Convicted Head of Harvard Chemistry department Charles Lieber Moves For New Trial to Rectify ‘Manifest Injustice’
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2022/2/9/Lieber-moves-for-retrial/
Attorneys for Harvard professor Charles M. Lieber filed a motion Monday for an acquittal or new trial, over a month after he was convicted in federal court on six felony counts.
Lieber was found guilty in a December trial of two counts of lying to federal officials about his involvement with the China-sponsored Thousand Talents Program. The renowned nanoscientist was also convicted of four tax-related offenses.
Calling their client’s conviction a “manifest injustice,” Lieber’s lawyers wrote in a memorandum that Lieber’s statements to investigators were “warped by the government.” They also reiterated a previous call to suppress statements the chemist made in a post-arrest FBI interview.
The government has until March 7 to register opposition to the defense’s request.
The Lieber trial resulted in the highest-profile conviction to date by the Department of Justice’s China Initiative, a controversial program launched under the Trump administration targeting those suspected of “trade secret theft” and “economic espionage.” The initiative has faced criticism for alleged prosecutorial misconduct and a disproportionate focus on individuals of Chinese heritage.
Prosecutors dropped a similarly high-profile case under the China Initiative against Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Gang Chen on Jan. 20, less than a month after Lieber’s conviction. Chen faced some of the same felony charges as Lieber.
Lieber’s attorneys identified the charges against Chen as one example of “a string of hollow prosecutions” brought forward under the China Initiative, a program they criticized as “flawed.”
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2022/2/9/Lieber-moves-for-retrial/
Attorneys for Harvard professor Charles M. Lieber filed a motion Monday for an acquittal or new trial, over a month after he was convicted in federal court on six felony counts.
Lieber was found guilty in a December trial of two counts of lying to federal officials about his involvement with the China-sponsored Thousand Talents Program. The renowned nanoscientist was also convicted of four tax-related offenses.
Calling their client’s conviction a “manifest injustice,” Lieber’s lawyers wrote in a memorandum that Lieber’s statements to investigators were “warped by the government.” They also reiterated a previous call to suppress statements the chemist made in a post-arrest FBI interview.
The government has until March 7 to register opposition to the defense’s request.
The Lieber trial resulted in the highest-profile conviction to date by the Department of Justice’s China Initiative, a controversial program launched under the Trump administration targeting those suspected of “trade secret theft” and “economic espionage.” The initiative has faced criticism for alleged prosecutorial misconduct and a disproportionate focus on individuals of Chinese heritage.
Prosecutors dropped a similarly high-profile case under the China Initiative against Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Gang Chen on Jan. 20, less than a month after Lieber’s conviction. Chen faced some of the same felony charges as Lieber.
Lieber’s attorneys identified the charges against Chen as one example of “a string of hollow prosecutions” brought forward under the China Initiative, a program they criticized as “flawed.”
