Thread by @arapaho415

@PortlusGlam @ThomasS4217 1/ @kenvogel article has so many familiar names raking in riches, mostly relating to the Democratic Republic of Congo🇨🇬 and Mer Security & Communication Systems (Israeli🇮🇱 firm):
$250K: James Woolsey wife Nancye Miller
$360K: Adnan Jalil (former DJT congressional liaison (more)

@PortlusGlam @ThomasS4217 @kenvogel 2/
$500K: Alston & Bird (Bob Dole)
$598K: Brian Glicklich (represents DJT allies Breitbart & Rush Limbaugh)
$680K: Robert L. Livingston (former Congressman)
$1.25million: Robert Stryk (worked w/ DJT campaign officials, to organize Kabila’s🇨🇬 special envoy to the United States...

@PortlusGlam @ThomasS4217 @kenvogel 3/ Mr. Stryk’s firm, Sonoran Policy Group, also signed a $100,000-a-month contract in August to represent Somalia🇸🇴 in its bid for increased military aid from the Trump administration and removal from its travel ban list. (con't)

@PortlusGlam @ThomasS4217 @kenvogel 4/ … And Sonoran registered as a subcontractor for a law firm to lobby for a notorious Serbian🇷🇸 arms dealer who was hit with sanctions for selling weapons to Liberia🇱🇷. (more...)

@PortlusGlam @ThomasS4217 @kenvogel 5/ Here's why the lobbying business has become so lucrative (since Jan 20, 2017):
"matches up with the pay-to-play mind-set that defines politics in many parts of Africa, Asia, the Middle East and the former Soviet states. (con't)

@PortlusGlam @ThomasS4217 @kenvogel 6/ … As politicians and executives from those regions have increasingly been targeted by sanctions, they have sought to apply that approach — backed by huge sums of cash — to navigating Washington, lobbyists and former government officials say. (con't)

@PortlusGlam @ThomasS4217 @kenvogel 7/ This has been encouraged... by the willingness projected by Mr Trump and his team to make deals around sanctions & tariffs exemptions. Previous adms had worked to wall off politics from those processes, which are supposed to be... governed by strict legal analyses." (more...)

@PortlusGlam @ThomasS4217 @kenvogel 8/ We already knew about the "$108,500-a-month lobbying campaign has helped delay the imposition of sanctions against... Russian🇷🇺 oligarch Oleg Deripaska. Among the leaders of the lobbying efforts for both ZTE and Mr. Deripaska’s companies was Bryan Lanza... (con't)

@PortlusGlam @ThomasS4217 @kenvogel 9/ a former Trump campaign aide who maintains close ties to administration officials. His firm, Mercury Public Affairs, has signed other clients facing punitive measures from the US gov't, including the US subsidiary of Hikvision, a company owned by the Chinese gov't. (more...)

@PortlusGlam @ThomasS4217 @kenvogel 10/ And for the heck of it, I'll include a #ZinkeIsTheWorst™️ <thread> re: Turkey🇹🇷.
(Mercury’s Co-Chair is former Montana Congressman Denny Rehberg:) (more...)

https://twitter.com/arapaho415/status/1033468107275128832

@PortlusGlam @ThomasS4217 @kenvogel 11/ Of course we can't discuss DC lobbyists & not mention Brian Ballard, whose firm signed a $125,000-a-month contract in Aug 2017 to represent the Turkish🇹🇷-state-owned bank Halkbank, which has been working to avoid punishment for its role in a billion-dollar scheme... (con't)

@PortlusGlam @ThomasS4217 @kenvogel 12/ ...to evade sanctions on Iran🇮🇷. The representation brought Mr. Ballard into discussions with Mr Giuliani, who represented a gold trader charged in the scheme."
Concluding <thread> with Giuliani:
"And someone familiar with Mr. Giuliani’s business affairs said that... (con't)

@PortlusGlam @ThomasS4217 @kenvogel 13/ … one of his companies has recently been negotiating a consulting deal to work in the Democratic Republic of Congo🇨🇬, possibly through Mer🇮🇱." /end

@PortlusGlam @ThomasS4217 @kenvogel Ballard update, Jan 22, 2019: cc: @RighteousBabe4
1/ "On Sep 21, 2018, [Atiku] Abubakar [the former vice president of Nigeria🇳🇬]through his political party, The People’s Democratic Party, inked a contract with Ballard Partners for $1.1 million per year...

https://twitter.com/RobertMaguire_/status/1087565916207022081

@PortlusGlam @ThomasS4217 @kenvogel @RighteousBabe4 2/ ...Among other things, Ballard was to help Abubakar advance 'democratic values and the rule of law in Nigeria🇳🇬.'"
"With the election less than a month away, Abubakar arrived in the United States last Thursday and promptly checked into the Trump hotel." (more...)

@PortlusGlam @ThomasS4217 @kenvogel @RighteousBabe4 3/ "Abubakar's visit was almost entirely ignored by the U.S. media. But it's a story that reveals a lot about how things work in Trump's Washington." (more...)

@PortlusGlam @ThomasS4217 @kenvogel @RighteousBabe4 4/ Previous "corruption allegations against Abubakar are detailed in a 2010 bipartisan report by the US Senate, 'KEEPING FOREIGN CORRUPTION OUT OF THE UNITED STATES: FOUR CASE HISTORIES.' Abubakar denies all allegations of corruption... & has never been criminally charged...

@PortlusGlam @ThomasS4217 @kenvogel @RighteousBabe4 5/ ...The report says that Abubakar, through his wife, Jennifer Douglas Abubakar, funneled $40 million in 'suspect funds' to the United States, including millions in 'bribe payments.' An alleged bribe which came from a major German corporation, Siemens, looms large." (more...)

@PortlusGlam @ThomasS4217 @kenvogel @RighteousBabe4 6/ "Abubakar was also implicated in the investigation of William Jefferson, the former Congressman who is serving a 13-year sentence for corruption. Abubakar denies any wrongdoing connected to the case and has not been charged." (more...)

@PortlusGlam @ThomasS4217 @kenvogel @RighteousBabe4 7/ Remember this? "According to the FBI, cell phone records and conversations between Jefferson and a confidential informant confirmed the scheme." "But the FBI says the $90,000 in cash found in Jefferson's freezer was intended for Abubakar." (more...)

@PortlusGlam @ThomasS4217 @kenvogel @RighteousBabe4 8/ Will repost a couple of tweets I sent yesterday, both via @WashingtonPoint: (one more tweet...)

https://twitter.com/hxhassan/status/1087408230802866176

@PortlusGlam @ThomasS4217 @kenvogel @RighteousBabe4 @WashingtonPoint 9/ "The defining foreign policy issue of our time:" /end

https://twitter.com/thomasjoscelyn/status/1087154601286139904