{"id":382359,"date":"2018-10-25T14:40:04","date_gmt":"2018-10-25T13:40:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/saudi-foreign-agents-political-donations-top-1-6-million-in-2018-elections\/"},"modified":"2018-10-25T14:40:04","modified_gmt":"2018-10-25T13:40:04","slug":"saudi-foreign-agents-political-donations-top-1-6-million-in-2018-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/saudi-foreign-agents-political-donations-top-1-6-million-in-2018-elections\/","title":{"rendered":"Saudi Foreign Agents\u2019 Political Donations Top $1.6 Million in 2018 Elections"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Political donations made by foreign agents hired to act on behalf of Saudi Arabian interests have exceeded $1.6 million in the 2018 election cycle, according to a new analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of the money flowing into US elections from lobbyists, political operatives, firms and other foreign agents who have disclosed contracts to represent the political interests of Saudi Arabia in the United States, political donations from operatives working for Saudi interests exceed half a million in 2018 elections while PACs affiliated with lobbying and public relations firms account for an additional $1.1 million this election cycle. <\/span><\/p>\n

The total amount of political donations made by Saudi foreign agents is a conservative estimate by CRP based on reported political contributions by individuals and firms registered as foreign agents of Saudi Arabia, excluding individual lobbyist or operative contributions to their firm\u2019s affiliated PAC to ensure no funds are double-counted \u2014 meaning the total flow of money to politicians from lobbyists, firms and political operatives representing Saudi interests is likely much larger.<\/span><\/p>\n

For example, this estimate does not include <\/span>donations<\/span><\/a> to House Armed Services Committee members from leftover funds in the campaign committee of former Congressman Howard \u201cBuck\u201d McKeon while he was working as registered foreign agent of Saudi Arabia and lobbying for <\/span>defense contractors<\/span><\/a> with major interest in legislation related to arms deals under the committee\u2019s purview. McKeon and his lobbying firm, the McKeon Group, signed on to represent the Saudi government\u2019s political interests shortly after he left Congress, where he was the Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. During his time on the Hill, McKeon himself was a <\/span>top recipient<\/span><\/a> of defense contractor funds as well. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Don’t miss a beat<\/strong><\/p>\n

Get the latest news and thought-provoking analysis from Truthout.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Saudi interests have spent <\/span>more than $24 million<\/span><\/a> to influence US policy…<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Political donations made by foreign agents hired to act on behalf of Saudi Arabian interests have exceeded $1.6 million in the 2018 election cycle, according to a new analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics. Of the money flowing into US elections from lobbyists, political operatives, firms and other foreign agents who have disclosed contracts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-382359","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382359\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}