Chinese researcher may win release on bail after couple offers home equity as security
Following an emotional hearing over whether a Chinese scientist accused of lying about her ties to China’s military should win release on bail, a federal magistrate judge said he is strongly inclined to let her out of jail under strict monitoring conditions.
But U.S. Magistrate Judge Kendall Newman put off a final decision until Friday to give a lawyer and his wife who have offered to put up their home as a surety bond and keep watch over her more time to consider the risk they are taking.
Dr. Juan Tang, a cancer researcher who was scheduled to conduct studies at UC Davis until the COVID-19 pandemic hit, is accused of lying about her ties to China’s military and Communist Party and has been in jail in Sacramento since the FBI arrested her last month in San Francisco.
Her lawyers, Malcolm Segal and Tom Johnson, have asked Newman to allow her to be released pending trial and go live with a lawyer who emigrated from China 30 years ago, but who does not know Tang and has never spoken to her.
In a 50-minute Zoom video hearing in Sacramento federal court Thursday, Segal said the lawyer — whose name has been sealed in court documents and was addressed only as Mr. C — was willing to put up $500,000 in equity in his and his wife’s home.
Mr. C, who is described as a California civil attorney, broke down weeping twice during the hearing as he tried to explain to Newman he was willing to take such a risk for a stranger because he wanted to set an example for his grown children.
“We’ve told them to help people, and we saw that we could do something to set an example for them,” the man told the judge. “I’m not second-guessing whether she’s guilty or not, I just want to help her.”
Newman seemed astonished by the offer, noting that Tang has no ties to the United States, that her family has returned to China and that it may take years before her case is adjudicated.
“I’m a federal judge who believes in this system, and I’ve got to tell you I wouldn’t do this for someone I didn’t know,” Newman said. “I want to make sure that they realize and that Dr. Tang realizes that if she were to take off — and there’s no better legal word — they’re screwed, they’re going to lose their home.”
Newman put off a final decision until a Friday afternoon hearing, and said if he did agree to a release he would require a $750,000 surety bond from the couple’s home and electronic monitoring, as well as a 24-hour curfew for Tang in the home.
A federal prosecutor objected strongly to the idea that Tang could be released without being a flight risk, noting that after FBI agents originally questioned her and seized her passport in June she fled to the Chinese consulate in San Francisco for three weeks, and that her husband, 8-year-old daughter and mother already have returned to China.
“There is absolutely nothing to keep Ms. Tang from walking away and once again retreating to the Chinese consulate and finding her way back to China if this court releases her,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Heiko Coppola warned. “The bottom line here is that she has zero ties to the United States.
“Her mother is gone, her daughter is gone, her husband is gone. ... It’s simply too big of a gamble and a risk to take.”
Tang, 37, came to the United States in December and was to conduct cancer research until coronavirus hit. Once her lab shut down, she began trying to find a flight home but was unable to before the FBI showed up at her door.
She is one of dozens of Chinese researchers at American universities who have been caught up in a Justice Department probe aimed at scientists who have allegedly lied about their ties to China’s military and are suspected of coming to the United States to take back important research information.
Tang is accused of lying when she filled out her visa paperwork and denied being a member of China’s military. Her lawyers have argued that she was a civilian working in a military study program.
But Coppola said evidence retrieved from electronic seized by the FBI contradicts that.
“What we have been able to find are documents that indicate that she was in fact in the military, photographs that indicate she was in the military, rank insignia and ribbons that indicate years of service,” he said. “We were able to find the date of her enlistment in these documents.
“We were able to find that she had indicated ... she had concluded her research early and asked to return home so she could complete her military duties.”
Federal officials have made a point of tying the various cases against Chinese researchers together, but Newman noted that Tang does not face espionage charges and that if she is found guilty would likely serve a minor sentence of six months or more.
“The issue is not whether Dr. Tang was a spy,” Newman said. “It’s whether or not she made false statements on a visa application.”
He noted that there are currently no federal trials going on because the pandemic has closed the courthouse and that it could be years before her case is resolved, and asked Segal why Tang would want to wait that long rather than return to China.
“She wants to be vindicated of these charges,” Segal said. “She intends to assert she is not guilty of these charges.
“She has no desire to be known as an international fugitive. She’s a scientist. ... She has a reputation to uphold.”
Even if Newman agreed to her release, he acknowledged it would not happen immediately because securing the surety bond would take time, and he noted Coppola could take his request that bail be denied to U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez or rapidly file more serious charges, if possible.