Allawi Uses Loophole to Keep Backers SecretIt’s official: Ayad Allawi is no longer represented by Barbour Griffith & Rogers, the White House-connected lobbying firm he retained to sell the U.S. government on his “parliamentary coup” to become Iraq’s next prime minister. Well, sort of.
Allawi doesn’t want to disclose who’s paying BGR’s $300,000 fee. But since Allawi admitted on CNN that he’s not paying the bill himself, BGR has to either disclose to the Justice Department which “agent of a foreign principal” it receives money from or violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Disclosure, however, is for amateurs.
Yesterday, BGR took an anticipated third option: changing its filing with DoJ so that BGR no longer represents Allawi, but rather his political party, the Iraqi National Accord. Christina Davidson reports for IraqSlogger (sub. req.) that since political parties aren’t required to disclose their sources of funding under FARA, “BGR has managed to pull an easy sidestep in order to maintain the anonymity of Allawi’s backer.”