Former Obama Official Pleads Guilty To Charges He Illegally Tried to Influence Trump Administration

A former Obama administration official who was involved in a covert campaign to improperly influence the Trump administration admitted yesterday to federal charges.

Richard G. Olson, who in 2015 and 2016 served as then-President Barack Obama’s special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, acknowledged lying on ethics paperwork and violating “revolving door” laws.

According to the investigation, Olson’s lobbying for Qatar within a year of his retirement from the federal government was the cause of the misdemeanor offenses.

Thomas Barrack Jr., a longtime billionaire friend of Trump and the head of his inauguration committee, was accused of obstructing justice and representing the UAE without being authorized to do so in July 2021.

Imaad Zuberi, a prominent supporter of both political parties and a U.S. businessman, was also given a 12-year prison term in February 2020 after pleading guilty to tax evasion, selling influence abroad, and breaking campaign funding regulations.

In court documents, Olson acknowledged that he did not disclose in annual ethics forms that he accepted a first-class flight from New Mexico to London and a stay in a five-star hotel in January 2015 from a Pakistani-American businessman whose description matches Zuberi but who’s identity was withheld by the federal government.

Olson acknowledged meeting with a businessman from Bahrain who would offer him a $300,000 contract for services after he left the State Department, the newspaper continued.

In a plea agreement submitted to the court in June 2017, Olson admitted that he had spoken to an unnamed third party whom the defense has identified as Allen to assist in “providing aid and advice to Qatari government officials with the intent to influence” American foreign policy in response to a blockade of Qatar by the UAE and Saudi Arabia, two of the country’s closest allies.

The Post noted that “Person 3,” Olson, and Zuberi proceeded to Doha, where “the latter pair met with various Qatari leaders, including its emir, before returning to meet with members of Congress in Washington.”

Federal prosecutors were questioned by J. Michael Hannon, Olson’s attorney, during a hearing on May 27 and in earlier court documents about why Allen hadn’t been charged.

Hannon argued that a decision not to charge the general could mean that prosecutors improperly “induced” a guilty plea from the diplomat who relied on government representations that he might be recommended for leniency at sentencing for his cooperation, according to the paper. Exculpatory evidence about Allen could mitigate Olson’s sentence or invalidate his plea agreement, Hannon said.

“If in fact there is no case against General John R. Allen [for allegedly violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act], we think that is a significant piece of information for sentencing, just as we believe that an inducement to enter into this plea agreement is important to the court,” Hannon told U.S. Magistrate Judge G. Michael Harvey, who presided over the case and accepted Olson’s plea.

According to Evan Turgeon, a prosecutor with the national security section of the Justice Department, Olson was never given leniency in exchange for his cooperation, and Allen’s case is still active.

A full year prior to General Allen’s involvement in operations related to Qatar, he continued, “Nothing related to General Allen has any relevance on the false statement the defendant made on an Office of Government Ethics form in May of 2016.”

In order to participate in some political or public relations operations within the United States, agents of foreign principals are required by FARA to register with the DOJ. Covered actions range from overtly political ones, such attempting to sway public figures or the general populace on issues of public policy, to covert ones, like disseminating information for or in the interests of a foreign principal or raising money in the US on that principal’s behalf. The FARA’s reach is still broad even if there are a variety of exclusions that can excuse registration in specific situations. According to Lexology, “a person or company faces civil and, where the behavior was willful, criminal enforcement if they fail to register as required by the statute.