The Department of Justice announced an eight-count indictment against Gal Luft, a former Israeli army officer and sought-after House Oversight Committee witness. Luft recently came forward to allege that he had evidence of the Biden family's involvement in bribery and payments connected to Chinese military intelligence.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York said in a statement that Luft "willfully" failed to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Additionally, Luft has been charged with "arms trafficking, Iranian sanctions violations, and making false statements to federal agents."
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In a 14-minute video, filmed in an undisclosed location on Wednesday and published by the New York Post, Luft insisted any claims against him were entirely false.
"I volunteered to inform the U.S. government about potential security breach and about compromising information about a man vying to be the next president and now being hunted by the very same people who I informed," he said in a video last week.
U.S. Attorney announces charges against co-director of think tank for acting as an unregistered foreign agent, trafficking in arms, violating U.S. sanctions against Iran, and making false statements to federal agentshttps://t.co/FRMpiq1bV7
— US Attorney SDNY (@SDNYnews) July 10, 2023
Luft added, "Let me be clear: I am not a Republican or a Democrat. I have no political motive or agenda. I did it out of deep concern that if the Bidens were to come to power, the country would be facing the same traumatic Russia collusion scandal — only this time, it would be China. Sadly, because of the DOJ’s cover-up, this is exactly what happened," Luft said.
The Israel professor said he was arrested in Cypress to stop him from testifying before congressional committees regarding bribery allegations against the Biden family.
“I warned the government about potential risk to the integrity of the 2020 elections. … Ask yourself, who is the real criminal in this story?” he said.
He called himself “patient zero of the Biden family investigation."
Luft said he wanted the minutes from the March 2019 Brussels meeting where he revealed key information about the Biden family to a delegation of six federal officials to be released.
In his 14-minute video last week, he alleged that one of the federal agents who had met him in March 2019 was also the same FBI agent Joshua Wilson who signed the subpoena for and seized Hunter Biden's laptop. In November 2019, Wilson got the device number of the MacBook Pro and determined it was Biden's by matching it to his Apple ID and iCloud account, according to the Daily Mail.
"They had enough time to investigate the issue but they didn't," he said.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) was preparing to interview Luft as a “potential witness” in the Biden family inquiry, and then the key witness disappeared "without a trace."
"He told multiple lies about his crimes to law enforcement," the DOJ said in a statement on Monday. "LUFT conspired with others in an effort to act within the United States to advance the interests of the People’s Republic of China as agents of China-based principals."
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The DOJ maintains that Luft "conspired with others and attempted to broker illicit arms transactions with, among others, certain Chinese individuals and entities."
Luft said he "may have to live on the run for the rest of my life."