By Evaristo Lara
The Department of Justice announced that Thomas Pauken II, an American journalist arrested in February, pleaded guilty in court to working as an undercover agent in the service of the Chinese government.
In his sworn statement, he acknowledged meeting with a person who had applied for a position in the Trump administration to offer him a SIM card and $10,000 a week in exchange for writing reports for Xi Jinping, president of China.
Living in China since 2010, Pauken II has worked for several state media outlets in that nation, but due to the nature of his crime in the United States he could receive a sentence of up to 10 years.
Charles Burnham, defense attorney for Thomas Pauken, said that the journalist claimed to be guilty of the crime charged against him.
“He accepted responsibility for having worked as an agent of the Licensed Republic of China without first completing certain forms required by the US government.” mentioned.
According to Puaken II’s affidavit, he described himself as an intermediary between Chinese agents and US government personnel with the ability to provide classified information to Chinese authorities.
However, he did not register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act or notify the US attorney general that he was acting as an agent of China.
Besides, The Justice Department claimed that the journalist in question sold reports to a group of Chinese from the city of Wuhan interested in accessing data on technology and also the records of the Department of Justice.
For this reason, Thomas Pauken II will be sentenced on September 1 with a high probability of receiving up to 10 years in prison.
A few days ago, Eileen Wang, former mayor of the city of Arcadia, California, also pleaded guilty to responding to the orders of the Licensed Republic of China as an undeclared agent.
“We cannot allow this moment to become an excuse for people to lump entire communities together or weaponize ethnicity for political gain,” said Paul Cheng, acting mayor of Arcadia, in a statement.
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• Former CIA chief dies in prison accused of selling secrets to Moscow
