Feds formally drop case against NYPD cop accused of being spy for China
A federal judge in Brooklyn on Thursday formally dismissed the case against an NYPD cop and Army reservist accused of spying for the Chinese government.
Judge Eric Komitee of the Eastern District of New York tossed the charges against Baimadajie Angwang, after prosecutors moved to drop the case.
At a brief hearing Thursday, Assistant US Attorney Matthew Haggans said the government was “limited in the information we can provide” — but added that the decision to dismiss the indictment was based on an “assessment of all the evidence and information available to the government.”
Haggens said it was “appropriate to seek dismissal based in the interest of justice.”
Speaking to reporters outside the Brooklyn federal courthouse, Angwang expressed his gratitude Thursday to those who he said stood by him.
“I just want to say thank you … to all the people who trusted me, who believed me since the beginning: my family, my friends, my Marine Corps brothers, my NYPD colleagues — thank you,” he said.
His attorney, John Carman, maintained his client had done nothing wrong.
“Mr. Angwang was innocent from the very beginning,” Carman told reporters. “Mr. Angwang asked me to emphasize today that he is not, and he has never been, an agent for the People’s Republic of China, nor has he entered into any type of agreement with the government of our country in order to induce them to dismiss the indictment.
“I would argue, as an American, he’s a great one. He has served his country honorably in the Marine Corps in Afghanistan, [and] he is a dedicated New York City police officer,” Carman added, noting that his client “is grateful today that he and his family will have an opportunity to get back to their lives.”
Prosecutors had alleged that Angwang, a community affairs officer with the 111th Precinct in Queens, became an “intelligence asset” of the Chinese government in 2018, working with a handler stationed in the Chinese consulate in Manhattan.
Angwang, an ethnic Tibetan and naturalized citizen, was accused of informing his handler of potential assets and troublemakers in New York’s Tibetan community.
At the time, FBI New York Assistant Director-in-Charge William Sweeney Jr. called Angwang “the definition of an insider threat.”
The 36-year-old had faced up to 55 years behind bars if convicted.