Journalist CRIMINALLY CHARGED in Trump Spying Attack as Unregistered Chinese Agent!

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:00]He's a US journalist, author, and son of a Texas politician, facing criminal charges for allegedly acting as an agent of the Chinese government. I make this affidavit in support of a criminal complaint against Thomas Powin, aka Tom McGregor, for acting as an agent of a foreign government without notifying the AG. Palin has received at least 100 G's for his work with Kathy. Wow. That's all it takes to buy you off and sell out your country. A journalist now busted trying to work with the Chinese to spy on the Trump administration. Apparently working with somebody to feed them a cell phone and other materials that they can bring into the White House to steal classified information and then funnel it back over to the CCP. Now been criminally charged. We've got the full document in the affidavit here. Cued up was originally under seal now being reported. It is a case coming out of the Eastern District of Virginia against this guy, Thomas Weir Pulin II. And he was living in China and then came back over into the United States. Here's what he looks like right here. You can see people got a photo of him. He was arrested back in February, denied pre-trial release in March, and now the details of the case are emerging. He is also from Texas. He's a US journalist, author and son of a Texas politician, facing criminally charges for allegedly acting as an agent of the Chinese government. Affidavit, other documents now unsealed. And in it, the government accuses him, this guy lived in China for over a decade, of literally working at the direction and control of individuals working with the PRC intelligence services since at least 2019.

[00:01:43]FBI began looking into him as he was traveling to and fro and came back just for a couple of days and that's when they busted him. One of the meetings was allegedly when he came back to the states. So he's working with them getting briefed and facilitating their operation. Comes back and is going to go meet with a person who was looking for a job in the Trump administration. And guess what? That person got the job. So flies back for just three days, meets with this person. And that person goes into the White House at the bequest of an individual with Chinese state security. This person is nicknamed Kathy whom he had been in contact with. He allegedly provided that person with a cell phone and a laptop to aid in Cathy's goal of quote obtaining classified information according to the affidavit. So an American jouro working with the CCP. Not a big surprise. I wonder if he made bang bang with anybody named Fang Fang over there. Probably.

[00:02:36]So, here is the affidavit in support of the criminal complaint and it's coming out of the Eastern District of Virginia.

[00:02:43]Thomas Weir Pockin II, an American journalist, now charged. And let's see where he worked if there's more on this.

[00:02:52]He returned to the US from China back in February. A lot of this has not been publicized. No press release was issued.

[00:02:59]Now, we're learning about the case. He writes under the pseudonym called Tom McGregor. He's also the author of a book, a 2019 book titled US versus China, from trade war to reciprocal deal, which claims to provide quote a neutral and balanced perspective on the relationship. He's also the son of a Republican GOP politician called Tom Pauin, who served in the Reagan administration before chairing the Texas Republican Party. The older dad, Pawan, was later appointed by former governor Texas of Texas Rick Perry to chair the state's workforce commission in '08 and unsuccessfully ran for governor himself back in 2014.

[00:03:37]So, this guy's family is deep in the government and now he's been charged.

[00:03:41]Here's what happened. This is from agent Healey, Timothy J. Healey. He says, "I make this affidavit in support of a criminal complaint against Thomas Powin, aka Tom McGregor, for acting as an agent of a foreign government without notifying the AG." Specifically, from at least in or about 2019 up until 26 in Eastern District of Virginia and elsewhere, he was acting inside America under the direction and control of China, saying, "I'm a special agent with the FBI. I've got a lot of experience here. I investigated offenses involving foreign agents. These are just the limited facts. There's much more to come. And he says, "By the way, 18 US code section 951 makes it a crime that if you are an agent of a foreign government and you don't notify the AG under FAR, you shall be punished." And that's what this guy is. According to FBI reporting from multiple FBI investigations, the FBI has learned that the PRC, people in the Republic of China, the Intelligence Services, PRCIS, encompass both civilian and military components of their intelligence programs. Civilian intelligence is handled by the Ministry of State Security. They can be described as an agency similar to the FBI and the CIA, but it's under one directorate responsible for all counter intelligence. Now among other things, the Chinese and its components are focused on identifying and influencing foreign policy in the US and elsewhere.

[00:05:05]And they seek to obtain information from direction from the PRC through corporate information, industrial info, biographical profiles to provide intel on political, economic, and security policies. Now they also are tasked with conducting clandestine and overt human source operations. And the US is a principal target. Human sources or or assets are people who agree to help a foreign intelligence service by providing information to that service.

[00:05:31]They are cutouts or co-opes. They are recruited. They are trained to spot, target, and collect information and funnel it back over to them. Now, here's what happened here. As described below, since at least 2019, Palin, the journalist, has been working at the direction and control of people working for the PRC. There's somebody whom he calls Kathy. Kathy provided him with tasks for him to complete, including while he came to America. These tasks included palin meeting with potential human sources for Kathy, providing these sources with communications devices like a laptop and a cell phone to be used for communication between the source and the Chinese Kathy, and providing taskings for these sources on what information to gather and obtain and to report back.

[00:06:17]And Palin has received at least a hundred G's for his work with Kathy.

[00:06:23]Wow. That's all it takes to buy you off and sell out your country. Now, he admitted Wow. during a voluntary interview that his work with Kathy as well as others with the Chinese government was part of a conspiracy to obtain classified information from the US government. Wow. So then he just spills his guts. He comes in and they say, "Are you a are you a foreign agent working for the Chinese?" He's like, "Yes." Palin further admitted that he participated in the conspiracy by acting as a middleman between the PRC and his handlers like Kathy and the human sources. Here's what happened. On January 29, 2025, he came back to the States from China through Washington Dulles. Agents at Border Protection examined his luggage and discovered he had two cell phones, a laptop, and three grand in cash. During an interview with an agent, as well as two subsequent interviews, he admitted and said the following. He said, "In 2010, I moved to China and I worked as a journalist in Hong Kong and I worked for China Radio International. He then worked for China TV. Then he became an editor for Xinua News." He gives ideas to the Chinese government, but was initially vague about the process. All his Chinese associates were obsessed with obtaining information about his father who worked for Reagan. He used the alias Tom McGregor at his father's request because his father, who shares the first name, did not want to be appearing with his activities as an agent of China. So then in or around 2017 or about the time of the Trump China trade wars as described by him, he met a man who worked as Xi Jinping's speech writer. This speech writer and Xi Jingping the general secretary of CCP communicated regularly.

[00:07:55]The speech writer subsequently introduced Palin to a Chinese woman called Kathy Shia who Palin and her consulted for a think tank that is closely connected to the Chinese government. Now Palin could not remember the name of the think tank but believed it to be a part of the Xin Tong University or the Foudan University and Palin never met Kathy at any university saying Kathy primarily communicated with him through WeChat signal telegram.

[00:08:19]Kathy told him she cannot visit the states and had specifically instructed him not to talk about her while he was there. Now he did not know her Chinese name but described her as a sh short darker complexioned Chinese woman in her mid-30s. Early on in their relationship, Kathy expressed interest in obtaining classified info. At the time, Palin said, "I don't have any access to that, and I'm not going to get it." Then in 22 and 23, Kathy gave Palin a lie detector test in China, believed to be a reference to a polygraph. He did not immediately agree to the test, but after approximately two months, Kathy convinced him to do it because the reports were going to Xi Jinping, and they had to be careful. During the test, Palin was asked 10 questions that required yes or no answers. Palin was asked, "Are you spying on us?" "No." "Do you work for the CIA?" "No." Palin would send his written reports or recorded interviews to Cathy through Telegram.

[00:09:10]And after Cathy confirmed that she received the reports, Palin then recalled the messages. Kathy instructed Palin to always recall the messages so there's no chain. Now, he initially described Kathy and other of his clients as being state security officers, but in subsequent interviews, he referred to them as the cast of characters.

[00:09:27]Regarding his current purpose of coming back to the states, he was in the US for a few meetings and was going to return back in 3 days. One person with whom Powin planned to meet at the time was someone doing consulting work and looking for a job in the Trump administration called person number one.

[00:09:40]He met with person one at a political event held in DC. He planned on meeting with other individuals who also worked for a financial newspaper. And finally, he planned on meeting with an individual who was the president of an energy focused nonprofit called person two. He then Kathy then paid him on multiple occasions based on the information that he was able to provide and also had interviews with person one who was going to go into the administration. Prior to coming here in January, Kathy had also instructed this journalist to give the Samsung phone to person one with instructions on how to use it. Kathy also instructed Palin to purchase a computer in the United States. That's why they gave him three grand. Now he's like an agent. Kathy also tasked him to provide person one with the passwords to signal and telegram as well as netisk.

[00:10:26]And Palin is telling everybody now that he believes that if person one was hired by the incoming administration, he was 80% sure that person one would provide classified info to China. Despite him telling person one, don't do it. He was very concerned that person one would eventually provide this information back to Kathy. And I wonder who this person is. According to him at the time, Kathy's main goal was getting classified info from person one. Kathy told Pacin once, Tom, you are going to be the one to convince person one to provide this classified info. Pin made several trip.

[00:11:00]So maybe the Chinese have some comprom on him or something which is why he's doing this. Palin also made several trips between 19 and 25. Kathy would usually pay for the trip, 7 to 8 G's per trip. She wired payments back to his wife's bank account. He was paid approximately 100 G's for his reports, which does not include his payments for trips to the US. Kathy also explained that all of his reports were read by the president of China, Xi Jinping. Yeah.

[00:11:23]Kathy paid for Palin and his family a full expense paid trip to Shanghai. He also described his work for two people located in the PRC that he called Richard and William. He met them back in 17 during the trade wars. They told Palin that the reports that he wrote went to Japan, but he believed that they worked for the PRC. Just like Kathy, Richard and William requested that he undergo a polygraph. He refused. They also asked him to apply for a state department position and report on his progress. He previously sold reports to a group of Chinese individuals who were from Wuhan. Great. The Wuhan clients mainly sought information about technology and the DOJ. He said the clients wanted him to find an expert who would help them engage in cyber espionage as well. He believed and stated that his point of contact for the Wuhan clients works for state security.

[00:12:05]At the end of the This guy spills his guts. Everything just dropped there. Was in an interview. At the end of an initial interview on January 29, at the FBI's request, Border Patrol returned the phones back to him and instructed him to continue his plans as if nothing changed. And Trump just came into office. The FBI had determined that any sudden change in his plans would put him at risk in China. At the end of January, then FBI told him that it was okay to purchase the computer in the US and give it to this person. The FBI further instructed him to continue about his business with a quote cast of characters back in China. But the FBI admonished him, "Do not even think of transferring any classified information at all." And so, in conclusion, there's probable cause that this guy has committed a crime, did not notify the AG as required, and so therefore, he has now been charged. And so we'll see where this case goes. But foreign agents of China banging congressmen and apparently co-opting so-called journalists who are living over there to get classified information and monitoring LinkedIn is a problem. Monitoring people once they get admitted then boom, now it's open season. go and target them and see if you can gobble up and co-opt them as well to join the CCP communist cause against America.