Amid the Trump administration's efforts to curb the Chinese Communist Party's influence in the U.S., the Department of Justice announced the arrest of a CCP agent accused of worldwide computer intrusions related to COVID-19 research.
Xu Zewei, 33, and Zhang Yu, 44, are facing a nine-count indictment for allegedly "hacking and stealing crucial COVID-19 research at the behest of the Chinese government while that same government was simultaneously withholding information about the virus and its origins," stated Nicholas Ganjei, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas.
'Through HAFNIUM, the CCP targeted over 60,000 U.S. entities, successfully victimizing more than 12,700 in order to steal sensitive information.'
Federal authorities alleged that the Ministry of State Security's Shanghai State Security Bureau directed Xu to perform computer intrusions between February 2020 and June 2021.
Xu allegedly targeted American universities, immunologists, and virologists to obtain information on COVID-19 research related to vaccines, treatment, and testing.
In February 2020, Xu informed the SSSB that he had breached the "network of a research university located in the Southern District of Texas," the DOJ reported. An SSSB officer then reportedly instructed him to target email accounts belonging to certain virologists and immunologists.
Brett Leatherman, the assistant director of the FBI's Cyber Division, explained that Xu and his co-conspirators later operated as a group known as HAFNIUM, which "exploited zero-day vulnerabilities in U.S. systems to steal additional research."
"Through HAFNIUM, the CCP targeted over 60,000 U.S. entities, successfully victimizing more than 12,700 in order to steal sensitive information," Leatherman said.
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In late 2020, HAFNIUM allegedly breached the Microsoft Exchange Server, impacting computers worldwide, including a law firm and another university in the Southern District of Texas.
Microsoft announced the breach in March 2021, describing HAFNIUM as a "state-sponsored" group "operating out of China." It noted that the hackers had targeted "infectious disease researchers, law firms, higher education institutions, defense contractors, policy think tanks, and NGOs."
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Xu was arrested in Milan, Italy, on July 3 at the request of the U.S. government and now awaits extradition proceedings. He was charged with wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to cause damage to and obtain information by unauthorized access to protected computers to commit wire fraud and to commit identity theft, obtaining information by unauthorized access to protected computers, intentional damage to a protected computer, and aggravated identity theft.
Ganjei stated, "The Southern District of Texas has been waiting years to bring Xu to justice and that day is nearly at hand. As this case shows, even if it takes years, we will track hackers down and make them answer for their crimes. The United States does not forget."
The DOJ reported that Zhang remains at large.
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The same Democrats who crushed American freedoms with tyrannical COVID lockdowns are now latching on to the "dictator" narrative against President Donald Trump as they fight to shield illegal aliens, including those who committed additional crimes in the U.S., from the administration's immigration enforcement measures.
On June 14, No Kings held thousands of protests nationwide, highlighting the left's baseless portrayal of Trump as an authoritarian dictator with unchecked power. The demonstrations were primarily provoked by disapproval of the administration's deportation push.
'We need #ShutdownNYC now.'
Just weeks earlier, a riot broke out in Los Angeles over Trump's immigration crackdown, where protesters flooded the streets waving Mexican flags and some individuals even set vehicles ablaze.
Meanwhile, the left accused Trump of overstepping his authority by deploying National Guard troops to California to prevent further destruction and violence as Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom and Democrat Mayor Karen Bass sat on their hands.
Newsom claimed that Trump's deployment of troops was an "authoritarian use of military soldiers against citizens."
"Donald Trump is not a king and not above the law," the governor declared.
Amid the ongoing tension, more Democrats have leaned into the claims that Trump is acting like a king, vilifying the administration for delivering on the president's campaign promise to solve the nation's illegal immigration crisis.
Earlier this month, Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) attempted to ambush Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem's press conference after previously claiming the L.A. riots were "largely peaceful."
Federal agents briefly detained Padilla for trying to bypass officers to approach Noem during her speech. The senator claimed he "ended up in handcuffs" for asking a question.
"If this is how the Trump administration treats a U.S. Senator in broad daylight, imagine what they're doing to immigrants behind closed doors," Padilla wrote in a post on X. "We cannot stay silent. We will not back down."
Many Democratic politicians, including Newsom, ran to Padilla's defense, seizing the opportunity to accuse Trump of authoritarian actions.
Newsom stated, "This is outrageous, dictatorial, and shameful. Trump and his shock troops are out of control. This must end now."
Padilla's disruptive stunt followed an incident involving Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) the previous month.
McIver was slapped with federal charges after she was accused of assaulting an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer at a Newark, New Jersey, detention facility where Democrats had demanded access.
The congresswoman called the indictment "political intimidation," claiming that she was at Delaney Hall "to do my job."
McIver also stood up for New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, who was arrested for allegedly interfering with ICE operations when he locked arms with a man as federal agents approached them outside the courtroom.
McIver stated, "This administration will stop at nothing to intimidate those who dare to stand against their hateful agenda. This is a horrifying state of affairs for our country."
Lander accused Trump of using "authoritarian tactics."
Critics viewed Lander's move as a publicity stunt during his mayoral campaign. Lander conceded to Zohran Mamdani after he failed to convince more than roughly 11% of NYC Democrats to support him.
Democratic leaders seem unified in their messaging against Trump, portraying him as a significant threat to freedom.
However, conservatives accused those same politicians of acting like kings just a few years ago, promoting oppressive lockdowns that harmed the economy and caused irreparable damage to mental health.
Newsom imposed some of the strictest lockdown measures in the nation, preventing Americans from gathering, forcing them to close their businesses, and using police to ticket and arrest citizens for trespassing on closed beaches. During the same period, he celebrated a birthday party at a Michelin-starred restaurant in Napa Valley.
During the COVID era, Padilla backed Newsom's leadership, applauding the governor's "statewide face mask mandate" as an "important and timely effort to reduce the spread."
"Let's commit to wearing masks, getting the vaccine, and staying home and social distancing as much as possible," he stated in January 2021.
Padilla repeatedly accused Republicans of spreading "COVID-19 disinformation" that he described as "nearly as dangerous as the disease itself." He claimed conservatives were "anti-mask, anti-science zealots" for criticizing Newsom's leadership.
While insisting Americans should mask up and stay home, he advocated for illegal immigrants to receive a "pathway to citizenship," claiming that "undocumented essential workers braved harsh conditions."
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Meanwhile, the lockdown situation in New York was similar to that in Los Angeles.
In March 2020, Lander encouraged then-Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) and then-Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) to "close schools, non-essential businesses incl. restaurants & bars, [and] implement aggressive social distancing." He also advocated for closing places of worship.
Lander noted that social distancing would not work "until officially mandated."
"We need #ShutdownNYC now," Lander wrote.
During the COVID era, Democratic politicians enforced and supported strict lockdown measures, including business closures and vaccine mandates that trampled over American freedoms. Now, just a few years later, those same leaders are criticizing Trump's immigration enforcement as authoritarian as the left continues to prioritize illegal aliens over American citizens.
BlazeTV host Steve Deace stated, "To be fair, these COVID tyrants are subject matter experts on what it means to be an authoritarian. Snark aside, it's impossible to be an authoritarian against invaders by the very definition of the term. We elected the Trump administration to exercise its authority to enact mass deportations, which are needed now more than ever."
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FBI Director Kash Patel revealed to the eponymous host of "The Joe Rogan Experience" in the episode published Friday that the bureau "just had a great breakthrough" regarding the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, a matter into which the FBI apparently has multiple ongoing investigations.
The FBI director noted that this "breakthrough" specifically has to do with Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases whom the White House has accused of helping cover up the likely lab origins of COVID-19 and whose name Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and congressional investigators recently batted around when discussing lies about gain-of-function research.
Patel noted that the FBI long sought the phones and devices Fauci used while he was serving in the first Trump administration during the pandemic, "and nobody had found it — till two days ago."
While the director cautioned Rogan and his audience from jumping "to the conclusion [that] everything's in there," he said the bureau will "look at it, we'll pull it — we'll rip it, as we say."
Patel intimated that where potentially incriminating material is concerned, "maybe it's deleted, maybe it's not, but at least we found it."
When asked about the potential significance of the discovery of such devices and what investigators should look for, molecular biologist Dr. Richard H. Ebright of Rutgers University, a leading critic of Fauci's flirtations with gain-of-function research, told Blaze News, "Fauci violated federal policies on gain-of-function and enhanced potential pandemic pathogen research, committed conspiracy to defraud and perjury, used federal funds to commit crimes, and caused and covered up the cause of a pandemic that killed 20 million and cost $25 trillion."
The World Health Organization claims that there have been cumulatively over 7 million reported COVID-19 deaths. However, the Economist's machine-learning model estimated that the total number of excess deaths globally is two to four times higher than the reported number of confirmed COVID-19 deaths, which could the put deaths far in excess of 20 million souls.
Ebright was among the prominent scientists who last year sought accountability over efforts to cure the origin narrative and demanded the retraction of "The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2," published by Nature Medicine on March 17, 2020 — a consequential paper that Fauci not only allegedly commissioned and approved but used on multiple occasions to push the zoonotic origin theory.
"If files relevant to Fauci's roles in causing COVID and covering up the cause of COVID are recoverable from Fauci's phones or devices, those files could be of value in documenting the cause and the cover-up and in prosecuting persons culpable for the cause and the cover-up," Ebright told Blaze News. "Examples of relevant files would include files documenting Fauci's correspondence with scientists whose research caused COVID, correspondence with scientists, science administrators, and other federal agency officials who helped Fauci cover up the cause of COVID, and correspondence documenting Fauci's use of non-government email accounts and phone lines for government business."
Blaze News reached out to the FBI for comment and clarification but did not receive a response before publication.
'Clearly he was being deceptive.'
Rogan asked Patel whether the pardons doled out in former President Joe Biden's name would spare Fauci from accountability over his misleading claim to Congress that "the NIH has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology."
There is, after all, a great deal of interest in Congress in holding Fauci accountable over his apparent lie to Congress in 2021 that the NIH never funded gain-of-function research.
For instance, Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) told Matt Kibbe, the host of BlazeTV's docuseries "The Coverup," that he had referred Fauci to the Department of Justice for prosecution three times over his statements.
"We've detailed his lies to Congress, which are a felony. I've sort of tragically and jokingly said, 'If he were a member of the Trump administration, he would have been arrested long ago.' Because I think we have two standards of justice," Paul told Kibbe. "He certainly seems to be protected."
"Clearly he was being deceptive," Rogan said to Patel. "Are they pardoned for that as well? 'Cause it was like this crazy blanket pardon from 2014 forward, which I didn't even know you could do."
On Jan. 20, Fauci received a "full and unconditional" pre-emptive pardon for possible federal crimes going back to Jan. 1, 2014 — around the time the Obama administration supposedly halted funding for dangerous gain-of-function research.
"So I'm the investigator. So that would be a decision for the Department of Justice," said Patel. "We'll work it up and we'll say, 'This is what we found,' and then legal minds will have to come in and chop on, 'Does this pardon apply or not?'"
While Fauci may presently enjoy an immunity shield from prosecution on account of his last-minute pardon, that pardon now faces a great deal of scrutiny.
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President Donald Trump declared in March that the pardons were "VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT."
DOJ pardon attorney Ed Martin announced last month that he is reviewing the questionable "autopen" pardons issued in the final days of the Biden White House, noting that they "need some scrutiny." The House Oversight Committee is also investigating autopen use in the Biden White House.
Even if Fauci's pardon holds up, information gleaned by the FBI from the alleged devices could possibly be used in legal actions taken at the state level.
In February, over 16 state attorneys general launched an investigation into Fauci's role in the COVID-19 pandemic response, "demanding accountability for alleged mismanagement, misleading statements, and suppression of scientific debate."
The state AGs underscored in their letter to Congress that the "pardon by former President Biden does not extend to preclude state-level investigations or legal proceedings."
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Mark Bashaw, a former lieutenant in the U.S. Army, finally has a measure of justice after he was criminally convicted and discharged for refusing to abide by COVID-related protocols implemented under President Joe Biden.
In August 2021, then-Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin imposed a COVID vaccine mandate for members of the military, claiming the shots were critical for maintaining healthy, ready armed forces. Those like Bashaw who refused were required either to work from home or to subject themselves to COVID testing before going into the office, where they would have to wear a mask.
Bashaw — the company commander of the Army Public Health Center in Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland — refused to abide by those directives. As a result, he was convicted by a court martial in 2022 of failing to obey lawful orders.
In a 2023 social media post, he claimed he had been court-martialed because he "refused to participate with lies." Following his conviction, he was involuntarily discharged.
Some 8,000 service members were similarly discharged from the military for refusing the shot. However, Bashaw is believed to have been the first to be court-martialed for failing to adhere to the COVID protocols issued by Austin, The Hill reported.
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump issued Bashaw a full and unconditional pardon.
Bashaw's conviction did not result in any jail sentence, but it did give him a criminal record. Trump's pardon wipes his record clean.
Bashaw celebrated the news of his pardon on social media: "I just received a Presidential Pardon from President Donald J. Trump. I am humbled, grateful, and ready to continue fighting for truth and justice in this great nation. Thank you, Mr. President @realDonaldTrump and to your incredible team."
After thanking others, including former U.S. Attorney for D.C. Ed Martin, Bashaw's post added: "Time for accountability!" It also included an image that described COVID as a "plandemic."
Blaze News senior editor Daniel Horowitz applauded Bashaw's courage despite his "unfathomable" suffering "under the Biden-controlled DOD."
"It’s easy to be a hero now that COVID tyranny has been universally repudiated and it no longer costs anything to take a stand. Yet, Bashaw risked his entire career and even time in the brig for standing up for the rule of law and the medical ethics of public health," Horowitz told Blaze News.
Horowitz also thanked Trump for making good use of his pardon powers: "Well played, Mr. President."
BlazeTV host Steve Deace, who has long railed against the COVID shots, was likewise pleased to hear that Trump intervened in Bashaw's case.
"This is another commendable act of penance by President Trump for the mistakes of his first administration during the scamdemic, which set the stage for the outright tyranny imposed by whoever was making decisions for Biden the last four years. His language at times certainly has its bravado, but President Trump is really showing great humility in unraveling the original COVID narrative his first term succumbed to," Deace said in a statement to Blaze News.
RELATED: Damning new episode of BlazeTV's 'The Coverup' blows lid off Biden's 10-year pardon for Fauci
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Now the American people deserve two investigations: one into the decision-makers behind the autopen and the other probing Fauci’s havoc-wreaking role in the origins of and response to Covid-19.
Lawmakers of all parties keep thinking that some magic bullet will solve all of the country’s fiscal problems. It won’t.
It's so easy for scammers to manipulate our health care system in ways that raise costs for all of us.
Gen Z teens have been force-fed the most radical version of liberalism, and it has dried up their empathy.
It is too bad the protesters can’t stop fighting Trump long enough to appreciate the Army that preserves their freedom to protest.
At the height of pandemic insanity, Newsom warned those protesting against his fiats must remain six feet apart and wear masks.
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