Congressional Democrat Staffer Caught Working for China
Congressional Dem Staffer Caught Working for China
If you’re gonna work for Communists, why settle for anything less than the real thing?
By Daniel Greenfield
If you’re gonna work for Communists, why settle for anything less than the real thing?
I had just wrapped an article on Communist Chinese influence on the midterms, but there’s always more. Beijing understands that personnel is policy and they’re getting their people in anywhere they can and subverting our people where possible. Even at the congressional staffer level.
One congressional aide told NR that after he ignored several emails from Chinese embassy staff requesting a meeting about one of his boss’s bills earlier this year, Hamlett, a 34-year veteran of Capitol Hill, called his office and then showed up in person, asking him to step outside for a conversation.
“So she comes to my office and asks that we step out into the hallway, and she says she is friends with the embassy and that they have been trying to get in contact with me,” the congressional aide said, on condition of anonymity. She wanted to schedule a lunch. He agreed to coffee.
But when the aide showed up for the meeting in June, Hamlett didn’t participate in the discussion. In fact, she sat at a different table with a female embassy staff member, NR was told. The aide then had a one-on-one discussion with a male embassy staffer, who was “talking about one of my boss’s bills. They do not like it.”
Staffers aren’t paid well. China apparently pays better.
In recent weeks, NR has learned, Hamlett had also attempted to schedule a separate meeting between a Republican aide and a Chinese diplomat after that aide had, likewise, ignored emails from Chinese embassy staff.
She introduced herself in a message sent from an official House of Representatives email account. “I have worked on The Hill for nearly 34 yrs. and worked 5 of those years as Deputy Scheduler to the late Senator Arlen Specter,” she wrote, inviting the staffer to a lunch meeting. “I would like to introduce you to some friends of mine that work at the Chinese Embassy who would like to meet you and have a chat,” the email continued.
And she didn’t think that this would be a problem. But in the current swamp that is D.C., there are no more standards.
Or fairly few ones.
Hamlett didn’t seem to know how the game was played. You’re supposed to leave your job and get a job with a lobbying firm in which you use your knowledge of the system to conduct outreach to target other staffers.
Instead, she jumped the gun.
A House Democratic staffer was fired after her outreach to other congressional aides allegedly on behalf of the Chinese embassy was revealed this week, National Review has learned. After an investigation found that the staffer had acted improperly, her boss, Representative Don Beyer, swiftly removed her.
Is Podesta hiring?