Two incoming Senate committee chairs took aim at President Donald Trump's top aides over a scandal swirling around one of his tech allies.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) are demanding that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House chief of staff Stephen Miller preserve every record tied to Nvidia's chip sales to China and CEO Jensen Huang's affair with a suspected Chinese intelligence asset, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
The senators gave the three officials until Tuesday to confirm they've told their staffs to hold onto all communications and other materials. Warren and Coons pointed to their incoming posts atop the Senate Banking and Foreign Relations committees, which oversee sensitive tech exports and national security.
The Journal noted that such letters tend to come before a formal congressional investigation. This letter arrives alongside a flood of similar demands aimed at companies and organizations closely tied to the administration.
The situation "raises significant concerns about the federal government's ability to effectively enforce our export controls," the pair wrote, adding that it also puts national security at risk.
They're seeking security and intelligence files on the suspected Chinese operation and Huang, any communications between Nvidia and the administration, including Huang's dealings with Trump himself, and records on chip export policy.
Huang forged a close bond with the president and personally pressed him to let Nvidia ship chips straight to China, all while carrying on an affair with Alice Huang, a former top executive at Singapore-based data-center firm Megaspeed International, The Journal reported. Nvidia's board was preparing to push him out over that affair and a second extramarital relationship, according to The Journal.
Warren and Coons have spent the past two years hammering Huang and the administration's decision to green-light chip shipments to China and other high-risk nations such as the United Arab Emirates.
The backlash isn't limited to Democrats. National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow and Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) had both urged Huang to resign by early Wednesday, while House Republicans, including Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast (R-FL), want Huang to brief lawmakers next week and have said they're open to subpoenaing him.
Rep. Michael Baumgartner (R-WA) went further, noting that Huang's signature motorcycle jacket has earned him a nickname in China and saying he hoped Congress wouldn't have to trade it for prison stripes over potential espionage or export control violations.