Prosecutors: State Department employee lied about gifts from Chinese intelligence agents

(Image credit: Yuri Gripas/Getty Images)

published 30 March 2017

Federal prosecutors say a State Department worker was treated to lavish gifts and even a furnished apartment by a pair of Chinese intelligence agents in exchange for sensitive information.

Candace Claiborne, 60, started working for the State Department in 1999, and had a top security clearance. She was arrested Tuesday, and charged with obstructing an official proceeding and making false statements to the FBI. In a complaint, prosecutors allege that Claiborne accepted cash, an iPhone, a laptop, vacations, and meals worth thousands of dollars, and she was targeted by the agents in an attempt to glean information on political, economic, and security policies that could affect China. In one case, prosecutors say, Claiborne was wired $2,500 by a Chinese intelligence officer, and they asked in return for an "internal evaluation" made by the U.S. government at an economic conference with the Chinese government.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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