Colleague trying to help cleared Temple prof pay legal bills

A colleague is trying to help a Temple University professor pay more than $220,000 in legal fees now that he’s been cleared of charges he tried to provide secret U.S. technology to China.

Defense attorneys say federal prosecutors have told Xi Xiaoxing they won’t refile charges after they dropped the case against him last year.

But attorney Peter Zeidenberg said the professor’s life has been turned upside-down.

That’s why fellow professor Rongjia Tao is setting up a legal defense fund.

The professor’s attorneys say prosecutors misinterpreted some emails he sent to the Chinese government.

Xi chaired the university’s physics department until his arrest. He remains a faculty member. He is a naturalized U.S. citizen born in China.