Ex-FBI Agent Avoids Jail for Exposing Informant’s Identity

SAN FRANCISCO — A former FBI agent who disclosed an informant’s identity to the target of an investigation of alleged Chinese espionage will receive a sentence of one year probation and a $1,000 fine, under a plea bargain approved yesterday by a federal judge.During a brief hearing in federal court in Los Angeles, Judge R. Gary Klausner said he would abide by the deal under which the former FBI agent, Denise Woo, pleaded guilty in June to a single misdemeanor count of disclosing confidential information, according to a prosecutor, Alicia Villarreal.The outcome is a far cry from the 10 years or more of prison time Ms. Woo could have received if convicted on the five felony charges brought against her in 2004, including making false statements to the FBI, disclosing a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act wiretap, and exposing a covert agent in violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982.“This was, in no uncertain terms, a big win for Denise Woo,” one of her attorneys, Michael Camunez, told The New York Sun.Ms. Villareal said she could not comment on the defense statement.The lenient treatment may stem from the government’s reluctance for a trial that could draw more attention to a morass of misconduct and mismanagement in the FBI’s counterintelligence program targeting China.The supervisor of the FBI’s China squad in Los Angeles, James Smith, had a 20-year-long sexual relationship with a source he supervised, Katrina Leung.In 2003, Leung was indicted on charges she was, in effect, a double agent for the Chinese government. Smith also was indicted for allowing Leung access to classified documents.Smith ultimately pleaded guilty to a single felony count of making a false statement and was sentenced to three months home confinement. A judge tossed out Leung’s case due to an alleged ethical breach by prosecutors, but she later pleaded guilty to false statement and tax charges, receiving probation and a fine.Leung also carried on a sexual relationship with another FBI counterintelligence supervisor, William Cleveland Jr., though he was never charged with a crime.Ms. Woo’s misconduct took place in a probe Smith oversaw of a person identified in court papers only as J.W. A magazine, American Lawyer, has identified J.W. as a Raytheon engineer, Jeffrey Wang. He was never charged with a crime.FBI officials brought Ms. Woo into the case because she was a friend of Mr. Wang’s wife. Most details of the investigation are classified, but a government report and court records indicate that Ms. Woo told Mr. Wang the identity of an FBI source who claimed Mr. Wang sold information to a Chinese intelligence agent.Prosecutors contended that Ms. Woo’s misconduct had little or nothing to do with the more sensational case against Smith and Leung. However, a report about the Leung scandal released in June by the Justice Department’s inspector general disclosed that the cases were deeply intertwined. The report said the individual who triggered the probe of Mr. Wang also told the FBI that Leung was a Chinese spy and was “in bed with” the Los Angeles FBI.The inspector general found that “unbeknownst to anyone,” Smith “briefed Leung and consulted her concerning all aspects of the investigation” of the Raytheon employee. In addition, the source who spurred the two probes told the FBI that Leung had alerted Beijing about the Raytheon probe.The inspector general, Glenn Fine, faulted the FBI for lax oversight in the Leung case, but the public report does not pass judgment on its handling of the probe of Mr. Wang.Ms. Woo’s defense attorneys contend that as a friend of Mr. Wang, she should never have been asked to take part in the FBI’s investigation of him. “What a terrible situation Denise was put in, what an ultimately unfair situation she was put in from the beginning,” Mr. Camunez said. “She’s acknowledged she made a mistake, but the mistake has nothing to do with the original charges brought by the government.”A researcher of government secrecy with the Federation of American Scientists, Steven Aftergood, said the use of Ms. Woo in the investigation may have been improper, but tipping off a suspect is also improper.“Not all disclosures are in the public interest,” Mr. Aftergood said. “We can’t have effective law enforcement if people are blabbing out of turn.”The statute Ms. Woo ultimately pleaded guilty to was written to address misuse of trade secrets and precludes government employees from disclosing information about the processes and style of work of “any person, firm, partnership, corporation, or association.” The plea agreement asserts that the FBI was the person whose confidential data were disclosed.Mr. Aftergood called the application of the statute in Ms. Woo’s case “quite unusual.” He said the parties probably selected it as “a sort of token violation that permits a conviction without being unduly severe.”The Sun reported in March that an earlier plea deal in the case fell through when Ms. Woo refused to go forward after signing a plea agreement. The government sought to use Ms. Woo’s statements in connection with the aborted plea against her at trial, but Judge Klausner ruled the statements inadmissible.The government appealed, but the 9th Circuit judges who heard the dispute seemed inclined to rule against the government. Under the new plea deal, both sides agreed to seek to withdraw the appeal, heading off a ruling that could hamper prosecutors in other cases.

Ex-FBI Agent Avoids Jail for Exposing Informant’s Identity

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