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Jerry Chun Shing Lee, a U.S. citizen who now lives in Hong Kong,
used to maintain a top secret clearance and began working for
the CIA in 1994.
The Justice Department said that in 2012, FBI agents searched
his hotel rooms during trips to Virginia and Hawaii. They
discovered he had two small books containing handwritten
information on details such as the true names and numbers of spy
recruits and covert CIA employees.
He was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New
York.
The case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for
the Eastern District of Virginia. But Lee made his first court
appearance on Tuesday before a federal magistrate judge in
Brooklyn. The judge ordered Lee held without bail.
A federal public defender who represented Lee at Tuesday's
hearing declined to comment.
According to an affidavit filed by an FBI agent, Lee, 53, served
in the U.S. Army from 1982 through 1986 and worked for the CIA
from 1994 through 2007.
The FBI agent wrote that Lee and his family left Hong Kong in
August 2012 to travel to northern Virginia. Along the way, they
stayed in hotels where the FBI found the books.
The small books were discovered inside Lee's luggage, sealed in
a small clear plastic travel pack.
The handwritten information inside ranged in terms of
classification, but the agent said at least one page contained
top secret information, "the disclosure of which could cause
exceptionally grave damage to the national security of the
United States."
The agent also noted that classified cables Lee wrote while he
was a case officer describing his interactions with CIA assets
were reflected in the two books.
Lee was interviewed by the FBI five separate times in 2013 and
never disclosed he had the books. He also met with former CIA
colleagues around that time without returning the materials to
the government, the Justice Department said.
(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; additional reporting by Nate
Raymond in Boston; Editing by Susan Thomas and Cynthia Osterman)[© 2018 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2018 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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