Lawmakers “strongly disagree” with the 18-month federal sentence handed to a private eye for spying on behalf of China – which is much stronger than that handed to an actual spy.
Decorated former NYPD officer Michael McMahon, 57, was found guilty in 2023 and sentenced Wednesday. However, he maintains he had no idea that’s he’d been working on behalf of the communist Chinese government.
McMahon was convicted of stalking a New Jersey couple alongside two co-defendants, who had been pressuring their mark, a Chinese expatriate, to return to his homeland, part of a campaign by the country’s government against citizens they deem ‘criminals’ who have moved away called “Operation Fox Hunt.
But Republican lawmakers say McMahon is being scapegoated by the Department of Justice.
“I strongly disagree with the sentencing and believe the charges brought by DOJ against Mr. McMahon were wrong from the start,” said Republican Rep Mike Lawler (R. NY) in a statement Thursday.
“I will continue to support efforts to fight this miscarriage of justice.”
Lawler is joined by fellow Republican Congressman Pete Sessions (R. Texas) in standing firm with McMahon, who has always claimed he was hired because the man he looked into, Xu Jin, owed money to a construction company.
McMahon’s sentence is harsher than the one handed down to Ming Xi Zhang, a New Jersey restaurant owner known as “Sushi John” who admitted to working as a spy for China.
Zhang was convicted of spying for China in April 2024, handed three years probation and walked out of court that day.
In 2021, he had pleaded guilty to having served as an agent of China without notifying the federal Attorney General.
However, Zhang was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents last month and is being held at the Elizabeth Detention Facility, according to reports. The federal case against him is sealed.
McMahon plans to appeal.
“An innocent man, an American hero who sacrificed his entire life to serve others was sentenced to 18 months for doing legal work as a private investigator,” said Martha Byrne, McMahon’s wife, an Emmy-winning actor who starred in “As the World Turns”.
“The DOJ chose to align themselves with the CCP [Communist Party of China] over American citizens and protect the national security of this country. This case needs a full audit and investigation to provide full transparency of the tactics and manipulations of the FBI, who failed yet again to follow the leads which would have protected this country,” she alleged.
McMahon, a highly decorated former NYPD detective, told the court Wednesday “I never thought for one minute I was working for China stalking anyone. This is such a nightmare.”
The day before, he had attended his brother Vincent McMahon’s funeral. The FDNY lieutenant was a firefighter who spent months at Ground Zero after the 9/11 attacks.
Prosecutors had asked for McMahon to be sentenced to nearly six years in prison. “This type of crime really does threaten our country’s national security,” Judge Chen said during the sentencing hearing.
In Zhang’s case, he confessed to meeting with Chinese security officials in the Bahamas in 2016 and delivered $35,000 to an unnamed individual in New Jersey, according to NJ.com. He also admitted to twice hosting another Chinese government agent at his Princeton home.