A former Obama administration official is providing legal services to a company the Pentagon says has deep ties to the Chinese military.
Loretta Lynch, who served as former President Barack Obama’s attorney general from 2015 to 2017, has been sued by law firm Paul Weiss, which is listed as representing Chinese drone maker DJI in an Oct. 18 lawsuit. -One of the five lawyers at Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. The Pentagon has designated the drone company as a “Chinese military company,” court documents show. Department of Defense added DJI will be added to the Section 1260H “Chinese military enterprise” entity list in 2022; meaning It determined that the drone manufacturer was “directly or indirectly owned, controlled or beneficially owned” by the Chinese military, or was complicit in supporting China’s military-industrial complex.
“Barack Obama’s former attorney general, Loretta Lynch, turned her back on her country, sold out to her greatest enemy, Communist China, and sued the United States on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party-owned drone company DJI,” said Republican New York Congressman. Elise Stefanik said. said on monday. “Her lawsuit is not only riddled with factual errors, but also fueled by concerns about Uyghur slave labor and a futile attempt to disrupt the momentum behind the Chinese Communist Party’s unanimously passed anti-drone law. “This is also a clear effort by DJI to distract from CBP’s recent suspension of DJI imports.” DJI’s time in the US is of course coming to an end, and Loretta Lynch’s bogus lawsuit will not save DJI. ”
Stefanik is the lead sponsor in Congress of a bill that would ban DJI drones from flying in the United States, citing national security concerns. (Stream The Daily Caller’s documentary “Cleaning Up Kamila” here)
The DJI lawsuit, supported by Lynch, alleges that the drone maker is “not owned or controlled by the Chinese military and only sells ‘consumer and commercial’ drones, not for military use,” and that the Department of Defense They claim they were unable to provide evidence to support their claims. In fact, they ignore company requests for meetings. DJI also claims that the Department of Defense has caused “ongoing financial and reputational harm” to the company.
The Treasury Department and the Commerce Department also sanctioned DJI for providing the Chinese government with surveillance drones to monitor Uyghur Muslims in China’s far west, The New York Times reported. reported. Secretary of State under both former presidents donald trump and the president joe biden He said China’s oppression of the Uyghur people has escalated to the level of genocide.
Independent researchers also found that the app DJI tells users to download to fly its drones collects large amounts of personal data that could be accessed by the Chinese government. According to To the New York Times.
A recreational drone flies over Syosset, New York. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
This is not Lynch’s first attempt to help DJI avoid Pentagon oversight. The former Attorney General sent a letter to the Department of Defense in July 2023 requesting that DJI be removed from the 1260H Entity List. According to In National Review.
DJI and other Chinese military companies have spent millions of dollars over the past few years retaining lobbyists to fight bills aimed at restricting their operations in the United States. Along the way, the company retained a number of former senior staffers from top Congressional offices to strengthen its influence.
DJI is also spending an undisclosed amount to support the Drone Advocacy Alliance, a political advocacy group that is trying to sway lawmakers to oppose legislation that would restrict the domestic availability of Chinese-made drones.
Lynch and DJI did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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