6th District Congressman Peter Roskam and members of his staff were contacted numerous times during 2008 by a Washington lobbying firm acting on behalf of the Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, that is the government of Libya, and Roskam received 3 campaign contributions, totaling $1500, from one of the lobbyists involved. This according to information provided by the new Foreign Influence Lobbying Tracker produced in a joint venture by ProPublica and the Sunlight Foundation. The tool uses Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) disclosures filed by foreign governments and their representatives to document the influence foreign governments may have over our legislative process.
The lobbying firm involved is the Livingston Group, LLC., founded by former Republican representative and speaker-elect Bob Livingston after he resigned from Congress in 1999 having acknowledged an affair during the impeachment of President Bill Clinton. According to the disclosures, the contacts concerned the possibility of amending a statutory provision against U.S. trade with Libya. It is not known from the disclosures what commitments, if any, may have been received from Roskam. The full list of disclosures may be viewed here.
Roskam’s willingness to receive campaign contributions made on behalf of any foreign government is appalling to me as a constituent. That the government involved was that of Libya is outrageous.
Libya has been much in the news in recent weeks. In August, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, convicted of 270 counts of murder in the 1988 bombing of PanAm Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, was released by the Scotish Government on humanitarian grounds because of a reported terminal illness. He was returned to Libya and given a heroes welcome by the Libyan government. Then, earlier this month, Moammar Gadhafi, “Guide of the First of September Great Revolution of the Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya”, came to New York to address the 64th United Nations General Assembly. Livingston Group was reportedly involved in negotiations surrounding the Libyan strongman’s plans to visit Englewood, New Jersey and erect a bedouin tent.
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