House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer subpoenaed the Department of Homeland Security for records related to Democratic vice presidential nominee Gov. Tim Walz’s alleged connections to the Chinese Communist Party, Fox News Digital has learned.
Comer, R-Ky., who announced last month that his committee launched an investigation into those alleged “longstanding” ties, is seeking records including intelligence reports, documents, and communications from the Department of Homeland Security.
Fox News Digital reviewed the subpoena, directed to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Governor Tim Walz speaks to his supporters at Grand Rapids Public Museum on Sep. 12. (Detroit Free Press/Adam Vander Kooy / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)
HOUSE OVERSIGHT INVESTIGATING WALZ OVER ‘LONGSTANDING CONNECTIONS’ TO CHINA
The subpoena comes after a whistleblower notified the committee of the existence of a non-classified, Microsoft Teams group chat among DHS employees, as well as additional intelligence reports, that allegedly contain information regarding Walz’s alleged connections to the CCP.
“The committee has recently received whistleblower disclosures informing the Committee of serious concern among Department of Homeland Security personnel regarding a longstanding connection between the CCP and Minnesota Governor Timothy James Walz,” Comer wrote in the subpoena cover letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
The non-classified Microsoft Teams group chat is titled “NST NFT Bi-Weekly Sync,” and allegedly contains information relevant to Comer’s probe.
House Oversight Committee officials told Fox News Digital that information regarding Walz and China have been memorialized in both classified and unclassified documents under the control of DHS.
“Specifically, through whistleblower disclosures, the Committee has learned of a non-classified, Microsoft Teams group chat among DHS employees—titled ‘NST NFT Bi-Weekly Sync’—that contains information about Governor Walz that is relevant to the Committee’s investigation,” Comer wrote. “The Committee has also learned that further relevant information regarding Governor Walz has been memorialized in both classified and unclassified documents in the control of DHS.”
Comer is subpoenaing Mayorkas for all documents and communications in the Microsoft Teams group chat from July 1, 2024 to present, as well as any uploaded or embedded attachments and documents referring to or relating to Walz or his gubernatorial office or staff.
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Comer is also subpoenaing all intelligence information reports and regional intelligence notes from November 2023 to present related to Walz.
Comer, last month, revealed that Walz has “engaged and partnered with” Chinese entities, making him “susceptible” to the CCP’s strategy of “elite capture” which seeks to co-opt influential figures in elite political, cultural and academic circles to “influence the United States to the benefit of the communist regime and the detriment of Americans.”
Comer has pointed to reports that Walz, while working as a teacher in the 1990s, organized a trip to China for Alliance High School students. The costs were reportedly “paid by the Chinese government.”
Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, during a hearing in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, March 20, 2024. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Comer is investigating Walz’s 1994-created private company named “Educational Travel Adventures, Inc.,” which coordinated annual student trips to China until 2003 and was led by Walz.
The company reportedly “dissolved four days after he took congressional office in 2007.”
Comer said Walz has traveled to China an estimated “30 times.”
“In its investigation, the Committee has highlighted the importance of U.S. officials being cognizant of CCP political and psychological warfare efforts that seek to threaten national security,” Comer said last month.
Comer then pointed to Walz’s time in Congress, noting he served as a fellow at the Macau Polytechnic University — a Chinese institution that characterizes itself as having a “long-held devotion to and love for the motherland.”
“At the time he disclosed serving as a Macau fellow, Mr. Walz also had significant credit card debt,” Comer said last month upon launching the investigation, noting that in 2019, Walz headlined the 27th National Convention for the U.S. China Peoples Friendship Association in Minnesota.
“Governor Walz spoke alongside the president of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, which, a year later, the Department of State exposed as ‘a Beijing-based organization tasked with co-opting subnational governments,’ including efforts to ‘directly and malignly influence state and local leaders to promote the PRC’s global agenda,’” Comer said.
WALZ APPOINTEE WITH APPARENT CCP TIES COULD EXPOSE POTENTIAL VEEP’S NATIONAL SECURITY WEAKNESS, LAWMAKER SAYS
Harris and Walz will sit down for an interview with CNN anchor Dana Bash that airs on Thursday evening ( Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Comer said Walz himself has “admitted that he does not ‘fall into the category that China necessarily needs to be an adversarial relationship.’”
“Despite bipartisan efforts to identify and defeat CCP unrestricted warfare against America, Governor Walz continues problematic engagement with concerning entities and individuals,” Comer wrote.
Comer also pointed to a March 2024 meeting Walz had with Consul General Zhao Jian to discuss “China-U.S. relations and sub-national cooperation.”
Comer, in his letter to Mayorkas Monday, said that his committee’s investigation of the CCP began long before Walz became the Democratic vice presidential nominee, and said it is focused on understanding “the extent of the CCP’s infiltration and influence campaign and to identify legislative reforms to combat CCP political warfare targeting prominent Americans for elite capture.”
“In particular, if a state governor and major political party’s nominee for Vice President of the United States has been a witting or unwitting participant in the CCP’s efforts to weaken our nation, this would strongly suggest that there are alarming weaknesses in the federal government’s effort to defend the United States from the CCP’s political warfare that must be urgently addressed,” Comer wrote. “Along those lines, the Committee is currently considering legislative solutions to ameliorate deficiencies it already has identified among government agencies’ strategies to combat CCP political warfare.”