Katie Bo Lillis - Reporter
Katie Bo Lillis
Reporter
Katie Bo Lillis is a CNN reporter covering intelligence and national security, including all related federal agencies and Congressional committees.
Latest
Mark Milley leaves a controversial legacy as America’s top general
Sep 25, 2023
Every morning, Gen. Mark Milley’s staff pulls transcripts from Fox News prime-time shows to see if they’re talking about him.
China appears to have suspended spy balloon program after February shootdown, US intel believes
Sep 15, 2023
China appears to have suspended its surveillance balloon program following a major diplomatic incident earlier this year, when one of the country’s high-altitude spy balloons transited the United States, multiple sources familiar with US intelligence assessments told CNN.
New US intelligence suggests al Qaeda unlikely to revive in Afghanistan, but officials warn ISIS threat remains
Sep 08, 2023
New US intelligence assessments suggest that is “unlikely” al Qaeda will revive in Afghanistan and Pakistan and that counterterrorism operations by the Taliban in Afghanistan have degraded the Islamic State’s presence there, two senior US officials said on Friday.
FBI Director Wray issues warning about number of Russian spies in the US
Sep 08, 2023
FBI Director Christopher Wray warned Thursday that the number of Russian spies operating inside the United States is “still way too big,” despite efforts to kick them out.
US intel: Ukraine war caused ‘one of the most disruptive periods’ for global food security
Aug 30, 2023
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine caused deep disruptions in the global food supply, raising prices and increasing the risk of food insecurity in poorer nations in the Middle East and North Africa, America’s top spy agency said in an unclassified report released by Congress on Wednesday.
Exclusive: Smuggler with ties to ISIS helped migrants enter US from Mexico, raising alarm bells across government
Aug 30, 2023
The FBI is investigating more than a dozen migrants from Uzbekistan and other countries allowed into the US after they sought asylum at the southern border with Mexico earlier this year, a scramble set off when US intelligence officials found that the migrants traveled with the help of a smuggler with ties to ISIS, according to multiple US officials.
Newly declassified US intel claims Russia is laundering propaganda through unwitting Westerners
Aug 27, 2023
Russian intelligence is operating a systematic program to launder pro-Kremlin propaganda through private relationships between Russian operatives and unwitting US and western targets, according to newly declassified US intelligence.
US says it’s ‘likely’ Prigozhin was killed in Wednesday’s plane crash
Aug 24, 2023
The US believes Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin was “likely” killed in a plane crash outside Moscow on Wednesday, Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said Thursday.
Ukraine’s recent focus on Crimea draws skepticism from corners of the Biden administration
Aug 18, 2023
Ukraine has ramped up missile strikes on Russian-occupied Crimea in recent weeks in an effort to disrupt Russian logistics and resupply efforts as fighting rages in southern Ukraine – but it’s a strategy that some US officials in Washington are viewing with skepticism.
US intelligence community boosts focus on climate crisis, supply chains, pandemics
Aug 10, 2023
The US intelligence community is ramping up its focus on the dizzying and complex array of amorphous challenges that respect no global borders: Supply chain disruptions, pandemics, extreme weather events fueled by climate change and narcotics trafficking, among others.
US intel assessing possibility that Chinese spy balloon's path over US was accidental
Feb 15, 2023
US intelligence officials are assessing the possibility that the suspected Chinese spy balloon was not deliberately maneuvered into the continental US by the Chinese government and are examining whether it was diverted off course by strong winds, multiple people briefed on the intelligence tell CNN.
Exclusive: US developed method to track China's spy balloon fleet within last year, sources say
Feb 10, 2023
The US intelligence community has developed a method to track China's fleet of surveillance balloons that was only discovered within the last year, six people familiar with the matter tell CNN.
Initial classified balloon report wasn't flagged as urgent, drawing criticism
Feb 09, 2023
A day before the suspected Chinese spy balloon entered US airspace over Alaska, the Defense Intelligence Agency quietly sent an internal report that a foreign object was headed towards US territory, military and intelligence officials familiar with the matter told CNN.
Spy balloon part of a broader Chinese military surveillance operation, US intel sources say
Feb 08, 2023
US intelligence officials believe that the recently recovered Chinese spy balloon is part of an extensive surveillance program run by the Chinese military, according to multiple American officials familiar with the intelligence.
'He was one of these rockstars': Former FBI agents shocked at the indictment of one of their own
Feb 07, 2023
The insular world of FBI counterintelligence agents was rocked last month when one of their own, Charles F. McGonigal, formerly the FBI's top counterintelligence official in New York, was indicted for allegedly selling access to Russian and Albanian officials in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash.
About
Katie Bo Lillis is a CNN reporter covering intelligence and national security, including all related federal agencies and Congressional committees.
Prior to joining CNN, she was the senior national security reporter for Defense One, where she traveled the globe to cover America’s warzones. She also covered intelligence and cybersecurity for The Hill newspaper, including in-depth reporting on the Russia investigations and military detention issues.
Before her journalism career, Katie Bo worked in thoroughbred horse racing, helping breed, sell, and prepare the next generation of Kentucky Derby winners. She is a graduate of the University of Virginia. A native of Goochland County, Virginia, she now lives in D.C. and can usually be found haunting one of the various bookstores on Capitol Hill.