In Other News: Dianne Feinstein Had Chinese Spy on Staff For 20 Years
News broke recently that for about 20 years — 20 years! — Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) employed a Chinese spy on her congressional staff. The FBI told her five years ago that Russell Lowe was under investigation for ties to Chinese spying in the Bay area. The agency suspected he was providing political intel to his handlers. Feinstein fired him after she found out.
Lowe mainly served as Feinstein’s driver and her gofer in the San Francisco office. He also served as a liaison to the Asian-American community. That included attending Chinese Consulate functions for her. Payroll records list him as an office manager.
The People’s Republic of China’s Ministry of State Security recruited him years ago on a trip to China, a source told the San Francisco Chronicle.
Access to National Security Information
Incredibly, Lowe worked for Feinstein while she was chair of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. She was also a longtime member of the so-called Gang of Eight. The bipartisan group of top House and Senate members get special briefings by our intelligence agencies and the executive branch. How much of this information did Lowe see and pass along?
Incredibly, Lowe worked for Feinstein while she was chair of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
Feinstein minimized the situation. “He never had access to classified or sensitive information or legislative matters,” she said. A source told Politico that Lowe was not prosecuted, probably because he was passing along political intelligence, not classified information.
Feinstein Cozy With China
The Federalist observes that Feinstein has had a cozy relationship with China for years. She established a “sister city” relationship with Shanghai when she was mayor of San Francisco. She became good friends with Shanghai Mayor Jiang Zemin. They visited each other regularly in the 1980s.
Zemin became chairman of the Central Military Commission, general secretary of the CCP, and president of the People’s Republic of China. Feinstein is one of the leading proponents of expanding relations with China. She and her husband made millions of dollars on their investments in China.
President Trump expressed his concern at a rally in Ohio recently regarding a conflict of interest. “The leader of the Russia investigation, Dianne Feinstein, had a Chinese spy as her driver for 20 years,” he said. “And she’s leading the Russian ‘witch hunt.’ Isn’t that something? And then she says to me, ‘What did you know about this and that?’ Give me a break.”
…Dianne is the person leading our Nation on “Collusion” with Russia (only done by Dems). Will she now investigate herself? https://t.co/OG6l04bBwg
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 4, 2018
Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) noted a double standard in how the FBI handled the scandal. When the FBI discovered that Trump’s campaign staffers Carter Page and George Papadopoulos were talking to Russians, the agency did not approach Trump and give him a chance to remove them from his campaign.
“If this is a counterintelligence investigation not a criminal investigation, the FBI should have told President Trump that they had concerns about Papadopoulos and Paige,” Graham said on Fox News. “Why didn’t they do for Trump what they did for Feinstein?”
What Did Lowe Hear?
Many express concern that Lowe compromised national security secrets. What did Lowe hear when he was driving Feinstein places? Joel Pollak at Breitbart notes that despite the gravity of the situation, media outlets barely covered the story. Most ignored it.
There are significant concerns that national security secrets were compromised.
Politico barely mentioned it inside an article about spies in Silicon Valley. Feinstein appears to have gotten away with it.
Follow Rachel on Twitter at Rach_IC.
