The co-director of a Maryland-based research group who claims to have harmful information about Hunter Biden has been charged with arms trafficking, sanctions violations and being an unregistered agent for China, according to a federal indictment unsealed Monday.
In an eight-tier indictment, prosecutors in the Southern District of New York accused Gal Luft, a dual U.S. and Israeli citizen, of violating the Arms Export Control Act and the Foreign Agent Registration Act in facilitating arms deals between Chinese companies, Iran and other countries Middle East.
Mr. Luft, who is being promoted by some Republicans in Congress as a key witness in their efforts to expose the Biden family’s corruption, is a fugitive from justice. He was arrested by law enforcement officers in Cyprus in February in connection with the indictment but fled after being released on bail awaiting extradition. If convicted, he faces up to 100 years in prison.
“He subverted the laws registering foreign agents in the United States to further Chinese politics,” said Damian Williams, the chief federal attorney in Manhattan, adding, “He acted as an intermediary in deals involving dangerous weapons and Iranian oil.” and told this. “Several lies about his crimes to law enforcement.”
Mr. Luft has denied any wrongdoing and claims he only became a subject of the Justice Department’s investigation after he discussed the Hunter Biden investigation with prosecutors who met him in Belgium in 2019.
But prosecutors painted Mr. Luft, who split his time between Israel and Washington, as a ruthless political fixer who worked for China and made much of his money as a back-channel arms and oil broker.
Mr. Luft, prosecutors said, helped Chinese arms manufacturers sell anti-tank missiles, mortars and mortar shells to Libya (he described them as toys in communications received from the government), bombs and missiles to the United Arab Emirates, and military drones to Kenya. He told an aide that US officials’ reluctance to sell arms to Kenya presents them with an “opportunity” for profit, according to prosecutors.
He also played a role as a middleman in transactions to broker oil sales from Iran, in violation of US sanctions, directing a business partner to label the products as Brazilian petroleum, the government accused. In one instance, Mr. Luft received a letter specifically telling him that a shipment of the oil came from Iran, but that it should be declared “as originating in the United Arab Emirates with no Iranian papers,” the filing said .
At the same time, he used his position as co-director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security in Gaithersburg, Maryland, to exert political influence on behalf of Beijing, according to the Justice Department.
In late 2016, Mr. Luft recruited and paid an unnamed former US government official who served as an advisor to President-elect Donald J. Trump as part of a larger effort to “publicly support certain pro-China policies,” prosecutors wrote in their filing.
In a video published by the New York Post last week, Mr. Luft claimed – without providing evidence – that he had briefed officials at the Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation on the wrongdoing of the Biden family, prompting his prosecution.
Rep. James R. Comer, Kentucky Republican and Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, recently described Mr. Luft called him a “very credible witness to corruption in the Biden family” and said he hoped to interview him regardless of the government’s allegations.
Shortly before the indictments were unsealed, Senator Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican and a Trump supporter, said in an interview with Fox Business that Mr. Luft’s work on behalf of Chinese energy companies gave him a “wealth of information” about Bidens. He did not provide any evidence for this claim.
Mr Johnson accused federal prosecutors of opening the case against Mr Luft “to silence him” and said the researcher – who he suspected was hiding in Israel – should be granted immunity from prosecution in order to to testify before Congress.
Democrats said Mr. Comer and other Republicans have shown they are willing to do anything to smear the Bidens, even rejecting testimony from a man accused of being a Chinese agent and illegal arms dealer law enforcement officials accepted testimony of federal law.
“Of course, these latest revelations raise serious concerns that the Republicans’ alleged ‘whistleblowers’ in Congress are manipulating them by tailoring misinformation to support unsubstantiated and unfounded allegations by Chairman Comer,” said Rep. Dan Goldman, a New York Democrat who served as the lead adviser to the House Intelligence Committee during Mr Trump’s first impeachment.