THE CENTER SQUARE—U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer subpoenaed Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for information about Democratic vice presidential candidate Gov. Tim Walz’s alleged connections to the Chinese Communist Party.

Comer, R-Ky., on Monday subpoenaed Mayorkas after the committee received whistleblower disclosures, learning “of a nonclassified, Microsoft Teams group chat among DHS employees and additional intelligence reports that contain information regarding Governor Walz’s connections to the CCP,” the Kentucky lawmaker said.

Comer’s letter to Mayorkas states: “The Committee has recently received whistleblower disclosures informing the Committee of serious concern among Department of Homeland personnel regarding a long-standing connection between the CCP and Minnesota Governor Timothy James Walz. Specifically, through whistleblower disclosures, the Committee has learned of a nonclassified, Microsoft Teams group chat among DHS employees—titled ‘NST NFT Bi-Weekly Sync’—that contains information about Governor Walz that is relevant to the Committee’s investigation. The Committee has also learned that further relevant information regarding Governor Walz has been memorialized in both classified and unclassified documents in the control of DHS.”

The subpoena requires DHS to “produce these documents and communications regarding Governor Walz’s connections with the CCP” and provide intelligence information reports and regional intelligence notes related to Walz.

The committee has spent several years investigating CCP political warfare operations involving influencing “important figures in elite political circles to the benefit of the communist People’s Republic of China.” During briefings held with more than 20 federal agencies, it says it learned of CCP “efforts to influence subnational government leaders, including state governors.”

“The Committee’s investigation of the CCP—begun long before Governor Walz was elevated to be the vice-presidential candidate for Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris—seeks to understand the extent of the CCP’s infiltration and influence campaign and to identify legislative reforms to combat CCP political warfare targeting prominent Americans for elite capture,” Comer wrote Mayorkas, adding:

“If a state governor and major political party’s nominee for Vice President of the United States has been a witting or unwitting participant in the CCP’s efforts to weaken our nation, this would strongly suggest that there are alarming weaknesses in the federal government’s effort to defend the United States from the CCP’s political warfare that must be urgently addressed.”

Obtaining the subpoenaed information will inform the committee about “how successful the CCP has been in waging political warfare in and against the United States, how effectively federal agencies are addressing the communist regime’s campaign, and what reforms are necessary to counter this threat,” he says.

In August, Comer launched an investigation into Walz “following reports detailing the Governor’s long-standing connections to CCP entities and officials.”

Two weeks ago, he requested information from FBI Director Christopher Wray on Walz’s alleged CCP connection.

Walz says he’s visited China roughly 30 times after first teaching a year abroad there in 1989, and remains proud of his ties to China.

In response, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the committee’s ranking member, said, “What do you know, it’s the eve of the vice presidential debate, and Chairman Comer has apparently been assigned another flotsam and jetsam errand from the GOP’s political smear barrel. The tarnished hero of the Biden impeachment investigation has just thrown out one of his classic boomerang ‘bombshell’ accusations, revealing to the world that employees at the Department of Homeland Security were actually chatting about Governor Tim Walz over Microsoft Teams message.”

Raskin also said it was a “comically trivial, last-ditch attempt to smear Governor Walz” as another “embarrassing and strained attempt to curry favor with Donald Trump’s collapsing campaign” and a way to distract Americans from “Trump’s miserable record on China.”

Raskin also said if Comer was “truly worried about elite capture by the CCP,” he would investigate former President Donald Trump; his daughter, Ivanka Trump; and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who Raskin claims financially profited from the CCP.

The subpoena commands Mayorkas to appear before the committee on Oct. 7 at 10 a.m.

Originally published by The Center Square