US journalist jailed for 2 years for working as a Chinese agent

An American journalist who admitted to helping the Chinese government gather “secrets” in the US was sentenced Tuesday to two years in prison.

Thomas Pauken II, 50, was arrested by the FBI in February at a Washington hotel after encouraging an unnamed Trump administration official to make contact with a woman in China whom Pauken believed to be a Chinese intelligence agent.

Pauken, who lived in Beijing and worked as an editor and commentator for various state-run news agencies there, pleaded guilty in June to acting as an unregistered agent for China in the US

During a sentencing hearing in US District Court, prosecutor Eli Ross said Pauken was paid $100,000 over a seven-year period to produce reports on US-China relations for the Chinese government. Pauken’s Chinese handler had Pauken take a lie-detector test and said his reports were being conveyed to Chinese leaders, including President Xi Jinping, according to court filings in the case, which was first reported by POLITICO.

Pauken also sought to put his Chinese handler in touch with experts in the US, including the administration official Pauken met with shortly before being arrested, the prosecutor said.

“He cultivated these relationships in the US as part of an agreement with Chinese intelligence,” Ross said. “He did it for money. He made a lot of money,”

Ross also suggested that the FBI had unsuccessfully sought to turn Pauken into a double-agent, noting that Pauken at one point discussed his work for the Chinese with the FBI, but failed to follow the FBI’s “instructions” after that meeting even though his contacts with his Chinese handler continued.

While prosecutors and defense attorney Charles Burnham agreed that Pauken had not relayed classified information to China, Pauken made his conduct sound significant.

“I learned a lot of secrets and I did tell the Chinese about these secrets,” Pauken told Judge Leonie Brinkema. He called his conduct “wrong,” “shocking,” and “terrible,” but said it stemmed from a genuine desire to improve US-China relations.

“I thought I was helping, but now I realize I could’ve caused even more damage, including war,” Pauken said, clad in a dark green jail jumpsuit as he stood at a courtroom lectern.

Brinkema, a Clinton appointee, called Pauken’s crime “a very serious offense.” She said that while Pauken hadn’t given over any classified information himself, he knew his handler was seeking that kind of information and tried to put her in contact with the administration official.

“Don’t underplay what happened here,” she said to Burnham.

Brinkema also rejected Burnham’s argument that $100,000 over seven years was “not a life-changing amount of money.”

“$100,000 goes pretty far in China,” the judge said. Prosecutors asked for a 33-month prison term for Pauken, who’s been in custody since his arrest. The defense sought probation or a sentence that could be served in a halfway house.

There were few hints at the hearing and in court filings about the identity of the administration official Pauken tried to recruit, referred to as “Person 1” by prosecutors and the defense. An FBI agent said in a court filing that the person hoped to get a higher-ranking job. Brinkema said the episode was likely to have "ramifications" for that person’s career, but she acknowledged being in the dark about the details.

“I have no idea who Person 1 is,” the judge said.

Friends described Pauken as someone who was barely scraping by in China and struggling with mental health issues. He ran a MAGA-oriented group on the popular Chinese app WeChat and gained some prominence as one of the few pro-Trump voices in expatriate circles, associates said.

Pauken hails from a Texas family connected to GOP politics. His father, Thomas Pauken Sr., was a military intelligence officer for the US Army in Vietnam before serving in the Reagan administration. The senior Pauken went on to chair the Texas Republican Party from 1994 to 1997, was appointed by former Texas Gov. Rick Perry to chair the state’s Workforce Commission in 2008 and unsuccessfully ran for governor of Texas himself in 2014.

The elder Pauken was present at his son’s sentencing Tuesday, but did not address the court. The former official, now 82, waved off questions from reporters as he exited the courtroom.