Watchdogs: GOP's Man in Israel Illegally Lobbied for Anti-Semite
Source: The Daily Beast
Tzvika Brot ran the Republican effort to get out American votes in Israel. Now his firm is boosting a notorious strongman who pushes for ‘ethnic homogeneity.’
BETSY WOODRUFF
03.16.18 4:30 AM ET
A firm helmed by the man who helped run the Republican Party’s efforts in Israel is doing lobbying work for an anti-Semitic foreign strongman without registering as an agent of an overseas power.
Transparency watchdogs called it a likely violation of the rules governing foreign lobbying—the kind of rules that former Trump campaign boss Paul Manafort and Rick Gates were recently indicted for breaking. Manafort could spend the rest of his life in prison, in part for violating lobbying laws.
The news comes as human rights advocates criticize the Hungarian government for becoming increasingly repressive, and as the country’s prime minister makes barely veiled anti-Semitic attacks on his political opponents. That’s on top of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s past praise for Hungary’s World War II-era leader, who helped the Nazis kill a half-million Jews, and Orbán’s repeated calls to preserve Hungary’s “ethnic homogeneity.”
BSI Public Affairs, helmed by Tzvika Brot and Ariel Sender, is paying Christopher Harvin of Sanitas International to cultivate relationships with American government officials on Hungary’s behalf. Though federal law requires that lobbyists alert the Justice Department within 10 days when they sign to work for a foreign government, Sanitas waited months to give notice. According to a filing with the Justice Department, Harvin signed with BSI on Oct. 3, 2017, but didn’t alert the Department of Justice until March 7, 2018 (PDF).
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