at any particular time.”

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia did not immediately return a request for comment.

In her family, Chiyo Miyako was known simply as “the goddess.”

At age 117, she was not just their ancient, reigning monarch, but also the oldest person in the entire world.

This week, the Japanese Health Ministry announced that Miyako died July 22.

She was born in 1901, and her family said she loved sushi and eel, and enjoyed calligraphy. “[T]hey described her as a patient and kind person who brought happiness to those who met her,” Guinness World Records said.

She claimed the title of world’s oldest living person not long before her death. Nabi Tajima, who preceded Miyako as the last oldest living person in the world, was also Japanese and also lived until 117. She died in April. The woman who is predicted to take over the title as the world’s oldest woman is also Japanese: Kane Tanaka is 115.

This week, the world’s oldest man, who also lives in Japan, celebrated his 113th birthday. As The Washington Post’s Ruby Mellen reported, Masazo Nonaka grew up in Ashoro, close to well-known hot springs, and points to those mineral-rich waters and his love of candy and sweets as the reason for his long-lasting health.

“He has spent most of his long retirement reading the newspaper after breakfast, watching samurai shows and sumo wrestling on television and looking after his pets, two cats named Haru and Kuro, who receive the table scraps when Nonaka doesn’t care for his dinner,” Mellen wrote.

It’s not exactly surprising that Japan is home to so many of the record-holders for longevity: As of 2017, nearly 68,000 people in Japan were over 100. And Japan has more people older than 65 than any other country in the world - a challenge for the economy as the birthrate has slowed drastically.

Guinness keeps track of the world’s oldest people, although there are some disputes over whether the titles are always given to the right people. In May, The Post’s Lindsey Bever wrote about Fredie Blom, a South African man who turned 114 this year. Guinness said that he was not being considered for the award because they require a substantial amount of paperwork and an investigation “to ensure our facts are correct.”

Still, the title of world’s oldest person ever goes to a cigarette-loving French woman named Jeanne Louise Calment, who lived to 122. She was born in 1875, before movies were made and before the Eiffel Tower was built. Her husband died at 77 after food poisoning from cherries, and she also outlived a daughter and a grandson.

Like Nonaka, she also loved sweets — especially chocolate. She died in 1997 after living what seemed like many lives: According to Guinness, she even learned to fence at 85, rode a bike until she was 100 and sang on an album at 120.