Free Republic

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has paid Trump International Hotel nearly $270,000 through its Washington, D.C. lobbying firm over the past several months, new foreign lobbying disclosure filings show. The payments, from Qorvis MSLGroup, were made for hotel rooms and catering services for dozens of U.S. veterans who the lobbying firm recruited as part of an influence campaign aimed at watering down legislation that could put Saudi Arabia on the hook financially for the 9/11 attacks. Disclosures filed with the Justice Department under the Foreign Agents Registration Act show that Qorvis MSLGroup paid $190,272 to Trump International for lodging expenses,...

DC machine operator, Jack Burkman, who was contemplating the unthinkable prior to the unthinkable becoming a reality: Seismic panic has ensued on K Street as lobbying firms brace for a reality of a possible Donald Trump presidency and what that might mean for them and their futures. Prominent D.C. lobbyist Jack Burkman said today that he started assembling a delegation of lobbyists and lobbying firms to meet with the New York billionaire and begin building a bridge to the Trump organization. “Trump is a Washington outsider. We need the outreach now or Trump will bring in a whole new team...

On April 5, The New York Times published an op-ed by retired Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal headlined "Save PBS. It Makes Us Safer." McChrystal now runs a big lobbying firm, so that may be why he cares so much -- he's a gun for hire. So how does the general think PBS makes us safer? And from what are we safer? The answer: commercialism. Parents like his son and daughter-in-law "are busy in the morning and busy at night," he says. "They want to protect their children from over-commercialized content." This argument is bizarre -- actually, let's call it what...

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) - Maine’s full Legislature will consider making it a misdemeanor crime for lobbyists to lie or conceal a “material fact” while testifying to lawmakers. The Portland Press Herald reports (http://bit.ly/2nT72rM ) the State and Local Government Committee voted in favor of a revised version of the bill on Monday. The bill no longer includes members of the public, state workers and lawmakers.

The GOP establishment and their friends in the big business community are still trying to push amnesty for illegal immigrants, even after President Donald Trump’s victory. Breitbart’s Neil Munro reports: Business advocates who want to import more foreign consumers and more foreign workers are developing plans to counter President Donald Trump’s popular call for a merit-based immigration reform. The emerging strategy is to pair offers of minor concessions to Americans and Trump with demands for giveaways to business, including a bigger supply of low-wage workers and welfare-funded consumers. The immigration “pairing” strategy is being pushed by the industry-backed Business Policy...

The media targeted former Trump campaign manager, Paul Manafort, for consulting for deposed Ukrainian president’s (Yanukovich’s) Party of the Regions. He also worked for billionaire oligarch, Firtash, who stands accused of skimming billions in the Ukraine gas trade in league with Russian oligarchs. The media also singled out Trump’s former national security advisor, General Michael Flynn, for attending a dinner with Putin and appearing on Russia’s foreign propaganda network RT. Trump’s own Russian ties were the subject of intense media coverage of an unverified opposition-research report purportedly prepared by an ex-British spy, who remains in hiding. It seems no enterprising...

A group of nearly 100 prominent Iranian dissidents is demanding that Congress launch investigations into clandestine efforts by the Islamic Republic to influence U.S. policy using a network of lobbyists and propaganda pieces placed in Voice of America's Persian service, according to a letter sent to leading lawmakers and obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. The group of dissidents, composed of prominent Iranian voices that oppose the hardline regime in Tehran, says that Congress is not doing enough to expose the Iranian regime's lobbying efforts in D.C. and propaganda network, which is said to include some at VOA Persia. Iranian-American...

President Donald Trump signed a five year lobbying ban for administration officials Saturday afternoon in the Oval Office. The president was surrounded by several members of his administration including Kellyanne Conway, Vice President Mike Pence, Steve Bannon and Hope Hicks. The five year ban is something he spoke about frequently on the campaign trail. https://youtu.be/aaaJ27xkh5U

Most Americans cannot fathom how fundamentally earth-shattering the Donald Trump administrative architecture is to the professional political class. “It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than a new system. For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old institution and merely lukewarm defenders in those who gain by the new ones” ~ Niccolò Machiavelli

People serving in President-elect Donald Trump's administration will be banned from working as lobbyists for five years, Trump's transition team said Wednesday. "It goes back to Mr. Trump's goal of making sure people aren't using government to enrich themselves," said Sean Spicer, the Republican National Committee's chief strategist and a member of Trump's transition team. Spicer made the announcement on a media call, according to The Hill. The website reported everyone appointed to Trump's administration will sign a contract that said they are not currently working as a lobbyist and will not do so within five years of leaving the...

President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign promise to “drain the swamp” of Washington might make it difficult for him to fill all the jobs in his administration. Trump’s ethics plan would ban all executive-branch officials from lobbying for five years after leaving their government jobs — one of several policies aimed at curbing the influence of lobbyists. His campaign released his plan about three weeks before Election Day, and “drain the swamp” quickly became a favorite rallying cry and social media hashtag. The ban also applies to the transition team members charged with helping to find, vet and hire for the incoming...

Operation Drain the Swamp has begun. Vice President-elect Mike Pence reportedly ordered the removal of all lobbyists from president-elect Donald Trump's transition team.

Vice President-elect Mike Pence reportedly ordered the removal of all lobbyists from president-elect Donald Trump’s transition team, The Wall Street Journal wrote on Tuesday night.The decision was one of Pence’s first since formally taking over the team’s lead role. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was abruptly dismissed from the post last week.

Vice President-elect Mike Pence reportedly ordered the removal of all lobbyists from president-elect Donald Trump's transition team, The Wall Street Journal wrote on Tuesday night. The decision was one of Pence's first since formally taking over the team's lead role. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was abruptly dismissed from the post last week. Critics have excoriated Trump for including lobbyists, Washington insiders, and Republican Party veterans among his team, suggesting it contradicts the anti-establishment message that defined his campaign. "[Americans] do not want corporate executives to be the ones who are calling the shots in Washington," Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren...

WASHINGTON—Another round of staff changes buffeted President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team Tuesday amid resistance from within the Republican Party over a top choice for secretary of state. Vice President-elect Mike Pence formally signed documents that put him in charge of the transition team, and officials insisted the 10-week effort to build an administration is on schedule. In one of his first moves, Mr. Pence ordered the removal of all lobbyists from the transition team, said one transition team member with knowledge of the decisions. Earlier Tuesday, former Michigan Rep. Mike Rogers, once considered a candidate to lead the Central Intelligence...

Re: Foreign registered agents From:jpalmieri@hillaryclinton.com To: re47@hillaryclinton.com Date: 2015-04-17 01:38 Subject: Re: Foreign registered agents Take the money!! Sent from my iPhone On Apr 16, 2015, at 9:44 PM, Robby Mook wrote: Marc made a convincing case to me this am that these sorts of restrictions don't really get you anything...that Obama actually got judged MORE harshly as a result. He convinced me. So...in a complete U-turn, I'm ok just taking the money and dealing with any attacks. Are you guys ok with that? ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Dennis Cheng Date: Thu, Apr 16, 2015 at 6:13 PM Subject:...

This contains a analysis of John Podesta https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/87 It was obviously important enough to send it to him I will just number some highlights, but this is a good article worth reading in full. Secondary verification by google.com DKIM key Fwd: CLIP | Yahoo: Hillary moneyman highlights new Saudi connection From:slatham@hillaryclinton.com To: john.podesta@gmail.com Date: 2015-10-16 20:49 Subject: Fwd: CLIP | Yahoo: Hillary moneyman highlights new Saudi connection Hillary Clinton and Saudi Arabian Defense Minister Prince Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud prior to a State Department meeting in 2012. 2.The Saudi contract with the Podesta Group, owned by veteran Washington lobbyist...

Tony Podesta's firm failed to file legally required disclosures after emails with his WH adviser brother A high-dollar lobbyist and fundraiser for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign failed to file legally required disclosures for his advocacy on behalf of a foreign government in discussions with Clinton’s future campaign chairman, according to a political law expert. High-powered Democratic lobbyist Tony Podesta emailed his brother John, a top White House adviser who would later chair the Clinton campaign, in January 2015. Tony wondered if John would attend a meeting with the Indian ambassador to the United States. “I’m at Camp David Friday,” John...

The top fundraisers for Clinton include lobbyists who serve the parent companies of CNN and MSNBC. The National Association of Broadcasters, a trade group that represents the television station industry, has lobbyists who are fundraising for both Clinton and Republican candidate Marco Rubio. Presidential campaigns are obligated by law to send the Federal Election Commission a list of lobbyists who serve as “bundlers,” collecting hundreds of individual checks on behalf of a candidate’s campaign. CNN’s parent company, Time Warner, is represented on Capitol Hill by Steve Elmendorf, an adviser to Clinton during her 2008 campaign, who is also known as...

AGENCY LOBBYING HARD FOR MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR BOONDOGGLE South Carolina’s corrupt transportation “leaders” still desperately want to foist Interstate 73 on dirt poor Palmetto State taxpayers … even as government’s embarrassing inability to do basic maintenance continues to be on display all over the state.How desperate are our powerful “roads czars” to get this Interstate built? Let’s recap …First, they’ve spent more than $100 million on an interchange for the highway (even though it’s not clear if it will ever be built).Next they’ve proposed spending millions more on wetlands mitigation related to the road (again, even though it’s not clear if...