Gorka's Dubious Past Includes Failing Hungary's National Security Test
Trump's Islamophobic foreign-policy adviser had a history聽of far-right dalliances in Europe after the fall of Communism.
Sebastian Gorka had already raised eyebrows as President Trump鈥檚 deputy assistant聽and one of his chief advisers on foreign policy聽due mainly to his long history of associations with , many of whom indulge in Islamophobic conspiracy theories. Numerous critics have argued that Gorka鈥檚 background from a White House post.
The scrutiny became intense in recent weeks due to revelations in the Jewish magazine that Gorka and his family had longstanding ties to a Hungarian nationalist society, Vit茅zi Rend, that was allied with Nazi forces during World War II, and had a history of anti-Semitic activity. The questions that Gorka could face an investigation over his immigration papers due to the revelations.
However, it seems that Gorka鈥檚 past includes other issues that raise questions about his role as a presidential adviser. According to Hungarian publications, Gorka failed to pass Hungary鈥檚 national-security test in 2002聽when he applied for a seat on a commission investigating the activities of the sitting prime minister.
Gorka, who was born in London to Hungarian parents and lived in Hungary from 1992 to 2008, during the 1990s tenure of J贸zsef Antall, the nation鈥檚 first post-Communist prime minister. He became active again in 2002 while attempting to join a parliamentary committee investigating the postwar activities of the new prime minister, Petr Medgyessy. Medgyessy had been an undercover officer in the Secret Police, the organization that had maintained the previous dictatorship and played a central role in crushing the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.
According to the Hungarian news site , Gorka was denied a spot on the committee after failing the national security test. According to the article, Gorka was member of the British army for three years and had excellent contacts with the British intelligence services, as well as with U.S. intelligence services; these connections may have been responsible for his failure to pass the test.
Gorka nonetheless played a prominent role in the Medgyessy inquiry, telling at the time: "Medgyessy makes these Alice-in-Wonderland claims that he was the only deep cover secret policeman who never spied on people, who rarely wrote reports and then only about the economy of Communist Hungary. It is patently clear that his account to us cannot be equated with reality, given the testimony of senior former secret police officers and the declassified documents from that time."
Gorka鈥檚 associations with Hungarian far-right elements remain murky. First, the Forward reported that Gorka in Hungary 鈥 especially during the period following his involvement with the Medgyessy investigation. Gorka鈥檚 involvement with the far right, the report said, 鈥渋ncludes co-founding a political party with former prominent members of Jobbik, a political party with a well-known history of anti-Semitism; repeatedly publishing articles in a newspaper known for its anti-Semitic and racist content; and attending events with some of Hungary鈥檚 most notorious extreme-right figures.鈥
A reported that Gorka had sworn a lifetime loyalty oath to the Hungarian pro-Nazi group Vit茅zi Rend.
Gorka initially issued a generic response: 鈥淚鈥檝e been a committed opponent of anti-Semitism, racism and totalitarianism all my life. Any suggestion otherwise is false and outrageous,鈥 Gorka said in a statement sent from the White House.
Later that week, he issued another statement: 鈥淚 have never been a member of the Vit茅zi Rend. I have never taken an oath of loyalty to the Vit茅zi Rend. Since childhood, I have occasionally worn my father鈥檚 medal and used the 鈥榲鈥 initial to honor his struggle against totalitarianism,鈥 Gorka .
In the meantime, James Lobe has been steadily reporting on Gorka鈥檚 background, including that Gorka鈥檚 mother at one time worked as translator for notorious Holocaust denier David Irving.
Additionally, the that Gorka attended a far-right convention led by Jobbik in 2007.
Gorka himself has dismissed all the allegations as partisan attacks on the Trump administration. In , he said: 鈥淥f course, the attacks we鈥檝e seen in the last month are outrageous and dishonest, but I don鈥檛 really take it personally. These attacks aren鈥檛 about me, really; they鈥檙e about making sure that the American people don鈥檛 get the policies they resoundingly voted for.鈥
He added: 鈥淲e鈥檝e come to a place, unfortunately, where elements of the media are waging a scorched earth campaign against the president by trying to throw everything they have at anyone associated with his administration. 鈥 And in the end, as the son of parents who survived the Nazi takeover of Hungary and then the nightmare of Communism, these attacks have no power over me.鈥