The Democrat challenger to Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik has represented the Chinese Communist Party-run media outlet China Daily in a 2019 lawsuit.
The Washington Free Beacon unearthed Stefanik challenger Matthew Putorti’s ties to the state-run outlet – which provides a steady flow of Chinese Communist Party propaganda and anti-American op-eds. China Daily, owned and operated by the Chinese government’s Publicity Department, is also a registered foreign agent in the U.S.
Putorti has registered under the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) to represent other clients including the Qatari government. He doesn’t appear to have registered his work for the Chinese state-run outlet.
An attorney at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, Putorti was the sole representative of the firm’s China Daily litigation on the issue of a 2019 copyright complaint filed by an American photographer. “This action arises out of Defendant’s unauthorized reproduction and public display of a copyrighted photograph NBA Dallas Mavericks basketball player Dingyan Yuhang, owned and registered by Albert Pena, a professional photographer,” a case summary notes.
Putorti’s firm also maintains a robust China practice.
“Putorti’s firm does extensive work with the Chinese—the firm has three offices in China and devotes an entire section on its website—a great deal of which is written in Mandarin—to its status as a “first choice” law firm for Chinese executives. The website advertises its attorneys’ “cultural sensitivity and experience” working on complex international transactions that benefit Chinese companies,” the Free Beacon notes.
