ICMYI: Longtime Clinton Confidante Likely Violated Lobbying Registration Act

We have written previously here and here about how top Hillary Clinton aides while at the State Department were involved in activities with the Clinton Foundation and a business they worked for at the same time.  At a minimum it appears both these groups gained a financial benefit from this relationship.  While these were both domestic groups, we now have another serious allegation involving a foreign government and longtime Clinton confidante Sidney Blumenthal.

Clinton consigliere Sidney Blumenthal’s now-notorious e-mails to Hillary Clinton on Libya could constitute a criminal violation of U.S. foreign lobbying laws. According to several experts, if his business and intelligence ties with Libyan interim government officials were as extensive as evidence suggests, Blumenthal’s repeated communications to America’s top diplomat broke a federal criminal statute requiring the registration and reporting of foreign agents engaged in lobbying foreign officials.

RNLA First Vice President Elliot Berke commented in the same article about the seriousness of Blumenthal’s failure to register.

“I think there is both smell and smoke,” says Elliot Berke, a Washington D.C. lawyer who works regularly on cases involving the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).

Designed to prevent U.S. officials from being unwittingly influenced by representatives of foreign governments, the law requires individuals to do more than simply identify themselves as foreign lobbyists. “FARA doesn’t just require registration,” says Berke. “It requires ongoing reporting of specific contacts and the labeling and filing of information like memos with the Justice Department within 48 hours of dissemination.”

“FARA requires the lobbyist to identify himself as a foreign agent on behalf of his foreign principal, and to label all informational material he disseminates accordingly,” says Berke.

Where are the campaign finance groups and those on the left that have concerns about money in politics?  What will take for them to engage?  More importantly did Hillary know what her aides and confidantes were doing and did she condone it?   Even if she did not, this calls into question her judgement in employee such staffers with such, at a minimum ethically questionable connections.  

Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Focuses on Africa

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce recently spoke to the RNLA’s Washington, D.C. chapter at a packed luncheon that had seven African Ambassadors and a number of other leading officials attending .  This was in no small part a tribute to Chairman Royce's years of dedicated service to improving foreign relations with Africa. Some photos of the luncheon are here. 

For eight terms, Royce served on the Subcommittee on Africa and was chairman from 1997 to 2004.  In the dozens of hearings held, he covered critical issues for the continent, such as HIV/AIDs, terrorism and oil.  Royce co-chairs the bipartisan International Conservation Caucus, and was involved in legislation protecting African wildlife in the Congo Basin.

In 1999, Royce led a delegation to Nigeria to observe their first presidential election after years of oppressive rule.  His subcommittee has been responsible for numerous resolutions defending human rights.  In 2010, Royce sponsored the Lord’s Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act to remove a criminal leading a transnational organized crime network.

Royce also was integral in getting the African Growth and Opportunity Act passed and later extended to support trade and enterprise in Africa. He also participated in the U.S.-Sub-Saharan African Trade and Economic Cooperation Forum.

Chairman Royce has been the leader of the ongoing fight against Joseph Kony, an Uganda terrorist.   In 2010, Royce – a former chair of the Africa Subcommittee – was an original sponsor of the Lord’s Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act. The successful legislation made it the policy of the U.S. to "apprehend or remove Joseph Kony and his top commanders from the battlefield."

Chairman Royce work on the Foreign Affairs committee is impressive as all who attended the RNLA lunch a few weeks back learrned. Chairman 'sRoyce knowledge of international matters and leadership is a tribute to his party and more importantly the country.