Government

Pretty Weird How Republican Megadonors Keep Getting Popped For Being Unregistered Chinese Agents, Huh?

It's always, always, always projection with these people.

By  
on
Las Vegas Casinos To Close Their Doors In Response To Coronavirus Pandemic

(Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Yesterday the Justice Department sued casino magnate Steve Wynn for failing to register as an agent of the Chinese government under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).

Wynn resigned his position as CEO of his eponymous gaming company in 2018 amid a wave of sexual harassment allegations. He also resigned as finance chair of the Republican National Committee. But before that, his position as an RNC megadonor and his longstanding ties to Trump, a fellow gambling impresario, made him an attractive intermediary for parties lobbying the Trump administration.

Parties like the People’s Republic of China, by and through the country’s former Vice Minister for Public Security, Sun Lijun (“Sun”), according to yesterday’s complaint in the US District Court for DC. 

According to the filing, Sun approached businessman Elliot Broidy, also a former RNC finance chair, about getting Chinese expat billionaire Guo Wengui extradited back to China.

If Broidy’s name sounds familiar, it’s because he was a recurring character in the four years of Trump drama, thanks to his messy personal life and involvement with Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen who was, say it with us now, also a former RNC finance chair. In October of 2020, Broidy pled guilty to violating FARA by failing to disclose that he was lobbying for Guo’s extradition on behalf of Malaysian and Chinese principals. But he was pardoned by Trump in the same batch of 11th hour clemency grants that included Steve Bannon.

And speaking of Steve Bannon … if the name Guo Wengui sounds familiar, it’s because Guo has long been a patron of Bannon’s. In fact, Bannon was on Guo’s yacht when the mailman came to arrest him for his We Build the Wall grift. And Guo was recently revealed to be the money behind GETTR, the conservative social media platform started by Jason Miller, Trump’s comms guy.

Sponsored

Using his money and the freedom afforded by his American visa, Guo set up various media outlets such as GTV to air criticism of the CCP, which is why the Party was so singularly focused on repatriating him. To that end, it used Broidy and Wynn to argue its case with the Trump administration.

Prosecutors allege that Broidy communicated Sun’s requests to Wynn via text messages to Wynn’s wife Andrea Hissom, who then passed them on to her husband and responded to Broidy on his behalf.

In a June 2017 message to Hissom, Broidy wrote:

President Xi Jinping mentioned to President Trump at Mar-A-Lago that he would like [the PRC national] returned. Vice Minister [Sun] met with me and requested help with regard to [the PRC national]. The Vice Minister told me this is a matter of upmost importance to President Jinping. He promised to return certain US citizens held hostage by China and would accept a very large number of Chinese illegal immigrants for deportation back to China. Finally, he offered new assistance with regard to North Korea.

He also gave Wynn copies of Guo’s passport, visa, and Interpol red notice. Additionally, Sun communicated directly with Wynn, who agreed to bring the matter up with his White House contacts. Subsequently, Wynn did speak to “two former White House chiefs of staff” — presumably Reince Preibus and John Kelly —  and “two senior officials on the NSC” about Guo’s extradition, as well as approaching the issue with Trump himself.

Sponsored

And while FARA’s registration requirement isn’t dependent on specific remuneration, the government alleges that Wynn was motivated by a desire to stay in China’s good graces for the benefit of his casinos in Macau, the former Portuguese colony which is now a special administrative region of China.

“Defendant’s conduct was motivated by his desire to protect his business interests in the PRC,” prosecutors write, adding that Wynn referred specifically to being “grateful for the privilege of being part of the Macau and PRC business community” in a text with one of China’s intermediaries.

Wynn’s efforts were ultimately unsuccessful, though, perhaps because parties like Bannon and Miller were taking the under on this bet.

FARA, which ensnared other Trumpland characters, including Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn, requires disclosure by anyone lobbying the American government on behalf of a foreign entity.

“Defendant is obligated to file these materials by virtue of his acting as an agent of two foreign principals: Sun Lijun (“Sun”), the former Vice Minister for Public Security in the People’s Republic of China (“PRC”), and the PRC itself,” the government argues.

And indeed it has been arguing that since Jeff Sessions was Attorney General. Because in 2018, shortly after Wynn’s fall from grace, the Justice Department sent him a letter telling him he had to register as a Chinese agent — something to keep in mind if and when Wynn and his allies claim that he’s being politically targeted by the Biden DOJ.

Nevertheless, after having been informed by the U.S. Department of Justice of this obligation in letters dated May 16, 2018, October 27, 2021, and April 13, 2022, the Defendant refused to register. Because his failure to file constitutes an ongoing violation of FARA and given the likelihood that this violation will continue in the absence of court action, a permanent injunction is necessary.

It’s not a great look to have three RNC finance chairs in trouble with the law. And we can’t help but notice that the RNC spent the past two years pretending that Joe Biden was in bed with the Chinese government, which is a little too on the nose, like everything single bloody thing for the past five years.

US v. Wynn [Docket via Court Listener]

Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.

Topics

, , , , , , ,