MAGA Hardliner Indiana Sen. Jim Banks Lashes Out at Trump Goon Howard Lutnick Over Jensen Huang Spy Sex Scandal
One of the president’s closest allies is under fire, even within the Republican Party.
A Trump-backed Republican senator has thrown the president’s commerce secretary into the firing line following tech billionaire Jensen Huang’s sex scandal.
Indiana Sen. Jim Banks has asked Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to testify before Congress “as soon as possible” regarding his role in helping Nvidia circumvent legislation to sell its chips to Chinese companies.
“Now we know that the Department of Commerce, Secretary Lutnick, appears to have used loopholes to allow some of these chip sales, even though President Trump has directed his administration and the Department of Commerce not to allow that to happen,” Banks, 47, told Fox News’ John Roberts on Thursday.
Lutnick is under fire for his role in allowing Nvidia to sell its AI chips to Chinese companies.
KENT NISHIMURA/AFP via Getty Images
He continued: “Not only do I hope that Jensen Huang will come and testify, but I would like Secretary Lutnick, as soon as possible, to come and testify before the Senate Banking Committee, because we have a lot of bipartisan questions and concerns about what has happened over the last year that would allow some of these problems to continue to occur – with the chips being exported, it seems, defying President Trump’s orders to stop these exports.”
Banks, who supported Trump’s 2020 election plots while serving as an Indiana congressman, introduced the bipartisan AI OVERWATCH Act in May, co-sponsored by Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
The junior senator from Indiana, whom Trump supported in 2024, also campaigned on removing from office incumbents who voted against the president’s redistricting efforts.
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
“Jensen Huang’s decision to resign from NVIDIA does not absolve him, other executives, or the company as a whole of responsibility for putting our national security at risk or any potential violations of our laws,” Warren wrote in an X article on Thursday. “They still owe Congress answers.”
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Despite their political differences, Banks told Fox News that he completely agreed with Warren’s statement.
The Massachusetts senator said neither Huang nor his company would skirt accountability.
“I disagree with Senator Warren on 99.9 percent of the issues raised on Capitol Hill, but this is the area where we strongly agree and are working together,” he told Roberts.
The Daily Beast reached out to the Commerce Department and the Banking Bureau for comment.
Senior White House officials are deciding whether to fire Lutnick, 65, amid concerns that US national security has been compromised following former Nvidia CEO Huang’s scandal.
Huang has led the chip titan for three decades.
Republican and Democratic lawmakers criticized the Commerce secretary for government oversight of Nvidia’s exports to China and the administration’s refusal to add dozens of Chinese companies to a U.S. trade blacklist.
Huang, 63, admitted on Sunday to having an extramarital affair with a Singapore-based Megaspeed executive, Alice Huang. US intelligence identified Huang, who is not related to the billionaire tech founder, as a suspected Chinese spy.
Huang admitted to having an affair with Alice Huang, who U.S. intelligence identified as a suspected Chinese spy.
Obtained by Reuters/Reuters
On Thursday, Huang resigned as chairman and CEO of Nvidia after learning he had another affair with company executive Kimberly Powell. Reuters reported later on Thursday that Huang had a third affair with another unnamed Nvidia employee.
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