American Journalist Pleads Guilty to Acting as a Chinese Government Agent

American journalist Thomas Pauken II pleaded guilty Thursday in Alexandria, Virginia, to acting as an agent of the Chinese government. Pauken, who has lived in China for over a decade, admitted to U.S. authorities that he was traveling to the United States to recruit an individual seeking a job with the Trump administration to pass information to Chinese intelligence services. The plea comes after U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents stopped him in January 2025 with $3,000 in cash and passwords for encrypted messaging apps.

An American journalist pleaded guilty Thursday to acting as an agent of the Chinese government. Thomas Pauken II, who has lived in China for more than a decade, entered his plea in an Alexandria, Virginia, courthouse about a year and a half after U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents stopped him as he entered the country with personal items that they said included $3,000 in cash and a yellow piece of paper filled with passwords for encrypted messaging applications. During interviews with border patrol agents and the Federal Bureau of Investigations after he was stopped in January 2025, Pauken admitted he was traveling to the United States to recruit an unnamed individual seeking a job with the Trump administration in order to pass information to Chinese intelligence services, according to an affidavit https://static.notus.org/da/09/3e3d4e4e467ca8a2078bc7aae488/pauken-affidavit.pdf filed in February by Special Agent Timothy Healy.