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. Fox News 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 Fox News 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.
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 Fox News 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, Fox News 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 Fox News 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. Bill Huizenga, R-Mich., chairs the South and Central Asia subcommittee, while Rep.
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