The Department of Justice (DOJ) has dropped its charges against five visiting Chinese scientists who were accused of lying about the extent of their ties to the Chinese military.
The outlet reported that Assistant U.S. Attorney Heiko Coppola gave no reason for seeking the dismissal, and acting U.S. Attorney Phillip Talbert declined to comment.
The Epoch Times has reached out to the DOJ for comment.
Tang, who came to the United States in December 2019, last month had a separate count charging her with lying to the FBI dismissed, after the judge found that the FBI agents prior to their interview hadn’t properly advised her of her Miranda rights, including that she had the right to remain silent and refuse to answer questions.
Separately, Song Chen, a Chinese researcher and visiting scholar at Stanford University, had her FBI interrogations dropped in recent weeks by a judge for the same reason. Late on Thursday, the government appealed to the Ninth Circuit court against the ruling in Chen’s case, a court filing showed, according to Reuters.
For Tang, the remaining count of visa fraud was dismissed and the trial was vacated on Friday, per a filing with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, where prosecutors gave no reasons for their decision, Reuters reported.
The attorneys said on Friday said in a statement to The Sacramento Bee that they were “glad that the government decided to dismiss,“ adding, ”We provided ample reason to do so. It was teetering anyway.”
The dropped charges against the five Chinese nationals is a setback for the China Initiative, which the DOJ started three years ago under the Trump administration to counter national security threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party.In a statement commenting on the DOJ move, Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) accused the Biden administration of not being serious about “challenging China in any meaningful way.”