Exclusive | Soap star is on crusade to save her husband accused of spying for China

Emmy-winning soap star Martha Byrne is in the midst of her most challenging role yet — starring in a real-life spy drama.A seemingly routine job taken by her husband, former NYPD cop Michael McMahon, 57, unraveled into an almost 10-year nightmare, resulting in him becoming the first private investigator convicted of spying for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in the US.In one scene which could have been plucked from Hollywood thriller, a dozen FBI agents surrounded their New Jersey home in the fall of 2020.“From the moment the FBI knocks on your door, your fight-or-flight instinct kicks in,” said Byrne, who played Lily Walsh on “As the World Turns” in the mid-’80s and again from 1993 to 2008.“It starts when you wake up until nightfall, when sleep is interrupted by a powerful demonic entity threatening to tear your entire life apart.”The mother-of-three has transformed herself into an investigator, advocate, personal trainer and even amateur psychiatrist for her husband’s cause.McMahon denies he knowingly worked for the Chinese government, and has long maintained he is a scapegoat used by the Department of Justice to score political points by making an example of him.Byrne’s continuing fight to exonerate McMahon is told in her new book, “In the Interest of Justice: One Woman’s Fight Against a Weaponized Justice Department to Save Her Husband.”“You don’t have to have the largest army to conquer the enemy, just the smartest,” she writes.

 Armed with her computer and cell phone, Byrne, 55, has become an expert on Operation Fox Hunt — the Chinese government’s scheme to track down and prosecute dissidents in foreign countries, mostly without the cooperation of their sovereign governments.The Post previously revealed a Chinese police station in Lower Manhattan, where officials allegedly often work with local private investigators to nab Chinese nationals, usually on charges from the motherland.McMahon was convicted of stalking a ...