PHILADELPHIA — A Temple University physics professor, falsely labeled a technology spy by the U.S. government, is seeking reinstatement of damage claims against the FBI.
Back in 2015, Xiaoxing Xi was charged with sharing technology secrets with China. The charges were dropped four months later, dismissed by the Justice Department.
The legal brief of Xi's lawsuit traces the history of the case, recounting how Xi, a naturalized U.S. citizen from China with expertise in thin film superconducting technology, was arrested at his home early one morning in May 2015.
His wife and daughters were held at gunpoint in the living room while the professor was taken into custody to be interrogated, fingerprinted and strip-searched.
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He was placed on administrative leave, suspended from his job as interim chair of Temple's physics department and was unable to participate in his research.
Xi was indicted on charges that he had shared information about a device called a "pocket heater" with academic colleagues in China. But the criminal charges were "false and fabricated," Monday's filing states, and the email communications at the center of the indictment were not about a pocket heater but rather about an entirely different device that described a process that Xi and his colleagues had invented.
"When law enforcement agents abuse the legal process by obtaining indictments and search warrants based on misrepresentations or by fabricating evidence, it undermines the legitimacy of the courts," Xi's legal team, which includes lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union, wrote in the brief.
“The judiciary has a stake in ensuring that malicious prosecutions and illegal searches do not go unchecked, and the courts have well-established standards for assessing such claims," the brief says.
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"Moreover, the harm to Professor Xi, his family, and society at large, as well as the need to deter further misconduct, strongly weigh in favor of allowing these claims to proceed."
In the lawsuit on appeal, the Xi family wants the court to award damages, and to declare that the science professor’s Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights were violated.
A lower court dismissed nine of Xi's ten claims in April of last year, including accusations that the FBI made knowingly or recklessly false statements in support of its investigation and prosecution of him.
This new appeal wants damage claims against the U.S. government to be reinstated.
Justice Department in 2018 launched what's known as the China Initiative, an effort to counter trade secret theft and economic espionage by Beijing.
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Many of the cases have targeted professors at U.S. universities suspected of concealing Chinese government ties on applications for federal funding.
Despite some convictions, the effort has endured notable setbacks, with prosecutors forced to dismiss several cases over the last year — including one last month, when officials said they couldn't meet their burden of proof against a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor who'd been charged with fraud.
The China Initiative is now under review
“Until the Biden administration abandons the China Initiative and its discriminatory profiling of Chinese American scientists, we will continue to see baseless prosecutions like Professor Xi’s,” said Patrick Toomey, senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Security Project.
