Thread by @BBuchman_CNS

REWIND: I covered the Kevin Patrick Mallory trial last summer. Mallory, a former CIA officer, conspired to sell U.S. defense secrets to the Chinese. Tomorrow, he will be sentenced and could receive life in prison.
PREVIEW: courthousenews.com/ex-cia-officer…

The hearing kicks off at USDC EDVA at 1 p.m. Thursday. I will be there for @CourthouseNews.

Mallory's trial truly was like something out of a great spy novel.
If you missed my coverage of the trial, catch up here:
courthousenews.com/spy-trial-begi…

From Day 2 of the trial last year, when prosecutors played a very suspicious (and ultimately damning) phone call Mallory made from prison after his arrest:
courthousenews.com/covert-phone-c…

“You build trust. You exchange gifts of increasing value. Maybe you start by giving them movie tickets. Then you build and build and maybe you exchange cell phones."- Former DIA under secy Hugh Michael Higgins explaining finer points of espionage to jurors
courthousenews.com/former-intelli…

More background from the trial:
Had FBI agents overlooked a crumpled ball of tinfoil tossed haphazardly in former CIA contractor Kevin Mallory’s junk drawer during a raid of his home last June, he may never have faced espionage charges in federal court.
courthousenews.com/ex-cia-contrac…

Sidebar: Judge Ellis here, is indeed the same Judge Ellis of the Manafort trial.

A bit more on the sentencing side of things here - Mallory asked the court on 3/29 to consider a similar espionage case, US v. Ron Rockwell Hansen, when delivering his sentence. My colleague @Bright_lamp covered the Hansen matter recently: courthousenews.com/former-us-defe…

Mallory notes: Hansen communicated w/the Chinese for yrs; he only spoke to them for a few mos. Hansen sent current info, Mallory says he only tried to pass off docs that were yrs old & irrelevant. Hansen got $800K - 30x the amount Mallory rec'd.
bit.ly/2KiaRGb

Also in his memo, Mallory notes Hansen only received a 180 month sentence - he has requested Judge Ellis only sentence him to 120 months, or 10 years.

Gov't responded to Mallory on 4/2. They eviscerate his request and they start from jump street - Hansen plead guilty. Mallory did not. By pleading guilty, Hansen saved the gov't time & mitigated risk because they didn't have to go through a lengthy review pd for classified docs.

There is also some nuance behind what Hansen shared and how, the govt says:

Sentencing guidelines say Mallory should get life. If you ask me, I think a life sentence is unlikely.

Here is the government's response in full: documentcloud.org/documents/5793…