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FIRST ON FOX: Congressional scrutiny of foreign influence operations in the United States is widening, with a powerful panel of lawmakers set to hold a hearing next week examining how nonprofits and activist networks serve as potential “Trojan horses” for foreign adversaries.
Digital has learned the House Foreign Affairs SubCommittee on South and Central Asia has scheduled an open hearing for Tuesday titled “Trojan Horses: Covert Foreign Malign Influence Operations in America.”
“This is a critically important topic right now because the vectors for foreign influence in our public discourse are greater than they’ve ever been before, in large part because of social media,” Sam Lyman, head of research at the Bitcoin Policy Institute and one of the hearing’s planned witnesses, told Digital.
“Social media acts as a gain-of-function for mind viruses that are incubated overseas and oftentimes find their way over to the United States,” said Lyman, a former senior advisor and speechwriter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
Medea Benjamin (right) and Olivia DiNucci (center) of CodePink protest against the U.S. war in Iran. ( Digital)
The planned hearing, which takes its name from the mythological horse Greek soldiers hid inside of to infiltrate the fortified city of Troy, is expected to include a scrutiny of influence from China and Cuba to the Islamic Republic of Iran and pro-Palestinian groups. It marks an expansion of congressional scrutiny of foreign influence beyond the tax and financial questions already being pursued by the House Ways and Means Committee, which has subpoenaed three nonprofits in a network funded by Neville Roy Singham, an American-born communist tech tycoon now based in Shanghai.
Mike Gonzalez, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation who is scheduled to testify as a witness, told Digital the threat is real.
“Adversaries and outright enemies of the United States such as China and Cuba, shadowy non-government organizations surreptitiously implanting Islamism – and even friendlier countries such as Mexico, which tries to use its diaspora populations for lobbying – take advantage of the open nature of our society to infiltrate and influence America.”
Evidence of foreign influence abounds throughout society, he said.
“They do it in the K-12 educational system that instructs our entire population, the institutions of higher education that produce our leaders, the government agencies that make up our government, the lobbying firms that write far too many of our laws, the museums that exist to transmit our heritage to future generations, etc.,” Gonzalez said.
The Senate Judiciary Committee, House Oversight Committee and the House Select Committee on China have also investigated the issue of malign foreign influence. Singham hasn’t responded to repeated requests for comment.
The Foreign Affairs subcommittee, which oversees the State Department’s Office of Public Diplomacy, now promises to ask the larger national-security question behind those financial investigations: whether America’s open political system and nonprofit sector are being exploited as Trojan horses by foreign governments seeking to influence American politics, public opinion and strategic policy from within. Earlier this year, the Office of Public Diplomacy, led by Undersecretary Sarah Rodgers, issued the subcommittee a report about foreign “vectors” of influence in the U.S.
In March, Digital published a five-part investigation that mapped 223 transactions totaling $591 million across five continents from 2017 through 2025 through 67 core organizations in the Singham network that act like an inner hub for a constellation of an estimated 2,000 groups worldwide, pushing pro-China, anti-American propaganda, including the communist Party for Socialism and Liberation.
The investigation documented how Singham directly poured $285 million into an activist network of six pro-China, pro-communist nonprofit organizations, starting in 2017 – Breakthrough BT Media Inc., CodePink Women for Peace, Justice and Education Fund Inc., People’s Forum Inc., People’s Support Foundation Ltd. and Tricontinenental Ltd.
As Digital first reported in June, the Justice Department is investigating alleged financial crimes connected to Singham and the nonprofit organizations he funded, with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York opening a grand jury investigation into Singham’s money. Singham and the nonprofits have denied taking direction from the Chinese government, and neither Singham nor the organizations have been charged with crimes.
Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Mich., chairs the South and Central Asia subcommittee, while Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, D-Calif., serves as ranking member. Republican members include Reps. James Moylan of Guam, Jefferson Shreve of Indiana, Thomas Kean Jr. of New Jersey, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Tim Burchett of Tennessee, Keith Self of Texas and Michael Baumgartner of Washington. Democratic members include Reps. Ami Bera of California, Kweisi Mfume of Maryland, Pramila Jayapal of Washington, George Latimer of New York and Julie Johnson of Texas.
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The hearing puts the investigation under the umbrella of House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast, R-Fla., whose committee has made confronting the Chinese Communist Party and strengthening U.S. defenses against Beijing a central focus. Earlier this year, Mast joined lawmakers from both parties in pressing the Trump administration to tighten export controls aimed at restricting China’s access to advanced semiconductor manufacturing technology.
The three scheduled witnesses invited by Republican lawmakers to testify at the hearing bring together three different fronts in the emerging foreign-influence investigation: Cuba’s influence infrastructure inside the United States, the Chinese Communist Party’s broader political and technological strategy and campaigns by the Singham network targeting America’s artificial-intelligence and data-center buildout.
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Republican Rep. Bill Huizenga of Michigan arrives at a campaign rally for now-President Donald Trump, on Nov. 1, 2024 in Portage, Michigan (Bill Huizenga campaign)
Gonzalez is expected to speak on Cuba’s alleged influence network in the United States. “Cuba is 100% operating a foreign influence operation in the U.S.,” Gonzalez told Digital earlier this year, describing the communist island as “ground zero for anti-American revolutionary organizing in the Western Hemisphere.”
Gonzalez said investigators should determine whether American organizations crossed the line between constitutionally protected activism and political activity coordinated by a foreign government.
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Democratic Socialists of America member Hasan Piker and CodePink co-founder Jodie Evans of CodePink meet in Cuba, as part of “United Front” to support the communist regime. (NO ACCESS EDGE/NNS/FNS/OUTKICK) (CodePink via Storyful)
A Digital investigation identified an ecosystem of U.S. organizations supportinging Cuba that overlaps significantly with the Singham network. CodePink, the People’s Forum, BreakThrough News, Tricontinental, the ANSWER Coalition and the Party for Socialism and Liberation have all been key players supporting the Communist Party of Cuba and developed close relationships with Cuba and its state institutions. Gonzalez has written specifically about that intersection.
A second witness, Jamestown Foundation senior fellow Matthew Johnson, brings expertise on the Chinese Communist Party. Johnson specializes in China’s elite politics, strategic thinking, technology policy and the party-state’s control over China’s financial sector and private economy. His research has examined the relationship between CCP ideology, propaganda, political control and China’s technology strategy.
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Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., questioned a State Department official who said the Biden administration was trying to make maps “more gay.” (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
The third witness, Lyman, has investigated another front of the same battle: the campaign against America’s AI and data-center infrastructure. Lyman co-authored research identifying the Singham network, and particularly the Party for Socialism and Liberation, as a significant force in protests against data centers around the country. His research identified 21 campaigns across 14 states and calculated that about $23.6 billion in proposed AI and data-center investment had been delayed, reduced or blocked in campaigns in which the Party for Socialism and Liberation was a significant mobilizing force.
The research described a broader information environment in which Chinese state media criticized the environmental and economic effects of American data centers while Beijing subsidized the expansion of its own AI infrastructure. Lyman has argued that legitimate debate over AI safety, energy use and data-center construction should be insulated from influence by geopolitical competitors seeking an advantage over the United States.
House Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., has described the organizations as part of a “foreign-aligned influence network” and is investigating whether some tax-exempt groups are functioning as agents of foreign interests. His committee recently issued subpoenas to the People’s Forum, Tricontinental and BreakThrough BT Media after months of seeking records about their funding, foreign contacts and relationships with Singham. The organizations refused to produce documents in response to the subpoenas, saying they were the targets of a “witch hunt.”
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Digital’s Reagan Schroeder contributed to this report.
