Webinar | Protected No More? The House CCP Committee’s Sequoia Investigation is Free at Last

The removal of Kevin McCarthy from the House Speaker’s chair has not only resulted in the election of a vastly more robust leader in the person of Mike Johnson. It has also cleared the way for a much-needed investigation into the damage being done to U.S. national security and economic interests by the world’s most powerful venture capital firm, Sequoia Capital.
A previous webinar presented by the Committee on the Present Danger: China established that an inquiry by the House Intelligence Committee into Sequoia’s dealings with the Chinese Communist Party had been launched in 2021 by its then-Ranking Republican Member, Rep. Devin Nunes. When Intelligence Committee staff contacted Sequoia, however, the company declined to answer their questions. Instead, Sequoia began making sizeable contributions to Kevin McCarthy’s Leadership PAC.Show more

As it happens, shortly thereafter, Rep. Nunes retired from Congress. Speaker McCarthy promptly appointed Rep. Mike Turnerto fill the job of the Intelligence Committee’s top Republican. And no sooner had Turner taken over than he shut down the Intelligence Committee’s investigation, presumably at McCarthy’s direction.

The good news is that another panel called the House Select Committee on the CCP has recently taken up the job of examining the relationship between the Chinese Communists and American technology-focused venture capital firms, to complement its ongoing inquiries into U.S. financial companies like BlackRock, MSCI, Vanguard and FTSI-Russell.

We know that the latter have channeled trillions of American investors’ pension funds and other investment dollars into PRC companies – including some working directly for the People’s Liberation Army and entities sanctioned by the U.S. government. And the committee has ample reason to believe that the former have similarly been providing the Chinese Communists with material support in the form of both financing and high-technology.

The bad news is that curiously absent from the venture capital firms identified for such scrutiny was Sequoia Capital. Until, that is, Kevin McCarthy was deposed.

On October 17th, 10 days after the Speaker’s chair was vacated, the Select CCP Committee’s bipartisan leadership sent a lengthy letter soliciting information from Sequoia’s leadership. Its focus is the help Sequoia has given to the CCP in securing access to the best of America’s high technology, much of it enabling China’s military transformation that now threatens our utter destruction.

Speaker Johnson must ensure that the Select Committee has the latitude to continue this vital investigation and its exposure of “elite capture” at Sequoia, wherever it leads. That panel’s chairman – and, for that matter, those of other oversight committees – are afforded a decisive investigative tool denied them under the McCarthy regime: the authority to issue subpoenas.

This CPDC webinar provides an update on the imperative of ending Sequoia’s aiding and abetting of the Chinese Communist Party’s global ambitions and whether, with Kevin McCarthy’s fall from power, that will finally be accomplished.

Moderator:

- Frank Gaffney, Founder and Executive Chairman, Center for Security Policy; Vice Chairman, Committee on the Present Danger: China, co-author, “The Indictment: Prosecuting the Chinese Communist Party and Friends for Crimes Against America, China, and the World”

Panelists:

- Brian Kennedy, Chairman of the Committee on the Present Danger: China; President, American Strategy Group; former President, Claremont Institute – Topic: “Insidious ‘Elite Capture’: The Dangers of the CCP’s ‘Friends’ Like Sequoia Enabling of America’s Enemy”

- Brian Costello, CEO and Cofounder of ShftIQ.ai, Technology entrepreneur and investor – Topic: “Challenging Sequoia’s Role in Identifying and Exploiting America’s Cutting-Edge Technology for the CCP”

- Col./Dr. Derrick Harvey, U.S. Army (Ret.), decorated veteran of combat in the Middle East; former staff member, National Security Council; former Professional Staff Member, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence – Topic: “America’s Declining Qualitative Edge: A Damage Assessment and What Must Be Done About It.”

- Captain James Fanell, U.S. Navy (Ret.), Former Chief for Intelligence, U.S. Pacific Fleet; Senior Fellow, Geneva Center for Security Policy – Topic: “The National Security Implications of the CCP’s Weaponizing Sequoia’s Help”