Democrats have asked Nvidia President and CEO Jensen Huang to appear before Congress to answer questions about his relationship with a woman who U.S. intelligence agencies reportedly determined was collecting intelligence for China, a top Democrat said Tuesday.

The move is the latest development in an investigation that is expected to focus, in part, on what Trump knew about China’s alleged spying on Huang.

“We’ve asked Huang to appear,” Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., who is expected to become the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, told MS NOW.

The move came as the top Democrats on the Senate and House Foreign Affairs committees called for a full investigation into how Trump and other members of his administration handled the case.

Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., said he would subpoena Jeff Kessler, a Trump Commerce Department political appointee who, The New York Times reported, had communicated with Nvidia about the department investigating the woman’s company for potentially smuggling advanced Nvidia artificial intelligence chips to China. Kessler did not respond to the Times’ requests for comment.

“Absolutely,” Meeks said Tuesday on CNN when asked if he would ask Kessler to testify. “And this is why oversight is extremely important and not just rubber-stamping what a president wants.”

Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said in a post Monday on X that the Senate would investigate as well.

“I’m pushing to investigate Jensen Huang and Nvidia to determine whether our national security was compromised,” Coons said. “We need answers about the relationship between AI billionaires and the Trump administration, who’s making these decisions, and who’s really got their hand on the wheel.”

Huang has apologized for having an affair. Nvidia says it is investigating the alleged spy allegations and has found no reason to believe U.S. national security or company secrets were compromised. The Chinese government has called the allegations a “smear.”

Trump told reporters Monday that Huang told him he did not know the woman he was having an affair with was giving information to the Chinese government. Trump called Huang an “honorable guy” and a “high-quality person.” Asked about how the Trump administration handled information about the alleged spying, a White House spokesperson referred MS NOW to Trump’s comments and said, “These sources have no idea what they’re talking about.”

Five former senior U.S. intelligence and national security officials told MS NOW they have questions about the administration’s handling of the investigation.

Alan Kohler, the former head of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division, which investigates such cases, said the Huang case raises a key question about what the government knew and what it did with that knowledge.

Kohler, whose 27-year FBI career focused on counterintelligence and national security, said the bureau routinely reaches out to brief Americans who are unwittingly in contact with someone U.S. officials assess to be associated with a foreign intelligence service.

He said the decision whether to approach an American in that position depends on several factors, including the nature of the relationship, the sensitivity of the source providing the information and the potential effect on any investigation or intelligence operation.

“If the government was aware of the contact, there could be legitimate reasons not to notify Huang and Nvidia,” Kohler told MS NOW. “But it would be inconceivable that notification wasn’t considered.”

David Laufman, who ran the Justice Department’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section from 2014 to 2018, said it is standard practice for FBI agents to give Americans who are unwittingly interacting with foreign spies “defensive briefings” that warn them of the danger. Huang, according to The New York Times, has not received a defensive briefing.

Huang “sits atop one of the most important companies in one of the most important industries,” Laufman told MS NOW. The possibility Huang would not have received a defensive briefing, Laufman said, “to me, that is inexplicable and remarkable.”

Laufman said the Trump White House appears to not be following a practice adopted by recent Republican and Democratic administrations. A memo, commonly referred to as the “White House contacts memo,” regulates what the Justice Department may share with the White House.

Laufman said the goal of the arrangement is to prevent political concerns from affecting national security and law enforcement investigations.

“We don’t want political judgments to intrude on professional intelligence, national security and law enforcement judgements,” he said.

Glenn Gerstell, who served as the general counsel of the National Security Agency from 2015 to 2020, said Huang’s knowledge of advanced chips and Trump’s views would be of “immense strategic value” to China.

“The White House’s full thinking on AI regulation and microchip regulation,” Gerstell said. “It’s hard to think of an area that is going to be more fundamentally important to our economy and national security.”

Gerstell said it would be in Trump’s interest to minimize the incident. “No president wants to find out that someone he’s relying on is sleeping with a Chinese spy,” he said.

A former senior FBI official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive law enforcement matters, praised U.S. intelligence agencies for detecting the woman’s ties with China’s spy agency.

“I think the intelligence community did a great job,” the former senior FBI official said. “The institutions were working perfectly. It’s what happened after that that is concerning.”

Nvidia’s board of directors said Sunday that it was initiating an “independent investigation” of Huang being the target of a foreign intelligence effort. Several of the former officials said it will not be enough for Nvidia to investigate the incident on its own. “I really don’t trust Nvidia to investigate Nvidia,” the former senior FBI official said.

“Maybe he didn’t do anything wrong, but it needs to be investigated,” the former official added, referring to Huang. “You’re not talking about a regular company. You’re talking about a company that is central to the security of the United States.”

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From MS Now.