FBI Probes LA Riots

FBI head Kash Patel says his bureau is taking a closer look at the Los Angeles riots and who is funding them. 

“The FBI is investigating any and all monetary connections responsible for these riots,” Patel told The Epoch Times in response to rising concerns about possible Chinese influence behind the chaos.

One group backing the unrest is the Party for Socialism and Liberation, a communist political group linked to networks funded by pro-Beijing tech tycoon Neville Roy Singham.

The group has been posting updates about the riots on social media platform X, describing the arrests of illegal immigrants as a “war being waged on immigrant communities” while accusing Immigration and Customs Enforcement of “kidnapping our neighbors, friends, and families.”

Singham is also a financial backer of The People’s Forum, a pro-Communist China mouthpiece. 

The People’s Forum has openly commented about its financing source and its ideological stance.

“Yes, we stand with Palestine. Yes, we oppose the US war drive on Russia and China.” 

“And yes, for the 1000th time, TPF has received donations from our friend Roy Singham, a former Black Panther and life-long socialist, who had a bank account at Goldman Sachs,” the group wrote in one January 2024 Instagram post.

The two organizations have been cross-posting on the social media site X in solidarity with the rioters. Both have been calling for more protests in their respective locales.

The People’s Forum, in an X post on the afternoon of June 10, asked people to gather in Manhattan’s Foley Square at 5 p.m. to “demand ICE get out of our communities.” 

An attached poster showed the Party for Socialism and Liberation, as well as Code Pink—an anti-war activist group that Singham’s wife, Jodi Evans, co-founded—as event endorsers.

Evans began a campaign called “China Is Not Our Enemy” through Code Pink in 2020. One member of her group in March disrupted a February 2023 hearing by the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, waving a banner with the campaign’s slogan. 

The networks’ Chinese ties have received growing attention in Congress.

In April, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) wrote to Attorney General Pam Bondi and Patel, urging them to assess whether The People’s Forum and Code Pink should register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act due to their alleged ties to Beijing.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) on June 10 said the House Oversight Committee, on which  she serves, will issue a formal document request to Singham regarding “his funding of a communist group linked to the LA riots and the CCP.”

Rep. Luna said she was willing to subpoena Singham if necessary and would involve the Department of Justice if he refused to appear.

—Eva Fu, Stacy Robinson

BOOKMARKS

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—Stacy Robinson