- Egypt assembles bipartisan lobbying team for post-Trump era
- Ruder Finn reps Chinese consulate in New York
Egypt assembles bipartisan powerhouse lobbying team for post-Trump era
The Egyptian government has wasted no time preparing for the post-Donald Trump era, assembling a bipartisan powerhouse lobbying team that includes retired congressman Ed Royce and a former top aide to House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
Egypt’s ambassador to the United States, Motaz Zahran, signed the $65,000-a-month contract with Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck on Monday Nov. 9, the first weekday after Joe Biden delivered his victory speech on Saturday. Signing for the Denver-based law firm is policy director Royce, a California Republican who chaired the House Foreign Affairs Committee from 2013 through 2018.
Nadeam Elshami, the former chief of staff to Pelosi and a 25-year veteran of Capitol Hill, is expected to supervise work on the account along with Royce.
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New lobbying filings
Americas
Panama: Edelman senior vice president for public affairs Debora Comenalli Murray has joined the public relations firm’s $1.3 million contract with the to raise Panama’s profile in the United States, United Kingdom and European Union.
Asia
China: Ruder Finn has agreed to serve as public relations adviser to the Chinese consulate in New York. The contract is dated June 10 but was only recently filed with the US Department of Justice. The agreement calls for the firm, which has dual headquarters in China and the United States, to be paid for specific statements of work, of which none have yet been disclosed. In its filing with the DoJ, Ruder Finn said that while its contract called for the firm to conduct activities such as lobbying and dissemination of informational materials that require registration under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), “no such activities have taken place under the contract and no activities are contemplated in the future.” The contract was signed just a month before the Donald Trump administration shut down the Chinese consulate in Houston, claiming it was a hotbed of economic espionage. Separately, the firm registered senior account executive Rebecca Baumgaertner to its account with Huawei USA.
China (Tibet): The Office of Tibet in Washington reported $670,000 in donations from Tibetan organizations across North America in the six months through September. In July the office helped organize a virtual celebration for the Dalai Lama’s 85th birthday that was attended by Reps. Thomas Suozzi (D-N.Y.), Scott Perry (R-Penn.), Ted Yoho (R-Fla.) and Ben McAdams (D-Utah) as well as US Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback and Canadian members of Parliament Arif Verani and Garnett Genius.
Japan: Research and planning department director Keita Miyano has registered as a foreign agent for the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) in New York.
Europe
Ireland: Finance and operations manager Kathy Connolly and administrative assistant Claire McKeown have registered as foreign agents in Boston for Invest Northern Ireland, the economic development agency for the devolved government. Meanwhile Jillian Gray and Suzanne Lynn have left the organization as of Oct. 30. The US organization reported $1.9 million in payments from Invest Northern Ireland HQ in the six months through October.
Middle East
Iran: The Washington office of the Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan, an armed opposition group with communist roots, received about $11,000 for operational expenses from its headquarters in the six months through September. The group disclosed that it had retained the Cogent Law Group in December 2019 and terminated its lobbying contract with Ayal Frank‘s firm AF International in April. During the period Komala’s representative in the United States, Salah Bayaziddi, spoke with members of several pro-Israel advocacy organizations and right-leaning think tanks about human rights violations and the Kurdish political struggle in Iran, including the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the Hudson Institute and the American Jewish Committee. He also participated in several interviews including with right-wing One America News.
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Turkey: The Turkish Radio-Television Corporation received $385,000 from its headquarters in Turkey to prepare and distribute content for TRT World in the six months through September.