Post by Deleted on Apr 3, 2017 16:32:21 GMT -5
Former Trump staffers hunt for foreign lobbying work.
The president’s former campaign manager is among those cashing in on demand for Trump connections.
Some of Donald Trump’s former campaign hands are rushing to sign lucrative deals with foreign clients, shrugging off their own pledges to avoid foreign lobbying and the president’s vow to “drain the swamp.”
Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, whose partner, Barry Bennett, had said last year that their new firm wouldn’t lobby for foreign nations, is among those searching for foreign gold. Lewandowski and Bennett are actively seeking to represent foreign governments and consult on overseas elections, and members of the firm have met in recent weeks with officials from Albania and Kosovo.
“We’ve met with a bunch of people,” Bennett said. “It’s a big market, that’s for sure.”
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Others actively pursuing foreign clients include Bryan Lanza, who served as deputy communications director for Trump’s campaign and plans to represent foreign governments in his new job at Mercury. Mike Biundo, a senior adviser on the Trump campaign, is looking to do political work in foreign countries. And Brad Gerstman, a partner at Gotham Government Relations & Communications, the New York firm that helped orchestrate Trump's 2015 campaign announcement, said he was “in advanced talks with a whole bunch of these foreign nations.”
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The Trump-linked firm that’s had the most success signing foreign clients is perhaps the lowest-profile of the bunch: SPG, a small lobbying shop that’s hired three former Trump staffers since the election. SPG has signed New Zealand as a client and is in talks with other countries. Stuart Jolly, a former national field director for the Trump campaign, signed on as SPG’s president after the election, and he estimated the firm has talked with around 15 foreign nations since he came aboard.
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Tim Groser, New Zealand’s ambassador to the U.S., said in an interview that his government hired SPG — the only Trump-connected firm that’s landed a foreign client so far — on a $25,000-a-month retainer in part because of its staff's campaign experience. “Through their networking with the Trump people, they’ve been able to help us get in front of the queue,” Groser said.