A top Donald Trump appointee lobbied for the CIA to let one of its agents take a greater role in spying on China while the same man was under investigation over a bizarre multimillion-dollar alleged fraud.
Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg, whom the president picked last year to serve as Pete Hegseth’s No. 2 at the Pentagon, contacted the agency roughly two months ago to ask that the agent, David Rush, be given a bigger role in a highly classified China-focused surveillance operation, the New York Times reports.
The two men are understood to have “worked closely” together on the interagency program. The NYT is withholding further details at the behest of intelligence officials “because of the sensitivity of the operation.”
Senior officials told the newspaper that Feinberg was unaware at the time that the FBI had already launched a criminal probe into Rush over suspicions he may have defrauded his own agency out of tens of millions of dollars.
Rush is now out of a job after investigators raided his Virginia home last month to discover more than 300 gold bars worth an estimated $40 million, along with $2 million in cash and almost three dozen luxury watches.
Officials have since arrested and charged him with theft of public money, alleging that he accumulated the gold stash over five months for a non-existent classified program on “the continuity of government operations.”
Rush, who is further accused of forging his academic and military credentials, has claimed the gold was for “work-related expenses.” The White House Office of Budget and Management is also now understood to be probing the case.
It is not known how soon after Feinberg made the request that the CIA informed the Pentagon of the probe into Rush, according to the NYT. The Pentagon nevertheless booted Rush from interagency meetings once they were made aware of the matter.
Feinberg, a billionaire private equity tycoon who backed Trump in the 2024 election, has a longstanding professional relationship with Rush. They first met when Feinberg was chairman of Trump’s influential Intelligence Advisory Board during the president’s first term.
Rush is reported to have since received significant support in his career development from Feinberg. The Daily Beast has contacted the White House, the OMB, the FBI, and the CIA for comment on this story.
