On Monday, December 2, Delaware Chancery Court Judge Kathleen McCormick delivered her ruling on Tesla’s proposed $56 billion pay package for CEO Elon Musk, striking it down despite shareholders voting twice to approve the deal.
Let’s unpack the absurdity of this ruling: A Tesla shareholder with just nine shares sued over Musk’s proposed compensation, triggering a six-year legal battle. While Tesla argued the case was flawed, the judge sided with the plaintiff, citing transparency issues.
The plaintiff’s lawyers originally demanded up to $7.74 billion in fees—more than Volvo’s market cap—and ultimately walked away with $345 million in legal fees, one of the largest payouts in securities litigation history.
The only winners here were the trial lawyers. Our legal system is dysfunctional, increasingly weighed down by opportunistic lawsuits and substantial payouts. The Trump Administration has an opportunity to reverse this trend. Runaway litigation hurts our small businesses, burdens consumers with increased costs, and drives up the price of almost everything for everyone.
According to a 2024 Institute for Legal Reform (ILR) study, the costs of lawsuits, settlements, and related legal fees — commonly known as tort costs — totaled $529 billion, amounting to “2.1 percent of the U.S. GDP.” And the costs placed on consumers keep climbing: between 2016 to 2022, “tort costs have grown at an annual rate of 7.1 percent.” If these trends continue, the costs to American businesses will double in eight years, the ILR warns. This is unsustainable.
Families, small businesses, and the private sector aren’t alone in facing this burden. The Congressional Research Service estimates that the federal government paid out $525.35 million to individual claimants in fiscal year 2022 alone. That’s more than half a billion dollars in taxpayer money to settle claims — a staggering figure.
As these costs grow, they become embedded in the prices consumers pay. Even if you don’t own a car, exploding auto insurance premiums get embedded in the cost of transportation, much like the cost of medical liability insurance raises the cost of health care for patients. The cost of doing business in the face of the threat of litigation ultimately comes out of consumers’ pockets. The ILR study found that on average, U.S. households paid a $4,207 “tort tax” in 2022. You don’t pay a “tort tax” directly but it’s built into the price of everything you buy everyday.
The issue of runaway litigation is about much more than Elon Musk – it’s about the broader impact on America’s economy. In the wake of the ruling, market leaders and investors have raised concerns about the chilling message this massive fee sends. Hedge Fund Manager Bill Ackman called the “payola for lawyers absurd” and predicted a “migration of corporate America from Delaware.” Investor Cathie Wood said the ruling makes “a mockery of the sense of fairness essential to our American judicial system.” Florida’s Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis noted that the award is “…like throwing sand in America’s economic engine.”
As the Delaware judgment makes clear, more could be done at the federal level to curb the egregious growth in tort costs. President Trump has vowed to lower costs for American families. One of his first acts as President-elect was to establish “DOGE,” the Department of Government Efficiency, co-led by Elon Musk, to claw back the growth of the administrative state. Tackling these tort taxes should be a key focus of this effort.
By easing costs on families and dismantling America’s runaway legal system, the Trump administration can unleash the full potential of our economy.
Gordon Gray leads Pinpoint Policy Institute as Executive Director. Prior to launching Pinpoint, Gordon served as the Vice President for Economic Policy at the American Action Forum, where his portfolio included the federal budget, taxes, the macroeconomic outlook, and general economic policy matters.
Two Men Freeze To Death Looking For Sasquatch In The Oregon Wilderness On Christmas Eve
Today in “play stupid games, win stupid prizes” news…
Two Oregon men searching for the mythical Sasquatch tragically died after going missing in the wilderness on Christmas Eve, according to the NY Post.
The Skamania County Sheriff’s Office reported that the bodies of the men, aged 37 and 59, were discovered in a remote, forested area of Washington’s Gifford Pinchot National Forest. Authorities believe the pair succumbed to exposure due to severe weather conditions and inadequate preparation for the harsh environment.
The men had embarked on their quest to find Bigfoot with plans to return home in time for Christmas, but their ill-fated journey ended in tragedy.
The NY Post writes that a family member reported the men missing to Skamania County police early on Dec. 25, prompting a three-day search involving over 60 volunteers.
Battling freezing temperatures, snow, rain, and dense forest, search teams utilized canines, drones, helicopters, and ground crews. Seven law enforcement agencies and the Coast Guard also assisted in the effort.
The Sheriff’s office commented: “Their exhaustive search efforts resulted in bringing family members home to their loved ones. The Skamania County Sheriff’s Office extends our deepest sympathies and condolences to the families of the loved ones lost in this tragic incident.”
The men’s car was spotted via a Flock camera and later found in Willard, Washington.
The legend of Bigfoot, a mythical creature said to roam the Pacific Northwest, continues to draw adventurers to the forests of Washington and Oregon. The fascination has even inspired local events like Sasquatch hunts in Washington’s Pierce County.
Bigfoot lore isn’t limited to the Pacific Northwest. In October, residents of Fairfield County, Connecticut, reported eerie 10-minute-long howls, attributed to Bigfoot, coming from a forested area near Monroe, according to the Bigfoot Field Research Organization.
A former Intelligence officer is accusing the CIA of gaslighting the victims of a debilitating health phenomenon known as Havana syndrome.
Investigative journalist Catherine Herridge sat down with the CIA whistleblower to hear about her “career-ending injuries” in an exclusive interview posted on X.
The House Intelligence Committee recently determined in an interim report that “the Intelligence Community has attempted to thwart congressional efforts to uncover the truth at every turn.”
“It’s a cover-up and it’s terrifying,” said the former intel officer, who spoke to Herridge using the alias “Alice. “It should be terrifying for all Americans.”
COVER UP: CIA whistleblower alleges government cover up with Havana Syndrome victims now suffering from cancer, dementia and Parkinson’s disease.
Herridge: After so many years of quiet advocacy, why come forward now?
Dubbed “Anomalous Health Incidents (AHIs),” the syndrome was first experienced by U.S. government personnel stationed in Havana, Cuba, in 2016. Those affected reported hearing piercing noises and then suffering head pressure followed by various symptoms, including headache, nausea, fatigue, dizziness, vertigo, ear pain, and cognitive dysfunction.
Hundreds of cases of the Havana syndrome have since been reported, chiefly among US spies, diplomats and soldiers posted abroad, leading many to believe they were targeted by a hostile country with a high powered microwave system weapon.
However, the Intelligence Community has consistently resolved that the mysterious illnesses were unlikely the work of a foreign actor, and more likely “attributable to naturally occurring medical conditions, environmental exposures, or psycho-social factors.”
The Democrat-controlled U.S. Senate came to the same conclusion in a new report released on Friday.
The House Intelligence Committee however determined in its Dec. 5 report that it is “increasingly likely a foreign adversary is responsible for some portion of reported AHIs.”
Both committees concluded that the CIA’s handling of the Havana Syndrome cases has been seriously flawed and inconsistent.
“The conclusions published by the DNI in the unclassified Intelligence Community Assessment on AHI are dubious at best, misleading at worst,” said House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence CIA Subcommittee Chairman Rick Crawford (R-Ark.)
“Alice,” who now requires the assistance of a service dog, handled top secret national security missions just a few years ago, Herridge noted in her report.
The whistleblower said she believes her career-ending injuries were caused by a foreign directed energy weapon.
There is documented evidence to support this claim.
The National Security Agency (NSA) confirmed in 2014 that the intelligence community was aware that a foreign adversary possessed a high powered microwave system weapon that could “weaken, intimidate or kill an enemy over time without leaving evidence.”
According to the unclassified NSA report, the intelligence community knew in 2012 that a foreign adversary had designed a weapon “to bathe a target’s living quarters in microwaves, causing numerous physical effects, including a damaged nervous system.”
AHIs have been reported in the U.S. and in multiple other countries, including Austria, Columbia, China, Georgia, Germany, India, Poland, Russia, and Vietnam.
Alice said she experienced her AHI one night while serving in Africa.
“I heard a weird noise—it was a really weird sound, I’ll never forget it,” she said, adding that she also felt a vibration in her feet.
She described the onset of her symptoms, telling Herridge, “my ear started hurting. I had vertigo, the room started spinning, my head started pulsing. I had a ton of pain in my left ear.”
The former intel officer added that her ears started ringing and she thought she was going to “pass out.”
She has since been diagnosed with traumatic brain injury. According to Herridge, Alice needed to take several breaks during the interview and needed to wear sunglasses to reduce the glare of the camera lighting.
“I never thought I’d be retired in my forties,” she said.
Alice told Herridge that she suspected that there a multiple weapons capable of causing these symptoms, and they are probably small enough to fit in backpacks.
A leaked Defense Department letter acknowledges that the injuries and experiences “are real”—not the result of “psycho-social factors.”
Alice said she blames Russia for the attack.
“I believe the Russian GRU [military intelligence service] came to my house late at night … and took me off the battlefield,” she said.
According to Herridge, multiple sources have told her that CIA Director Robert Burns has said privately that he also believes Russia is responsible for some of the attacks.
But the Intelligence Community officially determined in a 2023 IC assessment that it was “very unlikely” that the AHIs were brought on by a foreign adversary.
Alice said that had she received the IC report while she was still a CIA official, she would have sent it back to the analysts and told them to “start over again” because it didn’t meet even the agency’s “most basic” standards.
Herridge asked the former agent if she found the report to be “demoralizing,” humiliating, a “slap in the face,” and a “betrayal” after she had pledged to serve her country. Alice replied “yes” to all of the above.
“I miss my colleagues and I miss the work every single day,” she said.
Alice told Herridge that she believed the CIA has gaslit her and every other agent who has suffered from Havana Syndrome by not taking their injuries seriously.
Her voice cracking, the whistleblower said she had already gone to the funerals of several of her CIA friends after they had lost their battles with cancer.
“We’re basically like ticking time bombs,” she said. “I have friends in nursing homes. I have friends with Parkinson’s, dementia.”
A heavily redacted U.S. government report obtained by Herridge shows how the CIA pulled Alice’s security clearance after she was medically retired, “citing psychological conditions.”
“It sounds like retaliation,” Herridge said. “Did CIA treat women officers differently? she asked, adding that she had read reports where female officers had been told their issues were possibly hormonal.
Alice said the chauvinistic attitude seemed like a throwback to the 1950s.
“They brought up, “could you be pregnant?, are you upset because you’re not pregnant?, is it hormones?, is it menopause?, is it perimenopause?, do you have an anxiety disorder?,” she said.
In March of 2024, the Department of Defense stated in a letter to colleagues that “we believe your experiences are real and we are unwaveringly committed to continue to provide quality care for you and those that are eligible.”
Herridge posited that one possible reason for the CIA refuses to admit agents are being targeted with powerful microwave weapons is that it such an admission would devastate the agency’s recruitment efforts.
Alice agreed and called on the CIA to stop denying “what is happening to us” so there can continue to be opportunities for the U.S. “to collect information that we need to prevent this from happening to more people.”
She expressed hope that the Trump administration will “drain the swamp” and at a bare minimum, replace the intel analysts behind the fraudulent 2023 IC report.
US Credit Card Defaults Soar To Crisis Highs As Inflation Storm Crushes Working-Poor
The party is long over for the bottom third of US consumers, as maxed-out credit cards and depleted personal savings have pushed credit card loan defaults to their highest level since the 2008 financial crisis.
Financial Times cited new data from BankRegData revealing that credit card companies wrote off $46 billion in “seriously delinquent loan” balances in the first nine months of the year—an alarming 50% increase from the same period last year and the highest level in 14 years.
US credit debt recently surpassed $1 trillion and continues to expand rapidly. Making matters worse, annual percentage rates (APRs) on credit card debt have hit record highs, compounding the financial misery for cash-strapped consumers in the era of failed ‘Bidenomics’.
Despite the interest rate cut, the average APR on credit card debt reached a new record at the end of the third quarter.
With the election over, the Biden administration’s Department of Commerce revised personal savings data downward by a staggering $140 billion. In other words, radicals in the Biden administration and far-left Democrats pushed nothing more than economic propaganda.
The head of Moody’s Analytics, Mark Zandi, noted, “High-income households are fine, but the bottom third of US consumers are tapped out,” adding, “Their savings rate right now is zero.”
This collapse in personal savings, combined with insurmountable credit card debt, largely explains why the bottom third of Americans are not only living paycheck to paycheck but also have financially committed suicide with the explosive use of toxic Buy Now, Pay Later services.
“Consumer spending power has been diminished,” Odysseas Papadimitriou, head of consumer credit research firm WalletHub, pointed out.
WalletHub’s Papadimitriou warned, “Delinquencies are pointing to more pain ahead.”
The number of long-term Ether holders steadily increased throughout 2024, while the number of Bitcoin holders fell over the last year amid rising confidence in ETH heading into the new year.
In a Dec. 30 post to X, citing data from its platform, IntoTheBlock shared that the total percentage of Ether who had held their tokens for the long haul had risen from 59% in January to 75% by the end of 2024.
Meanwhile, the number of long-term Bitcoin holders witnessed a steady decline from about 70% to 62% in the same timeframe.
As of Dec. 30, the proportion of long-term Bitcoin holders stood at 62.3% while the proportion of long-term Ethereum holders was at 75.1%.
IntoTheBlock has previously described long-term holders as those holding an asset for more than a year.
While this metric is one of many that investors can look at to gauge market sentiment toward major crypto assets, a continued shift toward long-term holding for ETH also suggests growing confidence in the asset heading into 2025.
In a Dec. 17 post to X, technical analyst Ger Van Lagen said Bitcoin’s price was “blowing off,” with BTC later dropping from an all-time high of $106,000 to $93,000 between Dec. 16 and Dec. 30.
Van Lagen suggested this move was driven largely by long-term holders cashing out amid a period of euphoria and maintained a distinctly bullish outlook on BTC, predicting the asset was on track to surpass $200,000 in the near future.
Meanwhile, in the last month, inflows into spot Ether ETFs have doubled, surging from $1 billion in net inflows in November to $2.1 billion worth of cumulative net inflows in December.
Several experts from different sectors of the crypto industry said that a Trump administration will prove beneficial to ETH in particular.
They cited a swathe of new developments for taking a bullish stance on ETH heading into 2025, ranging from the demise of “financial nihilism,” a complete overhaul of the SEC, the addition of staking to Ether ETFs and increased regulatory oversight from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
Biden ‘Thinks’ He Could Have Beaten Trump If He’d Stayed In Election
President Joe Biden ‘thinks’ he could have beaten Donald Trump in the 2024 election if he’d stayed in the race, the Washington Post reports, citing ‘people familiar’ with his ‘thinking.’
Biden notably withdrew from the race in July after a disastrous debate performance, after former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and others pressured him to drop out. Democrats swapped in Kamala Harris, who suffered a major loss to Trump.
Biden and some of his aides still believe he should have stayed in the race, despite the rocky debate performance and low poll numbers that prompted Democrats to pressure him to drop out. Biden and these aides have told people in recent days that he could have defeated Trump, according to people familiar with their comments, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations. Aides say the president has been careful not to place blame on Harris or her campaign. –WaPo
That said, many Democrats blame Harris’s loss on Biden’s insistence that he stay in the race as long as he did, despite the fact that he’s been an obvious vegetable for most of his presidency.
“Biden ran on the promise that he was going to be a transitional president, and in effect, have one term before handing it off to another generation,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) told the Post. “I think his running again broke that concept — the conceptual underpinning of the theory that he would end the Trump appeal, he would defeat Trumpism and enable a new era.”
Despite securing the Democratic Party nomination, pressure to drop out began to increase after a series of embarrassing gaffes – including introducing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
After Lori Lightfoot was voted out of the mayor’s seat in Chicago after her calamitous tenure, I dearly hoped that the residents of Chicago had come to their senses about progressive mayors and would vote for someone who had some understanding of fiscal responsibility and the role of a big-city mayor.
It was not to be.
The mayoralty of progressive Brandon Johnson has been, to say the least, a disaster.
Even as he’s witnessed his rejection by Boards, Committees and the residents of Chicago, he continues to double down on failing policies.
How did he get himself into such a mess?
He began his professional career as a teacher, but realized he could get more done from a political position:
First, he was elected to the county board, with the help of the board president, herself a former history teacher. Then he decided to run for mayor. The [teachers’] union endorsed him. It donated $2 million to his campaign and sent out its army of door knockers to spread the word about him. In an upset, the hip young teacher won, against an opponent with a better-known name who outspent him 2-1.
Once Johnson linked up with the teacher’s union (CTU), his future was bright. Brandon and the union are joined at the hip.
How bad has Johnson’s governance been?
He’s decided to take control of the Chicago Board of Education, due to his dispute with the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) CEO Pedro Martinez:
According to published reports, the current board had backed Martinez in a dispute with Johnson over the CPS budget and contract negotiations with the Chicago Teachers Union – for which Johnson was once an organizer, and was a major financial supporter of his campaign for mayor.
Martinez is opposing high-interest loans the mayor wants CPS to take out to support teacher raises being negotiated with the CTU, at a time when CPS is facing a $500 million deficit for the 2025 contract year. The board did not include the loan in the approved CPS budget for the 2024-25 school year.
Johnson demanded that Martinez resign, and Martinez refused. Instead, Johnson has reconfigured the Board of Education. Instead of Johnson selecting all the board members, he will be able to select ten of them, and ten will be elected by the citizens.
Since Martinez is refusing to leave, Johnson can simply tell the citizens that he selected to fire him.
Easy.
The entire Chicago Board of Education will resign later in the month as a protest against his actions against Martinez.
Johnson seems to be incapable of contradicting his patrons on the CTU, and the price tag just keeps getting larger and larger.
But the list of his irresponsible decisions doesn’t end there.
Here’s a sampling:
He approved a 20% raise to the Chicago Police Department over four years, and added $1.06 billion to the police pension fund’s total liability;
He refuses to allow the question of whether Chicago should be a sanctuary city to go before the voters. Meanwhile, Chicago has been deluged with illegal immigrants;
He’s added a $500,000 snowplowing pilot program and $400,000 to fund a vice mayor’s office;
His actions have led to the warning of a downgrade of the City’s pension fund.
He claims that he’s having regular discussions on progressive ideas with Gov. Pritzker’s office, which the Governor denies.
He asked for a $300 million tax hike, which the City Council refused; later they also rejected a $68.5 million property tax hike that he requested.
He insists that those who criticize him are racist.
He broke a City Council tie, 23-23 for a resolution that called for an immediate unconditional cease-fire in the Gaza Strip. Refusing to hold Hamas responsible at all for their role in the conflict was not well-received;
Although he originally supported the defunding the police movement, he’s finally realizing that doesn’t solve their violent crime problem: After months of stating that Chicago can’t ‘police its way’ out of its violent-crime disease, Johnson finally crossed the first threshold to getting a handle on this mayhem, and that was to point the finger of blame where it belongs — at criminals, not some systemic conspiracy. Better policing isn’t all that’s needed, but it surely is a critical component.
Mayor Johnson is deeply enmeshed in his own “blame game” and false optimism: he says the state’s reduction of the city’s property tax revenue is to blame; he blames the Chicago Board of Education for not passing tax legislation for the public schools. He’s presented no plan for the taxes he was trying to raise, $100 million, for housing the homeless. He’s lost the support of the business community.
But at his news conference after the council meeting, Johnson refused to accept an alarmist view of the future. He also would not say what his Plan B would be should this progressive revenue not come through in time for the 2026 budget cycle.
‘How about we just focus on what we want?’ Johnson said when asked whether he’s ruled out trying to pass a future property tax hike, after aldermen threw his latest attempt back in his face.
‘I want you all to stay positive, OK, because the people of Chicago and the state of Illinois really require that. Look, I know it’s easy to go back and forth about this tax versus this tax, but people have sold the people of Chicago out for too long, and they have kowtowed to the interests of the ultrarich.’
Keep your chin up, Mayor Johnson, and just keep blaming your predecessors and the ultrarich. We’ll see where that gets you in the next election.
Biden Unveils $5.9BN In Military & Budget Aid To Ukraine As Pre-Trump Surge Continues
America is a few short weeks away from seeing Trump inaugurated and entering the White House for the second time. Trump has been promising to rapidly negotiate a peace settlement in Ukraine, but lame-duck Biden has simultaneously pledged to rush as much defense aid to the Zelensky government as possible before leaving the White House.
President Biden has unveiled billions more for Kiev on Monday: “The United States on Monday announced nearly $6 billion in additional military and budget assistance for Ukraine as President Joe Biden uses his final weeks in office to surge aid to Kyiv before President-elect Donald Trump takes power.”
This includes $2.5 billion in defense assistance and an additional $3.4 billion in budget aid, amid ongoing Russian aerial attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure and especially the energy grid.
“At my direction, the United States will continue to work relentlessly to strengthen Ukraine’s position in this war over the remainder of my time in office,” Biden said in his statement announcing the aid.
Biden’s announcement includes $1.25 billion in military aid drawn from U.S. stockpiles and a $1.22 billion Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) package, the final USAI package of Biden’s time in office.
Under USAI, military equipment is procured from the defense industry or partners, rather than drawn from American stocks, meaning it can take months or years to arrive on the battlefield.
President-elect Trump has indicated he doesn’t plan to immediately cut the aid to Ukraine, which is perhaps a negotiating tactic in preparation for future talks with Moscow over ending the war.
Last week saw sustained major Russian strikes involving drone and missile barrages targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. This followed a Ukrainian drone strike on a Russian residential building in Kazan, which is far away from the front lines.
After this, by last week’s end, Biden had previewed, “In recent months, the United States has provided Ukraine with hundreds of air defense missiles, and more are on the way.”
He stressed: “I have directed the Department of Defense to continue its surge of weapons deliveries to Ukraine, and the United States will continue to work tirelessly to strengthen Ukraine’s position in its defense against Russian forces.”
Ukraine’s main problem along the front lines, where by all accounts its forces are being steadily beaten back, remains a severe manpower shortage.
The man, Mike Sun, has allegedly worked with a recently sentenced Chinese agent to advance the Chinese regime’s political interests in Los Angeles. Court documents suggest the two have worked closely for years to align U.S. policy interests with Beijing on sensitive issues, with the Chinese agent Chen Jun telling Chinese officials that Sun—and the councilwoman—were part of a “basic team dedicated for us.”
Sun is also known as Sun Yaoning. Court records show that he is a former Chinese army member. He was the campaign manager for Eileen Wang in 2022, the year she won the city council seat for Arcadia in Los Angeles County with nearly two-thirds of the vote, prosecutors said.
Helping Wang win the midterm election, Sun said in a draft report to Chinese officials, was his proudest achievement as someone who “persist[s] in resisting any hostile forces that undermine the friendship of US-China relations, and Chinese secessionist forces,” according to federal prosecutors.
A review of the court records, public information, and business filings reveals the personal connections between Wang and Sun, who have engaged in several ventures together, including a U.S.-based media group, business entities, and multiple pro-Beijing organizations.
One of them is the American Southwest Chamber of Commerce, a Los Angeles nonprofit Wang founded in 2018 that purports to “promote communication of American southwest people of China,” according to business filings.
Wang confirmed her engagement to Sun in a court filing over a 2023 defamation lawsuit with Michelle Wu, a certified public accountant who had served as the president of the chamber. Wu sued Wang, Sun, and several other individuals with the organization, saying they had falsely accused her of pilfering the organization’s funds.
“Defendant Sun is Wang’s fiancé and is engaged to be married to Wang, further solidifying their close personal and professional relationship,” Wu stated in her complaint. She didn’t respond to an emailed request for comment.
Wang acknowledged the engagement while refuting the allegations in a subsequent filing.
FBI agents arrested Sun on Dec. 19 and charged the Chino Hills man with acting as an illegal Chinese agent. While the federal complaint didn’t name Wang and referred to the councilwoman as “Individual 1,” the description of Wang from the filing matches her public biographical details.
According to the complaint, Sun’s last registered physical address with the Department of Motor Vehicles is a home that the politician owned.
Incorporation filings show that Sun and Wang had co-run a mainly Chinese-language media outlet called U.S. News Center, whose last post was dated Dec. 16. The site has run a series of articles featuring Wang both as a city council candidate and later as an elected official. One February 2022 article, labeled under the category “top elite Chinese elected officials,” noted Wang’s support toward a public charity and put her as someone who “spares no efforts in serving the community.”
The two have interacted with each other’s posts on LinkedIn, and Wang’s name has appeared as an author on the media site with hundreds of entries.
Wang has also paid Sun for event, meeting, and travel expenses, her campaign filings show.
‘New Political Star’
Born in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province in southwestern China, Wang had attended college in Los Angeles, according to Chinese language media reports. Prior to entering politics, she ran a tutoring center called “Little Stanford Academy” for students from kindergarten to 12th grade.
In campaign rallies in 2022, Wang had appealed to Taiwanese voters by highlighting her family roots. She mentioned that her grandfather was a lieutenant general and one of the earliest cadets in Whampoa Military Academy, the school established by Sun Yat-sen, who Taiwan reveres as the founding father of its democracy.
While Wang’s campaign garnered Taiwanese support, prosecutors said Chinese operatives have plotted to influence politicians like her to act in line with Beijing on issues such as Taiwan.
Sun had worked with Chen Jun—a Chinese agent sentenced to 20 months in prison for bribing the IRS against persecuted faith group Falun Gong—to draft a report for Chinese officials on Wang’s election win in 2022, according to court filings.
The IRS in Washington, on Aug. 12, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times
In conversations about the draft, Chen allegedly called Wang a “new political star,” and instructed Sun to enumerate his and Sun’s “past struggle fighting Taiwanese independence forces” and Falun Gong practitioners in the local area.
Chen had proposed a plan to disrupt a new congressman’s upcoming visit to Taiwan, according to prosecutors. In February 2023, they flagged Taiwanese and Falun Gong participation in the Rose Parade and Independence Day Parade, according to the federal complaint. They allegedly promised to counter that by creating their own drum band and float, and they applied for $80,000 in funding from Chinese officials.
“Once the project is approved, must execute well,” Chen wrote to Sun, who responded in the affirmative, according to court documents.
Learning from Chen about Wang’s election victory, three Chinese officials seemed enthusiastic. They responded variously with salute emojis, smiley faces, and thumbs up, the filings show.
Chen, according to the complaint, paid special attention to Wang’s “friendly relationship” with a U.S. congressperson, whose name authorities redacted from the filing, and noted Wang has “lots of contact with mainstream politicians.” Chen also commented on Wang’s familial history, remarking that her grandfather was “very famous,” according to quoted conversations.
Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) recognized Wang as one of the 2024 Congressional Women of the Year, which honors “women nominated by people in their own cities and communities,” according to a press release. Chu noted in a speech Wang’s leadership roles in serving as president of the American Southwest Chamber of Commerce. The Epoch Times has reached out to Chu’s office for comment.
China Trips
Records gathered by prosecutors show that in 2023, Wang and Sun had planned a trip together through six cities across China. Sun told Chen he would be meeting with a Chinese leader, likely part of the Chinese intelligence apparatus, to present his work report, according to the FBI agent.
A photo of Chen Jun as appeared on his driver’s license. Department of Justice
That discussion happened weeks before Chen’s arrest over the IRS bribery case.
Three months later, in August 2023, Wang flew from Los Angeles to Hong Kong; she returned on the same flight with Sun from Shanghai to Los Angeles that September, the complaint said.
Chinese media reports show that Wang had engaged with Chinese authorities as the head of the American Southwest Chamber of Commerce.
In April 2019, Wang traveled to Chengdu with Sun to celebrate the creation of a Sichuan branch of the chamber. Officials from the provincial Returned Overseas Chinese Federation, a Chinese Communist Party organ that targets the Chinese diaspora, spoke at the opening ceremony and posed for photos with the pair, according to the reports. The reports quoted Wang promising to “proactively plan and organize” activities to advance the U.S.-China interactions in areas such as economy, education, culture, technology, and medicine.
The two made another China trip in November of the same year to make donations to 10 poor students in the Sichuan city of Shehong. The activity received “strong support” from the city’s United Front Department, Beijing’s overseas political influence network that the Returned Overseas Chinese Federation is part of, according to a post on the provincial federation website.
“I’ve been in the United States for over two decades, but I often go back to China,” Sun was cited as saying. He said there are many Chinese immigrants like him that “hope to contribute to their home country to the best of their ability.”
The Epoch Times has contacted Wang for comment.
On Dec. 23, Arcadia City Manager Dominic Lazzaretto published a letter to the community to address the FBI investigation into Sun and his associates.
He said that “Sun had no involvement whatsoever with City of Arcadia business or decision-making” and that the City of Arcadia “supports a thorough and comprehensive investigation by our federal partners into these serious allegations.”
Wang has spoken to the FBI, according to Lazzaretto. She hasn’t been arrested or charged with any crime, and has stated that she “intends to fully cooperate with federal authorities throughout this process,” he said.
Deep State Freezes Over: John Brennan Praises Trump Transition Team
If you had Obama-era Deep State operatives praising the man who the establishment has demonized as a “threat to democracy” on your bingo card, come on down to claim your prize.
In what is sure to raise eyebrows across the political world, former CIA director John Brennan issued rare kind words for President-Elect Donald Trump’s second transition team, saying it has thus far operated in “more serious and professional fashion than in 2016.“
“I know that there is engagement between the Biden Department of State and the incoming Trump team,” Brennan told MSNBC’s Alicia Menendez over the weekend.
Former CIA Director Brennan: Trump Transition “More Serious And Professional” Than 2016
“You have people like Marco Rubio, who has been named to be the next secretary of state, who is well steeped in these issues and also… pic.twitter.com/kueGWTaymF
“You want to make sure that the incoming team has as much intelligence and analysis as possible that’s available so that when they take over on day one that they are fully informed about what the situation is,” the former CIA chief added. “I do think that there are some people in the Trump administration who are coming in and really are trying to do everything they can to be as prepared as possible on January 20th,” Brennan told MSNBC on Saturday.
“You have people like Marco Rubio who has been named to be the next secretary of state, who is well steeped in these issues and also takes them very seriously,” he concluded.
Brennan’s praise follows a long history of sharp attacks on Trump, who he recently referred to as unqualified to be president, citing his temperate and what he views as a lack of support for Ukraine against its ongoing war with Russia.
“According to me, he was not qualified at the time, and he is not qualified today. We could see in particular that he did not understand the importance of the United States’s relations with our foreign allies and partners. He has little recognition for the transatlantic relationship, for NATO,” Brennan told RTBF.
“And that would give Vladimir Putin the green light to try to almost swallow up Ukraine,” Brennan said. “And unfortunately, I think it will encourage Putin to look hungrily toward the rest of Europe.”
In 2018, Trump spawned fury and cheers from critics and supporters alike when he revoked Brennan’s security clearance. Trump, in a statement at the time, tied his decision to revoke the security clearance to the Russia investigation,
“There’s no silence. If anything, I’m giving him a bigger voice,” Trump told reporters at the time. “Many people don’t even know who he is, and now he has a bigger voice. And that’s OK with me because I like taking on voices like that.”
The then-president also noted that he had received a “tremendous response” for the move. “Security clearances are very important to me, very important,” he stated, adding that he “never respected”the former CIA head.
Trump also said Brennan had “recently leveraged his status … to make a series of unfounded and outrageous allegations, wild outbursts on the internet and on television, about this administration.”
In a separate statement, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said the decision was motivated by the “risk posed by [Brennan’s] erratic conduct and behavior.”
