NEW YORK — A former New York police sergeant was sentenced Wednesday to 18 months in jail in a U.S. case about China’s pursuit of critics overseas, a sentence that got here after two members of Congress urged the decide to spare him from time behind bars.
Michael McMahon was convicted in 2023 of contributing to a transcontinental strain marketing campaign aimed toward getting a former Chinese language metropolis official to depart the U.S. and return to his homeland. The ways ranged from Fb messages to a threatening real-world be aware on the person’s New Jersey door.
Throughout an hourslong sentencing, McMahon stated he was “unwittingly used” by Chinese language operatives when he took what he thought was a routine non-public investigation job in 2016.
“I by no means thought for one minute I used to be working for China, stalking anybody. But now I’ve misplaced the whole lot,” McMahon stated. “That is such a nightmare.”
He was amongst 10 folks charged within the federal case, which spurred the primary trial stemming from U.S. claims about China’s decade-old “Operation Fox Hunt” initiative. Beijing says it’s about bringing corrupt officers and different felony fugitives to justice; Washington deems it an train in threatening and harassing dissidents throughout borders.
U.S. District Choose Pamela Chen stated McMahon aided “a marketing campaign of transnational repression “ that harmed the focused man, his household and the USA.
“Such a crime actually does threaten our nation’s nationwide safety,” Chen stated. She stated the retired New York Police Division officer ignored clear hassle indicators when he agreed in 2016 to assist discover a man named Xu Jin.
Xu, a former official within the metropolis of Wuhan, left China in 2010. Authorities there have accused Xu and his spouse of bribery, which they deny. Xu’s spouse testified that he was unjustly focused for rankling the Chinese language energy construction.
China doesn’t have an extradition treaty with the U.S., so China couldn’t legally drive Xu’s return. However he was repeatedly and insidiously pressed to return.
At one level, his octogenarian father was abruptly flown in from China to press him to return, in line with trial proof. Later, a threatening be aware was taped to his door telling him to go to jail in China to make sure his household’s well-being.
Brooklyn-based U.S. Legal professional John Durham stated in a press release Thursday that the ex-officer “went rogue and dishonorably engaged in a scheme on the route of the Folks’s Republic of China.” China denies threatening folks to make them return.
By way of his lawyer, McMahon acknowledged looking legislation enforcement and authorities databases and conducting surveillance to assemble data on Xu. However the former officer maintained he was informed the investigation was for a Chinese language development firm hoping to get well embezzled cash.
McMahon and his lawyer, Lawrence Lustberg, acknowledged Thursday that the investigator missed “crimson flags.” However his shoppers deceived him, he didn’t anticipate the issues they did to badger Xu, and he wouldn’t have taken the $11,000 job if he had identified about China’s alleged involvement, Lustberg insisted, calling McMahon a patriot.
The declare of transnational repression “horrifies him as a lot as anyone,” Lustberg stated.
McMahon, 57, shook his head as the main points of his conviction — on costs together with appearing as an unlawful overseas agent and stalking — had been recounted. At different factors, he wiped his eyes, significantly when his lawyer talked about the dying final week of one in every of McMahon’s eight siblings.
Dozens of his kin and pals crammed benches within the courthouse, and a few yelled “disgrace on you!” and comparable remarks at prosecutors as they left the courtroom.
McMahon himself declined to remark. He’s on account of report back to jail in June, although the date could also be prolonged.
His lawyer stated the decide issued “a considerate sentence,” including: “It’s all the time tragic when somebody who’s harmless, and I do assume he’s harmless, is sentenced to jail.”
5 folks charged within the case stay at giant, believed to be in China. Three others pleaded responsible, and co-defendants Zheng Congying and Zhu Yong had been convicted alongside McMahon at trial.
Zhu, whose position included serving to to rent McMahon, was sentenced to 2 years behind bars. Zheng, who affixed the be aware to Xu’s door, bought 16 months in jail.
McMahon drew help from U.S. Reps. Mike Lawler and Pete Classes, each Republicans.
In a June 2024 letter included in a courtroom submitting this month, they stated they believed McMahon is harmless. Lauding his work and lots of commendations as an officer earlier than a 2001 harm ended his 14-year NYPD profession, the lawmakers requested the decide to think about his “distinctive circumstances” and never sentence him to jail.
