Capitol Police escorted CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin and two fellow activists out of a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee hearing on covert foreign influence, roughly thirty minutes after they sat down wearing T-shirts supporting Iran and Cuba.
The September 15 hearing, titled "Trojan Horses: Covert Foreign Malign Influence Operations in America," was supposed to focus on how U.S. adversaries funnel money and messaging through American activist groups. Benjamin's presence turned it into a live demonstration of the very dynamic lawmakers had gathered to examine. Subcommittee Chairman Bill Huizenga, a Michigan Republican, briefly suspended proceedings as officers approached the three women at approximately 2:39 p.m. and asked them to leave.
The committee clerk had determined the T-shirts constituted a protest. Huizenga explained the decision on the record.
"We do have some folks who have not verbally disrupted the committee as of yet. This has been deemed to be a protest by the clerk because of the nature of the shirts and what is happening."
Benjamin complied but protested as she left. Outside the hearing room, she filmed a video, then chased Rep. Randy Fine, a Florida Republican, as he exited, with her team recording the pursuit. Fine entered an office. By 4:38 p.m., CodePink had posted a 43-second edited clip of the encounter to social media, and far-left activists from what witnesses described as the broader Singham network shared it further.
Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, the California Democrat serving as ranking member, objected to the removal, saying the activists were "exercising their freedom of speech by wearing T-shirts" and "certainly were not being disruptive."
The hearing's central target was not Benjamin herself but the money trail behind her organization. Huizenga used his opening remarks to name Neville Roy Singham, a U.S. tech tycoon who lives in Shanghai, as the key figure in a covert influence pipeline. Fox News Digital has reported that Singham has funneled an estimated $278 million into a network of far-left groups operating on American soil.
Huizenga laid out the accusation directly:
"A prominent example of these adversary efforts is Neville Roy Singham, who lives in China and uses his wealth and relationships with the CCP to provide millions of dollars and personnel to extremist groups like CodePink, the People's Forum, and the Party for Socialism and Liberation to destabilize American society and promote communist ideology."
No criminal charges have been filed against Singham or the organizations in connection with the allegations. Singham has said he is guided by his own political beliefs.
But the dollar amounts attached to specific groups drew attention. Fox News Digital's investigation found CodePink received $1.33 million from Singham. The People's Forum, described as a hub for pro-communist organizing in New York City, received $22.44 million. Tricontinental, a Massachusetts-based think tank led by Singham associate Vijay Prashad, received $16.76 million. BreakThrough BT Media, a platform witnesses described as amplifying narratives aligned with Beijing, received $1.098 million.
Four witnesses testified. The first Republican witness, Heritage Foundation senior fellow Mike Gonzalez, had already made headlines before the hearing started. He confronted Benjamin in the hearing room in what was described as a tense back-and-forth. Gonzalez told reporters afterward why he engaged her.
"I'm telling Medea Benjamin that she should try to stop shilling for a communist tyranny."
During his testimony, Gonzalez described what he called a "red-green" alliance, far-left groups and Islamist organizations working in coordination. He pointed to Cuba and China influence operations and cited research showing that Singham shares premises in Shanghai with Maku Cultural Communication, a Chinese firm that promotes a favorable image of China. Gonzalez also noted that Singham was photographed in 2023 attending a Chinese Communist Party strategic communications workshop.
Matthew Johnson, a senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation, a Washington think tank, described the Singham network as an intermediary layer that translates Beijing-associated themes into activist language tailored for American audiences. He identified the People's Forum, BreakThrough News, Tricontinental, CodePink, and the ANSWER Coalition as parts of a broader ecosystem.
Johnson framed the mechanism in plain terms:
"Beijing cannot simply command an American university, company, journalist, think tank or activist. It must gain access and cultivate relationships within institutions that shape perception, expertise and decision-making."
Sam Lyman, head of research at the Bitcoin Policy Institute, presented the network as operating through three overlapping channels: Chinese state media and online campaigns, Singham-funded nonprofits, and the Party for Socialism and Liberation, a Marxist-Leninist organization. Lyman's research identified 21 campaigns linked to the Party for Socialism and Liberation across 14 states. He testified that Singham-funded groups echoed Chinese messaging on artificial intelligence, data centers, and U.S. technology policy, though he cautioned that opposition to data centers is not entirely manufactured.
Donald Sherman, president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, testified as the Democratic minority's witness. Rather than address the Singham network, Sherman used his opening remarks to criticize President Trump for accepting a plane for Air Force One from Qatar and to raise concerns about Trump family business dealings with foreign nations. The contrast in focus between the majority and minority witnesses was stark: three witnesses laid out an alleged foreign influence pipeline running through American activist groups, while the fourth redirected attention to the sitting president.
After the hearing, Huizenga spoke to Fox News Digital about why groups like CodePink show up to hearings examining their own funding. He described the pattern not as genuine advocacy but as a fundraising engine.
"It's really about theatrics. They're using it not to affect policy, but really to enrich themselves because they use that then to go out on social media, to try to whip other people up, to help donations, to help get volunteers, help get some of those other folks, and to really try to go and disrupt our, not just our sense of government and processing government, but society."
The pattern played out in real time. Benjamin was ejected, filmed herself outside the hearing room, chased a congressman, and had a polished video clip circulating within two hours. Soon after the Foreign Affairs hearing, CodePink published videos of members disrupting a separate House Financial Services Committee hearing to heckle Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
Before the hearing, Benjamin refused to answer questions from Fox News Digital about Singham's funding of CodePink. She described herself as "anti-war" and denied taking direction from the Chinese Communist Party. CodePink has denied taking direction from the Chinese government. The U.S. Treasury Department is separately investigating CodePink and other organizations for possibly violating restrictions on doing business with the Communist Party of Cuba.
Huizenga framed the broader stakes in his opening remarks:
"We are here today because America's adversaries, China, Cuba, Iran, and Russia, are conducting covert influence campaigns to shape American thought and society through lies and censorship. These countries have one shared goal: to weaken the United States of America."
When a foreign adversary's money flows through American nonprofits, lands in American streets, and shows up wearing a slogan T-shirt in the very hearing room investigating that money, the case for oversight makes itself.
