Legal Docket by CourtListener: United States v. Hu (TV1) (3:20-cr-00021)
On February 27, 2020, the Department of Justicde announced the indictment of Professor Anming Hu, an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK). Professor Hu was charged with three counts of wire fraud and three counts of making false statements.
Professor Hu is the second case involving a U.S. university professor facing dubious charges under the "China Initiative." The first is Kansas University Professor Franklin Tao.
According to Knoxville News Sentinel on July 2, 2020, "The (U.S. Department of Justice) wanted a feather in its cap with an economic espionage case, so they ignored the facts and the law, destroyed the career of a professor with two PhDs in nanotechnology and now expects the court to follow their narrative," attorney Philip Lomonaco wrote in a brief asking a judge to dismiss the charges against Hu.
In addition, Hu's attorney says he's no spy, and that he never meant to deceive anyone. In Lomonaco's telling, Hu is nothing more than an innocent researcher who tried his best to follow a rule so vague that neither UT, the FBI nor NASA seemed to fully understand it. The charges should be dismissed for that reason, Lomonaco wrote, and because Hu listened to a UT official who said the restriction didn't apply to faculty.
Although prosecutors have argued the case could involve matters of national security, they have not accused Hu of espionage, as in all other known cases involving U.S. university professors and researchers under the "China Initiative."
2021/02/16 Tennessean opinion: Accused Chinese academics in Tennessee and elsewhere should not be unfairly punished
2020/07/02 Knoxville News Sentinel: University of Tennessee professor accused of hiding his Chinese job wants case tossed
AP: Professor accused of hiding ties to China wants case tossed
2020/03/03 Knoxville News Sentinel: Who is Anming Hu? UT professor charged with hiding Chinese ties is flight risk, feds say
Professor Hu is the second case involving a U.S. university professor facing dubious charges under the "China Initiative." The first is Kansas University Professor Franklin Tao.
According to Knoxville News Sentinel on July 2, 2020, "The (U.S. Department of Justice) wanted a feather in its cap with an economic espionage case, so they ignored the facts and the law, destroyed the career of a professor with two PhDs in nanotechnology and now expects the court to follow their narrative," attorney Philip Lomonaco wrote in a brief asking a judge to dismiss the charges against Hu.
In addition, Hu's attorney says he's no spy, and that he never meant to deceive anyone. In Lomonaco's telling, Hu is nothing more than an innocent researcher who tried his best to follow a rule so vague that neither UT, the FBI nor NASA seemed to fully understand it. The charges should be dismissed for that reason, Lomonaco wrote, and because Hu listened to a UT official who said the restriction didn't apply to faculty.
Although prosecutors have argued the case could involve matters of national security, they have not accused Hu of espionage, as in all other known cases involving U.S. university professors and researchers under the "China Initiative."
2021/02/16 Tennessean opinion: Accused Chinese academics in Tennessee and elsewhere should not be unfairly punished
2020/07/02 Knoxville News Sentinel: University of Tennessee professor accused of hiding his Chinese job wants case tossed
AP: Professor accused of hiding ties to China wants case tossed
2020/03/03 Knoxville News Sentinel: Who is Anming Hu? UT professor charged with hiding Chinese ties is flight risk, feds say