A former CIA analyst charged with spying for South Korea in exchange for designer goods enlisted her columnist husband to co-write propaganda articles for her alleged handlers, according to federal court documents and social media.
Sue Mi Terry, 54, is also a prominent expert on North Korea, who has been in demand as a tallking head on MSNBC, CNN and Fox News, giving her wide access to the inner workings of national media organizations.
“I had access to all the information there was on North Korea,” she told an interviewer in 2021.
As an analyst on both North and South Korea, Terry has long been in demand and was often accompanied by her mother in various TV network green rooms, according to social media posts.
Terry also co-wrote a series of opinion pieces published in the Washington Post with Max Boot, a historian, foreign policy analyst and columnist for the newspaper — work which is now being scrutinized.
Like Terry, Boot, 54, is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations where he is a senior fellow.
Shortly after Manhattan federal prosecutors charged Terry with secretly working for South Korea, the Washington DC-based think tank focused on US foreign policy took down her bio from its web site.
The federal indictment, which was unsealed Tuesday, alleged that since 2013, Terry began meeting with an unidentified “handler”.
On multiple occasions the handler is said to have taken her for lavish dinners in Michelin-starred restaurants in New York and Washington and bought her Bottega Veneta and Louis Vuitton handbags.
She was also allegedly provided tens of thousands of dollars to hold a “happy hour” in Washington last year where South Korean intelligence agents attended alongside US officials, the indictment says.
“At the direction of ROK (Republic of Korea) government officials, Terry advocated ROK policy positions, including in published articles and during media appearances, disclosed nonpublic US government information to ROK intelligence officers, and facilitated access for ROK government officials to US government officials,” the indictment alleges.
When approached by The Post this week, Terry denied she was a foreign agent. When asked why she had been charged, she responded: “It will all be explained… My lawyers are working on it,” and refused further questions. Her attorneys have not returned further requests for comment.
In November of 2013 Boot ended a divorce from Jeannette Boot, a lawyer, who was his first wife and mother to his three adult children.
Jeanette had filed for divorce in New York State Supreme Court in Westchester County a year earlier, according to public records.
“He was very concerned about the divorce at the time because he thought he might have to move to Washington to work for Mitt Romney,” said a source who was close to the Boots, referring to the Utah senator and former presidential candidate.
Three years after his divorce, Boot and Terry bought a sprawling $1.8 million three-bedroom apartment on the Upper West Side, public records show.
By that time, Terry had also divorced her first husband and father of her two sons, Guy Vidra, public records show.
Vidra, works for a venture capital firm and was the short-lived CEO of the liberal publisher New Republic, appointed in 2014. He left in April, 2016 following a staff revolt over his plans to make the magazine more business-friendly, according to reports.
On Tuesday, Boot signed a $500,000 “appearance bond” using the couple’s Manhattan residence as collateral to keep his wife out of prison until the beginning of her trial. Her next court appearance is July 30.
Terry’s prosecution comes on the heels of the conviction of New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez this week. The Democrat was convicted on all 16 corruption and bribery charges, including two charges of acting as a foreign agent for Egypt and Qatar in violation of the Foreign Agents’ Registration Act (FARA).
“The Department of Justice has become much more aggressive when they believe someone is acting as an unregistered agent,” said Joshua Rosenstein, a Washington DC-based attorney who specializes in FARA compliance cases. He is not involved in the Terry case.
In June, a federal appeals court rejected the Justice Department’s bid to force casino mogul and Republican donor Steve Wynn to register for briefly acting as an agent of the Chinese government.
Last year, rapper and entrepreneur Prakazrel “Pras” Michel was convicted of acting as a foreign agent for China. He is appealing the conviction and the court is considering a new trial after his lawyer admitted to misconduct in the case.
In Terry’s case the key element is if she “willfully” acted as a foreign agent and did not register with the US Attorney General’s office under FARA, according to Rosenstein.
“The defendant has been reminded of FARA reporting requirements on multiple occasions,” the indictment reads, including before she testified before Congress in 2016, 2017 and 2022. She also received training on FARA in connection with her employment, the indictment says.
“If you are engaged in any activity at the request of the Korean government, which is intended to influence the US government or US public with respect to Korean government interests, such as reaching out to Americans in the form of op-eds, and DOJ can prove that you willfully ignored FARA rules, then the prosecution has a good shot,” Rosenstein said.
Rosenstein did not rule out the possibility that prosecutors could issue superseding indictments in the case with respect to Boot’s co-authorship of the columns.
On March 7, 2023. Terry and Boot wrote an op-ed entitled, “South Korea takes a Brave Step Toward Reconciliation with Japan”
The article echoed many of the points that an unnamed South Korean government official had impressed upon Terry at a meeting, the indictment says.
That same day Terry texted the ROK official, “‘Hope you liked the article,’ followed by a link to the opinion piece,” court papers say.
The official praised Terry: “Thank you so much for your zeal and endeavors! Of course we do. Actually ambassador and National Security Advisor were so happy for your column.”
Requests for comment from Boot was not answered.
The Washington Post said in a statement it is “committed to publishing independent journalism and is reviewing the indictment. We do not have further comment.”
A few months later, in August 2023, the couple wrote another column for the Washington Post, praising South Korea and a summit convened at Camp David, by President Biden.
“Such a summit would have been unthinkable only two years ago. The primary acclaim must go to the courageous leader of South Korea and the pragmatic leader of Japan for moving beyond historical grievances,” the couple wrote.
A few days later Terry posted pictures at the Telluride Film Festival to promote “Beyond Utopia,” a film she produced about North Korea. So many people lined up to see the documentary that the festival granted another screening, she posted on Sept. 4
And in May of this year, a column co-authored by the couple in the Washington Post repeated the importance of a 2023 Camp David summit with the leaders of Japan and South Korea as “a breakthrough moment when Biden announced a ‘new era’ of partnership that would strengthen deterrence not only against North Korea but also China.”
The column went on to describe lunch with Rahm Emanuel, the US ambassador to Japan at his official residence.
On her Facebook page Terry posted photos of her stay at Tokyo’s luxurious Okura Hotel, including one with a table laden with small plates of fish, rice and other delicacies “Japanese breakfast time …one of my favorite meals!”
In addition to the Japan trip in May, which also included a stop in Osaka, Terry chronicled a family trip to Egypt and a jaunt to the Sundance Film Festival in Utah as well as a trip to Las Vegas for the Super Bowl, where she posted a snap with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Editors at the Washington Post added an explanatory note to the opinion pieces written by the couple.
“On July 16, a federal indictment was made public alleging that Sue Mi Terry had acted as an unregistered agent of the South Korean government beginning in 2013,” the Washington Post note reads.
“The indictment alleged that Terry co-authored this column at the request of a South Korean official. If true, this is information that would have been pertinent for The Post’s publication decision.
“Ms.Terry has denied these charges and has asserted through counsel the allegations in the indictment are unfounded.”
It’s not the first time that Boot failed to disclose his close relationship with one of his subjects. In 2012, a liberal watchdog group Media Matters found that columns written about Romney by Boot and others in the Wall Street Journal failed to disclose they were advisors to Romney’s campaign.
“In several instances, the Journal failed to disclose an op-ed writer’s connection despite its own news section reporting that the writer is advising Romney,” the watchdog group said.
“With respect to one writer, the Journal disclosed his ties to the campaign in an initial op-ed but failed to do so in subsequent op-ed.”
Additional reporting by Jack Morphet
