OPINION:
A former CIA officer named Kevin Mallory, 60, is now on trial for allegedly selling secrets about American “human assets” — read: spies — and other sensitive data to the Chinese.
This is not the type of P.R. the agency needs right now. This is not the type of news that will allay the concerns of those who see the CIA through “Deep State” lens, as part and parcel of an underground ramrod against all things Donald Trump.
Mallory denies the charges.
He says, through his attorney, Geremy Kamens, that while he was working as an independent consultant, members of a Chinese think tank offered him a job. He says he told the CIA about the offer. He says he’s a loyal American who then tricked the Chinese into thinking he was actually considering the job offer as a means of learning details about their own intel ops — to report back to American authorities.
Prosecutors don’t agree and say Mallory only told the CIA about the job offer in order to cover his true intents. Prosecutors say the fact that he was caught at Chicago O’Hare International Airport on a return flight from Shanghai with $16,500 of unreported cash in his possession is proof of his snaky spy game. Prosecutors say they also have text messages exchanged between Mallory and the Chinese that show the ex-CIA agent was involved in shady, subversive dealings.
If convicted, Mallory could face life behind bars.
But the espionage story comes at a bad time for the CIA, when the agency is fighting to recover from “Deep State” accusations hurled its way — and the FBI’s way — by the president and Trump supporters.
True, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo just said this a few days ago about the existence of a “Deep State” at select agencies on Capitol Hill: “I don’t believe there’s a deep state at the State Department. … You know, this term ’deep state’ has been thrown around. I’ll say this, the employees that worked for me at the CIA nearly uniformly were aimed at achieving the president’s objectives and America’s objectives.”
That may be; the federal agencies are filled with good Americans who want nothing more than to advance a cause that benefits the country, the citizens — even the Constitution.
But there are also forces at play in government that work with more selfish motivations, and that have eyes cast more toward the global good than the national cause. They’re the secretive, behind-the-scenes influencers — call ’em deep staters, if you will.
It’s not that Mallory is part of this movement. But his trial sure doesn’t paint the agency, already embattled a bit over the months, in a more positive light. It only furthers the impression that some serious cleaning and clearing needs to take place within America’s intel agencies — some serious draining of the swamp.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley.
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