Former US senator Joe Lieberman’s work for China’s ZTE

An ethics watchdog group urged the Department of Justice to investigate former Sen. Joe Lieberman’s work on behalf of the Chinese telecom firm ZTE to determine whether he must register as a foreign agent.

Lieberman filed as a lobbyist last month for ZTE, which is facing scrutiny over alleged national security threats its products pose to the US. Under federal law, lobbyists for foreign commercial clients are exempted from the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA.

Lieberman registered as a lobbyist for ZTE last month, but told Politico at the time that he wouldn’t actually be doing any lobbying for the company. Instead, he said he would be performing an independent national security assessment of ZTE’s goods.