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Former Emory Professor Pleads Guilty to Hiding Role in Chinese Program Deemed a ‘Threat to National Security’

The program he was part of has been called a “threat to national security.”

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4 years ago

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A former professor at Emory University has pleaded guilty to hiding his ties to a Chinese government program that has been deemed a threat to national security.

Xiao-Jiang Li, 63, was part of China’s “Thousand Talents Program.”

“This defendant thought that he could live two, separate lives — one here at Emory University and one in China as a Thousand Talents Program participant,” said U.S. Attorney Byung J. “BJay” Pak in a statement.

The Thousand Talents program was established by the Chinese government in 2008 and has been called a “threat to national security” by the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. One member of the program stole proprietary defense information on U.S. military jet engines. In 2018, the National Intelligence Council declared that an underlying motivation of the program is “to facilitate the legal and illicit transfer of US technology, intellectual property and know-how” to China.”

“As this case demonstrates, the FBI is committed to working with our partners to prevent individuals from utilizing the Chinese Government’s talent plan programs to commit fraud against the United States government and our universities,” said Acting Assistant Director Robert R. Wells of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division.

According to the statement from the Justice Department, in late 2011, while employed at Emory University, Li joined the Thousand Talents Program. The department explained that “starting in 2012 and continuing until 2018, Li, while still working at Emory University researching, among other things, the use of large animal models to investigate Huntington’s disease, also worked at two Chinese universities — first at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and then at Jinan University — conducting similar large animal model research. Over those six years, Li earned at least $500,000 in foreign income that he never reported on his federal income tax returns.”

“The Department of Justice remains vigilant over programs such as the Thousand Talents Program that recruits professors and researchers to work for China,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers.  “In this case Li was caught in his lack of transparency.  We are grateful for the work our partners have done to bring light to this case.”

Li has been sentenced to one year of probation on a felony charge and was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $35,089.  He has also been ordered to file lawful income tax returns for 2012 through 2018 within the first two months of his probation. Aditionally, Li must fully cooperate with the IRS.

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Election

WATCH: Someone Farted During Joe Biden’s Campaign Live Stream

Well… that’s embarrassing.

Published

4 years ago

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May 27, 2020

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The internet is going crazy over a clip from former Vice President Joe Biden’s livestreamed campaign event with Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf in which someone appears to have passed gas.

The Trump campaign will probably have an absolute field day with this clip.

Social media users speculated that the culprit was Biden, as Governor Wolf appeared to grimace slightly at the sound.

“[Mitch McConnell] says they should declare bankruptcies if you can. And this isn’t some math exercise. This is about people. It’s about making sure you don’t have to cut those teachers and firefighters, police officers, and cut critical healthcare programs,” the former vice president said before the flatulence sound. “Or stop work on roads and bridges. So, what does the human cost of lack of state and local fiscal relief look like in Pennsylvania?”

Wolf, despite his seemingly involuntary facial response, continued to discuss issues in his state and did not comment about the noise.

“Leader of the free world can’t control his bowels for 3 minutes,” one Twitter user snarked.

This incident is just the latest in a long line of gaffes for the aging candidate and career politician. From discussing enjoying children hopping on his lap, to forgetting the name of the coronavirus and how many grandchildren he has, it seems as though Biden just can’t stop giving fodder to his rivals.

The incident reminded people an incident with Rep. Eric Swalwell where it sounded as though he passed gas during an interview with MSNBC. He denied that he did it, but social media users were skeptical.

https://twitter.com/pink_lady56/status/1265721279874727936?s=20

“It was not me!!!!!” Swalwell told reporters at the time. “Ha. And I didn’t hear it when I was speaking.”

The Biden campaign has not yet commented on the apparent flatulence. We will update this post if and when they do.

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Election

Joe Biden: ‘If You Don’t Vote For Me, You Ain’t Black’

The contentious interview lead to Biden asserting that his campaign was doing enough to reach out to black voters before he made the jaw-dropping remark.

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4 years ago

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May 22, 2020

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Former Vice President Joe Biden told African-Americans that “if you don’t vote for me, you ain’t black” during a shocking appearance on the Breakfast Club on Friday morning.

The contentious interview lead to Biden asserting that his campaign was doing enough to reach out to black voters before he made the jaw-dropping remark.

The radio show’s host Charlamagne had asked Biden about rapper Sean Combs, also known as Diddy, claiming that that Democrats take black voters for granted. In response, Biden pointed to his overwhelming win in South Carolina.

“I kicked everybody’s — excuse me,” Biden said,stopping himself from swearing.

“I need you to say that!” Charlamagne fired back.

“I won every single county. I won the largest share of the black vote that anybody had, including Barack,” Biden continued. “They’re the folks that, as they say up my way, brung me to the dance. That’s how I get elected every single time.”

Biden also addressed his support for the controversial crime bill that implemented harsher penalties for minor drug offenses, which has largely been credited for more people of color being sent to prison.

“The crime bill didn’t increase mass incarceration, other things increased mass incarceration,” Biden said.

“I know a lot of weed smokers,” Biden also claimed.

He also told the host that he is considering “multiple” black women to be his running mate.

At the end of the interview, a staffer told Biden that he was out of time.

“You can’t do that to black media!” Charlamagne said.

“I do that to white media and black media,” Biden replied, promising to come back on the show.

“If you have a problem figuring out if you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black,” Biden said.

“It don’t have nothing to do with Trump — it has to do with the fact that I want something for my community,” Charlamagne countered.

Naturally, the racist comment has drawn fierce criticism from the black community, as well as the Trump campaign and RNC.

 

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Editor of ‘Non-Partisan’ VA Paper Accidentally Emails GOP Senate Candidate Calling Her a ‘Dimwit’

Witzke is an ‘America First’ conservative.

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4 years ago

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May 19, 2020

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The publisher of the Virginia News-Gazette emailed Republican Delaware Senate candidate Lauren Witzke and mistakenly sent along an conversation in which the editor called her a “dimwit.”

Witzke is an ‘America First’ conservative who is running on similar policies to what President Donald Trump campaigned on. She is also promising to fight for a full 10 year moratorium on all immigration and restoration of the American nuclear family.

Some how, the editor of the News-Gazette accidentally ended up on Witzke’s donor email list by mistake. After sending out a campaign email opposing the Delaware governor’s lock down orders, the Witzke campaign received an email from Matt Paxton, publisher of The News-Gazette.

It appears that the editor had forwarded the email to Paxton, adding “I’m not sure how we got on this dimwit’s mailing list.” When tried to email the Witzke campaign asking to be removed from the list, he replied to all, which forwarded along the chain where the editor called her a dimwit.

 

Witzke responded to the email, saying “thanks for letting us know. Are you aware that you forwarded the original message from your editor along with this thread? Not a great look for the ‘non-partisan’ media.”

Paxton responded by claiming that it was sent on purpose.

“I am aware. and sending unwanted, inapplicable emails willy-nilly to every little media outlet within hundreds of miles, not even in a contiguous state, meets the definition in my mind, and I’d say that whether this came from a candidate of the Democrat, Republican, Whig, Prohibition, Green, Libertarian or Socialist Worker Party,” Paxton responded. “We get enough spam as it is. I am not ‘non-partisan’ when it comes to spam.”

The District Herald called Paxton to ask whether or not the paper is indeed meant to be non-partisan. He claimed that they are and that he had never even heard of Witzke prior to the email being sent to him. He also claimed, contrary to his response to Witzke, that the email was sent by mistake.

“Umm… I think that was an internal email, a forwarded email, that inadvertently was sent,” Paxton responded.

When asked again if the paper is considered to be non-partisan, Paxton asserted that “I don’t even know who this person is. This Lauren Witzke.”

“She sent an email to us, we’re three states away,” Paxton added, seemingly frustrated.

The District Herald again asked if the paper is considered to be Democrat-leaning or if it is non-partisan.

“We’re non-partisan. We’re a community newspaper. We really don’t cover anything that is doesn’t happen in Rockbridge County, Virginia.

Witzke, for her part, told the District Herald that the paper should be ashamed of itself.

“As if it wasn’t obvious enough, the far-left news media once again tipped its partisan hand. The staff at The News-Gazette, which lost any credibility it had left with one single email today, ought to be ashamed of itself,” Witzke said. “The paper’s management should be immediately fired and replaced with those who will report the news honestly.”

She added that it is “little surprise that a Democrat paper in Virginia owned by people from Illinois is as sexist as Ralph Northam is racist, or that this level of frothing hate seems to be the norm in the small town that kicked Sarah Huckabee Sanders and her family out of a chicken dinner restaurant for being associated with the Trump campaign.”

In 2018, Sanders was kicked out of the Red Hen restaurant in Lexington for working at the White House. The owner of the restaurant, Stephanie Wilkinson, said that she was taking a stand against a person who defends “inhumane and unethical” presidential policies.

The incident caught the attention of President Donald Trump himself, and the restaurant claimed they had to close for two weeks because of all the negative attention. Still, the media largely defended their actions, even continuing to write glowing portraits of the incident a year later.

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