BREAKING: Former U.S. diplomatic officer Kevin Mallory arrested and charged with giving top-secret documents to Chinese agent. pic.twitter.com/hxW7BfvuKc — Josh Caplan (@joshdcaplan) June 22, 2017

Content originally published at iBankCoin.com

A former State Department employee was arrested Thursday and charged with espionage for allegedly transmitting Top Secret and Secret documents to a Chinese government agent, according to an affidavit filed with the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, VA.

Kevin Mallory, 60, of Leesburg is a self-employed consultant who speaks fluent Chinese. Court filings show that Mallory was an Army veteran who worked as a special agent for U.S. State Department's Diplomatic Security Service from 1987 to 1990. Since then, Mallory has worked for various government agencies and defense contractors, maintaining a Top Secret security clearance. The Washington Post reports that Mallory was also an employee of the CIA.

Mallory faces life in prison under the federal Espionage Act, and could qualify for the death penalty if certain conditions are met.

According to court filings, Mallory traveled to Shanghai in April and was stopped by Customs agents at O'Hare Airport in Chicago after failing to report $16,500 in cash in his carry-on bags. A month later, FBI agents interviewed Mallory - who told them that he met with two people from a Chinese think tank that he now suspects were Chinese intelligence agents.

The suspected operatives gave Mallory a "special communications device" to securely transmit documents, which he claimed was only used to transmit two unclassified "white papers" on U.S. policy matters.

However, when FBI forensics searched the device, they found several other documents which Mallory believed to have been deleted, according to the affidavit. One message from Mallory to the suspected Chinese agent read "your object is to gain information, and my object is to be paid." The Chinese agent's response was reportedly "my current object is to make sure your security and try to reimburse you."

Upon further analysis of the device, investigators found four classified documents - three of which were designated as Top Secret. According to the affidavit, Mallory was asked why some of the information at the top and bottom of certain pages was redacted - to which the alleged U.S. spy responded that it was to conceal the "Top Secret" designation so that "Unless read in detail, it appeared like a simple note," along with an assurance that the information was valuable.

Mallory appeared in court on Thursday wearing a gray tank top and black athletic shorts, and requested a court-appointed attorney. He was ordered held pending a Friday afternoon detention hearing.

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