“They are an extraordinary family,” McGurn said in the interview. Lai’s wife, Teresa Lai, “is a rock. If Jimmy didn’t have Teresa to lean on, he knows it, he wouldn’t be strong. I mean, he has his faith, but she strengthens it. That’s what they have in common,” McGurn said.
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 16, 2025 / 07:00 am Catholic human rights and pro-democracy advocate Jimmy Lai was found guilty following his lengthy national security trial. Lai, 78, will be sentenced at a later date but faces up to life in prison. The Dec. 15 verdict “is important, and it’s not important,” Bill McGurn, Wall Street Journal columnist and godfather of Lai, told “EWTN News Nightly.” “It’s important because it’s part of the Hong Kong process, and everyone knew he would always be convicted. So it’s important because we have to get it out of the way,” McGurn said. “Jimmy cannot be released until he was convicted, and that’s why we had to wait all these years for the trial and then his conviction.” “On the other hand, it was always this charade … the world sees it for what it is. And so in Jimmy Lai’s world, it’s not really a big milestone because it’s phony. Everything about it is phony,” McGurn said. ‘The real work begins now’ While the verdict was guilty, it is …