April 26, 2023: Time Served, Home Detention, a Fine

FINDING

Official/court finding (disposition as reported on the public docket and in contemporaneous wire copy): on April 26, 2023, Judge Rya W. Zobel sentenced Lieber to time served (the jail time after the January 2020 arrest), two years of supervised release with the first six months in home detention, a $50,000 fine, a $600 special assessment, and $33,600 restitution. CourtListener’s parties/disposition page records the sentence terms used in the research file. AP, Just the News (Ben Whedon), The Epoch Times, and the Harvard Crimson wrote the hearing. Some Crimson copy said “one day”; AP said two days already served. This site uses “time served” and does not invent a lockup log.

The docket later shows the case terminated on May 8, 2023 (CourtListener).

Prosecutors’ ask (90 days / three months in prison, a larger fine) appears in AP/ABC/Reuters copy as a recommendation, not as the judgment. Defense arguments about health and ruined reputation are advocacy. They are not restated here as new facts.

Sources

CourtListener parties/disposition, United States v. Lieber. www.courtlistener.com (primary)

AP, “Ex-Harvard prof sentenced, fined for lying about China ties,” 2023-04-26. apnews.com (reporting)

Ben Whedon, Just the News, “Former Harvard scientist sentenced for hiding China ties,” 2023-04-26. justthenews.com (reporting)

Epoch Times, “Ex-Harvard Professor Sentenced, Fined for Lying About China Ties.” www.theepochtimes.com (reporting)

Harvard Crimson, sentencing, 2023-04-26. www.thecrimson.com (reporting)

Opinion

The following is commentary by this site. It is not a finding of fact and not a legal conclusion.

Compiler take

Time served. Home. Fifty thousand dollars. The United States asked for more jail. The judge said no. The counts still stand.