First posted on Instagram · @profilopolitics
President Donald Trump said on Monday that he does not recall reading a classified memo in which Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned senior administration officials that Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang was involved with a woman American intelligence believes was a Chinese spy.
Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said the warning may have been mentioned to him but that it made little impression. "I would certainly check with the intelligence people. It could have been mentioned. Certainly, it didn't make much of an impact on me," he said.
Trump said he had personally questioned Huang about the association. "He said, 'I had no idea she was a spy', and I really believe him," the president said. He has described Huang as an honourable man and said he probably has an excuse for it. Asked on Sunday whether he regretted not acting on the allegations earlier, Trump said he had no remorse.
The memo, overseen by Rubio and based on electronic surveillance, was circulated in May among a small group of senior officials with high-level security clearances, shortly before Trump's trip to China to meet President Xi Jinping. It warned that Huang was in a close relationship with Alice Huang, also known as Huang Le, a Chinese citizen and former senior executive at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based chip buyer, whom American intelligence had concluded was recruited by China's Ministry of State Security to collect intelligence on the Nvidia chief. Alice Huang is no relation to Jensen Huang.
The New York Times, which first reported the memo on Sunday, also reported that Trump had been briefed nearly a year earlier that American intelligence services had electronically surveilled Alice Huang over suspicions she was spying for Beijing. The Financial Times first reported the memo's contents on November 7.
Huang was initially left off the list of business leaders invited to accompany Trump to Beijing in May. He received a last-minute phone call from the president and boarded Air Force One during a layover in Alaska for the final leg of the trip.
Nvidia's board of directors announced on Sunday that it had opened an independent investigation into Huang's ties to the alleged spy. The board said it had "no reason to believe that either national security or Nvidia secrets were compromised." Huang admitted the affair to employees on November 8 and apologised to his family, colleagues and shareholders. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is examining his association with Alice Huang.
Trump has authorised Nvidia to supply its H200 artificial intelligence chips to Beijing over the course of the year. He said Huang will not join his next visit to China. China's Foreign Ministry has rejected the espionage allegations as "groundless speculation" and an attempt to smear China.
Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton and CIA Director John Ratcliffe briefed the Gang of Eight — the top congressional intelligence leaders — for more than an hour on Monday.