Gal Luft's Links to Member of Donald Trump Team Revealed in Indictment

The head of a U.S. think tank who has been charged with acting as an unregistered agent of China was linked to a former top CIA official who worked on Donald Trump's 2016 campaign team, it has been revealed.

Gal Luft is co-director of the Maryland-based Institute for the Analysis of Global Security. He has been charged with allegedly brokering deals involving weapons and Iranian oil with high-ranking U.S government officials without registering as a foreign agent.

Luft was previously believed to be a key figure in House Republicans' probe into the Biden family's alleged corrupt foreign business dealings, although was reported "missing" by GOP figures. Prosecutors have said that Luft was arrested on February 17, but subsequently fled after being released on bail and remains a fugitive.

One of the officials whom Luft is accused of covertly attempting to "recruit and pay, on behalf of principals based in China" was an adviser to the then President-elect Donald Trump, according to a 58-page indictment.

While he is not named in the indictment, the official is believed to be former CIA Director James Woolsey, who was a national security adviser to Trump during the 2016 election, reported the New York Post and The Messenger. Woolsey resigned from Trump's transition team just before the Republican took office at the White House in January 2017. There is no indication that Trump was aware of Luft's alleged offending at the time. Newsweek has contacted Trump's office for comment via email.

Elsewhere in the indictment, prosecutors say that Luft sent an email on September 12, 2016, to a person named only as CC-1, identified by The Washington Post's Aaron Blake as a "now-convicted Chinese oil exec" celebrating that Woolsey had joined Trump's team.

The email had the subject line "We nailed it!" and included a link to an article announcing that Woolsey was advising Trump on security, defense and intelligence.

On November 13, 2016, after Trump had defeated Hillary Clinton in the presidential election, Luft and the Chinese oil executive exchanged emails about the potential role Woolsey could have in the new administration.

Luft said that Woolsey was in line for a role with secretary of defense, or secretary of homeland security. In response, the oil executive wrote that "[t]his side would like to see [Woolsey] assuming something with a 'China' profile," while adding that director of national intelligence "would be good." Luft replied that that role for Woolsey is "most likely."

Later in the email chain, CC-1 wrote that "may be you could reserve his 'direct' China link as the weapon of last resort."

Woolsey is listed as an adviser on the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security website. Newsweek has contacted the IAGS for comment via email.

Prosecutors also accuse Luft of working to broker a deal for Chinese companies to provide military weapons and ammunition for Libya, the United Arab Emirates and Kenya.

"Gal Luft, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen and co-head of a Maryland think tank, engaged in multiple, serious criminal schemes," U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement.

"He subverted foreign agent registration laws in the United States to seek to promote Chinese policies by acting through a former high-ranking U.S. Government official; he acted as a broker in deals for dangerous weapons and Iranian oil; and he told multiple lies about his crimes to law enforcement.

"As the charges unsealed today reflect, our Office will continue to work vigorously with our law enforcement partners to detect and hold accountable those who surreptitiously attempt to perpetrate malign foreign influence campaigns here in the United States," Williams added.