The House Oversight Committee subpoenaed a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official on Wednesday for allegedly failing to comply with an investigation into Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), according to a letter exclusively obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The House Committee on Oversight and Accountability subpoena requires DHS’s senior advisor to the Department’s Office of Legislative Affairs Jacob Marx to appear for a deposition related to whistleblower disclosures obtained by the committee allegedly concerning Walz’s “longstanding connection” to the CCP. The committee subpoenaed DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in September requesting “documents and communications regarding Gov. Walz’s connections with the CCP,” but alleges DHS has not produced “responsive documents,” “substantive information, nor any assurance that substantive information would be forthcoming.”
Kentucky Republican Rep. James Comer, who chairs the Oversight Committee, told the DCNF that he “fully expects” Marx to “comply with our lawful subpoena and appear for a deposition.”
“This is a serious national security threat and DHS’s failure to provide this Committee information on Governor Walz’s extensive ties to the CCP and their unwillingness to cooperate with this investigation in good faith is completely inexcusable,” Comer said.
Walz’s relationship with the Chinese government has come under increased scrutiny following Vice President Kamala Harris’ selection of the two-term governor as her running mate in her failed 2024 bid for the presidency.
Among other ties to the communist nation, Walz led multiple groups of students to China on trips funded by the Chinese government while working as a teacher, according to unearthed reports from the Star-Herald and other midwest newspapers. A DCNF investigation also revealed Walz welcomed CCP officials working for an institute serving a Chinese intelligence agency into his Nebraska classroom in the 1990s.
‘Defiance’
In September 2024, the committee sent a letter to Mayorkas after a whistleblower allegedly disclosed the existence of “a non-classified, Microsoft Teams group chat among DHS employees” that included conversations expressing concern about Walz’s ties to the Chinese government.
The committee’s September letter included a subpoena requiring DHS to produce documents and communications concerning Walz’s alleged CCP ties.
Although DHS sent a letter on Oct. 7 to the committee and, on Oct. 21, spoke on the phone with the committee, an Oct. 29 committee letter to Mayorkas alleged that DHS failed to “produce a single responsive document” and thus did not comply with the subpoena.
“Because of DHS’s lack of compliance with the Committee’s legal subpoena and unwillingness to cooperate in good faith, the Committee is releasing a small portion of the Department’s internal communications it received from a whistleblower,” the committee’s Oct. 29 letter said.
“Walt’s got the Vp. You all have no idea how this feeds into what prc has been doing here with him and local gov,” the alleged DHS group chat shared in the Oct. 29 committee letter stated. “It’s seriously a line of the intel. Target someone who is perceived they can get to DC.”
The committee’s Oct. 29 letter closed by requesting for DHS’s special advisor, Marx, to “make himself available for a transcribed interview with Committee staff” by Nov. 4, 2024.
However, DHS has allegedly “refused to make Mr. Marx available for a transcribed interview,” according to the committee’s latest Dec. 11 letter, which includes a subpoena “requiring Mr. Marx to participate in a deposition with the Committee.”
“DHS’s continued defiance is unacceptable, and its leadership’s pattern of ‘willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law’ and ‘knowing[] obstruct[ion] [of] lawful oversight’ is highly concerning given the national security implications uncovered during the Committee’s investigation,” the December letter said.
[Screenshot of alleged internal DHS Microsoft Teams group chat obtained by House Committee on Oversight and Accountability]
‘Influence And Infiltration Campaigns’
In October, the committee released a report detailing how the CCP uses “political warfare” to “establish footholds, dependencies, and both willing and unwitting allies that further its larger effort to weaken the United States.”
The committee’s report identified “elite capture” as one component of political warfare.
“By any reasonable analysis, the United States faces a new cold war, but under the current administration, only its opponent — the CCP — is committed to winning it. Unlike the first Cold War, the adversary is already within, having entrenched itself within U.S. borders, institutions, businesses, universities, and cultural centers by capturing elites in influential circles,” the committee’s report stated.
The report goes on to allege Walz may be an example of elite capture.
“For example, current Democrat Vice Presidential candidate Timothy Walz has longstanding connections to CCP-connected entities and officials. These connections bear hallmarks of CCP elite capture that make Governor Walz susceptible to CCP influence in his decision-making as governor,” the report stated.
In addition to his travels in China, Walz also has a long history of attending events in Minnesota organized by individuals working for a CCP influence and intelligence agency called the United Front Work Department (UFWD), the DCNF previously reported. Among other things, the UFWD “collects intelligence, exerts control over overseas Chinese-language media outlets, seeks to influence Chinese diaspora groups, facilitates illicit technology transfer, and interferes in politics in other countries,” according to the House Select Committee on the CCP.
The DCNF found that Walz has attended multiple events hosted by members of a Minnesota UFWD organization linked to China’s police authority, the Ministry of Public Security, including one 2022 fundraiser for Walz’s gubernatorial campaign.
Comer told the DCNF that the CCP has a plan to “destroy the United States through coordinated influence and infiltration campaigns that target every aspect of American life, including our own elected officials.”
DHS did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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