Former U.S. Ambassador to Japan and Sen.-elect Bill Hagerty (R-TN) is speaking out against Georgia Democrat Senate candidate Jon Ossoff over money Ossoff’s film company received from a company directly tied to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Hagerty, who was ambassador to Japan for two years and made his experience with East Asia a centerpiece of his successful Senate campaign, said in a statement to Breitbart News that Ossoff “may be a security risk” and is “certainly not an acceptable choice for Senator.”
Ossoff, who first invested in the film company, Insight TWI, in 2013, submitted an amendment to his Senate financial statement in July indicating the company received more than $5,000 in the past two years from Hong Kong-based telecommunication company PCCW.
PCCW is owned in part by China Unicom, the CEO of which is a CCP member, and is chaired by Richard Li, who openly opposes Hong Kong independence.
While the payment alone has raised concern because of its link to the CCP, the issue has been further complicated by Ossoff’s reporting of it. This month, Ossoff’s campaign told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution he actually received only $1,000 from PCCW despite filing instructions asking for payments over $5,000.
Additionally, the payment, which was one of 11 payments that Ossoff had excluded from his May filing but included in his July amendment, was reported after he had already won his June Senate primary race in his bid to unseat Sen. David Perdue (R-GA). When confronted about the omission, his campaign attributed it to a “paperwork oversight.”
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.” Read More
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