It’s Ms. Solar goes to Washington.
The alleged Chinese language spy who infiltrated the New York governor’s workplace was capable of get into the White Home — whereas below federal investigation, The Put up has discovered.
Linda Solar’s tour of the Govt Mansion got here simply two months earlier than the FBI raided her gaudy $3.5 million Lengthy Island dwelling as they wrapped up their case into her alleged work for Beijing.
The Could go to was facilitated by Solar’s former boss Queens Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY), the congresswoman’s workplace confirmed Friday.
Solar — a former high-ranking aide for Gov. Kathy Hochul and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo — gushed in regards to the jaunt to Washington DC in an emoji-filled Fb put up a number of days later.
“Tour of the White Home [check emoji], See our favourite Congresswoman [check emoji], Tour of the Capitol with our favourite Congresswoman [check emoji],” Solar wrote within the Could 10, 2024 missive, obtained by The Put up.
Her journey to the nation’s capital additionally included one different notable cease — a go to to the Worldwide Spy museum, the put up mentioned.
One of many pictures included within the put up reveals a card from the museum labeled “undercover mission.”
However on the time of the go to, Solar’s purported cowl was about to be blow. A supply confirmed that the previous political operative was actively below investigation on the time.
Final week, Solar, 41, and her husband, Christopher Hu, 40, have been slapped with sprawling costs of violating and conspiring to violate the International Brokers Registration Act, visa fraud, alien smuggling and cash laundering conspiracy. They’ve pleaded not responsible.
Brooklyn federal prosecutors allege Solar used her place below Hochul and Cuomo to show the governor’s workplace right into a digital mouthpiece for the Individuals’s Republic of China and Chinese language Neighborhood Celebration.
In trade, she allegedly obtained items and hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in bribes — which she and her hubby used to purchase actual property, together with their Manhasset mansion, and luxurious vehicles like a 2024 Ferrari Roma.
Solar joined the Cuomo administration, working as a liaison to Queens and the Asian American neighborhood, after a stint as Meng’s chief of workers when the pol was first elected to the state Meeting in 2009.
However the two apparently have been in nonetheless in contact just lately — a spokesperson for the congresswoman mentioned her workplace helped facilitate the White Home tour, which is how such visits are generally organized.
Meng didn’t give Solar and her household a private tour of the US Capitol, however the two did take a photograph on the steps outdoors the Home chamber, the rep famous.
“Clearly, no person knew something about what she is now accused of doing which continues to be deeply troubling and surprising,” Meng’s spokesperson wrote to The Put up in an announcement.
“If something was identified, her request would have clearly not been thought of. The tour doesn’t embrace the Oval Workplace, West Wing, interplay with officers or something alongside these strains,” the assertion mentioned.
A spokesperson for the White Home mentioned the go to consisted of the usual tour given to members of the general public
White Home guests on such excursions typically don’t meet with officers — although they do entry delicate areas that host official features only one ground beneath the president’s bed room.
“White Home excursions are museum visits that encompass a strolling tour by historic rooms and don’t embrace entry to White Home places of work, personnel, or personal info,” a White Home spokesperson mentioned.
“Excursions can be found to any members of the general public, by congressional places of work, and this was organized by that commonplace course of, by Rep. Meng.”
Nonetheless, the visits raised eyebrows for intelligence and international affect hawks curious of how Solar would’ve gotten by US Secret Service background checks with the lively probe into her and her husband.
“The Biden-Harris administration should crack down on tighter safety controls on all federal authorities buildings, together with the White Home, to make sure Chinese language and Russian operatives don’t achieve entry,” Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), Chairman of the Home International Affairs Committee, advised The Put up.
Michael Lucci, founding father of State Armor, a bunch that advocates on points involving international adversaries and state governments, mentioned he was much less involved in regards to the White Home tour itself, and extra about how info might or might not have been shared in regards to the investigation into Solar.
“It may very well be the case that she’s a goal of the investigation and to disclaim her entry on what was probably only a regular tour may need simply thrown up a flag for her that they simply didn’t wish to throw up but,” Lucci mentioned.
Lucci additionally questioned why federal authorities appeared to not have alerted the governor’s workplace when investigators first interviewed Solar and knowledgeable her about necessities of the International Brokers Registration Act in 2020.
“There must be higher communication,” he mentioned. “If the FBI brokers are telling her about obligations below FARA, for my part, they need to say one thing to the governor’s workplace.”
Solar stayed on as a staffer in state authorities following the interview, bouncing round a number of different govt department positions earlier than being promoted to a deputy chief of workers below Hochul quickly after the gov took workplace in 2021.
The damning 64-page indictment laid out how Solar and her husband obtained lavish items from Chinese language officers as she used her place as a mid to higher degree staffer in New York authorities to assist advance China’s agenda.
The fees element how Solar labored to cease state officers from recognizing Taiwan as an impartial nation and at one level falsified Hochul’s signature to assist facilitate Chinese language nationals’ entries into the US.
Meng, one in every of New York’s most distinguished Asian American elected officers, took the chance to sentence Chinese language affect campaigns, but in addition cautioned in opposition to stereotyping.
“Congresswoman Meng condemns public corruption and firmly opposes any effort by a international authorities to affect or undermine American society and democracy,” Meng’s spokesperson wrote.
“For too lengthy, Asian Individuals have typically been seen as not actual Individuals and proceed to have their loyalty questioned. The Congresswoman believes that circumstances like these should not additional gas these dangerous stereotypes and paint all the Asian American neighborhood with one broad brush,” the rep mentioned.
— Further reporting by Joshua Christenson
