Feds Charge Lobbyist, Alleging Scheme To Extradite Bannon’s Chinese Dissident Yacht Buddy

President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping leave a business leaders event at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on November 9, 2017.Donald Trump urged Chinese leader Xi Jinping to work "hard" and ac... President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping leave a business leaders event at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on November 9, 2017.Donald Trump urged Chinese leader Xi Jinping to work "hard" and act fast to help resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis, during their meeting in Beijing on November 9, warning that "time is quickly running out". / AFP PHOTO / Nicolas ASFOURI (Photo credit should read NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP/Getty Images) MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Federal prosecutors last week revealed a lobbying campaign targeting the highest levels of the Trump administration aimed at removing a Chinese dissident from the U.S.

Hawaii federal prosecutors charged Nickie Lum Davis with failing to inform the Justice Department that she had been hired by a Malaysian financier with extensive interests in China and who was involved in the billion-dollar 1MDB scandal.

But in the criminal information, filed August 17 in Hawaii federal district court, prosecutors allege that Davis and a top GOP fundraiser worked together on a complicated scheme to convince high-ranking members of the Trump administration to remove the Chinese dissident from the U.S.

Court papers do not identify either the GOP fundraiser or the dissident, though the Wall Street Journal reported that they are former Trump Victory Committee Vice Chairman Eliott Broidy and exiled Chinese businessman Guo Wengui.

Neither of them have been charged with any wrongdoing. Broidy’s attorneys have denied wrongdoing in the past.

The document says that Person B — Broidy, per the Journal — allegedly met with a Chinese minister about potentially arranging to have Guo extradited.

Guo, who also goes by the alias Miles Kwok, owns the yacht on which former Trump campaign chairman Stephen Bannon was arrested last week.

The alleged effort to have Guo extradited continued throughout the summer and fall of 2017, as the Chinese billionaire ramped up a campaign alleging corruption among the Beijing political elite.

The allegations also come amid an investigation into Broidy. The FBI raided Broidy’s offices in July 2018, and a search warrant for the raid obtained by ProPublica showed that the feds were interested in his lobbying work regarding Guo.

The longtime GOP fundraiser has also attracted attention for his work at President Trump’s inauguration, in which he has faced scrutiny for allegedly hawking access to the event to foreign government officials.

The Hawaii charging documents suggest that Broidy, among other things, tried to schedule a meeting with a Chinese minister and then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to promote “bi-lateral cooperation with the US with respect to law enforcement including cyber security.”

That meeting did not take place, prosecutors said. Guo was never extradited, and continues to remain in the U.S.

Prosecutors did say that the effort to extradite Guo culminated in a call with Broidy, President Trump, and an unnamed person aboard that unnamed person’s yacht.

The Wall Street Journal reported that that person is casino magnate Steve Wynn.

Read the criminal information here:

Latest Muckraker

Notable Replies

  1. Avatar for ajm ajm says:

    I think we saw the Turkish version of this earlier.

  2. Prosecutors did say that the effort to extradite Guo culminated in a call with Broidy, President Trump, and an unnamed person aboard that unnamed person’s yacht.

    Hmmmmm…
    That trumpian projection about China owning Biden…
    Apparently, it was a bigly projection because it seems
    China Owns Trump!

  3. As ajm notes, this also happened with Gulen. Anybody with $$$ owns Trump, and these clowns would actually take money to extradite dissidents back to certain death in their own countries.

    This is the kind of accounting that likely will never come public, but I sure hope the Biden administration gets to the bottom of what role the Trump administration played in the torture and political assassination of Jamal Khashoggi.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

22 more replies

Participants

Avatar for discobot Avatar for paulw Avatar for ajm Avatar for inversion Avatar for hagarwood Avatar for lastroth Avatar for longtimeobserver Avatar for nymund Avatar for generalsternwood Avatar for pine Avatar for pshah Avatar for thunderclapnewman Avatar for d2square Avatar for Ken_a_roni Avatar for ericr Avatar for polisong Avatar for surge Avatar for enhancedthespian Avatar for bwillator Avatar for bcgister Avatar for progressiveandsane Avatar for anon84323658 Avatar for AdamTheLawyer Avatar for ClutchCargo

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: