The Senate voted largely along party lines to confirm Christopher Fonzone, who previously did some legal work for Huawei, as the top lawyer for the U.S. intelligence community, with Republican Sen. Tom Cotton warning about the “new China lobby” and criticizing the Biden pick for failing to promise not to work for Huawei in the future.
Fonzone, a Harvard Law School graduate who spent 2013 through the end of Barack Obama’s presidency as a National Security Council legal adviser, was picked by President Joe Biden in March to serve as the general counsel for Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, who oversees the nation’s 18 spy agencies. After his national security work in the Obama administration, Fonzone took a gig as a partner at the Sidley Austin law firm, where he did what he called limited work in 2018 for the Chinese telecom giant Huawei and for China’s Ministry of Commerce. Fonzone has declined to promise not to work for Chinese Communist Party-linked firms in the future.
Despite the controversy and criticism from some Senate Republicans, Fonzone was confirmed to the top intelligence spot in a 55-45 vote on Tuesday afternoon.
“Huawei is no ordinary phone company. It is the eyes and ears of the Chinese Communist Party. … It’s engaged in espionage all around the world on behalf of its masters in Beijing,” Cotton said in a floor speech before the vote. “By all accounts, Mr. Fonzone is a capable lawyer — I don’t question his qualifications or his character, but there is reason to question his judgment. While working as a law partner at Sidley Austin, Mr. Fonzone performed legal work for Huawei as well as China’s Ministry of Commerce. He performed this work during a critical period, when our government was actively exposing Huawei as a Chinese spy company and applying sanctions to it.”
Cotton added: “Now, I recognize that he didn’t do all that much work for Huawei, just a few billable hours here and there, but the fact remains that he first served Huawei, and now, he wants to serve in the United States government. Nor is he willing to foreclose the possibility of working for such companies in the future.”
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In follow-up questions after his Senate confirmation hearing last month, Fonzone was asked if he had ever declined to work on issues at Sidley, and he said he had, but he had not declined to work for Huawei or China‘s government. Fonzone said he “did less than 10 hours of work at the firm’s request, answering questions about how U.S. administrative law works,” when asked if he believed his work on Huawei’s behalf helped the company comply with U.S. law. Fonzone said, “I continue to comply with my ongoing obligations to protect classified information,” when asked about his work for Huawei and China’s government.
Fonzone was asked if he would commit not to take any clients on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party or its “tech champions” such as Huawei after he leaves the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, but he said only, “I do not have plans for what I would do after service in government, if confirmed, but commit to following all post-government ethics rules and restrictions,” failing to promise not to work for Huawei again.
“Unfortunately, Mr. Fonzone is far from alone in his lapse of judgment. There is a rapidly revolving door in Washington, D.C., that shuttles people in and out of government. Unfortunately, some of those people go on to work for companies with ties to the Chinese government and its armed wing, the People’s Liberation Army, after they cycle out of government,” Cotton said Tuesday. “These individuals are part of what I call the ‘new China lobby.’ They work at white shoe law firms and sprawling multinational corporations and big banks, their pockets are lined with Chinese Communist cash — just like Hollywood executives, NBA stars, and ivory tower academics. Some of them get very rich by doing Beijing’s bidding, and they don’t want the gravy train to stop.”
Cotton added: “It’s high time the U.S. Senate take a stand against the China lobby. … It’s time we start drawing a line. And in the future, I will therefore carefully scrutinize nominees for ties to the regime in Beijing and military companies like Huawei. If you wish to serve in the United States government in the future, let me be very clear: Do not do business with the Chinese Communist Party or its military or the companies that support it. Stop it today. Don’t take the work, don’t take the meeting, don’t cash the check. A man cannot serve two masters.”
A 2012 report from the House Intelligence Committee concluded Huawei poses “a security threat to the United States and to our systems.”
And 2018, the year Fonzone helped Huawei, saw a flurry of U.S. activity against the Chinese company, followed by a proposed rule from the Federal Communications Commission in May 2020 that sought to ensure U.S. subsidies are “not spent on equipment or services from suppliers” such as Huawei “that pose a national security threat.”
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The Justice Department and U.S. intelligence agencies believe that Huawei, ZTE, and other Chinese companies are working hand in hand with the Chinese Communist Party, potentially giving China‘s surveillance state access to hardware and networks around the world.
In February 2020, the DOJ unveiled a superseding indictment of its 2019 charges against Huawei, accusing it of racketeering and conspiracy to steal trade secrets.
Last week, Huawei’s legal challenge to a Federal Communications Commission order that declared it to be a national security threat and had denied it access to federal funding was rejected by an appeals court, and the FCC announced plans to ramp up pressure on the company and to deny all future authorizations to it and similar businesses with links to the Chinese Communist Party.
