Joe Biden’s National Security Adviser Admits Your Tax Dollars Are Paying for the Upkeep of Seized Russian Yachts

President Joe Biden’s National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan revealed that the U.S. federal government is using taxpayer cash to maintain seized Russian yachts, according to a report from Insider. The accidental admission – caught on a “hot mic” – came during an event at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) on June 16th.

Sullivan – who many suspect is compromised by the Chinese Communist Party – was speaking with Richard Fontaine, chief executive officer of the CNAS, about the White House’s effort to seize Russian assets including yachts amidst the ongoing war in Ukraine when he made the remarks.

In a livestream video of the event uploaded to YouTube, which has since been deleted, the pair’s personal conversation before the publicized discussion portion of the CNAS was included.

Speaking moments before the beginning of an event at the Center for a New American Security on Thursday, Sullivan mentioned the ongoing Operation KleptoCapture, a Justice Department-led effort targeting Russian “elites, proxies, and oligarchs” with sanctions and civil and criminal asset seizures.

Sullivan appeared to reference the recent seizure of the Amadea, a 348-foot yacht owned by sanctioned Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov. The U.S. government moved to seize the yacht in early May and it sailed for the U.S. in early June, after Fiji’s supreme court authorized its seizure.

“I just wasn’t aware how many super yachts there were in the world,” Fontaine tells Sullivan on the recording. “I mean the size of these things, the value of these things is unbelievable.”

Sullivan responds, noting that “we have to pay for upkeep” in reference to the U.S. federal government:

“I know. It’s so ridiculous, but you know what the craziest thing is? When we seize one, we have to pay for upkeep.”

“The federal government pays for upkeep because under the kind of forfeiture rubric, so like some people are basically being paid to maintain Russian superyachts on behalf of the United States government,” he continues.

A spokesperson for the think tank called the takedown an “honest mistake” and it was later reposted without Sullivan’s private comments.

It is believed that the U.S. Marshals Service, which takes control of seized property, is running the maintenance operations with a network of private contractors.

Sullivan – now at the very heart of Joe Biden’s national security apparatus – has previously served at a number of Chinese Communist-linked entities including Yale’s Paul Tsai China Center and Harvard’s Belfer Center. Sullivan infamously once said he wanted to “encourage China’s rise,” and asserted that Al-Qaeda was “on our side.”

Reporting from The National Pulse.

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