When F.B.I. agents raided a $3.5 million home of Linda Sun, a former aide to two New York governors, on Long Island’s North Shore in July 2024, they came away with a Rolex, a diamond ring and a Ferrari Roma.
The luxury items, prosecutors say, were the product of payoffs from the Chinese Communist Party, whose agenda Ms. Sun was covertly carrying out in Albany as an adviser and aide to governors Andrew M. Cuomo and Kathy Hochul.
Now, Ms. Sun and her husband, Chris Hu, are on trial in Federal District Court in Brooklyn. She faces charges that she had worked as an unregistered agent of the Chinese government, and he is accused of money laundering, among other charges.
Opening arguments in the trial are expected Wednesday. The case is the latest in which federal prosecutors claim that the Chinese government is seeking to influence American politics.
The yearslong crackdown by the Justice Department has been a major focus for prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York as they seek to combat the Chinese government’s campaign of transnational repression and political meddling.
President Trump has, with tariffs and a trade war, positioned himself as tough on China. Yet his Justice Department has scrutinized the law Ms. Sun has been charged under, the Foreign Agents Registration Act. In February, Attorney General Pam Bondi directed that criminal prosecutions under the law be limited to “more traditional espionage by foreign government actors.”
And on Friday, Mr. Trump pardoned a retired New York police sergeant who had been convicted of acting as an unregistered Chinese agent when he tried to harass a family into returning to face the nation’s justice system.
Brooklyn prosecutors say that Ms. Sun had made a reputation as political operator in New York City’s Asian American community. As a political aide, she eliminated references to Taiwan, according to prosecutors, and ensured that officials did not mention the plight of the Uyghurs, a primarily Muslim ethnic minority that has faced persecution from the Chinese Communist Party.
In exchange, prosecutors said, Ms. Sun and Mr. Hu received a panoply of payoffs that included travel benefits, orchestra tickets and a series of Nanjing-style salted ducks, delivered over the course of more than a year.
The couple also traveled to China, prosecutors said, and attended celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the country’s founding. While visiting, they had luxury accommodations paid for by the Chinese government, including a hotel suite in Beijing in which Michelle Obama had stayed.
In pretrial filings, defense lawyers said prosecutors had used a novel theory of the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Traveling to China, the lawyers said, was an important part of Ms. Sun’s work in Asian American affairs, and the law concerned only domestic activity, not international conduct.
“It was Ms. Sun’s job to help New York State maintain friendly relations with the People’s Republic of China and its diaspora,” her and Mr. Hu’s lawyers wrote.
Ms. Sun and Mr. Hu have faced more charges since they were arrested, including tax evasion and honest services wire fraud for allegations that they directed contracts for selling and producing masks and ventilators to Chinese companies at the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The charges of working as an agent of a foreign state many conjure up images of espionage, but the judge presiding over the case, Brian M. Cogan, has ruled that any references to spying are not admissible in court. Ms. Sun and Mr. Hu’s lawyers argued that any such insinuations would be “profoundly misleading and unfairly prejudicial.”
Before working for the administrations of Mr. Cuomo and Ms. Hochul, Ms. Sun worked as chief of staff for Representative Grace Meng, a Democrat who represents parts of Queens, when Ms. Meng was a state assemblywoman. After helping Ms. Meng win a U.S. House seat in 2012, Ms. Sun worked for Mr. Cuomo’s administration, ascending to be a co-director of the governor’s Asian American Advisory Council.
After Ms. Hochul assumed the governorship in 2021, she promoted Ms. Sun to deputy chief of staff. Ms. Sun earned around $145,000 that year, according to public records. She was fired in 2023.
Santul Nerkar is a Times reporter covering federal courts in Brooklyn.
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