Democratic lobbyist Tony Podesta registers as a foreign agent lobbying for Libya’s government

[Heisenberg123]

https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2022/0 ... overnment/

High-powered Democratic lobbyist and political operative Tony Podesta has returned to currying influence under President Joe Biden’s administration and is growing his slate of lobbying clients, most recently registering as a foreign agent working to further the interests of Libya’s government. The move comes after Podesta stepped back from politics amid controversy over being named in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

Doing business as Podesta.com, Podesta contracted with Tala Elemary Consulting, a Dubai-based consulting firm paid and directed by the Libyan government. The contract, signed by Podesta on April 13, notes that “fees will be negotiated within 30 days.”

Foreign agent registration records indicate that Podesta’s services will “include lobbying US Government Officials in the White House, Congress, as well as the US Media, to maintain political gains in Libya on behalf of Client, promoting a constitutional basis for elections in 2022.”

Podesta’s return to politics


Justice Department and Federal Election Commission records show Podesta has also started pouring money into political giving in February of this year, his first federal contributions since 2020.

Senate Foreign Relations chair Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) received $500 from Podesta while House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) Victory Fund received $5,000.

Podesta, brother of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign chairman and firm co-founder John Podesta, has a long history of lobbying and foreign entanglements. He previously helmed the Podesta Group, a lobbying powerhouse boasting over 100 clients and millions of dollars in annual revenue.

But Podesta’s eponymous firm closed in 2017 after Mueller’s indictment charging Rick Gates and former President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign chief, Paul Manafort, alleged that Manafort enlisted the Podesta Group as part of his controversial work helping sanitize the reputation of Ukraine’s Russia-friendly president Viktor Yanukovyc.

Though Podesta was not charged with wrongdoing, his firm shut down and he stepped away from lobbying. After years of other pursuits, Podesta told the New York Times in July 2021 that he would be reentering the world of politics.

Last year, Podesta signed his first lobbying clients of the Biden administration.

In August, Huawei Technologies hired Podesta’s firm for lobbying as the embattled Chinese telecom company ramps up efforts pushing back against Biden administration pressure to keep Huawei on the blacklist, which restricts the company’s access to semiconductors. Huawei paid Podesta $1 million for lobbying targeting Biden’s White House and the Executive Office of the President. Podesta reported receiving less than $5,000 from Huawei in the first quarter of 2022 for lobbying on “issues related to telecommunication services and impacted trade issues,” new lobbying disclosures submitted April 18 show.

Bulgarian oil and gas company Protos Energy SSC paid Podesta’s firm another $500,000 in 2021. Podesta reported lobbying the State Department for the Bulgarian company on “issues related to energy and petrochemicals” before terminating on April 18 with no reported activity in 2022.

An investigation by Bivol, a Bulgarian investigative media outlet that is part of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project network, found that Protos Energy’s owner, Georgi Samuilov, has been embroiled in several controversies. Samuilov previously worked for the Multigrup conglomerate, which was once described in State Department diplomatic cables as the “doyen of Bulgarian organized crime.” He’s also faced tax fraud allegations and accusations of being a frontman for Bulgarian oligarch Delyan Peevski, who the U.S. Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned under the Magnitsky Act citing “significant corruption.”

Podesta’s role in the Libya lobby

Podesta’s contract with Tala Elemary Consulting lays out the operation’s goals of “building and strengthening ties with the Biden-Harris Administration, Congress, and US Media” as well as “maintaining political gains for the Libyan Government and advancing stability in Libya to foster agreement on a constitutional basis for elections in 2022.” Under the contract, Podesta will “purposefully liaise with appropriate US Government Departments and Agencies” to “enhance clients interests in the leadership in Libya.”

On Monday, rival factions from Libya’s east-based parliament and 12 representatives from the High Council of State, an advisory body in the capital of Tripoli in western Libya, ended a week of talks brokered by the United Nations without reaching agreement on constitutional arrangements for the country’s elections.

Last week’s talks came as rival governments try to claim power in Libya after a U.N.-facilitated ceasefire agreement signed in 2020 that followed a decade of civil war. Libya’s first presidential election was scheduled for Dec. 24, 2021, but was delayed as rival lawmakers were unable to agree on the political framework for the vote.

Lawmakers in the east-based parliament claimed the mandate of Tripoli-based interim Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah expired after the election failed to take place as planned in December and named former interior minister Fathi Bashagha as new prime minister to lead an interim government. Dbeibah, however, says he will hand over power only to an elected government.

Stephanie Williams, U.N. special adviser on Libya, said the officials agreed to reconvene next month after the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr with an aim of reaching an agreement on a constitutional and legislative framework for elections.

[Thisismyaccount]

Some bounty hunter should go get him.

[brwn]

Podesta, na he gone already. Albright gone as well