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These details are wild, scary, and fascinating. Fascinating from the perspective of how easy it is for foreign governments on the other side of the world to try
by ajsharp 5y ago
These details are wild, scary, and fascinating. Fascinating from the perspective of how easy it is for foreign governments on the other side of the world to try to scare the shit out of US citizens by hiring some scumbag PI for probably as little as $5k.
> Beginning in September 2021, Lin hired a private investigator (the PI) in New York to disrupt the campaign of a Brooklyn resident currently running for U.S. Congress (the Victim), including by physically attacking the Victim. The Victim was a student leader of the pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square in 1989, who later escaped to the United States, served in the U.S. military, and became a naturalized U.S. citizen. In September 2021, the Victim (then living in Long Island) announced his intention to run for a U.S. congressional seat on Long Island in the November 2022 general election.
> In hiring the PI, Lin explained that if the Victim was selected during the June 2022 primary election, then he might be “elected to be a legislator. Right now we don’t want him to be elected.” Lin emphasized that, “Whatever price is fine. As long as you can do it.” He also promised that “we will have a lot more-more of this [work] in the future…Including right now [a] New York State legislator.” Lin explained to the PI that Lin was working with other unidentified individuals in the PRC to stop the Victim from being elected to U.S. Congress.
- AnimalMuppet 5y agoThat's considerably more than just "harassing a US resident".
- cwkoss 5y agoWe should all reflect on why this story is getting so little coverage in contrast to the 'Russian interference' narrative of 2017.
- AnimalMuppet 5y agoAt least partly because interfering with the election of the US president is quite a bit more significant than interfering with the election of one representative.
- kelnos 5y agoOn the flip side, though, I could easily see a government spend very little money (say, a couple hundred thousand dollars) to disrupt the campaigns of several tens of potential US Representatives. Given how things work in the House, a state actor could nudge things in the direction they want by disrupting a fairly small percentage of elections. Presidential election interference would seem to cost a lot more than that, and be a bit more difficult to hide.
- HWR_14 5y ago1) it was just published today 2) successfully rigging a presidential election is more significant than attempting to influence a congressional primary 3) these people were caught and prosecuted by the federal government, Russian interference was encouraged by the POTUS in 2017 (post Jan 20)
- mrtksn 5y agoBack in college, I did a bit of "spying" for foreign companies. Nothing bad spirited, of course. They simply wanted me to photograph the entrance of the offices of local companies they partner with to see if the local company is at the address they claim to be. It was a good pay for a very easy job. However, considering that Kim Jong-un's brother was killed at the airport by making a civilian to spray neurotoxin on him under the pretext of a camera joke, I don't see why foreign entities wouldn't be able to hire unsuspecting citizens to do shady stuff(that can be plausibly explained as jobs).
- jollybean 5y agoThe FBI needs to make it very public and clear that doing this for a foreign state results in a much higher penalty. Organised and pro criminal are not dumb. They know what brings the heat.