In the spring, when Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was denouncing the Dubai Ports World deal, a consulting firm run by her top advisers was quietly lobbying for a Dubai takeover of two U.S. defense plants, Newsday has learned.
The Glover Park Group, whose principals include Clinton insiders Howard Wolfson, Joe Lockhart and Gigi Georges, was paid about $100,000 to help the government-owned Dubai International Capital Corp. in its acquisition of the British engineering firm Doncasters Group Ltd.
The four-month lobbying effort apparently didn't include any contact with Clinton's office. "They [Glover Park] didn't have contact with us on either" of the Dubai deals, said Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines.
But it underscores the awkwardness of Clinton's political kitchen cabinet being housed inside a firm that features one of Washington's most aggressive and fast-growing lobbying operations.
Clinton and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), who helped to sink the takeover of port operations by a Dubai company, supported the Doncasters acquisition, saying it didn't pose nearly as significant a security threat.
Glover Park's contract with Dubai was channeled through the Los Angeles law office of Raj Tanden, the brother of longtime Hillary Clinton policy adviser Neera Tanden, according to people familiar with the situation.
Raj Tanden, who represented the emirate's royal family in its 2005 acquisition of $1 billion in U.S. real estate holdings, declined to comment. His sister didn't return a message left at her office yesterday.
Neera Tanden served as a congressional liaison for Bill Clinton before moving on to become a key Hillary Clinton campaign aide and the senator's legislative director.
No comments:
Post a Comment