WASHINGTON — The FBI missed many opportunities to identify a suspected Chinese spy and her FBI lover, including a tip that she "was in bed with" the bureau's Los Angeles office, a Justice Department internal review said Wednesday. Katrina Leung, a Chinese-American paid informant for the FBI, and her handler, former counterintelligence agent James J. Smith, were able to deceive the FBI about their romantic relationship for nearly 20 years, Justice Department inspector general Glenn A. Fine said. In all, the FBI paid Leung $1.7 million over 18 years, Fine said.
| That's a little over 94K per year. Not bad for lying on your back. |
| What makes you think she only took the bottom postion?? LOL |
The FBI "relied on Smith to resolve concerns about Leung, and failed to follow up further to ensure that he had done so," Fine said. Smith told Fine's investigators that Leung got the information from him. No one at the FBI suspected they were lovers, even after a supervisor who went to surprise Smith at the airport after a trip to London also saw Leung there at the same time, Fine said.
| "I was, er, tailing her. Yeah, that's the ticket!" |
| I'd say that was a "yes" |
"It is particularly puzzling that the assistant director did not suspect Smith because the assistant director was overseeing the Robert Hanssen espionage investigation at the time," he said. FBI agent Hanssen was caught spying for the Soviet Union and Russia for years. Even then, a preliminary report concluded that "an espionage relationship between an FBI employee and Leung is unlikely," Fine said. Finally, a special task force was created in 2002 after FBI Director Robert Mueller, on the job for only a few months, expressed concern about the pace and scope of the investigation.
Smith and Leung were arrested in 2003 and indicted on various charges, the most serious of which related to misuse of classified information. Smith pleaded guilty to lesser charges in 2004. A federal judge dismissed the case against Leung, rebuking prosecutors for misconduct. While the government's appeal of the dismissal was pending, Leung agreed in December to plead guilty to making a false statement to the FBI and filing a false tax return.
