A sitting U.S. mayor signed a plea agreement admitting she acted as an unregistered agent of the Chinese government — and she's out of office today. Welcome to Arcadia Mayor Spy Watch — I'm Reese, with Vic. Today we're unpacking the 18 U.S.C. Section 951 charge, what a signed plea agreement means versus an entered plea, and what LAist says about how this operation allegedly worked. Okay, but who is sitting in that council seat tomorrow? And what happens to the votes Wang already cast? Also, is anybody at City Hall actually giving people a straight answer? Yeah — those are the questions. Let's get into it. Here's Dana Littlefield at LAist:
The mayor of Arcadia has agreed to plead guilty to a charge she acted as an agent for China, federal prosecutors announced Monday. She has resigned from her position with the city.
Arcadia Mayor Eileen Wang has signed a plea agreement to one count under 18 U.S.C. Section 951 — acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government. As of Monday, that's a signed agreement; the change-of-plea hearing and the entered plea are still separate steps ahead. The maximum exposure on that statute is ten years. She's already resigned, so now the seat is vacant — who fills it? Does Arcadia Council appoint somebody, is this a special election, and what about every vote Wang cast while this was going on? That's what Arcadia residents are actually wondering about. Co-defendant is Yaoning 'Mike' Sun of Chino Hills. The DOJ says both worked at the direction of the PRC government alongside U.S.-based individuals — that's the charging allegation, not a finding. LAist and the U.S. Attorney's Office are the sources here. And before anybody starts using 'Arcadia mayor' as shorthand for the whole Chinese-American community — stop. One person signed a plea agreement. That's the story. We've put links to everything we covered today in the show notes, so if a story caught your ear, you can follow it there and read a little deeper.
That's Arcadia Mayor Spy Watch for this Wednesday, May 13th. This is a Lantern Podcast.