‘I knew she was lying’: Feds rest case against accused Chinese agent

BROOKLYN (CN) — Federal prosecutors on Friday rested their case against Linda Sun, an ex-staffer for New York Governors Andrew Cuomo and Kathy Hochul accused of acting as an unregistered agent for China.

All eyes are now on Sun’s defense. Starting next week, her lawyers will try to thwart the government’s claim that she sold out New Yorkers for bribes and benefits from Beijing. The defense has still not indicated whether Sun or husband and co-defendant Chris Hu will testify.

Roughly three weeks of testimony from government witnesses detailed Sun’s responsibilities within the Cuomo and Hochul administrations, where she acted as a liaison between the executive chamber and the Asian American community.

Sun joined the governor’s office in 2012 under Cuomo’s leadership, eventually rising to deputy chief of staff for Hochul nearly a decade later.

Sun later moved to the New York Department of Labor, where she was fired in 2023 for “misconduct,” according to the governor’s office.

The government’s final witness on Friday described the beginning of the end for Sun.

Thomas Collery, former investigative counsel for the New York State Inspector General, recalled interviewing her in 2023 amid concerns that she was still representing herself as an official in the governor’s office despite working at the labor department.

In court, prosecutors played clips from the interview, where Sun was prodded about her involvement in ordering executive proclamations — an official declaration signed by the governor used to recognize special days or causes.

Collery testified that at various points, he observed her become “sweaty and nervous.”

Sun was pressed with emails that showed her requesting framed Lunar New Year proclamations for family members and the Chinese consulate — requests she no longer had the authority to make as a labor department employee.

“I don’t request proclamations now,” Sun told the investigators before being presented with the emails.

“It was notable to us that she confidently lied,” Collery recalled in testimony on Friday.

Sun wound up presenting one of the proclamations at a Chinese consulate event in 2023 and was photographed with the document on the event’s stage.

Despite that, Sun insisted in the interview that she didn’t technically give the proclamation to the consulate.

“She was very believable the way she spoke," Collery recalled — “except I knew she was lying.”

As for the other two framed proclamations, reserved for members of Sun’s family, Sun said they sat in her car until the inspector general’s office forced her to return them.

Sun was terminated shortly after that interview.

Out on a $1.5 million bond, Sun is standing trial for charges including violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act, visa fraud, bank fraud and money laundering. The government claims Sun was central to a sprawling Chinese influence campaign in the Empire State, which culminated in blocking Taiwanese government representatives from accessing New York officials.

Sun is also accused of covertly adding a Chinese government official to a private call concerning New York’s public health response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and of steering valuable government contracts for personal protective equipment to companies with ties to her family.

Testimony from earlier this week showed Sun appear to boast about the influence she wielded in the governor’s office. After convincing Hochul, then the lieutenant governor under Cuomo, to film a short New Year video for the Chinese consulate, she texted the consulate’s head that Hochul “is much more obedient than the governor.”

Prosecutors say Huang Ping, the recipient of that message, got his private chef to send Sun’s family Nanjing-style salted ducks amid her many favors for the consul general.

Sun is also accused of cashing in on her position to fund a 2024 Ferrari Roma, free travel and pricey properties in Long Island and Hawaii. Her husband, out on a $500,000 bond, is accused of keeping his seafood company afloat with Sun’s favors for China, as well as laundering some of her purported kickbacks.

Jurors could start deliberating in the case as early as next week.

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