U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan declared a mistrial after the jury sent a note saying, "Your honor, after extensive deliberations and re-deliberations the jury remains unable to reach a unanimous verdict. The jurors positions are firmly held."
Judge Cogan called in the jury and asked the foreman whether jurors had reached a decision on any count. The foreman replied that they were deadlocked on all 19 counts.
Prosecutor Alexander Solomon told the judge that the government wants to retry the case "as soon as possible." A status conference is scheduled for January 26.
The government called 41 witnesses; the defense called eight witnesses, and the government called one rebuttal witness.
Deliberations began on Friday, December 12.
Federal prosecutors accused Sun of acting to benefit China. They said, in one instance, she blocked representatives of the Taiwanese government from meeting with high-ranking New York State government officials, including the governor and forged Governor Hochul's signature on letters to invite Chinese government officials to visit New York.
"This is a case about betrayal," prosecutor Amanda Shami said at the outset of the trial. "Public servants are meant to serve the public, not themselves, but that is exactly what Linda Sun did. Her loyalty was for sale, and the Chinese government, who wanted to influence the New York State government, was willing to pay Sun to carry out their bidding."
Defense attorney Jarrod Schaeffer called the case "nonsense."
"In plain English, the government is accusing Linda of failing to file paperwork that says she was doing China's bidding," Schaeffer said. "Linda never had to register as a foreign agent because she wasn't one."
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