WASHINGTON — The FBI has held classified briefings warning a handful of U.S. lawmakers that the Chinese Communist Party is working to create fake stories to portray them in a negative light because of their hawkish views of Beijing and support for Taiwan, two U.S. officials familiar with the briefings told NBC News.
The U.S. officials, who asked not to be identified due to the sensitive nature of the briefings, said that one of the false stories being concocted by the CCP, cited by FBI briefers, is that these lawmakers are espousing pro-Taiwan views because they were taking “bribes” from Taiwan.
“The CCP is trying to undermine congressional support for Taiwan’s democracy, to paint it as corrupt and not in the American public interest,” one of the two U.S. officials told NBC News. “It will not work.”
he officials said the briefings occurred in the fall.
A third source, a House lawmaker who specializes in national security matters, said they had been informed about the alleged CCP scheme but had not personally received a briefing.
The FBI had no comment. A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, Liu Pengyu, responded to a detailed list of questions for this story with a statement: "The report is entirely fabricated, and the Chinese government has never had any plan to smear these lawmakers. As for whether they have accepted bribes from Taiwan, it should be investigated by the relevant authorities in the United States and has nothing to do with China."
The classified discussions were described as “defensive” briefings, the U.S. officials said, meaning the alleged CCP scheme had not been carried out yet, but the FBI wanted to share critical information with the intended targets as a way to pre-empt the attacks.
The FBI commonly provides defensive briefings to senior officials when the bureau learns they have been targeted by foreign intelligence operations.
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