The U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday that Thomas Weir Pauken II, son of former Texas GOP Chairman Thomas Pauken, was sentenced to two years in prison for acting as an agent for China. According to the DOJ press release, the 51-year-old Pauken lived and worked in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), where he “betrayed his country for money.”
[NOTE: The press release does not mention the senior Pauken, who served as chairman of the Texas Republican Party from 1994 to 1997, and in 2014 ran for governor before withdrawing and throwing his support behind Greg Abbott, then Texas Attorney General.]
FBI Counterintelligence and Espionage Division assistant director Roman Rozhavsky said of the junior Pauken: “Thomas Pauken admitted to working at the direction of China’s Ministry of State Security to attempt to infiltrate U.S. political circles while also providing new recruitment targets for his Chinese handlers.”
According to court documents, from 2019 until February 2026, Pauken worked at the “direction and control of people he knew worked for the PRC” and “sold reports to a group of Chinese individuals from Wuhan who sought information about technology and the U.S. Department of Justice. The Wuhan clients wanted Pauken to find an expert to help them engage in cyber espionage.”
[NOTE: Pauken received at least $100,000 for his work and was also paid for his travel from China to the U.S. to cultivate assets.]
The Washington Post reported that Pauken’s attorney, Charles Burnham, said his client was “manipulated” and believed “he wasn’t betraying America — he was preventing World War III.”
At the sentencing on Tuesday, Pauken apologized for doing “wrong things” and said, “I thought I was helping, but now I realize I could have caused more damage.” The judge noted, “Seven years is a long time to be engaged in this kind of conduct.”
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