Charges dropped against NYPD cop accused of spying for China

Charges were formally dropped Thursday against a New York City police officer and Marine Corps veteran accused of spying for China.

Prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York filed a motion to dismiss the case last week against Baimadajie Angwang, a naturalized Tibetan American, citing unspecified new information in the case. 

The U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn in 2020 had accused him of reporting on the activities of Tibetans living in the U.S. at the direction of the Chinese Consulate in New York. He was charged with acting as an illegal agent of the People’s Republic of China, wire fraud, making false statements and obstructing an official proceeding.

The new information in the case was deemed too classified and sensitive to be discussed openly, despite the pressing of District Judge Eric Komitee.

“The decision was based on all the evidence and information developed,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Haggans told Judge Komitee, according to The Associated Press.

Mr. Angwang’s attorney, John Carman, accused prosecutors of hiding behind laws regarding classified information to avoid explaining why the case was dropped.

“The truth is that they are hiding behind [the Classified Information Procedures Act] in an effort to give the impression that this was a legitimate prosecution, which it was not. Mr. Angwang is a great American who served his country in combat in Afghanistan and our government repaid him by treating him like he was the leader of the Taliban,” Mr. Carman told the New York Post.

Mr. Angwang, 36, was charged in September 2020 and spent six months in jail until he was released on bail.

“The anguish and expense that this police officer and Marine Corps veteran has endured is not easily described,” Mr. Carman told CNN.

Mr. Carman said Mr. Angwang’s discussions with the Chinese consulate were to obtain a visa to return to Tibet to see his relatives.

Mr. Angwang came to America as a 17-year-old on a cultural exchange visa. He overstayed and sought asylum, saying that Chinese authorities had tortured him because of his Tibetan ethnicity.

After winning asylum, he joined the Marines, serving in Afghanistan in 2013 and becoming an Army reservist in 2014 upon his honorable discharge and return to the U.S. From there, Mr. Angwang joined the New York Police Department in 2016, serving as a community liaison officer in Queens. 

Mr. Angwang has been suspended with pay from the NYPD, according to AP, and he and Mr. Carman are working to get him reinstated.

Outside the courthouse, Mr. Angwang, wearing an American flag pin, thanked his supporters, family and friends.

“For 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,” Mr. Angwang said, according to CNN.