A federal judge in Brooklyn on Monday declared a mistrial in the case of Linda Sun, a former aide to Democratic governors who was accused of working as an agent of China, after jurors said they could not reach a verdict.
Ms. Sun, 42, was accused by federal prosecutors of being an unscrupulous public servant who sold her allegiance to China, which rewarded her handsomely for helping to carry out its global campaign of influence peddling.
She and her husband, Chris Hu, who was also on trial, carried out Beijing’s bidding, prosecutors claimed, including by blocking Taiwanese officials from meeting the governor and by removing references to the Uyghurs, a primarily Muslim ethnic minority that has faced persecution from the Chinese Communist Party, from official speeches.
In exchange, the couple was compensated with orchestra tickets, travel benefits and a series of Nanjing-style salted ducks, among other payoffs.
But the couple’s lawyers argued that she was just doing her job. And jurors seemed unconvinced by the case brought by the Justice Department, which under President Trump has scrutinized the very statute under which Ms. Sun was charged, the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
Ms. Sun, her face partially obscured by a pair of black sunglasses, shook her head with a small smile when reporters asked for a statement. Jarrod L. Schaeffer, a lawyer for Ms. Sun, said in a statement outside the courthouse that the mistrial underscored “how questionable and flawed these charges were.”
“Throughout this trial, Linda Sun has steadfastly maintained her innocence,” Mr. Schaeffer said. “And that does not change now.”
The law has been used to crack down on political influence peddling sought by foreign governments, a major pursuit in Washington, D.C. But in February, Attorney General Pam Bondi directed that prosecutions under the law be limited to “more traditional espionage by foreign government actors.”
Alexander A. Solomon, a prosecutor, told the judge, Brian M. Cogan, on Monday that the government wanted to retry the case as soon as possible. Both parties are due back in court on Jan. 26.
The jury’s work did not proceed smoothly. On Dec. 18, Judge Cogan had to dismiss a juror because she had previously planned travel during the week of Christmas, forcing the 12-person jury to restart deliberations on Dec. 22 with a new member.
Over a week of deliberation, the jurors indicated that they were facing difficulty reaching consensus on any of the 19 counts, which included visa fraud, alien smuggling, money laundering and federal program bribery.
On Monday afternoon, there appeared to be little progress. Jurors sent notes that morning to the judge detailing their various scheduling conflicts over the next couple of weeks, and one juror expressed financial concerns over continued service.
Judge Cogan called in the jury and asked the forewoman whether the jurors had reached a verdict on any of the counts, for either defendant. She shook her head.
Ms. Sun’s and Mr. Hu’s lawyers argued that her job as co-director of the Asian American Advisory Council under Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo required her to travel to China and correspond with officials there. Kenneth M. Abell, a lawyer for Ms. Sun, said there was no “smoking gun” proving the government’s case.
“To say that Linda did what the government said she did for salted ducks is as absurd as it sounds,” Mr. Abell said during his closing arguments.
Ms. Sun’s case represented the modern push to use the law to go after efforts to influence domestic politics, said Robert K. Kelner, a lawyer at the firm Covington & Burling who has specialized in foreign agent cases.
Ms. Sun joined the Cuomo administration in 2012. She had previously worked as a chief of staff for a Democratic state assemblywoman, Grace Meng, who is now a congresswoman representing parts of Queens.
Ms. Sun rose through the administration, moving from a deputy position in the diversity office to a co-director role at the Asian American Advisory Council. She was retained by Mr. Cuomo’s successor, Kathy Hochul, who promoted Ms. Sun to deputy chief of staff in 2021. She earned about $145,000 that year, according to public records.
During the trial, which lasted more than a month, prosecutors presented evidence that showed much of Ms. Sun’s work was mundane. In one instance, when Mr. Cuomo was the governor and Ms. Hochul the lieutenant governor, a Chinese consular official asked Ms. Sun to film a video celebrating the Lunar New Year with Mr. Cuomo.
Ms. Sun suggested having Ms. Hochul appear in the video, as someone who “listens to me more than the governor does,” she wrote to another consular official.
Yet prosecutors also said that Ms. Sun did more substantial work for China helping its government combat the “five poisons” — topics that Beijing is intent on suppressing, including Taiwanese independence and the Uyghurs — from her perch in New York’s executive chamber.
In July 2024, Ms. Sun and Mr. Hu’s home on Long Island was raided by federal agents who recovered luxury items like a Rolex and a Ferrari Roma that prosecutors said the couple bought with money from China.
Ms. Sun was also rewarded with status in China, prosecutors said. She was named the chair of a Communist Party group that recruits Chinese nationals overseas to work in the party’s best interests. Such a title gave Ms. Sun “another avenue to reach leadership” in the party, Julian Ku, a professor of international law and an expert witness called by the government, testified during the trial.
Prosecutors presented photos at trial of Ms. Sun socializing with officials of the Chinese Consulate in New York. They also showed letters inviting Chinese delegations to New York that they said contained signatures from the governor that had been forged by Ms. Sun.
A cellphone case of Ms. Sun’s seized by prosecutors, also shown to the jury, had been decorated with the words “Get Rich, Good Luck.”
Ms. Sun’s and Mr. Hu’s lawyers emphasized to the judge the toll that the trial had taken on their clients. They noted the difficulty of another lengthy trial because the defendants have had most of their assets seized, hindering their ability to pay for counsel.
Some of the people Ms. Sun socialized with in New York, prosecutors said, were members of “hometown associations” hailing from the same town or province in China. These groups, which exist in part to promote a common Chinese cultural heritage, have become channels through which Beijing carries out its influence-peddling campaigns, the prosecutors said.
They said that Ms. Sun corresponded frequently with “middlemen” in New York from a hometown association connected to the Henan provincial government. Ms. Sun primarily kept in touch with two of these middleman, Frank Zhang and Morgan Shi, who reported to China’s consul general in the city, Huang Ping. None of the men were accused of wrongdoing.
When Ms. Sun followed through on the Chinese Consulate’s wishes, prosecutors said, she was rewarded. One of the more striking examples of these payoffs were the salted ducks, which prosecutors said she received from Mr. Ping’s chef.
In texts to Mr. Ping in 2021 that prosecutors shared with the jury, Ms. Sun made a simple request: She wanted to eat salted duck. Mr. Ping arranged for his chef to prepare the dish.
“The ducks were received,” Ms. Sun wrote to Mr. Ping. Later that night, she texted that they had been “delicious,” adding an emoji of a face licking its lips.
When Judge Cogan thanked the jurors, he noted that the British government had recently moved to get rid of jury trials for certain crimes. He said he did not agree.
“You almost always get it right,” Judge Cogan told them.
Santul Nerkar is a Times reporter covering federal courts in Brooklyn.
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