Why Are Top Obama Officials Working Cushy Jobs for Chinese Company We Now Consider a Threat?
As many Americans know and appreciate, the foundation for President Donald Trump’s foreign policy is the protection of Americans.
It’s one of the reasons his supporters voted for him and, quite frankly, it’s what Americans should be able to expect of any president.
Since taking office in 2017, Trump hasn’t backed down from taking on what he considers foreign and domestic threats, but former officials from President Barack Obama’s administration might be in a position to hinder Trump’s ability to keep one major international rival at bay.
According to a report by the Washington Examiner, Samir Jain — a former senior director for cybersecurity policy under Obama’s National Security Council and now a partner with the international law firm Jones Day — was recently hired by the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei as a lobbyist.
Jain works alongside James Cole, who was Obama’s deputy attorney general from 2011 to 2015. Huawei hired Cole for legal representation in 2017, the Examiner reported.
So, what’s the big deal, right?
According to the Examiner, the U.S. government suspects that Huawei may be working directly with the Chinese government in an attempt to access data flowing through 5G cellular networks across the world, ultimately posing a major cybersecurity threat for Americans.
In an effort to defend against these threats, as The Associated Press reported, Trump recently signed an executive order that calls out foreign adversaries for exploiting vulnerabilities within communications technology, ultimately declaring a national emergency and demanding action be taken against such companies.
But that raises the question: What are these former high-ranking Obama officials doing at Huawei?
It’s not like Jain doesn’t know the threat his new employer poses for communication across the globe.
HIs Jones Day biography notes that he represented the Department of Justice in “White House cybersecurity meetings and international negotiations, such as China’s agreement not to engage in cyber-enabled intellectual property theft for commercial gain.”
Despite his knowledge of the cyber-warfare originating out of China, Jain and his colleague Cole are now siding with (and being paid by) the very entity they previously worked together to fight.
In fact, Cole is defending Huawei from a long list of charges brought on recently by Trump’s Department of Justice.
The charges include criminal conduct such as “bank fraud, conspiracy to defraud the U.S., conspiracy to commit money laundering, obstruction of justice, illegal actions related to dodging Iran sanctions, and more,” according to the Washington Examiner.
Trump was clearly unhappy with Huawei’s hiring choices and lambasted company on Twitter in April, saying “this is not good, or acceptable!”
Chinese Telecom Giant Huawei hires former Obama Cyber Security Official as a lobbyist. This is not good, or acceptable! @FoxNews @SteveHiltonx
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 15, 2019
Samir’s and Cole’s hypocritical actions will only cause more headaches for the U.S. Justice Department as it works to get to the bottom of these budding, international security threats.
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