Blanche Says Alice Huang Has Not Been Established as a Spy

Attorney General Todd Blanche said Thursday that the Justice Department has not established Alice Huang as a Chinese spy. Alice Huang is the businesswoman reported to have had an affair with Jensen Huang, then Nvidia’s chief executive. Blanche said the department has reached no conclusion about who she is. He also said he has no concerns about the Commerce Department, led by Secretary Howard Lutnick.

A reporter asked when the department learned that Alice Huang “might be a suspected Chinese asset,” and whether Blanche shared concerns that Commerce had shown “favoritism” to Nvidia and to Megaspeed, her company. “Your first question assumes something that I have never said and that I don’t know to be true,” Blanche said. “I have not, nobody said that, I certainly haven’t said that.” He added that “of course” investigators were examining the matter. “There’s no conclusions reached by the Department of Justice or by me or by Director Patel around who she is or is not.” On Commerce, he said, “I don’t have concerns with the Commerce Department,” and, “the answer to your question is no, I don’t have any concerns.”

The comments came the same day Nvidia announced that Jensen Huang had resigned as president, chief executive and a board member, and named Colette Kress as interim CEO. On Nov. 8, Huang told employees he had been unfaithful to his wife and was “deeply sorry,” Reuters reported. The New York Times first reported in October that he had a relationship with Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed, an Nvidia cloud partner. Later accounts said U.S. intelligence officials believed she was working for Chinese intelligence. Beijing has denied that she is a spy.

A CNN report published Thursday said the intelligence gathered so far does not prove she was acting as a spy for Beijing, and that officials remain split. CNN reported that the FBI inquiry is at least a year old. President Donald Trump, asked later Thursday whether Huang should have resigned, said, “The big thing is, was the woman a spy? And I don’t know if that’s been determined yet.”

Lutnick has drawn bipartisan questions over Nvidia chip sales. Axios reported this week that he was sent a classified memo warning about Jensen Huang’s relationship with Alice Huang. A Lutnick spokeswoman told NBC News on Thursday that the secretary had agreed to appear voluntarily before the Senate Banking Committee. The White House said Trump “maintains complete confidence” in him.

Kacee R. Allen shared a clip of Blanche’s answers in a post on X at 4:13 p.m. EST on Thursday. The video was first posted by journalist Aaron Rupar.

Commentary: Kacee R. Allen

As usual, Todd Blanche is circling the wagons. He is President Trump’s former personal lawyer, and he now runs the Justice Department. In my view, he did everything possible to slow-walk the release of the Epstein files, which drew months of criticism while he was in charge of it. Now he is saying the department has reached “no conclusions” about Alice Huang, the woman reported to have had an affair with the Nvidia chief executive and earlier described as a suspected Chinese intelligence asset. When he was asked about the Commerce Department, he said he has no concerns at all.

Howard Lutnick has been the subject of one controversy after another in this administration. Reporting has raised questions about how he has described his association with Jeffrey Epstein, after documents showed a business investment and a family lunch on Epstein’s island. Lutnick has denied wrongdoing. Now he is in the middle of this Nvidia chip scandal, and Blanche was quick to dismiss it.

Editor’s note: The Network transcribed Blanche’s remarks from the video in Allen’s post, first posted by Aaron Rupar, and checked them against Reuters and Anadolu Agency. Huang’s resignation was confirmed from Nvidia’s announcement. Other reporting came from Reuters, CNN (via KITV), Axios, NBC News, CBS News, and PBS NewsHour. The Senate confirmed Blanche as attorney general on Aug. 8, 2026. He did not say Jensen Huang “was not blackmailed,” and he did not name Lutnick in the clip. Allen’s commentary is his opinion. No interviews were conducted for this story.