Trump pardons ex-NYPD officer convicted of helping China intimidate exile
U.S. President Donald Trump has granted a pardon to Michael McMahon, a retired New York police sergeant convicted of helping Chinese agents pressure an ex-official living in the U.S. to return to China.
McMahon, 58, was sentenced earlier this year to 18 months in prison for acting as an illegal foreign agent and stalking — part of what prosecutors described as China’s “Operation Fox Hunt,” a global campaign to silence dissidents abroad, News.Az reports, citing ABC News.
Trump’s decision, confirmed by a White House official on Friday, wipes away the conviction that McMahon has long claimed was a “horrible injustice.” His lawyer said the former officer was misled into thinking he was working for a private Chinese construction firm rather than for Beijing’s government.
“It was the Chinese government that victimized Mike — a true hero cop whom our government should have celebrated, not indicted,” said attorney Lawrence Lustberg.
McMahon, who served 14 years with the NYPD before a 2001 injury ended his career, had received dozens of commendations. After serving part of his sentence, he was moved to a halfway house and returned to his New Jersey home earlier this year.
Several Republican lawmakers, including Reps. Mike Lawler (R-NJ) and Pete Sessions (R-TX), had urged Trump to consider the pardon. Lawler celebrated the move on X, saying McMahon “never should have been prosecuted to begin with.”
The case centered on Xu Jin, a former Chinese city official who fled to New Jersey in 2010 after being accused of bribery — charges he says were politically motivated. U.S. prosecutors said Chinese operatives, with McMahon’s unwitting help, tried to intimidate Xu’s family through years of surveillance and threats, including a chilling note left on his doorstep:
“If you go back to the mainland and spend 10 years in prison, your wife and children will be all right.”
The Justice Department called the campaign a striking example of “transnational repression.” China, however, has denied wrongdoing, insisting Operation Fox Hunt merely seeks to repatriate fugitives.
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