Sen. Dianne Feinstein is an excellent judge of character, except when she’s not.
Last fall, America learned Feinstein employed a spy for the Chinese government for two decades. Feinstein told the FBI she was unaware and promptly fired the man, who worked as her driver, without any consequences for either of them.
Now, the 86-year-old senator from California is weighing in on the character of a man President Trump appointed to fill a seat on the Ninth Circuit Court, and it seems Feinstein’s judgement hasn’t improved.
Fun fact: Dan Bress was an intern for…drumroll….Dianne Feinstein https://t.co/sai7yutAEM
— Garrett Ventry (@GarrettVentry) July 11, 2019
“I’m very disappointed the Daniel Bress nomination is moving forward to fill a California seat on the Ninth Circuit,” Feinstein, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, posted to Twitter on Tuesday. “Both @SenKamalaHarris and I objected to his lack of connections to our state. He’s not the right nominee for this lifetime position.”
Garrett Ventry, former spokesman for the Senate Judiciary Committee, then offered a little perspective.
“Fun fact: Dan Bress was an intern for … drumroll ….Dianne Feinstein,” Ventry wrote in response to Feinstein’s objections.
If true, the omission of that tidbit would mean Feinstein either intentionally withheld her personal connection with Bress or she’s simply unaware she once trusted him with her office’s important work.
Either way, the revelation isn’t exactly surprising after Feinstein’s prior problems with vetting public employees.
Feinstein was the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee about six years ago, when FBI agents informed her a longtime employee was working as a Chinese spy, reporting her business to the San Francisco consulate, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
“Dianne was mortified,” a source told the news site.
The source said the man worked as a liaison with the local Asian American community and attended Chinese Consulate functions on behalf of Feinstein, but was unwittingly recruited during a trip to Asia to visit family. The friend the Feinstein staffer met on the trip kept in touch, and reported directly to the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco.
“He didn’t even know what was happening – that he was being recruited,” the source told the Chronicle. “He just thought it was some friend.”
FBI officials reportedly concluded the man hadn’t divulged classified information and the issue disappeared. It wasn’t widely reported until 2018.
“They interviewed him, and Dianne forced him to retire, and that was the end of it,” the insider said.
“None of her staff ever knew what was going on,” the source said. “They just kept it quiet.”
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