Heat on Trump’s China connection
Dems seek probe of massage parlor chief
Top congressional Democrats are calling on the FBI to launch criminal and counterintelligence investigations into the former owner of a purported Florida brothel suspected of hawking Chinese government officials and businessmen access to President Trump’s administration.
In a letter made public Monday, the chairmen of the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees and the ranking members of the equivalent Senate panels said recent reporting about former massage parlor owner Cindy Yang raises “serious counterintelligence concerns,” referencing allegations that she was shilling inroads to the President and his advisers to Communist Party officials.
Specifically, the senior Democrats referenced reporting by the Miami Herald and Mother Jones that Yang used a business named GY US Investments to offer wealthy Chinese clients the “opportunity to interact” with Trump, his family members and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. Yang’s company also advertised it could arrange “White House and Capitol Hill dinners,” according to the Democrats.
Yang, 45, has visited the White House on “at least one occasion,” has been a frequent guest at Mar-a-Lago and was photographed with the President at his Super Bowl party at the private West Palm Beach club, the Democrats noted. They also alleged Yang arranged for a group of Chinese business executives to attend a Trump fund-raiser in New York in 2017.
Moreover, the Democrats urged the FBI to look into claims that Yang founded massage parlors across Florida that have allegedly been used as fronts for a prostitution and human trafficking ring, in which immigrant women were forced to serve as sex workers.
New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, a huge Trump supporter, was charged at the end of February with soliciting a prostitute after prosecutors claimed they had recorded him having sex in a Jupiter, Florida massage parlor once owned by Yang.
The Democrats — House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler of New York, House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff of California, Senate Intelligence Ranking Member Mark Warner of Virginia and Senate Judiciary Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein of California — charged the Chinese government has frequently used “nontraditional intelligence collectors” and said Yang’s alleged involvement in access hawking and human trafficking could prove a perilous combination.
“Although Ms. Yang’s activities may only be those of an unscrupulous actor allegedly selling access to politicians for profit, her activities also could permit adversary governments or their agents access to these same politicians to acquire potential material for blackmail or other even more nefarious purposes,” the Democrats wrote in the letter, which was dated March 15 and addressed to FBI Director Christopher Wray.
An FBI spokeswoman declined to comment.
The Democrats said there’s reason to believe Yang may have violated lobbying, foreign agent and campaign finance laws.
They said the FBI should look into whether Trump, his campaign or political action committee were aware of Yang’s activities and asked to be briefed on any undisclosed U.S. intelligence findings on the matter.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California — the two most powerful Democrats in Congress — voiced support for the request issued by their colleagues.
“The facts in this situation are very concerning,” Schumer and Pelosi said in a joint statement. “We urge Director Wray to adhere to the joint bicameral requests.”