Two GOP Congress members, including Westchester Rep. Mike Lawler, are going to bat for a former NYPD cop convicted of acting as an agent of China — writing on Congressional letterhead that they believe a federal jury got his landmark conviction wrong.
Lawler and Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas), both China hawks who have taken strong stances against the Chinese Communist Party, co-signed a letter supporting Michael McMahon, who was convicted in Brooklyn Federal Court in 2023.
“Since being charged, Mr. McMahon has been unwavering in maintaining his innocence. We also believe in his innocence,” they wrote to Judge Pamela Chen in a letter filed by McMahon’s defense team on March 27. “Since the onset of this case, Michael has lost nearly everything while never wavering from his declaration of innocence.”
Prosecutors are asking Chen to sentence him on April 10 to seven and a quarter years behind bars.
A federal jury found McMahon, a retired NYPD sergeant turned private investigator, guilty of acting as a foreign agent and interstate stalking after a two-week trial in June 2023.
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Retired NYPD sergeant Michael McMahon leaves Brooklyn Federal Court in 2023. (Photo by YUKI IWAMURA/AFP via Getty Images)
McMahon was “a critical member” of a Chinese campaign to intimidate dissident Xu Jin, a former Wuhan municipal government official, and his family, with the end goal of pressuring Xu into returning to China, prosecutors said.
The case was the first trial prosecuting members of “Operation Fox Hunt,” a sweeping Chinese government effort to forcibly repatriate dissidents and fugitives across the globe, the feds said.
The plot involved forcing Xu’s elderly father to fly to the U.S. and dropping him on Xu’s sister-in-law’s doorstep on April 5, 2017.
McMahon, who was paid more than $19,000, was asked to dig up information on Xu and his family. He surveilled the sister-in-law’s house during the elderly man’s visit, all in the hope of following Xu to his Warren, N.J., home, prosecutors said.
The feds say McMahon realized he was working for the Chinese government when he searched for Xu’s name — and did the job regardless.
At one point, after passing Xu’s name to a co-conspirator, McMahon texted a fellow private investigator that he was “waiting for a call” to determine what to do next, according to court filings.
“Yeah. From NJ State Police about an abduction,” the other P.I. quipped, and McMahon responded, “Lol.”
“The jury squarely rejected the defendant’s argument that he did not understand the scope of the criminal scheme or that he was working for the PRC government,” prosecutors wrote in their Thursday sentencing memo.
McMahon maintained he thought he was working for a private company, and that he “did everything by the book as a licensed private investigator.” He and his wife, veteran “As The World Turns” actress Martha Byrne, have spoken out publicly against the verdict in TV and newspaper interviews.
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Rep. Mike Lawler in Washington, DC last month. (Photo by Tierney L. Cross/Getty Images)
Lawler and Sessions have both warned of the dangers posed by China, and Lawler in January called China “our greatest geopolitical threat.”
Lawler and Sessions’ offices didn’t offer any specifics when asked why they thought the jury got the verdict wrong.
“Congressman Lawler and Sessions stand behind the official letter they submitted to Judge Pamela K. Chen regarding Michael McMahon, and both urge an expedited federal review of his case and the unique circumstances involved,” their offices said in a joint statement. “Mr. McMahon’s highly decorated, 14-year career as an NYPD detective — including in the aftermath of 9/11 — reflects a lifetime of service to his community and country.”
The letter, which they signed in June, was filed along with 38 others from friends and supporters asking the judge for leniency.
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