'There's no smoking gun:' Defense makes last stand in case of accused Chinese agent

BROOKLYN (CN) — Linda Sun may not have been the perfect public servant, but the former high-ranking aide for New York Governors Andrew Cuomo and Kathy Hochul is far from the hardened criminal mastermind prosecutors are making her out to be, according to her lawyers.

“Linda Sun is a proud American and lifetime New Yorker who was well-regarded by her peers,” defense attorney Kenneth Abell told a pack of federal jurors in Brooklyn on Wednesday. “Did she do everything perfectly? Absolutely not.”

“But she did not commit any crimes,” Abell said.

Sun is trying to thwart charges that she cashed out on her position as a New York state official to fund a gaudy lifestyle of luxury cars, expensive properties, designer handbags — even Nanjing-style salted ducks — by secretly working for the Chinese government.

“I want to eat salted duck,” Sun said in a 2021 text to the head of the Chinese consulate in New York, adding with a licking-lips emoji, “I eat it as a midnight snack.”

https://www.courthousenews.com/theres-no-smoking-gun-defense-makes-last-stand-in-case-of-accused-chinese-agent/