A U.S. State Department foreign service officer has been fired after being caught on hidden camera admitting to a secret romantic relationship with the daughter of a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) affiliate — a connection he failed to disclose to U.S. security officials, according to statements released Wednesday.
The officer, identified as Daniel Choi, was terminated following an internal review ordered by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and approved by President Donald Trump, the department confirmed.
The decision came after footage surfaced from an O’Keefe Media Group (OMG) undercover investigation in which Choi acknowledged that his girlfriend’s father was “straight-up Communist Party” and that she “could have been a spy.”
“I defied my government for love,” Choi said in the secretly recorded video published by OMG, in which he discussed knowingly concealing the relationship from State Department officials despite being required to report any close personal contact with foreign nationals.