0:00

This is the

0:03

SpyCraft 101 podcast. Welcome

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to your clandestine classroom.

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This is episode number

0:10

177 of the Spi-Craft

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is podcast. Today's of the is another solo

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episode Today's episode is another

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solo episode where I share

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some of my own research

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with you. Today I'm talking

0:23

about the very unusual case

0:25

of Richard Craig Smith. Smith. Craig

0:28

was a former agent who

0:30

was was arrested in

0:32

April passing classified for passing

0:34

classified information to a

0:36

KGB officer in Japan

0:38

on several occasions. a written article

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published a written article based on

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this episode on my page If are .com.

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a patron, not already a to but you'd

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like to support me there, you can sign up

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and read this article. plus lots lots of

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other exclusive articles I've written over

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the past few years. years.

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But before we get into this

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story, I I let you all know about

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2:17

the start. There are two

2:19

very different versions of Craig's

2:21

story. That is, of course,

2:23

very common regarding any criminal

2:25

trial. in which the defendant

2:27

pleads not guilty. But what

2:29

separates this case from many

2:31

others is that both the

2:33

prosecutors and the defense acknowledge

2:35

the truth of many of

2:37

the facts of the case.

2:39

Craig did meet with a

2:41

Soviet intelligence agent. He did

2:43

give him information on American

2:45

double agents, and he was

2:47

paid for this information. Craig

2:49

did not dispute this during

2:51

the trial, but his defense

2:54

was that he'd done it

2:56

at the behest of... case

2:58

officers from the CIA who

3:00

had approached him and recruited

3:02

him as a double agent

3:04

against the KGB. If that

3:06

was so, why was he

3:08

ever brought to trial in

3:10

the first place? Because the

3:12

CIA did not claim him

3:14

as one of their recruited

3:16

agents. So either he was

3:18

a spy and a traitor

3:20

or he was a double

3:22

agent left out in the

3:24

cold. And it would be

3:26

up to a jury to

3:28

decide which scenario seemed most

3:30

likely. Craig grew up in

3:32

a devout Mormon family and

3:34

moved to the Washington DC

3:36

area in 1959 when he

3:38

was 16 years old. Just

3:41

after graduating high school, he

3:43

was hired to work for

3:45

nine months as a micro

3:47

photographer for the CIA at

3:49

their brand new headquarters facility

3:51

in Langley, Virginia, where his

3:53

church bishop was already employed.

3:55

Following that short stint, he

3:57

went to Paris, France for

3:59

two years as a missionary

4:01

for his church. He then

4:03

enrolled in college at Brigham

4:05

Young University, but was drafted.

4:07

into the Army in 1967

4:09

before graduating. Craig was initially

4:11

assigned to the Army Security

4:13

Agency in a signals intelligence

4:15

role. Later on, he applied

4:17

to become a counter-intelligent special

4:19

agent, and after completing the

4:21

special agent course, he spent

4:23

one year at the Department

4:25

of Defense's Language School at

4:28

Monterey California, where he learned

4:30

Japanese. Craig and his wife

4:32

then moved to Japan for

4:34

the next three and a

4:36

half years. where he performed

4:38

counterintelligence duties. While he was

4:40

in Japan, he began working

4:42

in offensive counterintelligence operations, running

4:44

double agents against adversarial intelligence

4:46

agencies. According to Craig's biography,

4:48

this typically involved an American

4:50

soldier who was contacted by

4:52

a Soviet intelligence agent perhaps

4:54

while traveling abroad on leave,

4:56

for example. The soldier would

4:58

report the incident to army

5:00

counterintelligence. And in some cases,

5:02

Craig or other agents would

5:04

determine this was a good

5:06

opportunity to either identify foreign

5:08

agents or learn their current

5:10

methods and trade craft or

5:12

feed them false information or

5:14

perhaps all three. Double agent

5:17

operations are a mainstay of

5:19

intelligence agencies, so agents on

5:21

all sides are on guard

5:23

against them. That's one reason

5:25

why anyone who walks into

5:27

a foreign embassy offering information

5:29

is viewed initially with a

5:31

lot of suspicion. But when

5:33

the adversary is the one

5:35

who makes the first move

5:37

by contacting the soldier themselves,

5:39

that makes the double agent

5:41

much more believable and offers

5:43

a huge opportunity for counterintelligence

5:45

agents. In 1976, the Smith

5:47

family, which now included two

5:49

daughters, returned from Japan to

5:51

Washington DC, where he transferred

5:53

from uniformed service as a

5:55

non-commission officer into a civilian

5:57

billet as a counterintelligence agent.

5:59

and case officer. Two years

6:01

later, the family moved again,

6:04

this time to San Francisco,

6:06

where Craig took over a

6:08

small field office which was

6:10

responsible for all offensive counterintelligence

6:12

operations west of the Mississippi

6:14

River. The assignment was fulfilling,

6:16

but it kept him very

6:18

busy to the point that

6:20

Craig felt like he was

6:22

neglecting his family. When his

6:24

son Ian was born, he

6:26

decided to leave his intelligence

6:28

career behind and take the

6:30

family back to Utah. where

6:32

he grown up to try

6:34

to establish a more stable

6:36

upbringing for his children. He

6:38

resigned from his civilian position

6:40

with the Army in January

6:42

1980 and then started his

6:44

own business with a partner

6:46

called TimeSpan, which provided video

6:48

recording and editing services. The

6:51

company initially focused on recording

6:53

interviews with elderly family members

6:55

as a sort of keepsake

6:57

video journal. and later expanded

6:59

to filming commercials and documentaries.

7:01

Developing business relationships four timespan

7:03

eventually took Craig back to

7:05

Japan. He decided to organize

7:07

a trade show in Tokyo

7:09

in which businesses based in

7:11

Utah could meet with Japanese

7:13

companies to potentially find foreign

7:15

investors or partners. TimeSpan recorded

7:17

videos for 12 different companies

7:19

which they could take with

7:21

them to show off their

7:23

factories and businesses to the

7:25

Japanese. Organizing this first ever

7:27

trade show, Craig had to

7:29

make several trips to Tokyo

7:31

to arrange everything. One of

7:33

his first stops there was

7:35

the commercial section of the

7:38

U.S. Embassy. Trade show took

7:40

place in October 1981 and

7:42

was an overall success. Time

7:44

span worked to arrange other

7:46

similar shows in Tokyo and

7:48

even started planning trips to

7:50

Taiwan and Hong Kong to

7:52

show off real estate investment

7:54

opportunities in the US to

7:56

Chinese investors, although those eventually

7:58

fell through. He traveled

8:00

back and forth to Japan

8:02

at least least times in

8:04

1981 and 1982. this same period,

8:06

time around this same period. the

8:08

financial started to feel

8:11

the financial crunch for several different

8:13

reasons. after Craig started the

8:15

after Craig started the company. and

8:17

camcorders and other video equipment started

8:20

to drop in price become become

8:22

much more affordable and accessible

8:24

to the average consumer. and

8:26

all all the trips across the Pacific were

8:29

quite expensive. quite expensive. after

8:31

one of their major plan shows

8:33

fell through in 1982. TimeSpan was

8:35

forced to forced to declare bankruptcy.

8:37

and Craig had had to declare

8:39

personal bankruptcy as well. well. The The

8:42

company shut down and Craig had to

8:44

move on to something else entirely. entirely. However,

8:46

by that time Craig that time

8:48

Craig was already involved in something his

8:51

that his business partner and even his

8:53

family were unaware of. of. One

8:55

one night in July the year

8:57

before the year before Timespan closed

8:59

its doors. Craig was in his was in his

9:01

hotel room in Tokyo when the phone rang. rang.

9:03

A man A man identified

9:05

himself as Ken from the U.S. the

9:07

U .S. and asked and ask to meet. while

9:10

later, Ken little while later. Ken

9:12

arrived at Craig's hotel room, along with

9:14

another man. who called

9:16

himself Ishida. Craig assumed they were from

9:18

the assumed they were from the

9:20

commercial section. to talk and wanted to talk

9:22

about business development. but things took

9:24

an unexpected turn within a few minutes. a

9:27

few minutes. Craig realized they knew a

9:29

knew a surprising number of things

9:31

about his life, including details

9:33

of his work as a counterintelligence

9:35

agent. agent. They They mentioned

9:37

one of his fellow agents by name. whom

9:39

Craig Craig had worked with years

9:41

earlier. called him They also called

9:43

him by his middle name, right right from the

9:45

start. Most people would people would probably assume

9:47

he went by his first name Richard,

9:49

although that was not the case. the case. When

9:52

he he asked them who they were. Ken told him

9:54

told him they were from the agency. didn't clearly

9:57

didn't clearly state he meant the Central

9:59

Intelligence Agency. but that was the

10:01

implication as far as Craig was

10:03

concerned. They also did not present

10:05

to him any identification, not at

10:08

the first meeting or at any

10:10

future meetings. That certainly seems suspicious

10:12

at first glance, but Craig reasoned

10:14

that any ID they produced would

10:17

likely be fake anyway, so for

10:19

him, the presence or absence of

10:21

photo identification was essentially meaningless. It's

10:23

also incredibly unlikely that their real

10:26

names were Ken White and Danny

10:28

Ashita, of course. Craig recognized what

10:30

was happening immediately because of his

10:32

own training and experience with double

10:35

agent operations. They were trying to

10:37

get a feel for whether he

10:39

would make for a capable agent

10:41

himself. His background certainly indicated as

10:44

much, but he also had to

10:46

be willing and able to carry

10:48

out any assignments they gave him.

10:50

Craig was very cautious at first,

10:53

but... willingly signed a secrecy agreement

10:55

they presented to him at that

10:57

initial meeting. After that, they asked

10:59

him to carry a letter from

11:02

Tokyo back to the U.S. for

11:04

them as a courier. Craig agreed

11:06

and was given some specific instructions.

11:08

After arriving back in Los Angeles,

11:10

he was to open the letter

11:13

and retype it himself using his

11:15

own wording without changing the essential

11:17

meaning of the message. The letter

11:19

was an anonymous offer to the

11:22

Soviet consulate in San Francisco, offering

11:24

information on robotics and other technology.

11:26

If they were interested, the Soviets

11:28

could respond by placing a specifically

11:31

worded ad in the classified section

11:33

of a local newspaper. Craig did

11:35

that several times over the course

11:37

of 1981. On his frequent trips,

11:40

he'd meet with Ken and Danny,

11:42

receive an envelope. and take it

11:44

back to the US with him.

11:46

He was never offered any money

11:49

and he didn't ask for any

11:51

either. He saw it as his

11:53

patriotic duty to assist his government.

11:55

One year after the first meeting...

11:58

Ken and Danny asked for something

12:00

new. They told him that the

12:02

Soviet consulate had never responded to

12:04

the anonymous letter. It's possible that

12:07

they correctly saw it as a

12:09

trap and therefore took no action.

12:11

So Ken and Danny wanted to

12:13

try a more direct approach. They

12:15

wanted Craig to contact the Soviet

12:18

embassy in Tokyo in person. If

12:20

you went along with this, it

12:22

wouldn't be possible to remain anonymous

12:24

anymore. and he'd be putting himself

12:27

at risk. Craig knew that as

12:29

well as they did because that

12:31

was exactly the type of operation

12:33

he'd personally run during his time

12:36

with the army. After they discussed

12:38

the plan in detail and made

12:40

a few changes based on Craig's

12:42

recommendations, he agreed to go forward.

12:45

On November 5th, 1982, Craig called

12:47

the Soviet Tass News Agency, Office

12:49

in Tokyo from a Payphone, offering

12:51

the same sensitive information on robotics

12:54

that had been offered in the

12:56

anonymous letters. Tass normally had an

12:58

undercover KGB officer on staff, so

13:00

Craig and the men from the

13:03

agency knew this was a good

13:05

way to get in touch with

13:07

them. The task staffer on the

13:09

phone said they didn't handle that

13:12

kind of information, so he should

13:14

call the Soviet embassy instead. That's

13:16

exactly what Craig had expected. So

13:18

after waiting 20 minutes for tasks

13:20

to alert the embassy on his

13:23

behalf, he called himself and spoke

13:25

to someone who soon invited him

13:27

to the embassy's commercial compound. Once

13:29

Craig arrived, he spoke to a

13:32

man. He later found out was

13:34

KGB officer Victor Okunev. Craig did

13:36

not identify himself by name, and

13:38

he left his identification behind just

13:41

in case. He simply told Victor

13:43

that he was a former intelligence

13:45

officer. who had recently been diagnosed

13:47

with terminal cancer. He needed money

13:50

in order to set his family

13:52

up financially after his passing, which

13:54

might be very soon. So he

13:56

was... to to sell

13:59

information in exchange

14:01

for $25 ,000. The

14:03

first meeting is The first meeting

14:05

is very much about feeling each other

14:07

out. Victor to reach told Victor

14:09

to reach him at a certain hotel

14:11

the next day. to talk more. to talk

14:13

more. Victor took the Victor

14:16

took the initial bait. called on he

14:18

called on Craig using the false name he'd

14:20

given him. him and they met a second

14:22

time at the at the embassy. That That

14:24

meeting went even better. and Craig

14:26

provided some of the information he

14:28

was authorized to give. to in

14:30

order to build confidence with the KGB. with

14:33

the In return, they gave him $5 ,000

14:35

in cash. in cash arranged

14:37

another meeting for February 1983 about three

14:39

about three months in the

14:41

future. After the first the

14:43

first two meetings. Craig Craig didn't report to

14:45

Ken and Danny right away. right away.

14:47

Instead, he he flew back home. and called

14:49

a a phone number in Honolulu,

14:51

Hawaii. Hawaii, where he could leave a

14:53

vaguely worded message for Ken. Ken. without

14:56

arousing suspicion. This This

14:58

Honolulu phone number later turned out

15:00

to be a major element. element his espionage

15:02

the road, as I will mention.

15:04

as I will mention. One of the

15:06

ultimate goals of this whole operation.

15:09

was to to identify a

15:11

KGB officer working at the

15:13

Soviet consulate San Francisco. Francisco.

15:15

So Craig So Craig needed to arrange

15:17

to meet with someone inside the

15:19

U .S. of course was course was

15:21

much more accessible for him. than then

15:23

flying to Tokyo all the time. time. However,

15:26

that that didn't seem to work out. out. KGB

15:28

was was only willing to meet with

15:30

him in Tokyo. Tokyo, not anywhere near

15:32

their in San Francisco. San Francisco.

15:34

So in So in February,

15:37

he flew back across the Pacific

15:39

again. Before going, he Before going, he

15:41

and over had gone over information.

15:43

could be used that could be used

15:45

to bait the Soviets. selected a They had

15:47

selected a number of files on

15:49

double agent operations. could be which could

15:51

be disclosed had they had ended for one

15:54

reason or another. another. and which the the

15:56

Soviets already knew about. about, and thus would would

15:58

not put the agent in any danger. Between

16:01

the two of them, they'd whittled

16:03

it down from 12 operations to

16:05

8, which Craig would be able

16:07

to divulge as necessary in order

16:09

to build trust. At the end

16:11

of this meeting, which was his

16:14

third, with Victor Okunov, he was

16:16

paid $6,000, bringing his total to

16:18

$11,000. Victor also told him that,

16:20

although there wouldn't be able to

16:22

meet in San Francisco at any

16:24

point, they might be able to

16:26

schedule a meeting in Vienna Austria

16:28

sometime soon. This was a huge

16:31

development because Vienna was one of

16:33

the Soviets' best traditional meeting sites

16:35

going back decades, and it seemed

16:37

to indicate they were putting a

16:39

lot more trust in him as

16:41

an agent after just three meetings.

16:43

Craig thought this might be the

16:45

entry point into a relationship which

16:48

could potentially reveal a lot more

16:50

of the scope of the KGB's

16:52

foreign intelligence activities. So he was

16:54

very excited to report that back

16:56

to Ken and Danny as soon

16:58

as possible. Craig flew back

17:01

to Salt Lake City and reached

17:03

out to Ken via the Honolulu

17:05

phone number. A few days later,

17:07

he traveled to Hawaii to meet

17:09

with Ken, but someone he hadn't

17:11

seen before met him at a

17:13

park in the city. This man

17:16

identified himself as Dan, but was

17:18

not Danny Ishita. Dan handed Craig

17:20

a card from CMI investments, which

17:22

matched the one he'd been given

17:24

by Ken a year before. So

17:26

Craig knew they were working together.

17:29

But then Dan told him that

17:31

Ken wasn't able to meet, but

17:33

they'd be in touch. Craig left

17:35

Hawaii having accomplished nothing. Over the

17:37

next few weeks, he kept trying

17:39

to reach Ken, but only ever

17:42

talked to him one more time

17:44

on the phone. They never saw

17:46

each other in person again. Craig

17:48

was very confused as to what

17:50

was going on at the time,

17:52

but unbeknownst to him, big things

17:54

were happening in Honolulu. that were

17:57

causing chaos for agency operations in

17:59

the Pacific. An an

18:01

investment firm called Bishop,

18:03

Baldwin, Rewald, Dillingham,

18:05

and Wong. was was headquartered

18:07

on the 26th floor

18:09

of the Center in

18:11

Honolulu. That building That building is

18:13

now called Pacific Tower. Tower and

18:16

is located just off off

18:18

Boulevard. Boulevard. The The

18:20

firm handled some investments but

18:22

also served as a

18:24

CIA proprietary office. office. In fact,

18:26

In fact, there was no

18:28

one there named Bishop. Baldwin or Dillingham.

18:30

The firm firm was run by

18:32

Ronald Wewald and Sunlin Wong, and in

18:35

the summer of in the summer

18:37

of 1983 it was imploding. had been

18:39

running his own had been running his

18:41

own Ponzi scheme through the firm. his

18:44

defrauding his recent investors.

18:46

out their by paying out their

18:48

deposits directly. early to early investors

18:50

and skimming off some for himself. He

18:52

was living was living the but but

18:54

that sort of scheme always has

18:56

an expiration date. date. and And that time

18:58

had come. come. The firm The firm was

19:00

under investigation by the Securities and Exchange

19:02

Commission. and Exchange Commission. I

19:05

may end up doing an entirely separate

19:07

episode on Rewald and his and his firm there

19:09

was a lot going on there that

19:11

had nothing to do with to do with

19:13

Craig. but the short version of that

19:15

story for now for now that the

19:17

SEC investigation. plus attention

19:19

by journalists meant that all

19:21

operations run through Rewal's office to

19:24

a halt. a halt. And And that's

19:26

why Craig was suddenly unable to get

19:28

hold of Ken to get anyone else. or just

19:30

as things were really taking off

19:32

with really taking off with Victor in the

19:34

in June June 1983, after several months

19:37

of no contact with or

19:39

or anyone else at the

19:41

CIA. Craig felt Craig felt like he

19:43

couldn't wait any longer. to keep the keep

19:45

the momentum going with with Victor. So

19:47

he he called Paul Shields

19:49

an FBI counterintelligence agent. who

19:52

who was also a former bishop in his

19:54

church. his church. He asked Shields to put

19:56

him in touch with CIA's office

19:58

in San Francisco. Craig

20:01

called their office and spoke

20:03

to someone he later identified

20:05

as Charles Richardson He explained

20:07

that he'd been working with

20:09

Ken White, but could no

20:11

longer reach him Richardson told

20:13

him to keep his mouth

20:15

shut about the entire operation

20:17

and not to share anything

20:19

whatsoever with the FBI Then

20:21

he sent over another agency

20:23

employee to verify Craig's identity

20:25

in person about one month

20:27

later Craig was visited for

20:29

the first time by FBI

20:32

agents. Apparently because of the

20:34

information he'd shared over the

20:36

phone with Paul Shields. When

20:38

he spoke to Paul, he'd

20:40

only told him that he

20:42

needed to speak to someone

20:44

at CIA because it involved,

20:46

quote, contact overseas, unquote. Craig

20:48

knew that Paul would understand

20:50

that meant he'd been in

20:52

touch with a foreign intelligence

20:54

agency in some capacity. So

20:56

it looked like Paul knew

20:58

that regardless of his personal

21:00

relationship with Craig, he could

21:02

not just let something like

21:04

that go without the FBI

21:06

looking into it, which makes

21:08

sense. Craig voluntarily shared some

21:10

information with the FBI agents

21:13

about his activities at this

21:15

first meeting, but did not

21:17

disclose everything and continually directed

21:19

them to talk to the

21:21

CIA. He realized that had

21:23

been a mistake, but by

21:25

then it was too late.

21:27

And it also plausibly looked

21:29

like a fictitious story to

21:31

cover up espionage activities, of

21:33

course. Over the course of

21:35

eight months, beginning in July

21:37

1983, Craig was interviewed by

21:39

the FBI over a dozen

21:41

times and submitted to multiple

21:43

polygraph examinations. He passed the

21:45

poly exams repeatedly. But he

21:47

continued to withhold the details

21:49

of his work with the

21:51

CIA. He just reiterated that

21:54

there had been contact with

21:56

a KGB officer at the

21:58

Soviet Embassy in total. and

22:00

that he and that he had received money from

22:02

them. them, but that no unauthorized

22:04

information had been passed along. along.

22:06

And the and the FBI needed to

22:08

contact CIA to learn the rest of

22:11

the story. story. Craig became became

22:13

increasingly worried he was going

22:15

to be arrested. arrested, and turns out he

22:17

was right. he was right. In early early April

22:19

he was he was arrested. at Dulles

22:21

Airport in Virginia after flying in to

22:23

meet with FBI agents one

22:25

more time. more time. He He spent

22:27

the next five weeks in jail. jail. until

22:30

his family was able to come

22:32

up with the up ,000 bond to have

22:34

him freed until his trial. trial.

22:36

During his time in jail, he

22:39

was able to meet frequently

22:41

with two attorneys and they even

22:43

had some and in building his

22:45

defense from a very unexpected

22:47

source. unexpected source. Sherry Skidmore was

22:50

a renowned forensic psychologist

22:52

from UCLA. UCLA who who flew to

22:54

Virginia. for days to meet with

22:56

Craig. Craig. Afterwards,

22:58

she she suggested he talk with

23:00

one of her colleagues from the

23:02

US CLA Department of Psychology, one who

23:05

who had some experience with Soviet

23:07

intelligence operations. operations.

23:09

colleague was Dr. Nikolai

23:11

Kolklov, a a famous defector who you

23:13

might remember. from 45

23:15

of this podcast. He also interviewed

23:18

also interviewed Craig and concluded that

23:20

he was telling the truth about

23:22

his relationship with the CIA. Preparing

23:25

for Craig's trial took nearly

23:27

two years, including lots of

23:29

pretrial litigation. One major point

23:31

of one major point of contention.

23:34

was whether he that time was

23:36

whether he could present classified information

23:38

as part of his defense. is an issue

23:40

that has is an issue that has

23:42

come up in a lot of in the trials

23:44

in the past. reason, there For that

23:46

reason, there is something called the

23:48

Classified Information Procedures Act. Act concerning

23:50

the use relevance, or

23:52

admissibility. of classified information

23:54

sought to be used at trial. trial. Craig's

23:57

lawyers had uncovered evidence that

23:59

hide CIA to Ronald Rewalt's firm

24:02

in Honolulu as a way

24:04

of proving that he'd really

24:06

been working on their behalf.

24:08

But because Rewalt himself had

24:10

undergone a trial just before

24:12

Craig had, a lot of

24:14

documents regarding his firm were

24:17

classified and were thus unavailable.

24:19

Fortunately for Craig, the presiding

24:21

judge determined that certain information

24:23

constituted a valid part of

24:25

his defense and was therefore

24:27

admissible. I found something really

24:29

interesting when I looked up

24:31

the judge's opinion memorandum. Very

24:33

few of the trial documents

24:35

are available online, but I'm

24:38

going to read a portion

24:40

of that memorandum here. Quote,

24:42

the court also notes that

24:44

there is independent evidence tending

24:46

to corroborate Smith's story. Unquote.

24:48

Ben in brackets says, remainder

24:50

of paragraph deleted due to

24:52

classified information. paragraph deleted due

24:54

to classified information. And then,

24:56

quote, viewing all of this

24:59

evidence in the light most

25:01

favorable to Smith, a reasonable

25:03

juror could draw inferences that

25:05

would corroborate his story, unquote.

25:07

This is right in the

25:09

middle of a very long

25:11

opinion memorandum. Two entire paragraphs

25:13

and most of a third

25:15

were redacted from the published

25:17

unclassified opinion memorandum. But the

25:19

context before and afterwards indicates

25:22

there was something very provocative,

25:24

but still classified in the

25:26

evidence that appeared to validate

25:28

Craig's defense that he was

25:30

acting at the behest of

25:32

the CIA. Like I said,

25:34

most of the court documents

25:36

related to Craig's trial are

25:38

not available online, so there

25:40

is not much else to

25:43

go on. However, many espionage

25:45

cases never even go to

25:47

trial, because the defendants plead

25:49

guilty to lesser charges, so...

25:51

purely from a historical research

25:53

perspective, we're lucky to have

25:55

anything from the trial at

25:57

all in my opinion. The

26:00

The turning point in Craig's trial seemed

26:02

to come when Charles Richardson was

26:04

called to testify. was called to Charles was

26:06

the man Craig had spoken to over

26:08

the phone in San Francisco. the phone in

26:10

San He acknowledged He oath that

26:13

he had business cards

26:15

for business cards for CMI that the

26:17

number on the card rang in

26:19

the card in Honolulu. office in and

26:21

that he'd spoken to Craig on

26:23

the phone once. Craig on the phone once.

26:25

Craig and his wife Susan took

26:27

the stand. in in his defense. and

26:30

their their testimony, combined with

26:32

with appeared to have convinced

26:34

the jury of his innocence. the jury of his

26:36

at the end of the fourth day of the trial. of the fourth

26:38

day only had to deliberate for

26:41

a little over five hours over coming

26:43

back with a verdict of not

26:45

guilty. of not guilty. The

26:47

was a major upset

26:49

and incredibly unusual for for

26:51

trials. Smith was

26:53

the first defendant to be found

26:55

not guilty since 1975. since 1975.

26:58

In In that 11 -year period,

27:00

47 other defendants had all

27:02

been found guilty. guilty. And between

27:04

between 1975 and 2008,

27:08

out of 129 espionage

27:10

cases. of tracked by

27:12

the U .S. Department of Defense Human

27:14

Resources Craig's is the is the only

27:16

one where the defendant was acquitted. Following

27:19

the trial. Craig had to build a

27:21

new life for himself. for himself. His

27:24

trial defense had cost

27:26

him nearly ,000. $200,000. but but

27:28

his support from his family and

27:30

friends never wavered. Later on in life, he

27:32

Later on in life, he worked as

27:34

a consultant for trial attorneys in Washington

27:36

and built a and built a strong reputation

27:38

based around his talent for trial preparation

27:40

and jury selection, which was very hard -earned,

27:43

as I'm sure that you can imagine.

27:45

sure that you can Craig passed

27:47

away in October 2022 from an an

27:49

aggressive form of cancer. really wish

27:51

that I really wish that I had the

27:53

chance to interview him about this entire

27:55

ordeal, honestly. honestly. A lot A

27:57

lot of what I've covered here comes from the

27:59

book the book Accused. by Norman R. Hamilton.

28:01

It tells the story of Craig's

28:03

life up until shortly after his

28:06

acquittal, but it is not an

28:08

entirely objective account. According to the

28:10

back cover, Norman spent hundreds of

28:13

hours working with Craig to write

28:15

and publish the book, and it

28:17

does not appear that he interviewed

28:19

anyone else for the book. So

28:22

it only tells one side of

28:24

the story. However, I was able

28:26

to corroborate some of the information

28:29

in the book. via other sources

28:31

as well. There are a couple

28:33

of missing pieces from this story

28:35

that stuck out to me. Almost

28:38

every story I cover here on

28:40

the podcast has missing pieces, of

28:42

course. That's just the nature of

28:45

this kind of history, unfortunately. For

28:47

one thing, Craig seemed to have

28:49

only one means of communicating with

28:51

Ken White by calling the phone

28:54

number for CMI investments, which actually

28:56

rang in Ronald Rewald's office in

28:58

Honolulu. But there are normally lots

29:01

of methods of communication between an

29:03

agent and their handler. Those often

29:05

follow the pace plan method, that

29:07

is, primary, alternate, contingency, and emergency.

29:10

Craig should have had at least

29:12

three other means of getting in

29:14

touch with Ken once things started

29:17

to go sideways. But he doesn't

29:19

mention any other methods in his

29:21

biography, and there are none mentioned

29:23

in the available court records either.

29:26

Another interesting aspect of this case

29:28

is that apparently it was only

29:31

Craig's previous operations that were used.

29:33

That makes sense in that Craig

29:35

would be able to speak knowledgeably

29:37

about them in detail since they

29:39

were his operations. But it's not

29:41

clear to me that the agency

29:43

was involved in any of those

29:46

when they were happening unless they

29:48

are always informed as part of

29:50

interagency cooperation, which doesn't seem likely.

29:52

When information is going to be

29:54

passed through a double agent to

29:56

an adversarial intelligence agency, That

29:59

material is very

30:01

carefully reviewed and approved.

30:03

by the by the organization.

30:05

That's to make sure it to make

30:07

sure it can't cause any

30:09

lasting harm to current operations in

30:12

put anyone in danger. have been Army

30:14

In this case, that would have

30:16

been Craig had been an Army had been an

30:18

Army agent agent and ran his

30:20

operations with them. That would mean would mean

30:22

the army was involved at some level. assuming

30:24

this was a legitimate operation. operation. But

30:27

but there's no mention of their involvement

30:29

anywhere which should have cleared things

30:31

up immediately. cleared things up So in my

30:33

mind, this is one aspect of the

30:35

case. of the case does make it seem possible

30:37

seem was working on his own. working

30:39

on than as part of a team. part of

30:41

a team. I also I also wonder how

30:44

Craig's relationship with Ken and

30:46

compared to to his own agent

30:48

handling experience. Once again,

30:50

Once again, it's not mentioned explicitly in

30:52

the book or in the available court

30:54

records, but how did Craig

30:56

treat his own double double agents? He

30:59

He ran about a dozen of them, apparently, if

31:01

not more. not more. And six of

31:03

of those operations are mentioned by name in

31:05

the book. because they because they came

31:07

out in court as well. Did he Did he

31:09

withhold as much info from his own

31:11

agents Ken and Ken and Danny withheld from him?

31:13

What kind of What kind of

31:15

interagency coordination did he do? that

31:18

to ensure that operations went smoothly. What

31:20

kind of what kind of influence did he

31:22

have to resolve problems for any

31:24

of his own agents? agents? For For example,

31:26

did he brief them on what to

31:28

do if they were caught with

31:30

sensitive materials, whether it was while they

31:32

were going through customs were by local

31:34

law enforcement or even by FBI or even

31:36

by FBI Did he intelligence? Did he or

31:38

U.S. ever have to intervene when

31:40

something went wrong as it

31:42

apparently did for him? it apparently did

31:45

for If not, not, they at least

31:47

have procedures in place for that possibility?

31:49

for that possibility? how did

31:51

he terminate operations in a way

31:53

that left the the safe and satisfied?

31:56

If so If so, that's the opposite of what

31:58

happened in his case. his case. What I'm

32:00

really getting at is whether there

32:02

were any red flags along the

32:04

way that Craig would have or

32:06

should have noticed. Knowing how things

32:08

played out in the end, I

32:11

can't help but feel like he

32:13

was very naive about what was

32:15

happening right up until his trial.

32:17

He continuously withheld information from the

32:19

FBI, even knowing he was under

32:21

investigation, and he had performed actions

32:23

that were blatant violations of the

32:25

espionage act. He seemed to expect

32:27

the CIA to ride to the

32:29

rescue even though he hadn't heard

32:31

from them for months, and they

32:34

never did. He was left to

32:36

fend for himself in court. Of

32:38

course, this is all assuming that

32:40

his version of the story is

32:42

accurate. It's possible that the entire

32:44

CIA angle was concocted by him

32:46

as a legal defense. But we

32:48

know for certain that based on

32:50

the available evidence he was found

32:52

not guilty during his trial, which

32:54

is incredibly rare when it comes

32:57

to espionage cases, as I've mentioned.

32:59

And we know that although some

33:01

of the evidence was and still

33:03

is classified, a judge who was

33:05

able to review it found it

33:07

compelling enough to point towards Craig's

33:09

legal defense. In the end, this

33:11

is a really unique espionage case

33:13

and makes for a great discussion.

33:15

It also leaves me wanting to

33:17

know more, but then again, that's

33:20

how I feel about almost every

33:22

story I've ever covered here. You

33:24

can find my article about this

33:26

case on my patron page and

33:28

see some photos, plus a list

33:30

of references. in case you want

33:32

to dig further into it like

33:34

I have. And as always, if

33:36

you're interested in more of Spicraft

33:38

101, look for my page on

33:40

Instagram at Spicraft 101. You can

33:43

also find more great articles on

33:45

my website, Spicraft 101.com. Thank you

33:47

all for listening, and I hope

33:49

you'll stick around, because there's lots

33:51

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33:53

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33:55

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