U.S. Justice Department to appeal dismissal of Chinese agent lawsuit against Steve Wynn

The U.S. Justice Department is set to appeal the dismissal of a lawsuit against casino tycoon Steve Wynn, who is accused of acting as a Chinese agent. Wynn defeated the lawsuit in October when a federal judge in Washington, D.C., said the mogul could not be ordered to register the Justice Department as a foreign agent of China.

".... the Attorney General of the United States of America hereby appeals to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia from the judgment of this Court entered on the 12th day of October, 2022, granting Defendant's Motion to Dismiss," the Justice Department said in a filing on Friday, as reported by Reuters.

The Justice Department in May sued for a court order forcing the mogul, former CEO of Las Vegas-based Wynn Resorts, to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). Officials alleged that Wynn had lobbied then-U.S. President Donald Trump on China's behalf in 2017. For their part, Wynn's attorneys denied that he was ever an agent of the Chinese government.

Wynn allegedly told the Trump administration that China wanted the US to extradite Guo Wengui, a wealthy exile who reportedly criticized China’s government. Wynn had no agreement with the Chinese official, wasn’t paid, and was transparent about the source of the request, according to Wynn’s lawyers. Allegations indicated that Wynn engaged in these efforts at the request of Sun Lijun, then-vice minister of the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) Ministry of Public Security.

Chinese businessman Guo Wengui has also been accused by the Chinese authorities of a range of criminal offenses including bribery and sexual assault, charges he has denied. Guo has said he is the subject of a witch hunt after accusing senior PRC figures of having corrupt ties with China’s business leaders. 

In October, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg said that because any relationship between Wynn and the Chinese government ended in 2017, the Republican donor cannot be required to register as an agent. The judge pointed to past precedent in D.C. federal court in making the ruling, notes Reuters.

The judge said he was not determining whether Wynn had lobbied on China's behalf, and also stated the Justice Department could pursue criminal sanctions against Wynn for failing to disclose the alleged lobbying, if the statute of limitations had not expired.