American Journalist Pleads Guilty to Acting as Agent for Chinese Government

An American journalist who has lived in China since 2010 and worked for several state media organizations pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court on June 4, 2026, to acting as an agent for the Chinese government without notifying the attorney general.

The journalist, who writes under the name Tom McGregor, faces up to 10 years in prison. Court records show that between 2019 and 2025 he received $100,000 for reports provided to an individual identified as Cathy. According to the filings, Cathy told him the reports were to be read by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

He was stopped by Customs and Border Protection agents upon returning to the United States in January 2025.

In interviews with CBP and FBI agents, he stated he was meeting a person seeking a job in the Trump administration and would provide that person with a Samsung phone and a laptop computer. He told agents he was “80% sure” the person, if hired, would provide classified information to Beijing.

Agents instructed him to continue with his plans. He met his contact at a Washington restaurant on February 23, 2026, and again at a hotel on February 25, 2026, where the FBI monitored the meetings.

The filings also state that he sold reports to a group of Chinese individuals from Wuhan who sought information about technology and the Justice Department. Those individuals wanted him to find an expert to help them engage in cyberespionage. He was arrested in February 2026 after arriving in Washington from China.

Pauken has lived in China continuously since 2010. He writes under the name Tom McGregor to distance himself from his father, who served as chairman of the Texas Republican Party in the 1990s and ran for governor more than a decade before 2026.