Rosemont Associates
(for National Council of Resistance of Iran)

Hired: 2013
2018 fees: $240,000

NEW Q2 domestic lobbying filing

The National Council of Resistance of Iran, which advocates for regime change in Tehran, paid former New Jersey Democratic Sen. Robert Torricelli and his lobbying firm, Rosemont Associates, $60,000 (up from $55,000 in Q1) to lobby the State Department. Rosemont reported representing “Iranian refugees now located in Albania before Albanian government officials, UNHCR (UN Refugee Agency) staff and US Embassy/State Department representatives on matters relating to the resettlement of these refugees.”

AF International
(for Iran Transition Council)

Hired: June 2020
Contract: $12,000 (six months)

NEW Informational materials

AF International distributed a fact sheet on its new client, the Iran Transition Council.

National Council of Resistance of Iran - US Representative Office
(in-house)

Hired: 2001
2018 expenditures: $271,000

NEW Supplemental
(Dec. 1, 2019 – May 31, 2020)

NEW Amendment

NEW Informational materials

The National Council of Resistance of Iran’s (NCRI) US office disclosed $144,000 in contributions in the six-month period ending May 31 (the group, which advocates for regime change in Iran, disclosed $98,000 in expenditures during that period). The office also disclosed two meetings (Dec. 3 and Jan. 10) with Lincoln Bloomfield, an Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs in the George W. Bush administration, and a Jan. 11 meeting with Sascha Sheehan, the executive director of the University of Baltimore’s School of Public and International Affairs. The group also spoke with Sheehan on Jan. 24. Other people the group spoke with included Raymond Tanter, who was on the National Security Council during the Ronald Reagan administration (March 3); retired Col. Thomas Cantwell (March 9); Bloomfield (March 21); former US Ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Commission Ken Blackwell (May 18); former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge (May 19); Olli Heinonen, a senior adviser on science and nonproliferation at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (May 28); Joseph DeTrani, the former Special Envoy for Six Party Talks with North Korea (May 27); and former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy John Rood (May 29). The group also disclosed distributing 27 pages of press releases and other materials.

Michael Mukasey
Former Attorney General
(for National Council of Resistance of Iran)

Hired: Sept. 2019
Contract: pro-bono

NEW Supplemental
(Oct. 1, 2019 – March 31, 2020)

Former attorney general Michael Mukasey contacted a State Department official on behalf of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, which advocates for regime change. On Oct. 7, Mukasey spoke with Daniel Rhodes, a program analyst at the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs, on the phone about a “potential meeting regarding issues related to visas.” The next day, he emailed Rhodes to schedule a meeting. But one week later, on Oct. 16, Mukasey emailed Rhodes about a “meeting cancellation.” The contacts with Rhodes were the only activities reported by Mukasey in the six-month period ending March 31. Mukasey, a George W. Bush administration attorney general who also lobbies for Qatar via law firm Debevoise & Plimpton, paid law firm DLA Piper $6,000 in legal expenses that were reimbursed by the NCRI. Mukasey lobbies for the NCRI pro bono.

Salah Bayaziddi
US Representative
(for Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan)

Hired: Sept. 2018
2018 fees: $7,500

NEW Supplemental
(Oct. 1, 2019 – March 31, 2020)

Salah Bayaziddi, the US representative of the armed Iranian Kurdish Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan, met with Reps. Brian Mast, R-Fla. (Oct. 29); John Garamendi, D-Calif. (Oct. 30) and Jim Cooper, D-Tenn. (Dec. 11). Bayaziddi met with representatives of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (Dec. 9), the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (Dec. 11) and the Hudson Institute (Dec. 13). Bayaziddi disclosed $16,000 in office expenses, transportation costs and rent.

AF International
(for Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan)

Hired: Feb. 2019
Contract: $4,000/month

NEW Supplemental
(Sept. 1, 2019 – Feb. 29, 2020)

The Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan, an Iranian Kurdish armed opposition group, paid AF International $30,000 in the six-month period ending Feb. 29. The sole lobbyist working on the account, Ayal Frank, met with Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., on Oct. 29; Rep. John Garamendi, D-Calif.; and Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., on Dec. 11. Frank also met with representatives from at last five major Washington think tanks, including the hawkish Foundation for Defense of Democracies; conservative Hudson Institute; liberal Center for American Progress; the American Foreign Policy Council; and the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

Robert Joseph
(for National Council of Resistance of Iran)

Hired: Jan. 2019
Contract: $15,000/month

NEW Supplemental
(Aug. 1, 2019 – Jan. 31, 2020)
Fees: $85,000
Meetings: US Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook, National Security Council senior director for weapons of mass destruction and biodefense Anthony Ruggiero and Tim Morrison, who at the time was the National Security Council’s senior director for Europe and Russia

The Iranian opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran paid former US special envoy for nuclear nonproliferation Robert Joseph $85,000 in the six months through January. Joseph disclosed meetings with US Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook, the National Security Council’s senior director for weapons of mass destruction and biodefense Anthony Ruggiero and Tim Morrison, who at the time was the National Security Council’s senior director for Europe and Russia but has since left the White House after testifying in President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial.

Cogent Law Group
(for Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan)

Hired: Dec. 2019
Contract: $40,000

NEW Contract

An Iranian Kurdish armed group has hired a new lobbyist to reach out to the Donald Trump administration. The Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan hired Washington law firm the Cogent Law Group in December to “promote and develop cooperative relations with the US government,” according to newly disclosed lobbying filings. The firm was paid $40,000 up front to organize a “single high-level meeting with a senior official of the executive branch of the United States Government” and a “single media interview in the United States.” Read the whole story here.

Cogent Strategies
(for the Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans)

Hired: Feb. 2019

NEW Q3 domestic lobbying filing

The Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans paid Cogent Strategies $20,000 lobbying Congress on “general policy issues affecting the Iranian-American community including travel, human rights, freedom of expression, and freedom of speech.”