The journalist accused of acting for China: who is Thomas Pauken II and what does the investigation say?
The man is the son of Thomas Pauken, who was chairman of the Texas Republican Party and worked in Ronald Reagan's White House.
Kash Patel on Capitol Hill/ Jim Watson.
An American journalist was charged with allegedly acting as an unregistered agent linked to China. The man in question is Thomas Pauken II, who was writing under the pseudonym Tom McGregor. The man is the son of Thomas Pauken, who was chairman of the Texas Republican Party and worked in Ronald Reagan's White House.
One of the centerpieces of the case is an affidavit filed with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia by the Federal Bureau of Investigation's special agent (FBI), Timothy Healy. According to his statement, Pauken II allegedly prepared confidential reports for a Chinese contact who assured him that the contents were being transmitted to the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping.
According to the document, Pauken claimed to have refused repeated requests for classified information. However, the indictment claims that the journalist himself told investigators that he believed there was an "80% chance" that another individual linked to the case, whose identity remains withheld, would end up providing classified information to China.
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According to the cited media outlet, Pauken II now faces a charge for allegedly operating on behalf of the Chinese government without properly registering with U.S. authorities.
The indictment invokes federal statute 18 U.S.C. §951, which criminalizes acting within the United States as an agent of a foreign government without prior notification to federal authorities. Unlike the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, this statute is a criminal tool often used in counterintelligence and national security investigations.
"Whoever, other than a diplomatic or consular officer or attaché, acts in the United States as an agent of a foreign government without prior notification to the Attorney General if required in subsection (b), shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both," the rule reads.
Pauken II was arrested in February of this year and remains in custody.
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