New in SpyWeek: More Hegseth Follies and China Spying Worries
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HEGSETH LEAKS, KEYSTONE COPS EDITION: The White House isn’t happy with a Pentagon leak investigation after an advisor to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claimed an aide had been outed by a National Security Agency wiretap. Dan Caldwell, a senior adviser to Hegseth, was initially blamed for the leak of an allegedly Top Secret document to a reporter that outlined options for the U.S. military to retake the Panama Canal. (Caldwell and two other senior aides were fired in a purge last month.) According to The Guardian, Tim Parlatore, Hegseth’s attorney and adviser who was overseeing the leak investigation, suggested that there had been a warrantless wiretap on Caldwell’s phone, a claim that alarmed White House aides because it would almost certainly have been illegal and a much bigger scandal than the leak. But White House aides later found the claim wasn’t valid and concluded that Parlatore fed them dubious information. The lawyer then denied having told anyone about an illegal NSA wiretap himself and maintained that any information he had was passed on to him by others at the Pentagon.
Phew. One Trump adviser recently told Hegseth that he did not think Caldwell – or any of the fired aides – had leaked anything, and that he suspected the investigation had been used to get rid of aides involved in the infighting with his first chief of staff.
RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA: A freshly declassified FBI document purports to show that Nellie Ohr, a researcher for Fusion GPS, the Washington, D.C.-based research firm funded by the DNC and Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign to investigate candidate Donald Trump’s connections with Russians, lied to Congress about her private communication with her Justice Department spouse without facing consequences. That’s according to Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who obtained the document.
Grassley says Ohr’s claim that she had no knowledge of the DOJ’s investigation may be a lie. Ditto for her claim that she had no involvement in the infamous Steele Dossier, a collection of reports by former MI6 Officer Christopher Steele produced for and promoted by Fusion GPS. An FBI referral says Ohr provided “demonstrably false information” to Congress, but the Justice Department failed to prosecute her. At the time, her husband, Bruce Ohr, was an associate deputy attorney general who investigated Russian mobsters, an interest they shared. Nellie Ohr had also worked as an open-source CIA contractor focused on Russian organized crime.
SPY GAMES: Remember human intelligence? CIA Director John Ratcliffe is scrambling to revive it. With China and Russia ramping up counterspy surveillance, traditional espionage tactics have hit a wall. One former official tells The Washington Post that recruitment of new agents has dropped by double-digit percentages since 2019. (Exact numbers are highly classified.) Someone who met with the CIA director recently described him as alarmed by the state of the agency’s human espionage capabilities. Spying has become tougher in a tech-heavy world of CCTV, cell phone-tracking devices, biometric sensors at border crossings, and facial recognition systems.
CIA SHOOTING: The woman shot by CIA police officers at their headquarters gate last week was driving drunk at the time of the incident, according to charging documents. According to Courtwatch, Monia Spadaro drove her Toyota Corolla from the wrong side of the highway into CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., at 3:38 a.m. on May 22. Spadaro allegedly ignored warning signs, veered in and out of lanes, and drove “at a high rate of speed” at the main security gate towards a CIA police officer. An officer fired multiple shots, resulting in Spadaro sustaining a gunshot wound. Spadaro had a prior conviction for driving under the influence.
SPOOK AID: The new Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, tasked with delivering aid in the Gaza Strip, has drawn controversy over its ties to Israel and security contractors with links to the CIA. The foundation, launched in 2025, employs contractors to secure and distribute food to Palestinians, but its independence was questioned after reports tied it to Israeli military interests. The New York Times reported that Israeli officials developed the project with private American security contractors, principally Philip F. Reilly, an ex-Green Beret and former senior CIA paramilitary officer who runs Safe Reach Solutions of Wyoming. By late 2024, a team led by Reilly had settled on the idea of forming a foundation to fund and hire private contractors to take over aid distribution in Gaze. Jake Wood, who resigned as head of the foundation, cited an inability to maintain neutrality. Despite this, the foundation plans to begin operations, with more than 1 million Palestinians set to receive aid, despite growing concerns over the project’s autonomy and political influence.
DIA LEAK THWARTED: A 28-year-old civilian IT specialist employed by the Defense Intelligence Agency was arrested for attempting to transmit national defense information to a friendly foreign government. Authorities said Nathan Laatsch sent an email to the unnamed government in March saying he did not “agree or align with the values of this administration” and was therefore “willing to share classified information” that he had access to, including “completed intelligence products, some unprocessed intelligence, and other assorted classified documentation.” After multiple communications with an FBI agent posing as an official of the foreign government, Laatsch was observed on DIA security cameras transcribing classified information to a notepad at his desk. Laatsch, who holds a Top Secret security clearance, has been working, of all places, for the DIA’s Insider Threat Division since 2019. He told the FBI agent he wasn’t interested in money but in citizenship in the friendly foreign government. Two people familiar with the investigation, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing case, told The Washington Post it was Germany.
USE THE FORCE: An amateur sleuth has exposed the websites that CIA informants used to communicate: disguised fan websites, including one for Star Wars. 404 Media reports that these covert pages, like those about extreme sports and Brazilian music, were a colossal misstep, leading to the deaths of CIA sources in China. The sites were shut down years ago after Iranian authorities caught on but it was too late. They were among several likely CIA-linked sites exposed by amateur sleuth Ciro Santilli, including a comedian fan site, one about extreme sports, and a Brazilian music one. Today, the CIA site, Star Wars Web, redirects to the CIA’s public web page. Former top CIA counterintelligence boss Sue Miller talks about Chinese espionage with Jeff Stein and Michael Isikoff on the current edition of the SpyTalk podcast.
CHINA’S HONDURAS GRIP: House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rick Crawford criticized China’s growing presence in Honduras, following reports of the first Confucius Institute opening and a major grid expansion project awarded to a CCP-controlled power company. Crawford, R-Ark., warned that the CCP’s increasing influence in the Western Hemisphere could undermine U.S. interests, urging stronger American engagement with Latin American nations. “In one day’s worth of reporting, we have seen the CCP dig its claws into the Honduran power grid and education system,” Crawford said. “The current leadership of Honduras is playing a dangerous game with the Honduran people’s future by partnering with the corrupt CCP’s exploitative foreign policy.”
TROOPS IN TAIWAN: The U.S. has quietly ramped up military support for Taiwan, deploying 500 trainers—more than previously disclosed. Testifying May 15 before the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, retired Adm. Mark Montgomery called for double that number to help Taiwan build a "counter-intervention force." While details on the composition of the trainers remain unclear, many are no doubt performing intelligence roles as tensions with China continue to escalate. The presence of U.S. military personnel in Taiwan, first confirmed in 2021, was officially reported to number 41 in December 2023. “If we are going to give them billions of dollars in assistance, sell them tens of billions of dollars’ worth of U.S. gear, it makes sense that we would be over there training and working,” Montgomery said.
COMEY SLAMS BONGINO: Former FBI Director James Comey, fired by Trump in 2017, criticized the FBI’s current priorities, specifically calling out a tweet from one time MAGA gadfly, now FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino. Bongino had announced on X that the agency was refocusing resources on several high-profile investigations, including the Jan. 6 D.C. pipe bombs and the leaked Supreme Court draft on abortion. In a TV hit promoting his new thriller, FDR Drive, Comey, seemingly baffled by Bongino’s social media activity, told CNN, “It’s a huge adjustment to go from podcaster to FBI deputy director, but I don’t understand this tweet.” He suggested the announcement seemed more aimed at Bongino’s former podcast audience than addressing actual agency needs. Comey said he is gravely concerned for the nation’s premier law enforcement agency. “Nothing in their life or their career gives me confidence that they know anything about leading an organization like that,” Comey said. “And so, I would have serious doubts.”
PATEL SLAMS COMEY: Hours later on Wednesday, FBI Director Kash Patel dismissed Comey’s criticism. In a Fox News interview, Patel referenced Comey’s “Seashellgate” 86 47 Instagram post, which Trump and his national security team ballooned into an assassination threat. “Do you know how many copycats we’ve had to investigate as a result of that beachside venture from the former director?” Patel told Bret Baier. “Do you know how many agents I’ve had to take offline from chasing down child sex predators, fentanyl traffickers, terrorists because everywhere across this country, people are popping up on social media and think that a threat to the life of the President of the United States is a joke and they can do it because he did it?” Patel called Comey’s knocks on his leadership irrelevant, citing the former director’s role in what he called “the largest criminal conspiracy.” which he characterized as repackaging political information from overseas and using it to surveil Trump 2016 campaign figures. Patel said he won’t be lectured by Comey on how to run the FBI.
SMISH AND VISH: The FBI is sounding the alarm on a new phishing campaign targeting U.S. officials. Hackers are using “smishing”—text messages—and “vishing” —AI-generated voice recordings and fake links—to steal personal data. Since April, malicious actors have impersonated senior U.S. officials to target current or former senior federal or state government officials and their contacts.
POCKET LITTER:
Prosecutors in Germany say three people were charged with working for one of Russia’s intelligence agencies and could have been plotting to kill a man. (AP)
Two foreigners in the U.S.—an Englishman and a Chinese man—have been charged with tracking and harassing a Chinese dissident in the U.S. “The same individuals also are charged with trying to obtain and export sensitive U.S. military technology to China,” the announcement from FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said.
Completing his tour of intelligence agencies, Elon Musk visited the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on his way out of town this week. (X)
DNI Gabbard shows intel contractor around HQ (X) Is there something we missed? Or something you would like to see more of? Send your tips, corrections, and thoughts to SpyTalk@protonmail.com.
Jeff Stein contributed to this story.
