Ex-spy accused of selling secrets says he ran sting

WASHINGTON — Kevin Mallory, a former CIA officer, admits he met with Chinese spies. He admits he planned a covert meeting with one of the operatives, that he handed over U.S. intelligence documents and that he accepted thousands of dollars.

Federal prosecutors call it espionage. But the Virginia man, who for years held a top-secret clearance, says it was no crime. He contends it was a ruse intended to out the spies to U.S. authorities.

On Tuesday, Mallory goes on trial in federal court in Alexandria, Va., where a jury will decide which story they believe.

Mallory, 61, is a fluent Mandarin Chinese speaker who spent two decades working in U.S. intelligence. Public defenders Geremy Kamens and Todd Richman say he used that experience to ensnare two Chinese intelligence operatives who approached him as staffers for a Shanghai think tank.

“He sent what he thought was worthless information to keep his Chinese contacts interested in him until the CIA would meet with him,” the defense attorneys wrote in one court filing.

Prosecutors say that, to the contrary, Mallory’s plan was to cash in on his covert knowledge to get himself out of debt. If he did not share everything he knew, they argue in court filings, it was only because he was holding out for better pay. And if he was somewhat open with old colleagues at the CIA, it was only to cover his tracks.

He “was seeking to develop a long-term, financially profitable relationship,” prosecutors John Gibbs and Jennifer Kennedy Gellie said in one motion.

Mallory is one of two former CIA officers accused in Alexandria federal court of working with Chinese intelligence.

Jerry Chun Shing Lee, 53, is set to go to trial in February on similar charges. Prosecutors say Lee, like Mallory, was coopted by Chinese spies when his post-government career was foundering.

Mallory served in the military from 1977 to 2011, on active duty for the first decade and as a reservist after. According to his defense attorneys, he was kidnapped and seriously wounded while serving in Iraq in 2005.

He also spent years in the intelligence world, working as a covert case officer for the CIA from 1990 to 1996, for the Defense Intelligence Agency from 2007 to 2010, and at various government agencies and defense contractors in between. Since 2012 he has run his own consulting business.

Prosecutors say that business was failing though, and Mallory’s only income in 2017 was the $25,000 he was paid by the Chinese spies.