Before arrest with 303 gold bars, CIA officer spun tale he was Top Gun fighter pilot

[Kid Berwyn]

1. Air Canada was hiring.

Top Pentagon Official Worked Closely With C.I.A. Officer Later Found With Gold Bars

David Rush, the C.I.A. employee, worked on a highly classified China spying program with Stephen A. Feinberg, the Pentagon’s second-ranking official.

by Mark Mazzetti and Julian E. Barnes
The New York Times, June 10,. 2026

David J. Rush, the former C.I.A. officer found last month with $40 million in gold bars in his home and now under F.B.I. investigation, had powerful friends in government. It turns out that one of them, Stephen A. Feinberg, the deputy secretary of defense, even contacted the C.I.A. earlier this year asking to work more closely with him.

Before the C.I.A. fired Mr. Rush, he and Mr. Feinberg worked together on a highly classified program focused on spying on China, according to the current and former officials. Mr. Feinberg reached out to a senior agency official, pushing for Mr. Rush to play a greater role in the classified program.

Mr. Feinberg did not know about the criminal investigation of Mr. Rush when he reached out to the agency, according to U.S. officials. But Mr. Feinberg’s advocacy for Mr. Rush demonstrates how trusted Mr. Rush was with secrets known to only a small group of American officials at the same time that court documents show he may have been defrauding the C.I.A. of millions of dollars.

At the request of U.S. government officials, The New York Times is withholding some details about the spying program that Mr. Feinberg and Mr. Rush worked on because of the sensitive nature of the operation.

Snip...

Mr. Rush began accumulating $40 million in gold bars based on a fake classified program he created, according to court documents. That program, on paper, was related to a project regarding “the continuity of government operations,” people briefed on the matter said. No such project actually existed.

Continues...

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/10/us/politics/pentagon-cia-officer-gold-bars.html

"COG." When invoked after 9-11, not a single Democratic leader was invited to the secret, undisclosed location. Not. A. Single. One.