California Sen. Dianne Feinstein was “easy mark” for Chinese spy
“I sometimes say that in my last life maybe I was Chinese.”—Sen. Dianne Feinstein
Last week, I blogged that U.S. Senator Feinstein had a “driver” who turned out to be a Chinese spy who reported back to government officials about local politics.
While she endeavored to minimize the impact of this individual to her work, The Daily Caller did some digging and it turns out he was substantially more involved with her office than chauffeuring California’s Senior US Senator to events.
All the details of a former, longtime Sen. Dianne Feinstein staffer who’s accused of relaying information to Chinese intelligence services while working for the California Democrat point to Russell Lowe, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation has determined.
Lowe worked for 20 years in Feinstein’s San Francisco office, where he was a staff liaison to the Asian-American community before leaving approximately five years ago. All those details match up with the descriptions of the Chinese spy Feinstein reportedly employed.
The New York Post’s Paul Sperry took a look at the FBI’s accounts and concluded that Feinstein was an “easy mark” for Chinese espionage.
In June 1996 — after the staffer had begun working for Feinstein — the FBI detected that the Chinese government was attempting to seek favor with the senator, who at the time sat on the East Asian and Pacific affairs subcommittee of the Foreign Relations Committee, which oversees US-China relations. Investigators warned her in a classified briefing that Beijing might try to influence her through illegal campaign contributions laundered through front corporations and other cutouts.
The warning proved prescient.
One Chinese bagman, Nanping-born John Huang, showed up at Feinstein’s San Francisco home for a fundraising dinner with a Beijing official tied to the People’s Bank of China and the Communist Party Committee. As a foreign national, the official wasn’t legally qualified to make the $50,000-a-plate donation to dine at the banquet.
After a Justice Department task force investigated widespread illegal fundraising during the 1996 Clinton re-election campaign, Feinstein returned more than $12,000 in contributions from donors associated with Huang, who was later convicted of campaign-finance fraud along with other Beijing bagmen. The DNC and the Clinton campaign had to return millions in ill-gotten cash.
Finally, Ben Weingarten of The Federalist does an in-depth review of Feinstein’s Chinese connections and distills the key facts as part of a detailed, informative post.
- China has for almost 40 years cultivated warm relations with Feinstein.
- Feinstein has uniformly taken political positions supporting greater ties with China while taking a relatively dovish and strictly apologist line on its human rights atrocities.
- Feinstein’s husband has profited handsomely during Feinstein’s career from the greatly expanded China trade she supported. It is of course possible that the Feinstein family’s privileged position with the Chinese regime improved his investment opportunities.
- Feinstein has served as a key intermediary between China and the U.S. government, while serving on committees whose work would be of keen interest to the PRC.
- A staffer of almost two decades in close proximity to Feinstein was allegedly successfully recruited by China’s MSS and fed China “political intelligence.
Feinstein has been trying to sweep this mess under the rug, but a Tweet from President Trump got her to respond to the now public information.
(1/2) The FBI told me 5 years ago it had concerns that China was seeking to recruit an administrative member of my Calif staff (despite no access to sensitive information). I took those concerns seriously, learned the facts and made sure the employee left my office immediately. pic.twitter.com/qpVyPanpJk
— Sen Dianne Feinstein (@SenFeinstein) August 4, 2018
I initially thought the release of this news might be a move to draw California voters away from Feinstein, allowing her more progressive challenger to take her place in the Senate. Now, I am thinking that it is a righteous comeuppance that has its origins with the Trump, who is falsely being charged with “collusion” by Hillary Clinton supporters…of whom Feinstein has been one of the biggest.
The contrast between how these two cases have been handled by the FBI is stark.
This might be a valid comparison if Feinstein publicly asked the Chinese government to hack her opponents.
The “Crossfire Hurricane” investigation of Trump campaign ties to Russia began four days after Trump’s “Russia, if you’re listening” remark. pic.twitter.com/dOBBNeHUwO
— Brandt (@UrbanAchievr) August 7, 2018
I have changed my mind about voting for Feinstein this November. It is clear she has served herself and not the citizens of California for the duration of her career. I will write-in a candidate, and should her opponent win the seat, I will be consoled by the fact that Kevin de Leon will not be able to either wield or abuse power to the same degree as a long-term, senior senator.
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Comments
Sean Davis nailed it with his brief summation. The wicked Mueller investigation is nothing more than oppo research for impeachment proceedings should the Democrats retake the house.
Throughout the ’90’s mainstream media – at least local SFBA media – reported Feinstein had a big mouth when it came to keeping secrets. It was an open secret. Media repeatedly noted her husbands Chinese business connections and how they were both profiting via her senate seat. Bloody old news, that bit.
Another time, late 2010 she and one of the Kennedys (EDF) got into a public spat over who would control – via patronage – Mojave desert underground energy tranmission lines (1994 California Desert Protection Act.) The article was in the Fresno Bee or one of the valley papers in the area. Feinstein tried to amend the bill at least twice 2010/2015 because she wanted to funnel money to her crony construction contractor pals. I also suspect her greedy mitts were all over the bay bridge suspension bridge pylon contracts – contracts awarded to Chinese steel fabricators of course. The list is goes on and on and on. Her phony deal concerning the Chocolate Mountain land swap. It’s all about her greed and power.
Her anti-gun legislation – while she carried a concealed .38 snub nose police revolver! That bit of handgun advice came from Inspector David Toschi of the San Francisco Police Depatment. Toschi was the original Columbo with the khaki trenchcoat and shoulder holster. He was also the lead investigator for the Zodiac murders.
And people continue to say – “oh, Feinstein wasn’t all that bad” or ” I’d vote for her over the current democratic prog candidate”
Bah.
Remember when difi told the press about the serial killer ‘night stalker’s’ shoes? When they reported on the shoes the killer chucked them off the bay bridge as soon as he found out. She has a long history of not being able to keep her mouth shut.
“’I sometimes say that in my last life maybe I was Chinese,’ said Sen. Dianne Feinstein.”
Perhaps, but in this life you’re simply a corrupt, greedy person, aka as a Democrat.
. . . reported back to government officials about local politics.
I didn’t believe it last week, and don’t believe it now. Listening to every careless word of the Senate Intelligence Committee Chair, and a spy wastes his time with “local politics.” I doubt it.
Once again CNN and the rest of the media is silent.
It doesn’t really matter what position the “driver” had. As long as he had unimpeded access to the office, he could do LOTS of damage. The most valuable action that comes to mind is that he could have put hard taps on all the computers and Chinese intel could reap the benefits at their leisure.
Feinstein’s favorite Chinese dish is One Dumb Fung.
I live in California and detest Feinstein’s opponent. He was “Mexican before it was cool” so lived most of his life as Kevin Leon. Now that Mexican is cool, he calls himself Kevin De Leon.
So I should vote for Di Fi to keep De Leon out of the Senate. But Di Fi has shown she’s past her sell by date–so I suppose I’ll write in whatever Republican came highest in the jungle primary, And our new Mexican Cool Jose (who knew that Kevin was a Mexican name) can go off to Washington and be as silly as his fellow Senator Kamala Harris. Like a bowl of granola, we send out flakes to Washington D.C. while keeping the fruits and nuts for ourself.
Isn’t it strange that the FBI notified Feinstein when they discovered this spy in her employ but did the exact opposite when they thought they had discovered a spy in the Trump campaign? Did the FBI investigate Feinstein’s campaign for two years and not tell her about it? of course not! And she was only a US Senator. But how did they treat the POTUS? By lying to him and putting planted agents into his team. Never once telling him that he should be on alert. Hello! Did the FBI ever think about national security? Hell no! All they wanted is to trap Trump with some made up charge of a non-crime, collusion!
I look at the recent Google bans and I see the hand of the Chinese in it (or at least their influence). Then there’s the warning messages about people reporting conservative commentators like Byron York for anodyne tweets; exactly the sort of thing you could do with an army of paid online trolls.
I wonder what else China is up to.
i doubt most of them are paid: useful idiots generally w*rk for free.
Is the driver the spy or the handler?
I ask because if the’s the latter, there is someone else in the Senator’s office who is the spy. Having the driver as a handler means that the spy is usually under observation and can pass on information more conveniently.
The driver could, of course, be both.
embrace the power of “and”.
he was likely both, in the office and out.
To think that 60 – some odd years ago, the Democrat party had candidates like Estes Kefauver (so), Harry S Truman, and Adlai Stevenson.
They may not have been all that great, especially Stevenson, but their caliber and character were certainly higher.
She has a Chinese spy on her staff while her husband profits handsomely. Am I the only person who thinks his profits look like payoffs for her cooperation in funneling secrets to China? Rather odd the FBI didn’t pursue this obvious line of inquiry.
I’m pretty sure you cannot bribe a member of Congress’ family, rather than them directly, in order to evade anti-bribery law.
i am beyond tired of #Failifornia conservatives either not voting, voting for a 3rd party, or, as y’all did in June, wasting your vote on a “white knight” who had ZERO chance of winning in November (either of them).
we should have all voted for Villarboboso, and had his dumb ass as the 2nd choice. in office, he’d never be in the state, but rather going all over the world ala Barry the dimwitted.
but NOOOOO…. we had to duke it out between two “conservatives” neither of whom has a hope of winning an election outside their house, and who are NOT on the November ballot.
say “hello” to Governor Newsome you geniuses.
same same with Fineswine.
if you vote for ANYONE other than De Leon, you’re voting for the bruja.
don’t bother with your self-righteous bleating, because it’s BS.
it’s a binary choice: moron or witch.
pick one.
We are all used to media playing politics all the time. We loathe it and know that it isn’t how things in a Republic should work if that Republic is to stand.
Playing politics with National Security is more than “Fake News”. Far more and far worse.
Once we looked to media to inform us of threats to our national security – now they cover it up. Isn’t that close to, if not actual, treason?