News: Inside Azerbaijan’s effort to flout FARA

Thursday, October 24, 2024

Inside Azerbaijan’s effort to flout FARA

Oct 24, 2024

FIRST IN PI: The south Caucasian country of Azerbaijan recently asked Washington lobbyists that it was considering working with to not register under FARA for work they considered necessary to register for, two people who they asked told Daniel.

— The country has worked with the Friedlander Group since February 2023, paying the firm $41,666 per month to “enhance US-Azerbaijan relations,” according to FARA records, which show numerous informational materials that the firm has sent to congressional staffers and other influencers and Capitol Hill roundtables that the firm has facilitated.

— But the two lobbyists said that the country was not happy with the firm’s progress on issues important to Azerbaijan. For instance, when a top Azerbaijani official visited Washington earlier this year, he felt slighted because his meetings with top Biden administration officials were canceled, according to one of the people.

— That discontent in part led Azerbaijan to talk with at least one other firm in the last year. But when Deputy Foreign Minister Elnur Mammadov told the firm that the contract was contingent on there being no FARA registration, the firm backed away and didn’t attend a meeting to discuss the potential contract at the embassy, according to the lobbyist.

— Another lobbyist who was going to work with the new firm said they were also asked to set up meetings that they believe would have violated FARA. The two spoke on condition of anonymity given the sensitive nature of the discussions.

— The overtures came at a delicate time for Azerbaijan. Last September, Azerbaijan launched a daylong “lightning” offensive in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, sparking the exodus of around 100,000 ethnic Armenians. Leaders from both sides have been working to broker a peace deal in the year since, but nothing has been finalized.

— Meanwhile in May, Texas Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar was charged with taking bribes from an oil and gas company owned by the government of Azerbaijan and seeking to use his post in Congress to benefit Azerbaijan’s government — accusations Cuellar denies. Baku, the country’s capital city, is also preparing to host the global climate summit COP next month, prompting a war of words over the Azerbaijan’s human-rights record.

— Asked for comment, Azerbaijani embassy spokesperson Jamila Mammadova said in a statement to PI: “We would like to underscore that our respective work is strictly within the U.S. legal framework. In regard to U.S.-Azerbaijan relations, Azerbaijan sees deep value in bilateral relations between the two countries and we continuously engage with U.S. counterparts to advance our relations.”

— Added Friedlander Group CEO Ezra Friedlander: “In all my interactions the government of Azerbaijan has adhered to the highest ethical standards regarding FARA and all other issues pertaining to my representation.”

Happy Thursday and welcome to PI. Send lobbying tips, gossip and unsubstantiated rumors: coprysko@politico.com. And be sure to follow me on X: @caitlinoprysko.

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THE SON ALSO RISES: Our Benjamin Guggenheim has a big investigation out today on the business entanglements of Brendan Neal, the son of the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, Richard Neal (D-Mass.).

— Benjamin reports that Brendan Neal’s career in Washington has risen steadily alongside his father’s, thanks to lobbying and consulting work for and alongside those with business before the committee — some of whom appeared to notch policy victories after working with Brendan Neal while his father was chair of the powerful tax-writing panel.

— A spokesperson for the lawmaker told Benjamin that Brendan Neal never lobbied his father and that the two don’t discuss business. While the arrangements are neither illegal nor unheard of, progressive tax advocates are giving them another look as Richard Neal is poised to “guide the panel through what many in Washington are calling the ‘Super Bowl of Tax.'"

— If Democrats retake control of the House next month, Richard Neal will be leading the charge on “a massive renegotiation of $4.6 trillion worth of expiring tax cuts” along with “potentially trillions more tax cuts affecting issues such as Social Security and state and local taxes.”

THE RISE OF THE SANCTIONS INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX: “A sharp increase in U.S. sanctions has spawned a new lobbying industry in Washington, as businesses and governments around the world attempt to shape these economic penalties by hiring former U.S. officials to leverage their connections,” The Washington Post’s Jeff Stein, Federica Cocco and Peter Whoriskey report.

— The latest installment in the paper’s series on the ripple effects of the United States’ evolving sanctions policy details how “an avalanche of cash from abroad has flowed to former lawmakers and aides from both parties with experience at some of the highest levels of American government.”

— Lobbying spending on the issue by foreign entities “surged from roughly $6 million in 2014 to at least $31 million in 2022,” while domestic firms spent more than $353 million last year compared to $97 million in 1998, the Post found.

— The flourishing new cottage industry has even prompted concerns at the White House, where officials are considering stiffer revolving-door restrictions for sanctions-related lobbying in an effort to counter even the perception that sanction decisions can be swayed by the highest bidder.

SMALL BUSINESSES PLEAD FOR AID: Industry groups representing small and minority business owners called on Congress to move swiftly to replenish a key disaster loan program depleted after the devastation caused by hurricanes Helene and Milton this fall.

— The Small Business Administration announced last week that it had run out of funding to issue new Economic Injury Disaster Loans until Congress appropriates more money for the program, which provides low-interest, long-term loans to disaster survivors.

— “Small businesses in hurricane-affected regions are struggling to stay afloat while waiting for relief, and many cannot survive without the immediate restoration of EIDL funds,” the business groups wrote in a letter this week to congressional leadership and the heads of the House and Senate appropriations and small business committees.

— Congress is likely to pass a disaster supplemental in response to the hurricanes, but lawmakers aren’t expected to return to do so until after November’s elections. In the meantime, the letter's signatories warned that “the risk of permanent closures is rising with every passing day, threatening local economies, jobs, and the livelihoods of millions of Americans.”

— The letter was signed by Women Impacting Public Policy, U.S. Black Chambers, Inc., the Association of Women’s Business Centers, the International Franchise Association, NextGen Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Women Business Owners, the National Association for the Self-Employed , the Small Business Roundtable and Women In Toys.

END CITIZENS UNITED GOES AFTER CALVERT: Progressive money-in-politics group End Citizens United is launching a pair of six-figure ad buys targeting two vulnerable Republican congressmen in the final days of the election.

— The group will drop $100,000 on streaming, digital and text ads bashing New York Rep. Marc Molinaro as a “thirty-year career politician” who’s taken “hundreds of thousands from corporate special interests” like the drug industry — while taking votes aligned with drugmakers’ preferences. ECU is spending another six figures on a mail campaign that hits 16-term California Rep. Ken Calvert for increasing his net worth by roughly $20 million during his time in office.

Jobs report

— Chip Rogers is now CEO of Americans for Fair Treatment. He previously was president and CEO of the American Hotel & Lodging Association.

— The Foundation for America’s Public Lands is adding Paula Neira as vice president of finance and operations and Tomer Hasson as senior program officer. Neira previously was director of finance at Homebase. Hasson previously was senior policy adviser at the Bureau of Land Management.

— Brooke Oberwetter is now senior vice president at Burson. She previously was head of policy comms at TikTok and is an Amazon and Meta alum.

— Ian Moss is now a special counsel at Jenner & Block. He previously was deputy coordinator for counterterrorism at the State Department, and is an NSC and Defense Department alum.

— The National Taxpayers Union and National Taxpayers Union Foundation are adding David Timmons as senior policy manager, Rachel Harden as vice president of marketing, Luke Campopiano as marketing assistant, Michael Ward as development coordinator and Debbie Jennings as policy manager.