Curtis Hertel has Disqualified Himself from Congress

Curtis Hertel, Jr., a political insider who served 22-years in elected office before becoming Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s chief lobbyist, and Democratic candidate for Congress, has disqualified himself from serving in Congress by acting as an agent for a Chinese-controlled company.

As a member of the Senate Democratic leadership, Hertel and his chief of staff signed Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDA) to secretly negotiate with Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-controlled company Gotion. The negotiations to give Gotion $175 million in direct cash payments from Michigan taxpayers, in addition to hundreds of millions in other taxpayer-funded incentives, for building an electric vehicle manufacturing facility just 72 miles from Camp Grayling, a U.S. military base that provides training to the Taiwan military.

Then-Senator Hertel signed the NDA along with other legislators to hide the deal from their colleagues in the state legislature, who voted to approve the funding. The funding came from a Whitmer-created program, SSDI/SSI, Outreach, Access, and Recovery (SOAR), designed to provide billions in taxpayer money to global corporations to purse Whitmer’s economic priorities. When the SOAR package came to the floor, policymakers were unaware that the beneficiaries had already been chosen by Hertel and his friends.

Whitmer appointed Hertel as her chief lobbyist after he was termed out and he worked to get the final steps of the funding approved by his former colleagues, using the revolving door to work as an agent of Gotion and against the interests of Michigan taxpayers.

“The only NDA I’ve ever signed was for my security clearance as a soldier in the United States Army,” said Tom Barrett, a 22-year veteran. “It is incredible that an elected official whose job is to work for the American taxpayers, was instead operating as an agent of a CCP-controlled company, and against the interests of the United States.”

It was also revealed that Hertel received financial support from Gotion’s registered foreign agent, as revealed in the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) filings, required of any American individual or company working on behalf of a foreign interest.

“In Congress, I will co-sponsor legislation like Congressman John Moolenaar’s bill, HR 6175, the No Official Giveaways Of Taxpayers’ Income to Oppressive Nations (NO GOTION) Act, which would disqualify companies based in China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia from receiving green energy production tax credits established in the IRA, which will come before the House this week,” continued Barrett. “Americans should not have to wonder if their elected leaders are working for them or our foreign adversaries and Curtis Hertel’s actions have effectively disqualified him from serving.”

Chinese operatives have been working to infiltrate themselves into every echelon of American government. Just last month, a former top aide to New York Governor Kathy Hochul, was arrested for working as an agent of the Chinese government.

Links

• Hertel’s signed NDA

• Hertel’s chief of staff’s signed NDA

• Gotion’s foreign agent FARA filing

• Gotion’s agent’s political donation to Hertel

Last year, The Detroit News also revealed that Hertel used his position as Whitmer’s lobbyist to secure $1.5 million in taxpayer funding for a politically-connected non-profit in exchange for a $108,000 contract working for them a day later.

Learn more about Hertel’s corruption at www.corruptcurtishertel.com.