Andrew Lelling

In 2019, Lelling announced charges in the 2019 college admissions bribery scandal and led the prosecution.[22][23] The ringleader, William Singer, pled guilty to multiple charges of conspiracy and obstruction of justice and multiple parents were indicted.[24][25]

In April 2019, Lelling indicted Massachusetts trial court judge Shelley M. Richmond Joseph and now-retired Court Officer Wesley MacGregor on obstruction of justice charges arising from an April 2, 2018, incident where the judge and the court officer allegedly helped a twice-deported illegal alien who had again illegally entered the U.S. to evade arrest from the Newton District Court. Lelling said at the news conference announcing the indictments, "We did not bring this case in response to the public debate over immigration enforcement. There are reasonable arguments on both sides of that debate, but this isn't a policy seminar, it's a law enforcement action."[26][27]

The case was controversial. Former Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court justice Geraldine S. Hines said of Lelling's decision to prosecute that “Maybe he’s trying to get on Trump’s radar for whatever reason, and this is certainly the kind of thing that’s going to get attention in Washington...it’s a way to get yourself noticed.”[10] In contrast, former senior U.S. Justice Department official Ralph Boyd, Jr., wrote an op-ed for the Boston Globe praising Lelling, saying the prosecution was “principled,” and that “it’s rare to find public servants willing to enforce the law regardless of status, privilege, or political considerations.”[28]

In November 2018 Lelling was asked to work with certain other U.S. Attorneys and senior officials at the U.S. Justice Department and the FBI to create the “China Initiative.”[29] The initiative was designed to combat what administrations from both U.S. political parties have viewed as an ongoing threat posed by the Chinese government and China-based companies stealing or otherwise siphoning off U.S. trade secrets and technology.[30] Over time some criticized the initiative, alleging that it was in fact targeting people based on race or ethnicity. [31]  

Lelling oversaw the two most prominent cases brought under the initiative.  In January 2020, Lelling announced the indictment of Prof. Charles M. Lieber, the head of Harvard University’s Chemistry Department, for hiding financial ties to China from the U.S. government.  Lieber was not of Chinese ancestry.[32]  In December 2021, Lieber was convicted at trial on all counts.[33]  In January 2021, Lelling announced the indictment of MIT professor Gang Chen, charging him of hiding ties with China in a grant application under the US Department of Justice (DOJ) China Initiative. Officials at the Department of Energy, the funding agency for the grant, later said that Chen had no obligation to declare the affiliations. In January 2022, the charges against Chen were dropped by the DOJ.[34]