Tweet of the Day: Huawei Paying Lobbyists Big Money to Influence Biden Administration

Huawei is making it rain benjamins for people with connects to the Biden administration:

High-profile Democratic lobbyist Tony Podesta, whose firm collapsed under scrutiny during special counsel Robert Mueller‘s investigation, was paid $1 million by Huawei in 2021 as Beijing sought to soften the Biden administration’s position on the Chinese telecommunications giant.

Huawei appears to have hired Podesta effective as of July, with Senate lobbying disclosure forms showing he agreed to work for Huawei Technologies USA to lobby on “issues related to telecommunication services and impacted trade issues.” An October filing showed that the Chinese company paid Podesta $500,000 for the third quarter of 2021, and a filing this week showed he was paid another $500,000 in the fourth quarter. One filing said he was specifically lobbying the “White House Office,” while the other similarly said he was targeting the “Executive Office of the President.”

The Gazette via One Free Korea

You can read much more at the link, but ROK Heads may remember that the prior ROK Presidency of Park Geun-hye was brought down and impeached because her good friend Choi soon-sil was accepting money from Samsung into her sports foundation for influence with President Park. Both Park and Choi ended up going to prison. In the U.S. such lobbying activity is just another day in the office.