Former Department of Homeland Security official Nate Snyder on Monday criticized a former Obama administration official who now lobbies for Chinese telecommunications company Huawei.
Huawei this year hired lobbyist Samir Jain of Jones Day, a former senior director for cybersecurity on the National Security Council.
“That’s a problem,” Snyder, who is a senior advisor at Cambridge Global Advisors, told Hill.TV. “From a national security perspective, things get less partisan — we just look at the problem and it’s a problem. We’ve got a big problem here.”
President Trump in an April tweet called Jain’s hiring unacceptable.
Jones Day did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Huawei is one the world’s biggest smartphone manufacturers, but U.S. intelligence agencies have warned that Huawei is used by the Chinese government to steal intellectual property from the West and that it poses a threat to the safety of U.S. communications infrastructure.
All six heads of the U.S. intelligence agencies told Congress last year that they would recommend consumers stay far away from Huawei products, with FBI Director Christopher Wray saying, “We’re deeply concerned about the risks of allowing any company or entity that is beholden to foreign governments that don’t share our values to gain positions of power inside our telecommunications networks.”
Trump indirectly targeted Huawei in a recent executive order designed to protect U.S. communications infrastructure from foreign influence.
–Saagar Enjeti
Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.