“By her own admission, Eileen Wang secretly served the interests of the Chinese government,” officials say. She was elected mayor of Arcadia in 2022 and has resigned.

Prosecutors said that Wang and Yaoning “Mike” Sun promoted “pro-PRC propaganda” in the U.S. through a website titled “U.S. News Center.” PRC refers to the People’s Republic of China.

Sun pleaded guilty in October to one count of acting as a foreign agent and is serving a four-year prison sentence, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

Wang’s plea agreement says she admits she acted as an agent of China’s government and did not notify the U.S. attorney general as required.

The agreement says Wang and Sun “received and executed directives from PRC government officials to post pro-PRC content on the website” and sometimes sought permission from Chinese government officials to post content.

  • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    2 days ago

    She… she plead guilty.

    So… 1, 0.99, very high likelihood.

    This isn’t like an accused street criminal getting basically conned into pleading guilty because the cops planted evidence and got a false witness to make a false testimony.

    This is a person who would not be targeted by that kind of thing and can afford good lawyers.

    She was the mayor.

    • tocopherol@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      2 days ago

      Over 90% of criminal cases in the US end in a guilty plea bargain. She could have plead guilty to avoid the possible ten years in prison, not because she actual is an official agent of the Chinese government. A mayor of a city like Arcadia can’t necessarily afford good enough lawyers to avoid charges.

    • Somebody_Else@feddit.online
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      1 day ago

      She… she plead guilty.

      So probably not guilty then

      So… 1, 0.99, very high likelihood.

      Trumps DOJ targeted her, and she pled guilty.

      Both of those things tell me she is very likely not guilty.

      This isn’t like an accused street criminal getting basically conned into pleading guilty because the cops planted evidence and got a false witness to make a false testimony.

      This is the known to be corrupt FBI (under trump) going after somebody who looks different, for a bogeyman crime that we know they dont actually care about.

      This is a person who would not be targeted by that kind of thing and can afford good lawyers.

      The DOJ has been very specifically targeting exactly that kind of person. And Republicans dont care about lawyers because they dont care about the law.

      She was the mayor.

      ok?

    • 0_o7@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      2 days ago

      Yeah, no.

      This is the US we’re talking about.

      Fuckers can’t be trusted. Fuckwits have been sheltering pedophiles in every level of their government and you expect the rest of the world to believe when they frame someone as a foreign agent.

      I wouldn’t trust China when it would arrest people as foreign spy. US is on a same or lower level of credibility.