COLUMBIA, Mo. – Kurt Schaefer’s campaign today called on supporters of Josh Hawley to disclose their financial ties to the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran [PMOI]. Since releasing an ad highlighting Hawley’s documented work on behalf of the PMOI, a group that killed American soldiers, a number of Washington DC insiders including John Bolton and Michael Mukasey have come sprinting to Hawley’s defense. The problem? They failed to disclose their paid work for the group.
“Josh Hawley’s allies in Washington DC have spent millions falsely attacking Kurt Schaefer, and now they’re defending his paid work for an organization on the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations,” Schaefer Campaign Manager Scott Dieckhaus said. “But Hawley’s friends in Washington DC have failed to disclose that they have been compensated, just like Hawley, by the PMOI to advocate for their removal from the terrorist list. As if their work on behalf of a terrorist group that killed American soldiers wasn’t enough, now they have failed to disclose that they were on the group’s payroll. Hawley and his allies should come clean and disclose their paid advocacy on behalf of the PMOI.”
A Financial Times story highlighted both, Mukasey and Bolton’s involvement with the group. Excerpts from a story include:
“An Iranian exile group is spending millions of dollars in a lobbying effort to be removed from the US’s list of foreign terrorist organisations, recruiting a group of US national security luminaries to be its advocates. Dozens of former officials across the political spectrum – from conservative John Bolton to liberal Howard Dean – have been paid tens of thousands of dollars to speak at events organised by supporters of the Mujahedin-e-Khalq, or People’s Mujahedin, in the US, the Financial Times has learnt.”
“Lee Hamilton, a former Democratic chairman of the House foreign relations committee, and Michael Mukasey, attorney-general in the last Bush administration, both told the FT they were paid for speaking at MEK-linked events.”
“Mr Bolton, George W. Bush’s ambassador to the UN, said he did not see the fact he was being paid “as an issue”, while Mr Dean, the former Democratic national committee chairman, dismissed the question as a “sideshow”.
“None would disclose how much they had been paid, but Ed Rendell, the former Pennsylvania governor, said he received $20,000 for an 11-minute speech. “But even if I was paid $50,000, I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t believe in it,” he said.”
The full story can be found here: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/
