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| University that housed Biden center [and classified docs] pressed to end FBI China spy probe after big Beijing donations |
| 2023-01-13 |
| [JustTheNews] University of Pennsylvania, which hosted the Penn Biden Center where classified documents were found in November, received $47.7 million from China in the three years when Biden was affiliated with it. The University of Pennsylvania, the Ivy League institution which collected tens of millions of dollars from China while paying Joe Biden and hosting his foreign policy think tank, successfully pressured the Biden Justice Department to end an FBI counterespionage program targeting Beijing's increasing influence within U.S. academia. Attorney General Merrick Garland shut down the FBI's so-called China initiative in February 2022 shortly after more than 160 members of the University of Pennsylvania faculty signed and made public an open letter demanding the program be shuttered, on the grounds that it amounted to racial profiling. The faculty letter was part of a larger university battle against the program. "We acknowledge the importance to the United States of protecting both intellectual property and information that is essential to our national and economic security," read the letter made public on Feb. 9. "We understand that concerns about Chinese government sanctioned activities including intellectual property theft and economic espionage are important to address. "We believe, however, that the China Initiative has deviated significantly from its claimed mission: it is harming the United States' research and technology competitiveness and it is fueling biases that, in turn, raise concerns about racial profiling." A handful of left-leaning universities, including Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard, had also previously appealed to the DOJ to close down the program. Two weeks after the letter was sent, Garland announced the termination of the program, sending shockwaves through federal law enforcement. The DOJ's own website still includes, to this day, a lengthy recitation of criminal cases the 4-year-old program had brought against members of academia who were working with China — either on espionage charges or failure to disclose foreign monies, as is required by law. Just a month prior to the Garland decision, FBI Director Christopher Wray traveled to the Reagan presidential library to give a speech pleading for the government to devote more attention and resources to combating China's devastating influence inside the United States. He specifically cited cases where Beijing had used university academics to do its bidding. The FBI boss claimed China's espionage has become "more brazen, [and] more damaging." "China's government has the global reach and presence of a great nation, but it refuses to act the part and too often uses its capabilities to steal and threaten, rather than to cooperate and build," he argued. "That theft, those threats, are happening right here in America, literally every day." Just the News reached out to both the Justice Department, to confirm whether Penn ever officially lobbied the DOJ directly, and also to the university itself. Neither institution responded. Penn has long ties to both the Biden family and China. Its former president, Amy Gutmann, for instance, was named by the president in 2021 to be his ambassador to Germany. During her Senate confirmation, Gutmann acknowledged the university took money from Chinese interests but insisted it did not affect the school's values and that the university even rejected creating a Confucius Institute on campus funded by entities tied to the Chinese government. "What I do know, and what I make sure of, is that no gifts, no contracts, to the University of Pennsylvania are allowed to threaten academic freedom, are allowed to threaten national security," she testified. "We do no classified research." Penn is in the limelight now after the revelation Monday that classified documents from Biden's vice presidency — including top secret items and intelligence on Ukraine and Iran — were found last November in Biden's old office at the Penn Biden Center think tank, where he worked in D.C. from 2017 to 2019. The White House claimed the memos were found by lawyers cleaning out Biden's old office. Multiple news organizations reported Wednesday that more classified documents were found at a second location used by Biden. The university has said it did not solicit any donations specifically to fund the Penn Biden Center, funding it out of its operating budget while also paying Biden a handsome sum to be an honorary professor who did not teach classes but made occasional appearance or lectures. Biden's tax returns reviewed by Just the News show Penn paid the future president $911,644 between spring 2017 and spring 2019, when he stepped aside to run for president. Related: University of Pennsylvania: 2022-12-29 AI Chat: Coming for a Brain Near You. Possibly Yours. University of Pennsylvania: 2022-10-14 Is Christian nationalism on the rise in the United States? University of Pennsylvania: 2022-06-22 Philippine government attorney shot dead en route to Philadelphia airport |
| Posted by:Skidmark |
| #1 “The university has said it did not solicit any donations specifically to fund the Penn Biden Center, funding it out of its operating budget while also paying Biden a handsome sum to be an honorary professor who did not teach classes but made occasional appearance or lectures.” This statement is underwhelming do to the use of the word solicit and the fungibility of money. They would not have had to solicit donations for funding if it was all presented to them as a package deal by Joe’s handlers or by CCP surrogates. Realistically, what Ivy League University would not want to be associated with a politician famous for plagiarism. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2023-01-13 12:17 |