FILE PHOTO: FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump looks on as he issues executive orders and pardons for Jan. 6 defendants, whose names are seen on the document he holds, in the Oval Office at the White House on Inauguration Day in Washington, U.S., January 20, 2025. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo/File Photo
President Donald Trump has approved another controversial pardon for a former New York Police Department (NYPD) officer who his own administration sentenced just months ago.
The New York Times reported Friday that 57-year-old former NYPD officer Michael McMahon has been pardoned after serving roughly a third of his 18-month prison sentence. McMahon was found guilty in 2023 of acting as an unregistered foreign agent for the Chinese government (formally the People's Republic of China, or PRC), along with interstate stalking and conspiracy to commit the same. His co-defendants Zhu Yong and Conying Zheng were sentenced in January to 24 months and 16 months, respectively.
The Trump administration's Department of Justice (DOJ) sentenced McMahon in April of this year, with the DOJ stating that the former officer and his co-defendants "participated in an international campaign to threaten, harass, surveil, and intimidate John Doe #1 and his family in order to force him and his wife, Jane Doe #1, to return to the PRC to face purported corruption charges."
The DOJ's press release described how the family in question had made efforts to "keep their addresses out of public records." McMahon, who worked as a private investigator, discovered the whereabouts of the family in question and reported it to both his co-defendants and a PRC police officer. McMahon also conducted surveillance of the family's home, which was carried out under the supervision and direction of both a Chinese police officer and a Chinese prosecutor. He was paid $19,000 for his work, which he attempted to conceal by depositing the payments into his son's bank account.
"McMahon knew that the subjects of his investigation were wanted by the PRC government, a fact that he texted about with another investigator he contracted to help him," the DOJ press release read. "Following his arrest, McMahon acknowledged knowing that his employers wanted to get the victim back to China 'so they could prosecute him.' After providing the victims’ address, McMahon told his surveillance partner that he was 'waiting for a call' to find out what to do next."
However, the Times reported that McMahon's supporters said he was coerced into helping the Chinese government, and that despite his willingness to cooperate with the Biden administration's DOJ, federal prosecutors were determined to "make an example" of him. McMahon and his wife both attended Trump's second inauguration while he was awaiting sentencing. Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) and political operative Roger Stone — a longtime Trump confidant — both pushed Trump to grant McMahon's clemency motion. Roger Stone was pardoned by Trump during his lame-duck period in 2020, after he had been sentenced to 40 months in prison for lying to Congress, witness tampering and obstruction.
"I am glad that the president pardoned him," Lawler told the Times. "It was the right thing to do."
Click here to read the Times' full article.