LATEST UPDATES Last updated on July 10, 2020
Thomas Gibson / G.83 LLC
(for Iraq)
Hired: Sept. 2018
NEW Supplemental
(Dec. 1, 2019 – May 31, 2020)
Iraqi Ambassador to the United States Fareed Yasseen paid Thomas Gibson a $1 retainer in the six-month period ending May 31. Gibson, a former director of public affairs for President Ronald Reagan, did not report any activity.
AF International
(for Abbas Hamza Abbas Ako)
Hired: Nov. 2019
NEW Q2 domestic lobbying filing (termination)
AF International stopped lobbying for Abbas Hamza Abbas Ako, who lobbyist Ayal Frank described as an Iraqi Kurdistan-based businessman in a filing, on June 5. Since Nov. 2019, Ako paid AF International $7,500; Frank lobbied Congress and the State Department on “US-Iraq relations.”
Holly Strategies
(for Iraq)
Hired: Oct. 2018
2018 fees: $91,000
NEW Supplemental
(Nov. 1, 2019 – April 30, 2020)
Holly Strategies received $35,000 from Iraq in the six-month period ending April 30. During that time period, lobbyist Josh Holly met with House Armed Services Committee chairman Adam Smith, D-Wash.; ranking member Mac Thornberry, R-Texas; and two members of the committee, Reps. Mike Turner, R-Ohio; and Mike Gallagher, R-Wisc.
The Livingston Group
(for Iraq)
Hired: Dec. 2017
2018 fees: $280,000
NEW Supplemental
(Oct. 1, 2019 – March 31, 2020)
Iraq paid The Livingston Group $150,000 in the six-month period ending March 31. Former congressman Robert Livingston, a Republican who represented Louisiana, and lobbyist Cathryn Kingsbury accompanied Iraqi Ambassador to the US Fareed Yasseen to January meetings with Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill.; Sen. Angus King, I-Maine; Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va.; Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla.; Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill.; Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass.; Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif.; Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio; and Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C. In February, Livingston and Kingsbury attended a meeting with Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., along with Yasseen and Wathiq Ibrahim, the first secretary of the Iraqi Embassy.
Washington Strategy Group
Mark Al Salih subcontractor
(for Iraq Stability and Security Program)
Hired: Feb. 2019
2018 fees: $117,000
NEW Supplemental (termination)
(March. 1, 2020 – Aug. 31, 2020)
Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Joel Rubin’s Washington Strategy Group stopped lobbying for Iraqi Sunni Sheikh Jamal al-Dhari and his Iraq Stability and Security Program on April 29. Rubin was paid $10,000 in the six-month period ending Aug. 31, 2020.
Nineveh Plain Defense Fund
(for Nineveh Plain Protection Units & Assyrian Democratic Movement)
Hired: Feb. 2016
NEW Supplemental
(Sept. 1, 2019 – Feb. 29, 2020)
The Nineveh Plain Defense Fund, which works to support the armed Nineveh Plain Protection Units and the Iraqi political party that founded the units, the Assyrian Democratic Movement, lobbied the White House, Defense Department and State Department in the six-month period ending Feb. 29. At the time of the meetings, which occurred in September, October and February, the group “sought to explore the possibility for greater US engagement and support for the [Nineveh Plain Protection Units] within its broader security strategy within Iraq” and distributed “confidential briefing materials.”
Iraq Advisory Group
(for Salahuddin Provincial Council)
Hired: Feb. 2019
Contract: $15,000/month
NEW Supplemental (termination)
(Sept. 1, 2019 – Feb. 29, 2020)
The Dubai-based Iraq Advisory Group stopped working for the Salahaddin Provincial Council of Iraq on Oct. 20. The firm reported no payments or lobbying-related work in the six-month period ending Feb. 29. The firm received a total of $45,000 from the council in 2019.
Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman
(for Sarmad and Khamis Khanjar / Arab Project)
Hired: May 2019
Contract: $60,000/month
NEW Supplemental
(Aug. 1, 2019 – Jan. 31, 2020)
Meetings: Then-Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iraq and Iran Andrew Peek, Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C. and Treasury Department officials
Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman was paid $301,000 by Iraqi businessman Khamis Khanjar and his son Sarmad Khanjar. The firm met with then-Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iraq and Iran Andrew Peek, Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., Treasury Department officials and various congressional staffers. The firm reached out to a scheduler for Rep. George Holding, R-N.C., on Dec. 5, one day before the Treasury Department sanctioned Khanjar for “bribing government officials and engaging in corruption at the expense of the Iraqi people.” Pillsbury stopped working for Khanjar the day he was sanctioned.
Morris Global Strategies
(for Sarmad and Khamis Khanjar / Arab Project)
Hired: May 2019
Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman
(for Sarmad and Khamis Khanjar / Arab Project)
Hired: May 2019
NEW News development
The US Treasury Department this week sanctioned an Iraqi millionaire for human rights abuses despite a million-dollar lobbying campaign involving a former Donald Trump campaign aide and a four-term ex-congressman from Texas. Khamis Khanjar, a Sunni businessman who has advocated for an autonomous state for the country’s Sunnis, was sanctioned under the Global Magnitsky Act for “bribing government officials and for widespread corruption at the expense of the Iraqi people,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement. It is not clear what exactly Khanjar was lobbying for in the United States. Read more here.
Greenwich Media Strategies
(for Iraq Private Banks League)
Hired: June 2018
2018 fees: $9,000
NEW Supplemental
(April 1, 2019 – Sept. 30, 2019)
NEW Termination
Fees: $18,500
Greenwich Media Strategies stopped working for the Iraq Private Banks League on Sept. 30. The firm was paid $18,500 by the association of Iraqi banks in the six months through September. Greenwich was hired in June 2018 to provide “strategic communications and media engagement services” to the league “for a project representing the Central Bank of Iraq.”