A federal judge in Brooklyn on Monday declared a mistrial in the case of Linda Sun, a former aide to Democratic governors who was accused of working as an agent of China, after jurors said they could not reach a verdict.

周一，布鲁克林的一名联邦法官宣布孙雯案审判无效。此前陪审团表示无法就此案达成一致裁决。孙雯(Linda Sun)曾是民主党州长的一名助手，被控充当中国代理人。

Ms. Sun, 42, was accused by federal prosecutors of being an unscrupulous public servant who sold her allegiance to China, which rewarded her handsomely for helping to carry out its global campaign of influence peddling.

42岁的孙雯被联邦检察官指控为一名不择手段的公务员，将自己的忠诚出卖给了中国，帮助中国实施全球影响力渗透行动并得到丰厚的回报。

She and her husband, Chris Hu, who was also on trial, carried out Beijing’s bidding, prosecutors claimed, including by blocking Taiwanese officials from meeting the governor and by removing references to the Uyghurs, a primarily Muslim ethnic minority that has faced persecution from the Chinese Communist Party, from official speeches.

检察官称，她和同时受审的丈夫胡骁(Chris Hu)按照北京的指示行事，包括阻止台湾官员与州长会面，以及从官方演讲中删除有关维吾尔人的表述。维吾尔人是一个主要为穆斯林的少数民族，长期受到中国共产党迫害。

In exchange, the couple was compensated with orchestra tickets, travel benefits and a series of Nanjing-style salted ducks, among other payoffs.

作为回报，这对夫妇获得了包括交响乐演出门票、旅行福利以及多只南京盐水鸭在内的诸多好处。

But the couple’s lawyers argued that she was just doing her job. And jurors seemed unconvinced by the case brought by the Justice Department, which under President Trump has scrutinized the very statute under which Ms. Sun was charged, the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

但夫妇两人的律师辩称，她只是履行职责。而陪审团似乎对司法部提出的指控并不信服。在特朗普总统时期，司法部对指控孙雯所依据的《外国代理人登记法》本身进行了严密的审视。

Ms. Sun, her face partially obscured by a pair of black sunglasses, shook her head with a small smile when reporters asked for a statement. Jarrod L. Schaeffer, a lawyer for Ms. Sun, said in a statement outside the courthouse that the mistrial underscored “how questionable and flawed these charges were.”

面对请求置评的记者，被一副黑色太阳镜遮住部分面容的孙雯微微一笑，并摇了摇头。她的律师贾罗德·谢弗在法院外发表声明称，审判无效“凸显了这些指控多么可疑和站不住脚”。

“Throughout this trial, Linda Sun has steadfastly maintained her innocence,” Mr. Schaeffer said. “And that does not change now.”

“在整个审判过程中，孙雯始终坚称自己无辜，”谢弗说道。“这一点现在也没有改变。”

The law has been used to crack down on political influence peddling sought by foreign governments, a major pursuit in Washington, D.C. But in February, Attorney General Pam Bondi directed that prosecutions under the law be limited to “more traditional espionage by foreign government actors.”

《外国代理人登记法》一直被用来打击外国政府试图在美国进行的政治影响力操作，这是华盛顿近年来的重点目标。但今年2月，司法部长帕姆·邦迪指示，该法的起诉应限于“外国政府行为人进行的相对传统的间谍活动”。

Alexander A. Solomon, a prosecutor, told the judge, Brian M. Cogan, on Monday that the government wanted to retry the case as soon as possible. Both parties are due back in court on Jan. 26.

检察官亚历山大·所罗门周一向法官布赖恩·科根表示，政府希望尽快重审此案。双方定于1月26日再次出庭。

The jury’s work did not proceed smoothly. On Dec. 18, Judge Cogan had to dismiss a juror because she had previously planned travel during the week of Christmas, forcing the 12-person jury to restart deliberations on Dec. 22 with a new member.

陪审团的工作并不顺利。12月18日，科根不得不撤换一名陪审员，因为此人此前已计划在圣诞节那周旅行，迫使12人陪审团于12月22日更换新成员后重新开始审议。

Over a week of deliberation, the jurors indicated that they were facing difficulty reaching consensus on any of the 19 counts, which included visa fraud, alien smuggling, money laundering and federal program bribery.

在超过一周的审议中，陪审团多次表示，他们在全部19项指控——包括签证欺诈、协助偷渡、洗钱和联邦项目贿赂——上都难以达成共识。

On Monday afternoon, there appeared to be little progress. Jurors sent notes that morning to the judge detailing their various scheduling conflicts over the next couple of weeks, and one juror expressed financial concerns over continued service.

周一下午，进展似乎仍然甚微。当天上午，陪审员致信法官，详细说明未来几周的各种日程冲突，还有一名陪审员表达了继续服务会引起的经济担忧。

Judge Cogan called in the jury and asked the forewoman whether the jurors had reached a verdict on any of the counts, for either defendant. She shook her head.

科根召集陪审团，询问首席陪审员是否已对任何被告的任何一项指控达成裁决。她摇了摇头。

Ms. Sun’s and Mr. Hu’s lawyers argued that her job as co-director of the Asian American Advisory Council under Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo required her to travel to China and correspond with officials there. Kenneth M. Abell, a lawyer for Ms. Sun, said there was no “smoking gun” proving the government’s case.

孙雯和胡骁的律师辩称，她在州长安德鲁·科莫政府担任亚裔美国人顾问委员会联合主任的职责，要求她前往中国并与那里官员通信。孙的律师肯尼思·阿贝尔表示，政府没有拿出任何“确凿证据”来证明其指控。

“To say that Linda did what the government said she did for salted ducks is as absurd as it sounds,” Mr. Abell said during his closing arguments.

阿贝尔在最后陈词中说：“说Linda为了几只盐水鸭做了政府指控的那些事，听起来有多荒谬就有多荒谬。”

Ms. Sun’s case represented the modern push to use the law to go after efforts to influence domestic politics, said Robert K. Kelner, a lawyer at the firm Covington & Burling who has specialized in foreign agent cases.

科文顿·柏林律师事务所专门研究外国代理人案件的律师罗伯特·凯尔纳表示，孙雯案代表了近年来利用该法打击影响国内政治行为的趋势。

Ms. Sun joined the Cuomo administration in 2012. She had previously worked as a chief of staff for a Democratic state assemblywoman, Grace Meng, who is now a congresswoman representing parts of Queens.

孙雯于2012年加入科莫政府。此前，她曾担任民主党州众议员孟昭文(Grace Meng)的幕僚长，孟现为代表皇后区部分地区的联邦众议员。

Ms. Sun rose through the administration, moving from a deputy position in the diversity office to a co-director role at the Asian American Advisory Council. She was retained by Mr. Cuomo’s successor, Kathy Hochul, who promoted Ms. Sun to deputy chief of staff in 2021. She earned about $145,000 that year, according to public records.

她在政府中逐步升迁，从多元化办公室副主任升至亚裔美国人顾问委员会联合主任。科莫的继任者凯西·霍格尔继续留用她，并于2021年将其提拔为副幕僚长。据公开记录，她那一年年薪约14.5万美元。

During the trial, which lasted more than a month, prosecutors presented evidence that showed much of Ms. Sun’s work was mundane. In one instance, when Mr. Cuomo was the governor and Ms. Hochul the lieutenant governor, a Chinese consular official asked Ms. Sun to film a video celebrating the Lunar New Year with Mr. Cuomo.

在持续一个多月的审理期间，检察官提交的证据显示，孙雯的许多工作内容相当日常。例如，当科莫担任州长、霍格尔担任副州长时，一名中国领事官员要求孙拍摄一段与科莫共同庆祝农历新年的视频。

Ms. Sun suggested having Ms. Hochul appear in the video, as someone who “listens to me more than the governor does,” she wrote to another consular official.

她建议让霍格尔出镜，并对另一名领事官员写道，霍格尔“比州长更听得进去我的话”。

Yet prosecutors also said that Ms. Sun did more substantial work for China helping its government combat the “five poisons” — topics that Beijing is intent on suppressing, including Taiwanese independence and the Uyghurs — from her perch in New York’s executive chamber.

但检察官也表示，在纽约州行政部门任职期间，孙雯为中国政府做了更实质性的工作，帮助其对抗“五毒”——北京急于压制的议题，包括台湾独立和维吾尔问题。

In July 2024, Ms. Sun and Mr. Hu’s home on Long Island was raided by federal agents who recovered luxury items like a Rolex and a Ferrari Roma that prosecutors said the couple bought with money from China.

2024年7月，联邦探员突查孙雯夫妇在长岛的住所，查获了劳力士手表和法拉利Roma跑车等奢侈品，检察官称这些是用来自中国的资金购买的。

Ms. Sun was also rewarded with status in China, prosecutors said. She was named the chair of a Communist Party group that recruits Chinese nationals overseas to work in the party’s best interests. Such a title gave Ms. Sun “another avenue to reach leadership” in the party, Julian Ku, a professor of international law and an expert witness called by the government, testified during the trial.

检察官表示，孙还在中国获得了身份地位上的回报。她被任命为一个中共海外组织的主席，该组织负责招募海外华人华侨为党的利益工作。政府专家证人、国际法教授朱利安·库在庭上作证称，这一头衔让孙女士“有了另一条通向党内领导层的途径”。

Prosecutors presented photos at trial of Ms. Sun socializing with officials of the Chinese Consulate in New York. They also showed letters inviting Chinese delegations to New York that they said contained signatures from the governor that had been forged by Ms. Sun.

庭审中检察官展示了孙与中国驻纽约领事馆官员往来的照片，并出示了他们称由孙伪造州长签名的中国代表团访美邀请函。

A cellphone case of Ms. Sun’s seized by prosecutors, also shown to the jury, had been decorated with the words “Get Rich, Good Luck.”

检察官还向陪审团展示了一部从孙雯处查获的手机壳，上有“Get Rich, Good Luck”（意为“发财好运”。——译注）的字样。

Ms. Sun’s and Mr. Hu’s lawyers emphasized to the judge the toll that the trial had taken on their clients. They noted the difficulty of another lengthy trial because the defendants have had most of their assets seized, hindering their ability to pay for counsel.

孙雯夫妇的律师向法官强调了审判给他们的客户带来的巨大负担。他们指出，由于大部分资产已被没收，被告难以支付又一场漫长审判的律师费用。

Some of the people Ms. Sun socialized with in New York, prosecutors said, were members of “hometown associations” hailing from the same town or province in China. These groups, which exist in part to promote a common Chinese cultural heritage, have become channels through which Beijing carries out its influence-peddling campaigns, the prosecutors said.

检察官称，孙雯在纽约交往的一些人来自“同乡会”，这些团体以促进共同的中国文化遗产为名，实际上已成为北京开展影响力行动的渠道。

They said that Ms. Sun corresponded frequently with “middlemen” in New York from a hometown association connected to the Henan provincial government. Ms. Sun primarily kept in touch with two of these middleman, Frank Zhang and Morgan Shi, who reported to China’s consul general in the city, Huang Ping. None of the men were accused of wrongdoing.

他们表示，孙频繁与纽约一个与河南省政府有关联的同乡会的中间人通信，主要是张富印(Frank Zhang)和摩根·史(Morgan Shi)。这两人向中国驻纽约总领事黄屏汇报工作。上述人员均未被指控有任何不当行为。

When Ms. Sun followed through on the Chinese Consulate’s wishes, prosecutors said, she was rewarded. One of the more striking examples of these payoffs were the salted ducks, which prosecutors said she received from Mr. Ping’s chef.

检察官称，孙雯按照中国领事馆的要求行事，就会获得回报。其中最引人注目的回报之一就是盐水鸭，检察官说这是由黄屏的厨师烹制的。

In texts to Mr. Ping in 2021 that prosecutors shared with the jury, Ms. Sun made a simple request: She wanted to eat salted duck. Mr. Ping arranged for his chef to prepare the dish.

检察官向陪审团展示了2021年孙发给黄屏的短信，她简单地提出：“我想吃盐水鸭。”黄屏随即安排厨师制作。

“The ducks were received,” Ms. Sun wrote to Mr. Ping. Later that night, she texted that they had been “delicious,” adding an emoji of a face licking its lips.

“鸭子收到了，”孙雯后来回复。又过了一会儿，她发短信说“非常美味”，并附上一个舔嘴唇的表情符号。

When Judge Cogan thanked the jurors, he noted that the British government had recently moved to get rid of jury trials for certain crimes. He said he did not agree.

科根在感谢陪审员时提到，英国政府最近已着手取消某些犯罪的陪审团审判。他表示自己不同意这种做法。

“You almost always get it right,” Judge Cogan told them.

“你们几乎总是能做出正确裁决，”科根对他们说。