Jerry Chun Shing Lee spy trial: China gave ex-CIA agent US$100,000 and promised to take care of him ‘for life’, US court documents say

The Hong Kong-born Lee, suspected of being at the centre of one of the largest US intelligence breaches in decades, is expected to plead not guilty

The Hong Kong-born Lee, who was a CIA officer between 1994 and 2007, is also alleged to have deposited hundreds of thousands of dollars more in illicit payments from his Chinese handlers into his personal HSBC accounts in Hong Kong.

Lee was arrested by FBI agents in January after his flight from Hong Kong landed at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

He is scheduled to be arraigned in a federal court in Virginia on Friday, where he is expected to plead not guilty to one count of conspiracy to gather or deliver national defence information to aid a foreign government, as well as two counts of unlawful retention of national defence information.

Federal prosecutors initially accused him of having illegally kept notebooks containing sensitive information about CIA operations. But last week he was accused of a far more serious crime – conspiring to commit espionage.

Lee, 53, was indicted on May 8 by a federal grand jury in Virginia, and is due to be arraigned at 9am on Friday in Alexandria before US District Judge TS Ellis III.

Lee, also known as Zhen Cheng Li, has been described by many as a mole at the centre of one of the most serious US intelligence breaches in decades, after 18 to 20 informants in China were killed or imprisoned. The New York Times reported last year that the first signs of trouble that led to the dismantling of the US spy network in China surfaced in 2010. The FBI and the CIA then opened a joint investigation.

According to the indictment – which did not touch on the consequences of Lee’s alleged espionage – he met two intelligence officers from China’s Ministry of State Security in Shenzhen, a city bordering Hong Kong, in April 2010, and they gave him “a gift of $100,000 cash in exchange for his cooperation”, with the promise that “they would take care of him for life”.

Those officers, according to the indictment, requested at least 21 pieces of information, most asking Lee to reveal sensitive information about the CIA, including about national defence.

The indictment noted that the Chinese intelligence and security agency, and its bureaus, were tasked with conducting clandestine human source operations, of which the US was a principal target.

Court documents said that in May 2010, Lee made a cash deposit of HK$138,000 (US$17,468) into one of his personal HSBC accounts in Hong Kong.

“This would be the first of hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash deposits Lee made” until December 2013, the documents read.

Prosecutors mentioned as further evidence a document created on Lee’s laptop that included information on places where the CIA would assign officers, and the location of a sensitive operation.

“It was later determined that the information Lee included in this document was national defence information of the US that was classified at the secret level,” court papers read.

The indictment also said that in response to a request from Chinese intelligence officers, Lee drew a sketch of the floor plan of a particular CIA facility abroad.

According to court documents, the Chinese requests continued into at least 2011.

Lee is also accused of having made several false statements to US authorities.

http:// www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-law-and-crime/article/2146430/court-documents-claim-china-promised-take

Pickle Factory

Just a small snippet here.

States that the Pickle Factory calls it self "A Highly Credible Source"

https:// www.sott.net/article/264376-About-that-greatest-whistleblower-ever-Ellsberg-Snowden-and-the-Secret-Team

>>1440439

Just a thought:

Media always uses the term

Highly Credible Source

Could the Media be the Pickle Factory?

Possible?

>>1440520

I have a feeling Jackie, Jr, Caroline had them and waited for the right time to get this out to the right person, Trump and Jr. had a very close personal relationship. So I don't doubt it is possible.

J. J. Pickle Research Campus

The original site was only 402 acres (1.6 km²) and only extended as far west as the railroad. It was originally a magnesium plant during World War II and was owned by the United States government. Following the conclusion of the war, the site was declared surplus, and UT engineering professors C. Read Granberry and J. Neils Thompson sought to lease and eventually purchase the site for the University. The lease agreement was reached in 1946, and certain research projects began to be moved to the new campus.

In 1949, with the help of then-Congressman Lyndon B. Johnson, the University purchased the site, now named the Off-Campus Research Center (OCRC), from the federal government. In 1953, it became the Balcones Research Center, so named for the Balcones Escarpment which runs through that part of the city.

Over the years, the University continued to develop the campus, whose tenants made significant contributions to research in the areas of defense, nuclear physics, and space flight. It received a clear title to the property in 1971, and in 1974 purchased another tract of land west of the railroad, bringing the site to its current area.

The University again renamed the campus in 1994, this time for former Congressman and UT alumnus J. J. Pickle. When he was Austin's congressional representative, Pickle was instrumental in bringing major research efforts to the campus. Pickle died in 2005.

The Pickle Research Campus is not a full college campus: there are no dormitories, and most classes held there are for working professional programs (such as the Executive Masters program). Other than normal campus operations and a cafeteria / conference center, it is strictly a research facility.

Due to the sensitive nature of some of the research being done at the PRC, it is also a closed campus. On a normal weekday, access to the campus is restricted to University students, faculty, and staff with parking permits, as well as expected guests. After hours or on weekends, access is restricted to approved personnel only. A shuttle runs between the two campuses on weekdays. Many students and some faculty/staff, especially those living in north Austin, opt to park at PRC and ride the shuttle due to the limited parking on the main campus.

Today, the campus houses approximately 100 buildings. Many of the campus's original 29 buildings, most of which were built in the early 1940s, are still in use today. The vast majority of the campus is contained on the original site. Additionally, part of the west tract between Loop 1 and US 183 has been leased to retailers such as Office Depot.

In 2003, the UT System Board of Regents and Simon Property Group reached a $130 million lease agreement under which Simon would build a shopping mall on 46 acres (186,000 m²) of unused PRC land along Loop 1 and across from another Simon Property Group venture - the Domain. Construction on the Arbor Walk began in 2005, with its first retail stores opening in October 2006.

Despite all this, a significant amount of the campus remains undeveloped. While there are roads throughout the campus, many of them border empty plots of land. UT administrators have announced plans to eventually develop the PRC into a full-fledged campus, but they are only preliminary. Visitors will also observe numerous bluebonnets, the Texas state flower, at the PRC. They are visible outside the campus from Burnet Road, but can be found in various places throughout the site.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._J._Pickle_Research_Campus#History