Concerns are mounting after Democratic Senate candidate Jon Ossoff failed to disclose ties to a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) backed media company. Now a senator-elect, previously an ambassador to Japan and someone with extensive experience in East Asia affairs, is warning that Ossoff may pose a security risk to the United States.
In a statement to Breitbart News, Sen.-elect Bill Hagerty (R-TN) said Ossoff "may be a security risk" and is "certainly not an acceptable choice for Senator." Ossoff is running against Incumbent Republican Sen. David Perdue in the Georgia runoffs on Jan 5.
Georgia GOP officials filed a complaint earlier this month accusing Ossoff of knowingly failing to disclose payments from a pro-CCP media company, PCCW Media Limited, on his May 2020 campaign financial disclosure. Ossoff had since amended the filing, in July, to reflect receiving the payments from the CCP-connected company. The failure to disclose the payments has received extra scrutiny following revelations that Democrat Rep. Eric Swalwell (CA), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, had been romantically involved with an alleged Chinese spy and Democratic fundraiser named Fang Fang.
(Via Breitbart)
In Hagerty’s statement to Breitbart News, the senator-elect disapproved of the transaction and the handling of it and likened the issue to the recent report of Rep. Eric Swalwell’s (D-CA) relationship with suspected Chinese spy Christine Fang.
“China has proven that it will brazenly leverage any relationship they can to gain influence in our country — and Jon Ossoff is a perfect target for them,” Hagerty said. “Eric Swalwell’s relationship with a suspected Communist spy shows just how vulnerable some congressional Democrats are to Chinese influence.”
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Hagerty said of his own concern with the Georgia Democrat, “Ossoff has already worked for a Chinese communist government-backed company as a private citizen and taken payments from them. Payments that he hid from the public.”
Hagerty asked, “What’s to stop China from using him if he’s elected?”
The spy at the center of the Swalwell scandal reportedly worked for China by targeting up-and-coming politicians expected to make it big on the national stage, and Jon Ossoff is certainly somebody who fits that mold.
Conservative writer Erick Erickson has written about Ossoff and how the candidate's background makes him a prime target for China's espionage activities.
"Jon Ossoff rose to fame as an 'up-and-coming local politician' who ran in a special election in Georgia," Erickson recalls. "He claimed he had an intelligence clearance and was in the know, having worked for members of Congress. Hollywood money flowed in and he became a media darling. Though Ossoff lost, he had so much money still in his coffers, the media constantly talked about his future."
But then Erickson notes a funny thing happened: "Ossoff started receiving money from an anti-democracy media company in China. The money flowed through Ossoff’s 'documentary film' company that supposedly made documentaries about government corruption."
The anti-democracy media company based in Hong Kong was stridently opposed to Hong Kong's freedom movement and turned out to have strong ties to the CCP.
"In fact, earlier this year, Ossoff refused to even disclose his financial ties to the Chinese Communist Party, and only after Republican Senator David Perdue kept raising the issue did Ossoff amend his financial filings," notes Erickson.
But in light of the CCP's infiltration of Eric Swalwell's inner circle, Republicans say Ossoff's previous work for a pro-CCP company and Ossoff's own dismissive attitude toward such transparency makes him a prime target for China's spy efforts.
"This is how it starts," said National Republican Senatorial Committee Deputy Press Secretary Paige Lindgren. "Ossoff’s and his team’s dismissive nature toward transparency when it comes to work with foreign governments demonstrates a stunning degree of naivete. We know Ossoff lacks the experience to understand the threat of foreign actors trying to gain influence over elected officials, and clearly it has trickled down to top members of his campaign team."