Free Republic

The FBI has arrested a State Department official who is charged with concealing extensive contacts with China's intelligence service. Candace Marie Claiborne, an office management specialist who held a top-secret security clearance, faces charges of obstructing an FBI probe and making false statements about years-long contacts with two Chinese intelligence agents. Claiborne, 60, worked for the State Department since 1999 and was posted at the headquarters in Washington, as well as U.S. diplomatic posts in Beijing and Shanghai, along with posts in Baghdad and Khartoum, Sudan. A criminal complaint in the case said she conspired with two Chinese intelligence agents...

A State Department employee pleaded not guilty in court on Wednesday after being charged in an FBI investigation, the Department of Justice announced. Candace Claiborne, who worked in the Caucasus Affairs office of the State Department, is being charged for two felony offenses. Claiborne is being charged with “obstructing an official proceeding and making false statements to the FBI, both felony offenses, for allegedly concealing numerous contacts that she had over a period of years with foreign intelligence agents,” a Department of Justice release said. Claiborne, who has a Top Secret security clearance, failed to disclose her foreign contacts abroad...