Free Republic

Two convicted Chinese spies helped Arcadia’s former mayor become a successful SoCal politician — who secretly took orders from Beijing. Yaoning “Mike” Sun and John Chen helped Eileen Wang win office and secretly reported back to their masters in the People’s Republic of China, according to court documents. Sun took orders from Chen as he served as the campaign manager and business partner of Wang in her successful 2022 run for Arcadia City Council. When Wang won her seat, Chen told Sun to send a report to their PRC masters calling Wang a “new political star.” Wang would “go against...

A Southern California mayor refused to comment on her former fiancé and campaign staffer, who was sentenced to four years in federal prison for "acting as an illegal agent of the People's Republic of China." Last week, Arcadia Mayor Eileen Wang's former fiancé, Yaoning "Mike" Sun, was sentenced to four years in federal prison for acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government. Wang has not been accused of any wrongdoing in connection with the case and refused to comment on it during Arcadia's first City Council meeting since the sentencing. Sun pleaded guilty in October 2025 to one...

The mayor of Arcadia, California, has been charged in federal court with acting as an illegal agent of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the Justice Department announced today. Eileen Wang, 58, of Arcadia, is charged via information with one count of acting in the United States as an illegal agent of a foreign government. In a related filing, Wang has agreed to plead guilty to the felony count, which comes with a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. She is expected to make her initial appearance this afternoon in U.S. District Court in downtown Los Angeles. Wang is...

A Chinese researcher at the University of Michigan took his own life after being subjected to 'hostile questioning' by federal agents, it is claimed. Danhao Wang, an assistant research scientist in the school's College of Engineering, died on March 20 inside the university after falling to his death. Police said they are investigating his death as a 'possible act of self-harm', with the China Ministry of Foreign Affairs claiming he took his life after 'hostile questioning'. A statement, which did not name Wang, said that the postdoctoral scholar took his life 'after being subjected to hostile questioning by U.S. law...

California candidate for governor Eric Swalwell insisted “the case is closed” at an abrupt news conference — as FBI Director Kash Patel threatens to release investigative files about a suspected Chinese spy who infiltrated his office. “This case is closed — the bureau said, over 10 years ago, all we did was help,” Swalwell said in brief remarks Monday outside the Phillip Burton Federal Building in San Francisco. The East Bay rep was surrounded by SEIU union officials as he blasted FBI Director Kash Patel as a “temporary employee” engaged in a “horrendous abuse of power” in digging up the...

Millions of Americans depend on medical devices — pacemakers, infusion pumps and patient monitors — to stay alive. But some of that equipment is made in China and it may be spying on us – or worse. In January 2025, the Food and Drug Administration and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued a stark joint warning: patient monitors made by Contec Medical Systems, a Chinese company based in Qinhuangdao, contain a hidden backdoor. These devices, used in hospitals across the United States, can transmit sensitive patient data to a hard-coded IP address in China. Even more troubling, the backdoor...

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro claimed that former Vice President Kamala Harris' election team asked whether he was an "agent of the Israeli government" while discussing his potential as a vice presidential candidate.

State prosecutors on Monday filed an indictment against a Rishon Lezion resident accused of carrying out surveillance missions on behalf of a foreign agent, including filming the street outside the home of former prime minister Naftali Bennett, in what authorities described as another attempt by Iranian intelligence to collect information on senior Israeli figures. The indictment, filed with the Central District Court in Lod, charges Lekachao Demsash, 31, with contact with a foreign agent, an offense that carries a potential prison sentence. Prosecutors have also requested that he be held in custody until the conclusion of legal proceedings, citing the...

Ames, a 31-year CIA veteran, admitted being paid $2.5 million by Moscow for US secrets from 1985 until his arrest in 1994. WASHINGTON: CIA turncoat Aldrich Ames, who betrayed Western intelligence assets to the Soviet Union and Russia in one of the most damaging intelligence breaches in US history, has died in a Maryland prison. He was 84. A spokesperson for the Bureau of Prisons confirmed Ames died Monday. Ames, a 31-year CIA veteran, admitted being paid $2.5 million by Moscow for US secrets from 1985 until his arrest in 1994. His disclosures included the identities of 10 Russian officials...

Aldrich Ames, the most murderous turncoat in the history of the Central Intelligence Agency, whose betrayal in working for the Soviet Union went undetected for almost a decade, died on Monday. He was 84 and had been a federal prisoner, serving life without parole, since 1994.

FBI Director Kash Patel said on Oct. 15 that the agency is cracking down on espionage by foreign adversaries, with an increase in arrests as high as 50 percent. “We have gone after espionage activities against our main counterparts in China, Russia, and Iran,” he said at a press conference. “In China alone, we’ve had over a 50 percent increase in espionage arrests alone, and prosecutions,” Patel said. “In Iran, we have had a 50 percent increase, again, in espionage cases. And in Russia, we had a 33 percent increase in espionage cases alone.” State Department employee Ashley Tellis, arrested...

FBI Director Kash Patel’s country music-singing girlfriend is suing the ex-FBI agent-turned podcast bro who suggested she was a “former Mossad Agent” sent as a “honeypot” to compromise Patel.Alexis Wilkins, 26, who has allegedly been dating Patel since 2023, is seeking $5 million in damages from self-professed “recovering FBI agent” Kyle Seraphin in a defamation lawsuit filed in an Austin, Texas federal court on Wednesday.Alekins Wilkins hugs Kash Patel after being sworn in as FBI director. Leah Millis/REUTERS In the complaint, Wilkins’ attorney wrote that Seraphin had “maliciously lied” about Wilkins by “falsely asserting that she—an American-born country singer—is an...

After his first arrest for sex crimes, Jeffrey Epstein tried to get into a new line of work: surveillance. In 2015, he partnered with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to invest in a security tech startup called Reporty Homeland Security, now known as Carbyne. Leaked emails show that Epstein was using Barak to seek out opportunities in the surveillance industry and build connections with powerful figures around the globe, including American businessman Peter Thiel, the former director of Israeli signals intelligence, and two people in Russian President Vladimir Putin's circle. After he was first caught sexually exploiting teenage girls,...

I posted this in /conspiracy but it's really News and should not be lost there. (3 min 40 sec of the video) Tucker says Mike Pompeo allegedly committed a felony in exploring how to kidnap Julian Assange in 2017 when CIA director. Conspiracy to commit murder. Stunning.

The treatment of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is facing the threat of extradition from Britain to the US on espionage charges, is putting his life "at risk", according to an independent UN rights expert. "Unless the UK urgently changes course and alleviates his inhumane situation, Mr Assange's continued exposure to arbitrariness and abuse may soon end up costing his life," the UN special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, Nils Melzer, said in a statement. Mr Melzer, who visited the 48-year-old Australian in a London prison on May 9, nearly a month after his arrest...

Forget the flashy gadgets and high-speed chases. A film praised by intelligence experts reveals the gritty, moral complexities of espionage like never before.Spy films have long captured the public imagination with their blend of glamour, danger and intrigue. Yet ask anyone with real intelligence experience and you’ll hear a very different story - one filled with ambiguity, ethical dilemmas and painstaking surveillance, far removed from fun gadget-filled action sequences. That’s why Spyscape, the museum and entertainment brand devoted to espionage, consulted real-life CIA officers to find out which film truly gets it right. They got to pick fifteen films that...

Ukrainian official blames Russia for daylight murder of senior security officerA senior Ukrainian spy has been shot dead by an assassin using a silenced pistol on the streets of Kyiv.Col Ivan Voronich, a senior operational officer in Ukraine’s security service, was crossing the street near a block of flats in the capital’s Holosiivskyi district when he was approached by a man with a gun on Thursday morning.Footage shared on Telegram showed the moment Col Voronich was shot five times next to a row of parked cars.Following the attack, a man can be seen running along the street in the opposite...

There’s something new under the sun. Linda Sun, the embattled ex-aide to Govs. Kathy Hochul and Andrew Cuomo accused of being a Chinese spy, will stay free on bail after facing a federal judge Monday on fresh bribery charges. Sun and her husband Chris Hu both pleaded not guilty during a four-minute proceeding in Brooklyn that set the stage for a potentially sprawling trial focused on accusations she served as a foreign agent for the People’s Republic of China and Chinese Community Party while working at the highest level of New York’s government. A federal grand jury last week returned...

A former CIA analyst pleaded guilty today to retaining and transmitting Top Secret National Defense Information to people who were not entitled to receive it, information which was publicly posted on a social media platform in October 2024.According to court documents, Asif William Rahman, 34, of Vienna, was an employee of the CIA since 2016 and had a Top-Secret security clearance with access to Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI).“Mr. Rahman betrayed the trust of the American people by unlawfully sharing classified national defense information he swore an oath to protect,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s...

An ex-CIA analyst was sentenced to more than three years in prison Wednesday for leaking top secret documents about Israel’s plans to retaliate against Iran last year. Asif William Rahman, 34, had pleaded guilty in January to two counts of willful retention and transmission of classified information after he was arrested for absconding with records from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency last October that indicated Israel was planning to launch airstrikes in response to a massive Iranian missile attack. Rahman, who had been a CIA employee since 2016 and had access to top secret documents, leaked the stolen information on social...