A Chinese national, Jia Bei Zhu, who was operating the illegal biolab in Reedley, California, appeared in federal court Tuesday and pled not guilty to charges of making false statements to federal officers.

As RedState reported, Zhu, who's also known as David He, was arrested last week in a sting operation. He had filed claims totaling $80 million against Fresno County and the City of Reedley for "destroying" his laboratory materials and euthanizing laboratory mice. After his court appearance Tuesday, Zhu's attorney told a local journalist that Zhu was doing "revolutionary" work in the laboratory that "will be beneficial to mankind."

Given the links Zhu has to the Chinese Communist Party (his web of at least 30 corporate entities are tied to a CCP-run high tech office park in Qingdao), "revolutionary" might not have been the best choice of words.

Reedley bio lab suspect David He pleads not guilty in federal court. Defense attorney Tony Capozzi talked afterward. pic.twitter.com/oX5s72Yv8E

— David Taub (@TaubGVWire) October 24, 2023

Capozzi said he was contacted by a civil attorney that Zhu/He has "in the Los Angeles area" and asked if he would handle the initial appearance. When asked about reports that Zhu resisted arrest, resulting in a visit to the hospital in between his arrest and arrival at jail, Capozzi said:

"I question whether he resisted arrest. I question whether he even understood what the agents were telling him. From what I understand he was told to turn around, told to put his hands up. He sorta did that but the agents in their report said he was confused and he didn't comply to everything they said and so they came in and tried to grab his hands and pushed him down into the ground, and his -- face first into the ground. He was injured pretty severely on his forehead and his nose."

Because Zhu is a Chinese citizen he has the right to contact the Chinese consulate for assistance, but Capozzi said:

We have not contacted the consulate. The Chinese government, as far as I know, is not involved whatsoever.

As to what Zhu was doing in the laboratory, Capozzi said:

Just working -- doing some research is basically what it is at this point.

[Politicians are taking this] way out of context. It's political jargon. They're trying to make a mountain out of a mole hill. It is nothing that you're hearing with regard to the politics in this particular case. And as we get into it more, we will show that it is nothing as the government has portrayed in the press in this particular case.

Apparently Zhu was living in Las Vegas at the time of the arrest. Capozzi told GV Wire that his client returned to Reedley for what he thought was a meeting about the lease on the lab building, but was arrested upon arrival.

Capozzi might want to be careful with the assertions; according to a verbal report Reedley's City Manager and Fresno County representatives delivered to the Fresno County Board of Supervisors in August, when the laboratory site was being remediated they were not permitted to destroy even one piece of paper; each document was catalogued and recorded, and some handwritten notes were on the letterhead of Ai De Diagnostics, a Chinese manufacturer of in vitro diagnostic tests that Zhu also controls.

GV Wire reported that Capozzi further said:

“The government came in and seized all the research that he had, and destroyed it. The research he’s been working on will be very helpful -- I can’t get into specifics, but be very helpful to mankind. I can tell you that this research is something that’s new and revolutionary and (he) has been doing very well with that."

We will be watching closely for those specifics. But perhaps if the research was so crucial, Zhu should have been living in Reedley and in the laboratory daily?

Capozzi believes his client is simply a meek scientist who's misunderstood.

“He’s the meekest person who’s very intelligent. He has an M.D. degree from China. He has a master’s degree beyond medical school. He went on to get an additional degree in research because he wanted to research DNA, embryos, things of that nature, stem cell research."

So, why is there no record of Zhu's research anywhere? None of this adds up.