王春在博士律师回应美国司法部新闻稿之声明全文 | 中英文
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据美国司法部官网2月22日消息，美籍华人王春在于担任美国国家海洋和大气管理局（NOAA）海洋专家（2000年—2016年）期间，违反美国法律，同时为中国政府工作，在美国被判刑。
根据法庭文件，来自迈阿密56岁的王春在是世界上海洋气象研究、气候和飓风研究的最重要的专家之一。从2010年开始，王春在虽然在NOAA任职，却同时参与了中国长江学者、千人计划和旨在加强国家战略需求中的重大科学问题的“973计划”，他被指控在美国商业部下属的海洋和大气管理局工作期间接受别国的酬薪，他本人也承认了此项指控。
日前，其辩护律师发文回应了美国司法部的新闻稿，称其“虚假”且具“误导性”。
Statement of Peter Zeidenberg for DOJ Press Release
Just over a week ago, FBI Director Christopher Wray testified before Congress that he believed that Chinese-American scientists all over the United States were covertly gathering intelligence on behalf of China. It is clear that the Department of Justice (DOJ) is now waging a war against Chinese-American scientists, driven in large part by ignorance and paranoia. And, as is inevitable in war, there will be many innocent victims. Dr. Chunzai Wang is one of those victims: collateral damage in a recklessly waged war against Chinese born scientists.
First, a little history is in order.
In October 2014, Sherry Chen, a highly-distinguished hydrologist at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), was arrested at her office, in front of her co-workers, and led away in hand-cuffs. The government alleged that Ms. Chen, a naturalized American citizen, had illegally accessed data at the behest of Chinese officials and that she had lied to cover up this “crime.” One week before trial, the government’s case collapsed, and it dismissed all charges against Ms. Chen. Nevertheless, the effects of the arrest were devastating for Ms. Chen who, despite the dismissal, lost her job and has been forced to sue in order to be reinstated.
Six months later, in 2015, Professor Xiaoxing Xi, a world-renowned physicist at Temple University was arrested in front of his wife and children by a dozen armed agents, and similarly taken away in hand-cuffs. He was accused of helping the Chinese by providing them with proprietary materials owned by a U.S. company. The charges were later dismissed after it was established that the materials Dr. Xi sent were completely unrelated to the proprietary information.
Rather than being chastened by these experiences, the Department of Justice is still unfairly targeting Chinese-American scientists. Chunzai Wang is one of the world’s foremost experts on climate change and hurricanes. A naturalized U.S. citizen, he was, by far, the most prolific andsuccessful climate scientist at NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, and was named the NOAA Employee of the Year in 2012.
In 2016, Department of Commerce (DOC) Special Agent Andrew Lieberman -- the same agent that investigated Sherry Chen – executed a search warrant at Dr. Wang’s home and office, and, just like in Ms. Chen’s case, interrogated Dr. Wang for an entire day, without counsel and without a food or water break. As a result of the search warrant, the interrogation, and the negative publicity, Dr. Wang felt compelled to resign from NOAA, a position that he loved and where he worked tirelessly for 17 years. With no other work alternative available at the time, Dr. Wang left his family in Miami and found work at Chinese Academy of Sciences in China doing similar research regarding climate change.
Last September, as he returned to the U.S. to visit his family, the government arrested Dr. Wang at the airport. The government alleged that Dr. Wang committed time and attendance fraud when he spoke at scientific conferences in China without first notifying his supervisor, and that he illegally supplemented his income -- Dr. Wang was a Guest Professor at the Ocean University of China and, while he was on annual leave, was paid a small fee per diem for mentoring students and helping them with their research.
On the brink of trial, the government offered Dr. Wang a deal: a plea to a single count of illegal supplementation of income from Changjiang Scholars Program, with a sentence of “time served” (he spent one night in custody when he was arrested); no probation, no fine, no restitution and, most significantly, no crushingly expensive three-week long trial which he could only have afforded by borrowing from his elderly parents and other family in China. The plea meant that Dr. Wang could protect his family from the debilitating stress and immediately return to China and resume his research.
Agent Lieberman and at least four other agents from the Department of Commerce and FBI traveled to Miami to observe Dr. Wang’s change of plea. The judge made her displeasure with this prosecution plain. After hearing the government’s recitation of facts, she stated that she did not want to find Dr. Wang guilty, and did not understand why the case was not resolved by way of a deferred prosecution agreement. In my 33 year career – 22 spent as a prosecutor, the past 11 as a defense attorney – I have never heard a judge similarly chastise the government for bringing a case that, in the court’s view, so clearly lacked merit. Nevertheless, the court accepted the guilty plea and sentenced Dr. Wang to time-served – the one day he spent in jail at the time of his arrest. He was to pay no fine, no restitution and serve no probationary sentence. Instead, he was to go back to China to work.
Despite that a disposition of “time-served” can only be viewed as an embarrassing result for the government; and despite the court’s admonishment that the case should never have been brought in the first place; and after representing that it would not issue any press release regarding Dr. Wang’s disposition, the Department of Justice nevertheless issued a false and misleading press release “touting” their conviction of Dr. Wang which, in contravention of DOJ policy, referenced mere allegations as if they were facts established by the plea. Nothing could be further from the truth. The DOJ press release refers to unproven allegations that the Court dismissed as if they were established facts.
If the government had wanted to inform the public of the unproven allegations contained in the Indictment, it was required to state that the charges were merely accusations, and that Dr. Wang is, and remains, presumed innocent of those dismissed charges. There can be only one reason to issue a false and misleading press release: not satisfied with making Dr. Wang unemployable in the U.S., the government now seeks to vindictively impact Dr. Wang’s job prospects in China. It should disturb all people who believe in the rule of law that the Department of Justice violated its own policies to smear Dr. Wang in order to extract an extrajudicial penalty in a case that the Court believed should never have been brought.
Peter Zeidenberg
对美国司法部新闻稿的声明
就在一个多星期前，美国联邦调查局局长克里斯托弗沃雷（CHRISTOPHER WRAY）在国会作证时表示，他相信美国各地的美籍华裔科学家正在暗中代表中国收集情报。很显然，司法部（DOJ）正在对美籍华裔科学家发起一场战争，这主要是由一些无知和偏执狂推动。并且，战争不可避免地会产生很多无辜的受害者。王春在博士是其中一名无辜受害者：在这场针对在中国出生的科学家轻率发起的战争中被殃及的无辜。
首先，需要解释一下历史。
2014 年10 月，美国国家海洋和大气管理局（NOAA）的杰出水文学家陈霞芬在她的办公室，在她的同事面前用手铐被捕。政府声称陈女士作为美国人，曾应中国官员的要求非法获取数据，并称她为掩盖这一“罪行”说谎。但在此案即将进入庭审的前一周，诉讼无法进行下去，检方撤销了对陈女士的所有指控。尽管如此，这次逮捕的后果对于陈女士来说是毁灭性的，虽然最后指控被撤销，但她却失去了工作，并被迫为了复职而起诉政府。
六个月后，在2015 年，天普大学的世界著名物理学家郗小星教授在他的妻子和孩子面前被十几名武装特工以类似的方式用手铐逮捕。他被指控帮助中国人，向他们提供美国公司拥有的专有材料。后来，在确定郗博士发送的材料与专有信息完全无关后，指控被撤销。
司法部并没有从这些经验中吸取教训，仍然不公平地对待美籍华裔科学家。王春在在气候变化和飓风方面，是世界最权威一流的专家之一。作为一名入籍美国的公民，他是迄今为止NOAA 大西洋海洋和气象实验室最多产、最成功的气候科学家，并于2012 年被评为美国NOAA 年度最佳雇员。
2016 年，商务部（DOC）特工人员安德鲁·利伯曼（ANDREW LIEBERMAN，与调查陈霞芬的为同一人）在王博士的家中和办公室执行了搜查令，就像陈女士的案件一样，在没有律师，没有食物和水并且没有休息的情况下，他询问了王博士整整一天。由于搜查、审讯和负面宣传，虽然王博士非常喜欢他在NOAA 的工作，并且在那里孜孜不倦地工作了17 年，王博士认为他应该辞去该工作。由于当时没有其他工作可供选择，王博士离开了他在迈阿密的家人，在中国科学院找到了关于气候变化方面进行类似研究的工作。
去年9 月，当他回到美国探望他的家人时，政府在机场逮捕了王博士。政府指控，王博士在中国学术会议上发言时没有事先通知他的主管，因而在时间和出勤上弄虚作假，并非法获取额外收入--王博士是中国海洋大学客座教授，他利用年假时间，在中国海洋大学指导学生，帮助他们进行研究，报酬就是少量的每日津贴。
就在开庭前夕，政府向王博士提供了一个交易：承认长江学者计划（的津贴）是非法额外收入，作为一个认罪的答辩，判他已被关押的时间作为刑期（他被捕时拘留了一晚）；没有缓刑，没有罚款，没有赔偿，最重要的是，没有费用昂贵的为期三周的冗长庭审。他只能通过向在中国年迈的父母和其他家庭成员借款，否则他根本负担不起庭审所需的律师费。认罪意味着王博士可以使得他的家庭免受巨大的伤害，马上回中国恢复他的研究。
特工人员安德鲁·利伯曼和至少四名商务部和联邦调查局的其他特工人员前往迈阿密旁听王博士对答辩的改变。在听到政府陈述事实后，法官对这个起诉感到不满，她表示她不认为王博士有罪，并且不明白为什么不通过达成延缓起诉协议来解决。在我33 年的职业生涯中（22 年担任检察官，过去11 年担任辩护律师），我还从未听到过法官如此严厉地斥责政府将这样一个在法院眼里明显缺乏法律依据的案子告上法庭。尽管如此，法庭还是接受了王博士的认罪答辩，并判处王博士已被关押的时间作为刑期--也就是他被捕后在拘留所度过的那一天。他不需要付罚款，没有赔偿，也没有缓刑。相反，他将回中国去继续工作。
尽管“已被关押的时间作为刑期”的处置只能被视为政府得到的尴尬结果，尽管法院告诫说这个案子本来就不应该立案，并且政府就在表示不会就对王博士的处置发布任何新闻稿后，司法部却发布了虚假和误导性的新闻稿，“吹嘘”了他们对王博士的定罪，将他们的指控视为认罪所确立的事实，这违反了司法部的政策。事实远非如此。美国司法部的新闻稿提及法院驳回的未经证实的指控，说的好像它们是既定事实一样。
如果政府想要告诉公众有关起诉书中未经证实的指控，按要求就必须说明指控仅仅是指控，王博士对这些被撤销的指控现在是并且仍然继续是推定无罪。
政府发布虚假和误导性的新闻稿只能有一个原因：那就是政府对王博士在美国（辞职后）失业还不满意，现在试图报复性地影响王博士在中国的工作前景。司法部的所作所为让所有相信法治的人感到担忧，对这样一个法院认为根本就不应该起诉的案子，司法部却违反自己的政策抹黑王博士，进行司法外处罚。
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