George Clooney and John Prendergast
Jul 06, 2017
Clooney and Prendergast are co-founders of The Sentry
Earlier this summer, K Street law and lobbying firm Squire Patton Boggs inked a contract with the Sudanese government aimed at removing U.S. sanctions on that regime. The firm will be paid $40,000 a month by a government that’s on the U.S. state sponsors of terror list, with a head of state, Omar al-Bashir, wanted for genocide by the International Criminal Court.
Over the last four administrations, Congress has led bipartisan U.S. efforts to isolate the Sudan regime. So it’s surprising that Squire Patton Boggs, a firm that includes in its senior ranks former House Speaker John Boehner and former senators Trent Lott and John Breaux, has taken on this account. Given the exemplary service these men have performed for our country, it must mean that they simply don’t know. Either they don’t know that their firm is taking $40,000 a month from the government of Sudan, or they don’t know what this regime has done.
On July 12th, the Trump administration is due to decide whether or not to permanently lift comprehensive U.S. sanctions, which were temporarily paused in January by the Obama administration, that were originally imposed because of that government’s support for terrorism, commission of mass atrocities and perpetration of other fundamental human rights violations. Squire Patton Boggs is now lobbying the administration to permanently remove those sanctions, and in the longer term to try to clean up the regime’s image in Washington.
Squire Patton Boggs is a big firm and it’s entirely possible that John Boehner, Trent Lott and John Breaux simply don’t know that their firm has taken on this account.