Former US ambassador to Japan and Senator-elect says Jon Ossoff 'may be a security risk'

Republican Senator-elect Bill Hagerty, the former US ambassador to Japan, suggested that Democratic Georgia Senate candidate Jon Ossoff "may be a security risk" due to his investments in a Chinese Community Party-connected firm, Breitbart reports.

Ossoff recently submitted an amendment to a financial statement for the Senate stating that a film company he invested in, Insight TWI, received over $5,000 in investments from a company called PCCW. The company is partially owned by China Unicom, who's CEO is a member of the CCP and who's chairman openly opposes Hong Kong's sovereignty.

Ossoff also did not file the payments until July, neglecting to include them in his May filings when he had not yet won the Democratic Senate primary race. The Ossoff campaign attributed this omission to a "paperwork oversight." He also told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the payment was only $1,000, significantly lower than the actual payment.

Hagerty, who's ambassadorship allowed him to build a campaign in part on his experience in East Asia, condemned the transaction, comparing it to the recent scandal surrounding Eric Swalwell developing a close relationship with a Chinese spy.

"China has proven that it will brazenly leverage any relationship they can to gain influence in our country — and Jon Ossoff is a perfect target for them," Hagerty asserted. "Eric Swalwell’s relationship with a suspected Communist spy shows just how vulnerable some congressional Democrats are to Chinese influence."

"Ossoff has already worked for a Chinese communist government-backed company as a private citizen and taken payments from them," Hagerty also said. "Payments that he hid from the public."

The campaign of David Perdue, the incumbent GOP Senator facing Ossoff in the runoff election, also criticized the revelation, with campaign spokesman John Burke arguing that Ossoff's "shifting explanations for his relationship to the Chinese communist government raise even more questions for the scandal-plagued candidate"

Ossoff, however, has dismissed the criticism as "one of the most laughable smear campaigns in Georgia history." The campaign insists that PCCW only purchased the rights to air one of Insight TWI's films about atrocities committed by ISIS.

The race between Ossoff and Perdue is one of two Georgia Senate elections which are set to take place on Jan 5. The winner of both will decide which party controls the Senate at the beginning of the next Congressional session, with Democrats needing to win both in order to secure the lower chamber.