The FBI had its eye on Linda Sun long before the former aide to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul was charged with acting as an agent of the Chinese government.
The indictment against Sun describes how FBI agents sat down with her on July 15, 2020, when she was working for then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and questioned her about a recent trip to China. It also says they offered a warning.
They told her that when the Chinese Communist Party gives you something, it will “always seek something in return,” the indictment says.
In the days since their former aide’s arrest, Hochul and Cuomo’s representatives have pointed fingers, each blaming the other for Sun’s rise. Both, however, say the FBI didn’t tell them about its 2020 interview with Sun as she was ascended the ranks of New York’s state government.
Sun’s arrest has forced Hochul to face continued questions about whether her administration is appropriately vetting job candidates. She’s defended the vetting process, saying it digs deep into a candidate’s background — all the way to a prospect’s “kindergarten activities.” Hochul’s office also said it would be up to the FBI whether to reveal Sun’s prior interview, as it’s not the type of thing that would appear in a background check.
“As Gov. Hochul has said, we were shocked to learn of these extremely serious allegations,” Hochul spokesperson Avi Small said. “The [Hochul] administration conducts comprehensive vetting that includes a background check from the New York State Police, and the administration has assisted the Department of Justice throughout the investigation.”
Rich Azzopardi, a spokesperson for Cuomo, said the former governor’s administration was unaware of the interview. “No [Cuomo] administration official to our knowledge was ever told about this,” he said.
Sun’s meeting with federal investigators four years ago was first made public in the 65-page federal indictment, which accuses her and her husband, Chris Hu, of raking in millions of dollars as part of a scheme to boost the Chinese government’s views within the Hochul and Cuomo administrations.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn say Sun blocked Taiwanese officials’ access to either governor — a measure taken in order to satisfy the Chinese government. Taiwan has been at the center of a decadeslong dispute with mainland China, and Beijing is particularly sensitive to anything that could be viewed as legitimizing Taiwanese sovereignty.
At one point, Sun secured a letter to help a Chinese delegation get a work visa to travel to the United Sates, according to the indictment. Prosecutors say it was printed on Cuomo’s letterhead and purported to be signed by then-Lt. Gov. Hochul, but Hochul’s signature wasn’t authentic.
An FBI spokesperson declined to comment, citing the ongoing court case.
Sun’s attorney Jarrod Schaeffer declined to comment on any specific allegations, including the details about the 2020 interview.
But he said the allegations in the indictment “are just that — they are not evidence, and our client has pled not guilty and is presumed to be innocent.”
“We are troubled by aspects of the government’s investigation and we look forward to contesting its claims in court, where actual evidence is required to support accusations,” Schaeffer said. “We are also troubled by certain statements made in the press, which appear irresponsibly to rush to judgment based on inflammatory allegations and a press release.”
According to the indictment, Sun spoke to the bureau voluntarily in 2020 for an interview focused on a September 2019 trip to mainland China. Sun appeared in multiple photographs, including one with two men with close ties to the Chinese Communist Party, who would go on to be listed as unnamed co-conspirators in her indictment.
One of the photos appeared in an article published online under the title “Overseas Chinese Representatives Invited to Reception in Celebration of the 70th Anniversary of the Establishment of PRC, at the Great Hall of the People.” It was reportedly taken at an event that featured a speech by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“Sun acknowledged that she was in the photograph and claimed that she was already in the [People’s Republic of China] for a family visit and that a real estate developer from Long Island procured her a ticket for the event,” the indictment states.
Prosecutors now say Sun was lying. One of her alleged co-conspirators arranged for her to come to China to attend events for an organization closely associated with the Chinese Communist Party, they claim. And the other alleged co-conspirator paid for her travel arrangements and hotels.
The indictment claims FBI agents made clear Sun knew about the Foreign Agent Registration Act, which requires anyone representing foreign interests in the U.S. to publicly register with the Department of Justice.
At the time, Sun was Cuomo’s liaison to the Asian American community. When Hochul took over in 2021, she promoted Sun to deputy chief of staff, calling her “the highest appointed Asian American in the administration” in a press release.
The indictment clearly depicts Sun believing she had more sway with Hochul than with Cuomo, including when Cuomo was governor. When the Chinese consul general asked for a recorded Lunar New Year message from Cuomo in 2021, Sun responded that she’d likely be able to get Hochul — since she believed the lieutenant governor listened to her advice more than the governor did, according to the indictment.
Since the indictment, Hochul has said she was “shocked” by Sun’s “brazen” actions. She said that she fired Sun in 2023 after her administration discovered evidence of misconduct and turned it over to the authorities. And she made sure to point out that it was her predecessor who hired Sun in the first place.
“The moment we discovered this, she was gone,” Hochul said Wednesday.
Cuomo’s spokesperson, in turn, noted it was Hochul who promoted Sun to deputy chief of staff.
In a press release, Breon Peace, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, praised the Hochul administration for its cooperation.
State Senate Minority Leader Robert Ortt, a Buffalo-area Republican, called for an “immediate, bipartisan investigation” to determine how Sun was allegedly able to infiltrate the Cuomo and Hochul administrations.
“The fact that a spy for a hostile nation was embedded at the highest levels of our state government under two administrations is an alarming security failure, jeopardizing both New York and the entire country,” he said.
Speaking to reporters in Manhattan on Wednesday, Hochul expressed confidence in the state’s vetting process for administration appointees — despite Sun apparently leaking through the cracks.
“We have very high levels of background checks,” Hochul said. “They take an enormous amount of time. They will go back to basically people’s kindergarten activities. So I feel confident in our vetting process right now. It is lengthy, it is intensive.”