She ducked the rap — for now.
Linda Solar’s trial resulted in a hung jury Monday after the panel couldn’t resolve whether or not to convict the previous high aide to Govs. Kathy Hochul and Andrew Cuomo of illegally serving as a Chinese language agent.
A Brooklyn federal choose declared a mistrial within the corruption case towards Solar, who was accused of pushing Beijing’s agenda on the highest ranges of state authorities in change for payoffs that funded her lavish way of life.
The stunning Christmas week end result adopted a month-long trial that revealed what prosecutors referred to as Solar’s brazen bids to advance China’s pursuits whereas working within the Govt Chamber.
The scheme allegedly netted Solar, 42, and her husband Chris Hu, 41, funds that funded luxurious vehicles and designer purses — plus perks like delectable salted geese.
However attorneys for Solar countered that the embattled ex-Albany insider was truly only a devoted public servant whose admittedly cozy relationship with consulate brass was part of her job.
“Linda Solar is a proud American and lifelong New Yorker who was well-regarded by her friends,” protection legal professional Kenneth Abell advised jurors in his closing assertion.
“Did she do every part completely? Completely not. However she didn’t commit any crimes.”
The 12-person jury had despatched Choose Brian Cogan a number of notes final week saying it was hopelessly deadlocked on the varied felony fees that Solar and Hu confronted.
The US Legal professional’s Workplace for the Jap District of New York mentioned after the mistrial was declared that it deliberate to deliver the couple to trial for a second time.
Prosecutors referred to as greater than 30 witnesses and displayed a mountain of texts through which Solar touted her supposed sway over Hochul to Chinese language consulate honchos — who showered her household with free ballet tickets and private-chef-prepared salted duck cooked within the type of her household’s hometown of Nanjing.
“She is rather more obedient than the governor,” Solar wrote in a 2021 textual content after promising to persuade Cuomo’s then-No. 2 to movie a Lunar New 12 months video through which Hochul raved in regards to the so-called “privilege” of working with the New York consulate workplace boss Huang Ping.
“The deputy governor listens to me greater than the governor does,” Solar wrote in a textual content minutes later, including a sheepish grin emoji — earlier than volunteering to teach Hochul to ship Ping’s desired “speaking factors.”
Solar, who labored below each Hochul and her predecessor Cuomo, dissuaded the governors from assembly with Taiwanese officers and even mentioning the island whose independence China doesn’t acknowledge.
“I nearly had a coronary heart assault once we referred to Taiwan as a rustic,” Solar texted one official from China’s New York Consulate in October 2020. “Fortunately, I had the press group appropriate it instantly.”
Solar and her hubby cashed in on her entry to the gubernatorial duo as Chinese language authorities officers steered tens of millions of {dollars} to Hu’s fledging lobster export enterprise, the feds alleged.
The previous state deputy additionally stunningly cast Hochul’s signature on gushing invitations despatched to dignitaries from the Henan province that allowed the officers to obtain phony US visas, prosecutors charged.
However Solar’s protection attorneys famous that the feds didn’t name a witness to testify that Solar was the one which cast Hochul’s handwriting.
Solar didn’t testify.
“To say that Linda did what the federal government mentioned she did for salted geese is as absurd because it sounds,” her lawyer argued in closing statements, claiming that the “oft-discussed geese weren’t bribes,” however “easy gestures of friendship and shared cultural understanding.”
Solar and Hu had been individually accused of taking unlawful bribes from a private protecting gear, or PPE, firm run by Solar’s cousin in change for recommending that the state funnel tens of millions in contracts to the agency within the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The allegedly illicit funds allowed the pair to afford a gaudy $3.6 million Lengthy Island mansion, a $2 million ocean-view second residence in Honolulu, a white Ferrari and Birkin purses — regardless of Solar’s wage by no means reaching greater than $145,000 and Hu reporting little revenue from his enterprise.
Solar, who pleaded not responsible after her September 2024 arrest, rose via the ranks after arriving in Albany in 2012, serving as Cuomo’s director of Asian-American Affairs and later as a deputy chief of employees in Hochul’s Govt Chamber.
She was fired in 2023 from her state Labor Division gig after an inside probe discovered that she’d issued pretend state “proclamations” to her father and uncle with out permission.
“Is there one thing mistaken with that?” a squirrely Solar, who in response to a witness within the room was “sweaty and nervous,” requested investigators on the time, in response to audio prosecutors performed at her trial.
The bombshell proceedings additionally uncovered Solar’s chummy exchanges with Chinese language consulate officers — together with about her want for the hard-to-find Nanjing-style poultry.
“I wish to eat salted duck,” Solar texted Ping throughout a July 28, 2021, change with the consul director Ping through which she additionally joked that she ought to get a “China-US Friendship Award.”
“My grasp is from Nanjing and has nice abilities. I’ll ask them to make them now,” Ping replied.
After sending Solar six geese, Ping texted her two days later asking whether or not she had tried them but.
“Effectively, I eat it as a midnight snack,” Solar responded, with a licking-lips emoji. “Thanks Ambassador Huang. The duck is very scrumptious.”
