Bo Jiang, the former NASA contractor hauled off to jail in March by U.S. federal authorities who intercepted him on a plane bound for his native China, has been cleared of the felony charge of lying to law enforcement officials, but was kicked out of the country after pleading guilty to the lesser charge of inappropriate use of his government-issue laptop. 

The 31-year-old Jiang was arrested March 16 by the FBI after U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) publicly alleged that Jiang had unauthorized access to sensitive NASA technology and data at the agency’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va. Following Wolf’s public pronouncements about possible spying, Jiang was charged with lying to federal law enforcement authorities about computer hardware in his possession. 

That charge was dismissed May 2, according to court papers filed with the U.S. District Court in Newport News, Va. However, the court found that Jiang, who brought a NASA-issued laptop back to China with him during a December vacation, used the computer “to download, view and store copyrighted movies and television shows and materials depicting sexually explicit and sexually oriented materials.” Jiang was ordered to pay a $25 fine and leave the country.

Jiang was never formally charged with spying. Bringing his government-issue laptop to China had already cost him his job with the the Hampton-based National Aerospace Institute by the time of his arrest at the Dulles International Airport near Washington.

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