Washington Post Quotes Jonathan Poling on DOJ Prosecution of Nuclear Engineer
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In its article “U.S. used Cold War-era statute to prosecute Taiwanese American nuclear engineer,” The Washington Post quoted Akin Gump international trade partner Jonathan Poling regarding the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) prosecution of a U.S. nuclear engineer who was accused of violating the Atomic Energy Act by providing integral assistance to a Chinese nuclear power company without registering as a foreign nation agent with DOJ or receiving U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) authorization.
While many nuclear energy experts are unclear as to the DOJ’s intentions behind the prosecution, the article notes, Poling, a former DOJ prosecutor who handled export control cases, noted that there may have been issues of national security that were not discussed in the indictment. He speculated that those issues “could be precisely why the government charged the case,” to protect the DOE’s and national security agencies’ “ability to make this assessment from the outset.”