Fans of Apple products will soon be unable to purchase the latest models of the Apple Watch and Apple Watch Ultra due to a ban on U.S. imports of the devices due to what is alleged to be an infringement on patents held by Masimo for the Apple wearables' blood oxygen readings.
President Joe Biden — via the U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai — could have blocked the ban levied by the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) from taking effect, but decided not to intervene by the Christmas Day deadline to stop the ban.
So, the prohibition moved ahead this week before being temporarily put on hold by a federal appeals court on Wednesday amid Apple's legal efforts to reverse the USITC's ruling.
In an interesting twist, however, the New York Post noted that Biden's decision not to block the ban on Apple Watches is set to benefit one of Biden's "closest friends" who has also donated a significant amount of money to the president's projects — including $1 million to the Biden Foundation.
Apple Watch ban will boost Biden mega-donor who president calls ‘one of my closest friends’ https://t.co/dMCgcl8erP pic.twitter.com/x4AOopErye
— New York Post (@nypost) December 28, 2023
"Joe Kiani, the multimillionaire founder and CEO of Masimo, has donated millions to Democrats and is a particularly close supporter of Biden, with donations including $1 million to his Biden Foundation," the Post reported on Thursday. The tech executive "has cultivated exceptionally close ties to Biden, who in 2019 spoke at an event where Kiani was in the audience and called him out as 'one of my closest friends,'"
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More on the cozy (and lucrative) relationship between Masimo's CEO and President Biden from the Post's report:
In addition to a $1 million donation to the Biden Foundation, Kiani donated $750,000 to the pro-Biden Unite the Country PAC in 2020, part of nearly $3 million he bundled to the president’s campaign, super PAC and inaugural committee. He is also a significant Democratic Party donor.
A spokesman for Masimo said the CEO and his “team” had never lobbied Biden or Tai over the Apple Watch dispute and accused Apple CEO Tim Cook of having his own lobbying effort.
“This dispute has never been about money for Masimo,” the spokesman said. “The company’s motivation has always been and remains to hold Apple accountable for infringing Masimo’s patents and to restore integrity to the marketplace.”
The White House declined to comment. Tai’s office did not return a request for comment. The Post has reached out to Apple for comment.
In addition to the financial ties, the Post noted that "Kiani and his wife, Sarah, were guests at a state dinner for France’s President Emmanuel Macron in December 2022, and then at a White House reception for Nowruz, the Iranian New Year, in March 2023." Then, "in April, Kiani and his wife hosted first son Hunter Biden and his wife, Melissa Cohen, at their sprawling, 8,000-acre (12.5-square-mile) Kiani Preserve, three hours north of Los Angeles" worth $50 million according to the Post.
More connections between the Bidens and Kianis include a Masimo job offer for "troubled Biden niece Caroline Biden in July 2018" revealed in the contents of Hunter Biden's laptop from hell, Biden appointing Kiani to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology that gave the CEO "a powerful platform," and a job for Kiani's daughter Catherine working for Jill Biden in the White House.
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