House Foreign Affairs Chairman Brian Mast (R-FL) is prepared to subpoena Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang if he doesn’t respond by Wednesday to a request from House Republicans for a closed-door briefing on his relationship with an alleged Chinese spy, Mast told ABC News on Tuesday.
As we previously noted, Mast, Rep. John Moolenaar (R-MI) and Rep. Rick Crawford (R-AR), who chair the Foreign Affairs, China Select and Intelligence committees, asked Huang last week to brief all three panels on Nov. 18 – the day after Nvidia reports third-quarter earnings – and gave him until Nov. 11 to accept or propose another date.
Separately, the New York Times reported that Secretary of State Marco Rubio briefed Trump on the intelligence about Huang aboard Air Force One in May, shortly before Huang joined the presidential trip to Beijing. That contradicts what Trump told reporters Monday when asked whether he knew about the relationship at the time: “No, I didn’t hear about it then.” The White House disputed the Times report on background without elaborating.
Trump, who returns to China next week, said Monday that Huang won’t be making that trip.