An Alleged Chinese Agent Went Undetected In New York State Government For Years. Why It May Have Taken So Long For Authorities To Act

An Alleged Chinese Agent Went Undetected In New York State Government For Years. Why It May Have Taken So Long For Authorities To Act

September 8, 2024, CNN

Rob Kelner’s commentary was included in a CNN article about Linda Sun, an alleged Chinese government agent who had gone undetected working for the New York state government for years.

Rob provided his insight on the matter and the indictment brought under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). “It doesn’t surprise me that it took a long time to detect that there was an issue,” Rob said. “A governor and their staff are going to tend to be trusting of the people they hire and people aren’t normally going to assume that someone is working as a foreign agent when they’re working for a governor’s office.”

He added that “FARA does require proof of willfulness. These cases are built on email and text traffic to and from the defendant, any surveillance video that might exist or wiretap excerpts that might exist and financial records. Those are the bread and butter of a typical FARA case.”