Biography
Thomas Weir Pauken II is an American writer and former employee of Chinese state media who used the pen name Tom McGregor. Federal agents arrested him in Virginia in late February 2026. He remained detained after a judge denied pretrial release, pleaded guilty on June 4 to acting in the United States as an agent of the People’s Republic of China without notifying the attorney general, and was sentenced on September 1, 2026, to two years in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release with no overseas travel. Prosecutors said he had accepted taskings from people he knew were connected to China’s Ministry of State Security; his lawyer emphasized that he was not charged with providing classified information.
Case
U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Virginia (Alexandria Division)
