‘A betrayal of trust’: Kathy Hochul tries to shift blame after her aide found to be agent of Chinese Communist Party

“I’m furious and I’m outraged and I’m absolutely shocked at how brazen her behavior was,” Hochul told WNYC’s Sean Carlson Tuesday afternoon, referring to the arrest of Linda Sun, a former deputy chief of staff Hochul and a senior aide to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Sun was charged with acting as a foreign agent for China. “It was a betrayal of trust,” Hochul maintained, according to the New York Post.

But the governor was quick to suggest that she was untarnished in the scandal.

“This individual was hired by the executive chamber more than a decade ago. We terminated her employment in March 2023 after discovering evidence of misconduct, immediately reported her actions to law enforcement and have assisted law enforcement throughout this process,” a Hochul spokesperson said in a statement issued early Tuesday.

Hochul insisted she’s doing everything possible to reveal how Sun managed to evade being exposed for so long. “We’ve been working with the Department of Justice in this investigation, and we’ll continue to make sure that all the information that’s out there is revealed and that justice is served,” she said.

Hochul was interviewed just after Sun, 41, and her 40-year-old husband, Chris Hu, pleaded not guilty to violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act, visa fraud, smuggling, and money laundering.

The indictment alleges that Sun used her position to assist her husband’s business in medical equipment to reap profits from the Covid pandemic. The indictment also accuses Sun of accepting gifts to improve the relationship between New York state and communist China. Cuomo hired Sun in 2012, where she worked in a variety of senior positions during his tenure as governor. Hochul appointed Sun as her deputy chief of staff in 2021.

Cuomo has said little except to question Hochul’s judgment in promoting Sun. “National security is critical and must be free from foreign influence,” Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi said in a statement, according to the Post.

“While Ms. Sun was promoted to Deputy Chief of Staff in the subsequent administration, during our time she worked in a handful of agencies and was one of many community liaisons who had little to no interaction with the governor.”

In the wake of Sun’s arrest, New York Assemblyman Ron Kim decided to go public with his story of Chinese influence in the state, telling the media that Chinese communists tried to steal his assembly seat during a hard-fought Democratic primary.