Biden’s top spy lawyer pick won’t promise not to work for China or Huawei in future
Senate Republicans hammered a former Obama National Security Council staffer nominated to be the intelligence community’s top lawyer over his private sector work for the Chinese government and Huawei, following his 12-4 vote passage through the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Christopher Fonzone, a Harvard Law School graduate who spent 2013 through the end of Barack Obama’s presidency as an NSC legal adviser, was picked by President Joe Biden in March to serve as the general counsel for Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, who oversees the nation’s 18 spy agencies. After his national security work in the Obama administration, Fonzone took a gig as a partner at the global Sidley Austin law firm, where he did what he called limited work in 2018 for Huawei and China’s Ministry of Commerce.
Fonzone has declined to promise not to work for Chinese Communist Party-linked firms in the future.
Republican Sens. Ben Sasse of Nebraska, Marco Rubio of Florida, and Tom Cotton of Arkansas all grilled him last week and voted against him Wednesday.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/biden-top-spy-lawyer-pick-wont-promise-work-china-huawei-future