The federal government is making a last-ditch effort to keep behind bars pending trial an engineer who served as a senior manager in the Tennessee Valley Authority's nuclear program and is accused in a landmark case of alleged nuclear espionage by China.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Charles Atchley Jr. and Bart Slabbekorn have filed in U.S. District Court a list of five Chinese nationals who fled to China after being accused of crimes in this country, to support their argument Szuhsiung "Allen" Ho will scuttle out of the country if freed pending trial on nuclear espionage charges.

The filing quickly drew fire from Ho's defense team, creating an unusual situation in the federal court system here in which the battle over Ho's pretrial freedom is now far outpacing the fight over the charges of which he is accused.

Ho's attorneys insist it is a key fight because his ability to help defend himself against what they say are bogus charges depends on his freedom pending trial. The prosecutors insist it is a key fight because Ho is a "sophisticated" operative of the Chinese government who has both the financial means and motive to hide away in China.

Ho, his firm Energy Technology International and Chinese nuclear power plant China General Nuclear Power were indicted in April on charges of a plot to lure nuclear experts in the U.S. into providing information to allow China to develop and produce nuclear material based on American technology and below the radar of the U.S. government.

It is the first such case in the nation brought under a provision of law that regulates the sharing of U.S. nuclear technology with certain countries deemed untrustworthy to see it. Those countries include China. Although the technology is used for nuclear-power generation, the byproduct of that process can be used to produce nuclear weapons.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Guyton already barred Ho's release pending his Jan. 24 trial, but defense attorneys Peter Zeidenberg and Wade Davies appealed to Chief U.S. District Judge Tom Varlan. They cited a dozen cases in which Asian-Americans facing federal charges for a variety of white-collar crimes had been freed without incident. At a hearing earlier this month, Varlan was openly skeptical of Atchley's claim China might well help Ho flee.

Atchley and Slabbekorn have now filed a counter list, citing five cases in which the defendants fled. All involved defendants who were either Chinese nationals or naturalized U.S. citizens hailing from China. All but four involved violent crimes in charges leveled in the state court system. The pair of prosecutors also argue the defense's list was heavy with cases in which the federal government didn't object to the defendants' releases. They also used the filing to make another run at arguing their overall case for pretrial detention.

"The evidence presented by the United States at the detention hearing established that Defendant is a highly sophisticated agent of the Chinese government who possesses two passports, has no ties to the Eastern District of Tennessee, resides with a second family with a young son in China where he is employed, a strong motive to flee, and has access to large sums of money that he failed to disclose to the Court," they wrote.

Zeidenberg and Davies are crying foul, saying the government's latest legal brief violated Varlan's order on just what the prosecutors could file in the run-up to his decision and their list of fleeing defendants bears no resemblance to Ho or his case.

"None involve a U.S. citizen like Dr. Ho," the attorneys wrote. "It is worth noting that Dr. Ho is Taiwanese-American, not Chinese-American. The government fails to explain why China would risk an international incident to exfiltrate a foreigner."

The government alleges Ho, a naturalized U.S. citizen, is essentially a paid operative for China who funneled $3.8 million from the Chinese government into the U.S. to pay American nuclear engineers to provide restricted reports and consulting services.

Ho, a native of Taiwan, is alleged to have begun recruiting engineers in the U.S. to provide restricted nuclear power technological information as far back as 2009. Engineer Ching Huey, a TVA senior manager, has admitted he divulged such information to Ho and even traveled to China on the Chinese government's tab and will testify against Ho.

Varlan has not said when he would rule.

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