When is a lobbyist not a lobbyist? Ask Joe “I Got Mine” Lieberman
Al Monitor reports that former Sen. Joe Lieberman received $65,000 in the last quarter for lobbying on Capitol Hill on the company’s behalf:
Ex-Sen. Lieberman working for Israel’s largest defense firm: Israel Aerospace Industries – North Africa, the US subsidiary of Israel’s largest aerospace and defense firm…paid $64,000 to Kasowitz Benson Torres this quarter. One name that’s not on that filing? Ex-Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn. Haaretz this week reported that the 2000 vice-presidential candidate and noted pro-Israel hawk was now lobbying for IAI. But a Kasowitz spokesperson told Al-Monitor that Lieberman was only “giving strategic advice to IAI about its activities in the US and its relations with the Department of Defense,” not technically lobbying on IAI’s behalf.
I’d say “giving strategic advice” to a foreign company and promoting it to the Defense Department sure sounds like lobbying to me. Omitted from his law firm’s statement is the lobbying of his ex-colleagues on the Senate Armed Services Committee, who will approve the purchase of the expensive weapons systems IAI wants to sell to the Pentagon. Sound like lobbying to you?
Joe better be careful. A number of lobbyists including Michael Flynn, Maria Butina, and Paul Manafort have been caught with their pants down after similarly refusing to register as foreign agents. Mike is doing jail time for it. Wouldn’t it be a shame if Joe suffered the same fate?
Joe has a very cute way of getting around the law: he’s actually being paid by IAI’s U.S. subsidiary. So even though his work directly benefits the Israeli parent company and the Israeli-made weapons IAI wants to sell to the Pentagon, Joe’s in the clear through a technicality. Ethics and avoiding the appearance of impropriety aren’t among his strong suits.
This is pure cashing in on the many years during which he was Aipac’s water-carrier in the Senate. Be a good obedient Lobby poodle and you’ll be reaping your reward in due time!
Aipac pays the highest pensions( funded at 99% almost doubling the high executive salaries) and the regular staff receive 30% Benifits( double a reasonable and normal 13-15%). Over 45 salaries over 100 thousands..dozens at 3-4-5 hundreds of thousands…topped off at 1.2 millions for outgoing director Abe Foxman.
I know these folks work tirelessly to support the Israel they love..but any casual observer might think of them as highly paid mercenaries.
@ Mitchell: Foxman worked for the ADL (not Aipac) and retired a few yrs ago.
Joe Lieberman should register as a “douchebag extraordinare.”
…I knew Joe Lieberman well, back in Hartford…and to think I would stand with him on Farmington Ave. in front of Eddies’s Mobil during campaign season…un-fippin’-believable. …he was a liberal democrat then, btw…if I saw him walking towards me today, I’d cross to the other side of the street…
“ and promoting it…”
That is your addition and it isn’t in the quote. If a consultant has to be registered as a foreign agent than… so does the milkman. Hey, without the milkman there won’t be coffee and we know what can happen then…
@Joshua: Lieberman is not a consultant. He is a lobbyist doing what lobbyists do. Promoting his client, its products, and lobbying Congress to buy its products. That’s not consulting.
I’m scratching my head on this one. Israel Aerospace Industries – North Africa – the company Lieberman is reported as working for – PAID a law firm but the lead is that Lieberman RECEIVED the money? What else is mixed up here?
Searching the gov’t database, I found that Joe Lieberman is named in numerous FARA filings regarding meetings with registered agents. Apparently the registered agents have to file notes about who they talk to. If everybody they talked to and received/disbursed money from/to had to file as a registered agent, then the gov’t would be requiring taxi drivers and bellhops to register as foreign agents as well!
@ Solomon2: You claim to have searched a “government database,” but couldn’t bother to figure out that the law firm paid by IAI is Lieberman’s law firm. Yes, of course he was paid the money through his law firm. That’s how these relationships work. So I repeat, Lieberman is a paid lobbyist by IAI who refuses to register as a lobbyist for a foreign entity, a violation of FARA.