Linda Sun’s high heels clicked evenly on the terrazzo floor as she proceeded on Wednesday afternoon from the elevators on the 10th floor of Brooklyn federal court, where she is facing charges of being an agent for China in exchange for money and gifts.
She was accompanied by her husband, Chris Hu, who is also her co-defendant. He stands accused of visa fraud and laundering money that Sun allegedly received from the People’s Republic of China during her 11 years in New York State government.
Both Sun, 40, and Hu, 41, were clad in fashionable black as they entered the courtroom and joined their lawyers at the defendants’ table. Sun is as tall and slender as a classic fashion model and she exhibited an understated elegance with pearl earrings, a thin gold chain on her neck and an even thinner one, barely visible on her left ankle.
ADVERTISEMENT
A knock signaled for everyone to rise as U.S. District Court Judge Brian Cogan entered the room. A court officer called out the number of the indictment that was unsealed three weeks ago.
“24-CR-346. USA versus Linda Sun and Chris Hu.”
Sun and Hu had pleaded not guilty at their arraignment on Sept. 4. They now were back for a hearing for some preliminary legal housekeeping. She sat, erect with perfect posture, her hands folded in front of her. Among the many accusations in the indictment’s 64 pages is an allegation that when Sun visited Beijing in 2018, a Chinese official arranged for her to stay in a presidential suite where Michelle Obama once stayed. Whether or not that will be proven at trial, nobody could dispute that Sun would have fit right in there.
By all accounts, her elegance is accompanied by competence and she seemed just the right person for a politician to hire. She was chief of staff for a Queens state assemblywoman and then deputy chief diversity officer for New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. She became chief of staff for his successor, Gov. Kathy Hochul. Next, Sun served as a deputy commissioner in the state department of labor.
Along the way, Sun allegedly did the bidding of handlers at the Chinese consulate in Manhattan. She is said to have done everything from forging official letters of invitation to facilitate U.S. visitor’s visas to preparing bogus proclamations lauding Chinese officials to discouraging Hochul from mentioning Taiwan and Uyghur oppression.
According to court papers, one way Chinese officials expressed their gratitude was by sending salted ducks prepared by a consular chef to her parents’ home in Queens. She and her husband are said to have received enough money to buy a $3.6 million house on Long Island and a $1.9 million condo in Hawaii. The couple also acquired several luxury cars, including a 2024 Ferrari.
As told by the indictment, Sun was able to live the American dream by betraying America.
Linda Sun after her hearing in Brooklyn federal court.
The Daily BeastIn a corner beyond the defendants’ table that Sun and Hu now occupied stood an American flag. A reminder that the naturalization ceremony where Sun officially became an American citizen would have ended with the Pledge of Allegiance.
But in the republic for which that flag stands, Sun and Hu are presumed innocent until proven otherwise. In federal court, where only 4 percent of those to go to trial are acquitted, many defendants plead guilty in exchange for a lesser sentence.
“We have not yet offered the defendants a plea offer, but we do anticipate doing so,” a prosecutor told the judge.
The case may involve classified documents, and the judge set a date for what is known as a CIPA hearing; CIPA standing for the Classified Information Procedures Act. The judge also noted that the investigation that culminated in the arrests appears to have been going on for years. The FBI had been looking at Sun since at least July of 2018, when she was called in for a voluntary interview about her travels to China. The present charges involved a host of individual acts over more than a decade.
“I am hereby designating the case complex,” the judge said, giving the defendants more time to prepare if needed.
Wednesday’s proceedings ended in less than an hour. A crust of diamonds on Sun’s wedding band glinted as she held the courtroom door for Hu, the lawyers and even a reporter, who thanked her.
“No problem,” she replied.
A gaggle of Asian citizen journalists waited outside the courthouse with cellphone cameras raised.
“Shame on you!” one of them called out to the couple.
Sun and Hu had summoned an Uber-type car and a few uncomfortable minutes passed until they spotted it across the street. They strode over and he held the car door for her. She slid inside, an accused spy looking like elegance itself.
