FBI Director Christopher Wray Reiterates Concerns About ZTE After Trump Tweets

What was supposed to be a simple hearing on the president’s FBI 2019 budget request Wednesday turned into a discussion about China’s espionage capabilities thanks to a group of surprise tweets from – drumroll please – President Donald Trump.

Trump tweeted about an impending deal involving Chinese telecommunications company ZTE, against which the commerce department issued an export ban.

President Xi of China, and I, are working together to give massive Chinese phone company, ZTE, a way to get back into business, fast. Too many jobs in China lost. Commerce Department has been instructed to get it done!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 13, 2018

ZTE, the large Chinese phone company, buys a big percentage of individual parts from U.S. companies. This is also reflective of the larger trade deal we are negotiating with China and my personal relationship with President Xi.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 14, 2018

…We have not seen China’s demands yet, which should be few in that previous U.S. Administrations have done so poorly in negotiating. China has seen our demands. There has been no folding as the media would love people to believe, the meetings…

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 16, 2018

…haven’t even started yet! The U.S. has very little to give, because it has given so much over the years. China has much to give!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 16, 2018

Leaders in the CIA, the FBI, and the NSA warned in a hearing with the Senate Intelligence Committee February of the dangers of buying smartphones from Chinese telecommunications companies Huawei and ZTE, a position which directly led to the export ban.

Upon learning of Trump’s tweets which appear to hint at the contrary, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) asked Wray for his opinions on the matter during the budget hearing.

“If the president allows ZTE further access to our market and to American technology, could this place both our telecommunications networks and Americans’ private data at risk?” he asked.

“We, the FBI, remain deeply concerned that any company beholden to foreign governments that don’t share our values are not companies that we want to be gaining positions of power inside our telecommunications network,” Wray replied. “That gives them the capacity to maliciously modify or steal information, that gives them the capacity to conduct undetected espionage, that gives them the capacity to exert pressure or control.”

Later on in the hearing, Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) got a little more to the point.

“Just to put it bluntly, what was President Trump thinking when he tweeted out what he did about putting ZTE back in business?”

“Senator, I can’t speak to what anybody else was thinking,” Wray responded. “I’m not really a Twitter guy.”

Watch above, via C-SPAN.

[image via screengrab]

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