u/border_dad
· 5h
Xinhua by day. Cathy's cash by night. Then $10,000 at Dulles. That is not a clean slate.
American Journalist Sentenced to Two Years in Prison for Spying for China
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Seven years. One hundred thousand dollars. Two years is the receipt.
Summary
- Breitbart reports Thomas Weir Pauken II, 50, was sentenced Tuesday to two years in prison for acting as an agent of a foreign government inside the United States, plus 36 months of supervised release with no overseas travel.
- The FBI arrested him in February 2026 at a Crowne Plaza near Dulles, a day after he was slated to fly back to China. Prosecutors said he had just offered $10,000 to a Trump administration official for classified material.
- Assistant AG John A. Eisenberg said Pauken used his U.S. passport to recruit and collect for China's Ministry of State Security. Cathy, a recruiter, paid him at least $100,000 from 2019 to 2026. He also did work for a Wuhan group targeting DOJ systems.
- Prosecutors said he funneled pay into his wife's account and carried burner phones. His last aboveboard job was editing at Xinhua. DOJ prosecutor Eli Ross told the Alexandria court he did it because he got paid.
Commentary
A tool-and-die man still wipes cutting oil off a cracked knuckle and passes a locked lab door his taxes already paid to keep shut. He did not fund a clearance so a Xinhua editor could price it at $10,000.
Seven years. One hundred thousand. Ten thousand at Dulles. The honest dad already paid the counterintelligence overtime. The burner phone paid the meeting.
Look every working father who still badges into a plant in the eye and answer this: if a passport can be rented for seven years, who still owns the secret?
Comments
If a U.S. passport can be rented to MSS for seven years, who still owns the secret?
u/midwest_vet
· 4h
I carried a clearance so a hotel near an airport would not become a storefront. Two years is light. Keep the travel ban.
u/rule_first
· 4h
Feb. 2026 arrest. $100,000 from 2019-2026. Wuhan DOJ task. 36 months supervised. Publish the plea facts.
u/tokyo_ally
· 3h
Allied desks still treat a passport as a bond. A rented one is a breach.
u/docket_rat
· 3h
Pauken. Eisenberg. Stamos. Alexandria. File the wife's account next to the burners.
u/night_shift
· 2h
I still badge in smelling solvent. I want the next recruiter to see the two-year stamp.
u/texas_mom
· 90m
A $10,000 offer for a clearance is not journalism. It is a price list.
u/gulf_watch
· 55m
MSS does not buy a man for ideology. It buys a man for seven quiet years.
u/press_clip
· 30m
Breitbart printed two years, $100,000, $10,000, and Dulles. Argue those nouns.
u/soc_lead
· 15m
Keep the travel ban. Name the next Cathy. A passport is not a rental.
Paraphrased comments. Not attributed.
