Former Fed official John Rogers stands trial for spying for China

September 30, 2026 at 03:36 PM2 min

This digest was compiled by AI from multiple sources — links to the originals are below.

John Harold Rogers, a former senior Federal Reserve official, was convicted of spying for China in a federal court in Washington. Prosecutors said Rogers passed sensitive Fed information to a Chinese intelligence agent over more than a decade. The conviction followed a trial in which Rogers' lawyers argued he was a naive academic, not a spy.

Key Facts

John Harold Rogers, 65, was arrested in January 2025 days before he was set to travel to China with his wife and 6-year-old daughter.
Federal prosecutor Nicholas Hunter told the jury in 2026 that the case involved 'sex, money, manipulation, secret meetings with shady characters in China, fake identities, lies, trickery, and deceit.'
Rogers' lawyers argued he did not pass information of value to China and was a naive academic caught up in espionage.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said Rogers 'spent years secretly funneling sensitive Federal Reserve information to Chinese spies, then looked investigators in the eye and lied about it.'

The Arrest

FBI agents arrested John Harold Rogers in January 2025 while he was walking his dog Prada near his suburban Washington home. Rogers, then 65, was taken into custody days before he was scheduled to travel to China with his wife, a Chinese national, and their 6-year-old daughter. Investigators from multiple federal agencies searched Rogers' house immediately after the arrest.

The Trial

At Rogers' trial in 2026, federal prosecutor Nicholas Hunter described the case as reading 'like a spy novel' with 'sex, money, manipulation, secret meetings with shady characters in China, fake identities, lies, trickery, and deceit.' Rogers' defense attorneys argued that he did not pass any information of value to the Chinese and was a naive academic who got caught up in espionage. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro stated that Rogers 'spent years secretly funneling sensitive Federal Reserve information to Chinese spies, then looked investigators in the eye and lied about it.' Rogers' attorney Jonathan Gitlen told CNBC that the economist did not lie under oath.