re: When Trump Phones Friends, the Chinese and the Russians Listen and Learn

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On 6 August 2018, Feinstein issued a statement on the matter, saying that several years earlier she had been informed by the FBI about the possible recruitment efforts targeting one of her staff and had removed the individual when she learned the details:

Five years ago the FBI informed me it had concerns that an administrative member of my California staff was potentially being sought out by the Chinese government to provide information. He was not a mole or a spy, but someone who a foreign intelligence service thought it could recruit.

The FBI reviewed the matter, shared its concerns with me and the employee immediately left my office. He never had access to classified or sensitive information or legislative matters. The FBI never informed me of any compromise of national security information.

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On 27 July 2018, as part of a broader story about foreign espionage in Silicon Valley, Politico reported that a member of California senator Dianne Feinstein’s staff had been recruited by Chinese intelligence five years earlier and that this staffer “reported back to China about local politics.” The article cited “former intelligence officials” in noting that:

Former intelligence officials told me that Chinese intelligence once recruited a staff member at a California office of U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, and the source reported back to China about local politics. (A spokesperson for Feinstein said the office doesn’t comment on personnel matters or investigations, but noted that no Feinstein staffer in California has ever had a security clearance.)

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