Another Clinton fraud exposed:
Ex-Clinton aide's foreign role
Former counsel becomes agent for Pakistan
By Brian McGrory, Globe Staff, 06/17/98
WASHINGTON - President Clinton's chief spokesman during the campaign finance investigations is now serving as a foreign agent for Pakistan, representing the Islamabad government at a time when White House officials are making key decisions on how to address the threat of a nuclear arms buildup between Pakistan and India.
Lanny Davis, who left as special White House counsel in February to resume his position as a partner with the powerhouse Washington lobbying and law firm of Patton Boggs, also has not registered with the Justice Department as a foreign agent, according to a Globe review of federal records. Davis said yesterday that he believed he had not yet billed his client enough money to require registration but planned to register soon.
Ordinarily, senior administration officials are prohibited from lobbying on behalf of clients immediately after leaving the White House. But White House officials said Davis did not earn a large enough salary while on the public payroll to be covered by federal ''revolving door'' criminal statutes and a 1993 presidential directive preventing senior aides from immediately engaging in work as a lobbyist.
''He was not in the category required to sign that pledge, so he did not sign,'' said Jim Kennedy, a White House spokesman, referring to a lobbying prohibition pledge required of anyone making more than $110,000 a year. Davis said he made $100,000 a year.
The government of Pakistan is just one in a range of clients that Davis has taken on since returning to his legal and lobbying practice from his high-profile position at the White House, where he served as Clinton's chief spokesman on myriad campaign fund-raising investigations. Last week, Davis led a group of 125 American Indian tribal leaders trying to secure gambling rights in California through a series of meetings with Attorney General Janet Reno, members of Congress and staff aides on Capitol Hill and in the Justice Department.
Davis, an affable lawyer and spokesman much-liked by many members of the news media for his accessibility, had represented Pakistan as a lawyer and lobbyist from July 1993 through November 1996, according to Justice Department records on file with the Foreign Agents Registration Office. Back then, he did fill out a so-called short form that registered him as a foreign agent. He returned in February to Patton Boggs and to his representation of Pakistan, which had remained a client of the firm in his absence. But Davis never filled out a new justice department form.
Davis has resumed his work for Pakistan at a pivotal time in the relationship between Washington and Islamabad. Pakistan's historic enemy, India, detonated five nuclear devices last month in a round of tests, spurring Pakistani officials to respond in kind. The United States has levied economic sanctions against both countries as anxieties remain high over the possibility of one country using nuclear weapons to attack the other.
''The Pakistan and India thing, strategically, is probably the most sensitive issue in the world today,'' said Charles Lewis, the executive director of the Center for Public Integrity, a Washington think tank. ''For a former White House official to go back in the door holding a brief for a government, it's unacceptable. There's no other word for it.
''How much he made is irrelevant,'' said Lewis. ''It might be legal, but it violates the spirit of the law. This is a fellow with complete familiarity with any and everyone in the White House, including the president. It's poor judgment by Lanny Davis, and it shows a lot of the White House pronouncements of deep concern about conflict of interest and appearances of impropriety are hollow.''
In a telephone interview yesterday, Davis stressed that since he had already represented Pakistan, he was not using his White House contacts as his prime selling point when he returned to Patton Boggs. He also said that in his former capacity as a special counsel he had no access to officials with regulatory and policy-making powers, especially on the National Security Council.
''This is not an instance where I am trading off on my White House experience to represent a client,'' said Davis. ''My job at the White House was to speak to the press about campaign finance and other related issues. If my job had anything to do with any of the issues that Pakistan might face, then from an appearances viewpoint I would certainly consider the appearance on a case-by-case basis on whether to take a client.''
Davis left the White House in February after a 15-month stint as Clinton's chief spokesman on the campaign finance issues that have plagued the administration since the 1996 reelection. He is now one of Pakistan's lawyers in the United States.
Specifically, he said he is providing legal guidance to Pakistani officials on whether to file suit against the United States for the return of more than $500 million that Pakistan paid in 1989 for a fleet of 28 F-16 fighter planes but never received. In 1990, President Bush halted the deal and froze the assets under US law because officials could not certify that Pakistan was not a nuclear state.
Since India detonated its first nuclear devices on May 12, Clinton has made a series of public statements hinting that he would like to settle the issue, either by seeking a waiver to the law that would allow him to give Pakistan the planes or by refunding the money. Those signals have weakened since Pakistan exploded its own nuclear devices on May 29.
Davis acknowledged making one recent call to a White House national security official on behalf of his client. The call was placed to Jim Steinberg, the deputy national security adviser, and involved a request for a telephone conference between Steinberg and a Pakistani official, Davis said.
''You go into government and you lose a lot of money to do it,'' Davis said yesterday. ''When you come out, you have to keep in mind appearances. But I didn't deal with people in regulatory fields'' at the White House.
Davis added: ''You can't practice law in Washington without interacting with government.''
It was unclear yesterday whether Davis violated any regulations or laws by not registering with the Justice Department as a foreign agent when he returned to Patton Boggs in February. The head of the Foreign Agents Registration Office, Marshall Williams, said that in general, if an agent had registered previously, left his or her position and then returned to the same work, the agent would be expected to register again.
Stuart Pape, the managing partner at Patton Boggs, said yesterday that Davis' work for Pakistan since he returned was ''limited,'' and he did not believe a registration was necessary. Still, other Patton Boggs officials have recently referred to Davis as their lead attorney on the Pakistani account.
Pape described the registration as ''not a big deal.'' But asked why Davis would not register, Pape said, ''I haven't had occasion to ask him, but my guess is he is so busy that if he is engaged in activity, and I mean if, it is an oversight.''
White House officials said yesterday that neither Davis nor his client, Pakistan, would receive special access because of his former duties and relationships with senior officials, including the president.
''Lanny is an appreciated figure here, but I don't know what kind of work he is doing for his client,'' said White House press secretary Michael McCurry. ''As long as he follows legal guidelines, he has a right to provide information to the government. He doesn't get any better or worse treatment from the White House than anyone else.''
Still, other government watchdogs expressed disbelief at such declarations and said that Clinton's pledge to end a revolving door from the White House to the city's lobbying industry has repeatedly been broken.
''The best thing you can have on your resume as an attractive lobbyist is exposure to the White House, and the only thing that can trump that is exposure to the White House but no limitations from the revolving door statute,'' said Larry Makinson, the executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics. ''It's hard to beat that. He has the access, but he doesn't have the liability. That's Park Place on the real estate map. You've hit the jackpot.'' |
