He’s reportedly ‘closer to the president than perhaps any other lobbyist in town.’ So why is Brian Ballard taking cash from a member of Assad’s inner circle?
By Betsy Woodruff and Adam Rawnsley
By Betsy Woodruff and Adam Rawnsley
Brian Ballard, viewed by some as the lobbyist closest to President
Donald Trump, is working for an ally of Syria’s brutal dictator, Bashar al-Assad.
Ballard’s firm, Ballard Partners, disclosed on March 15
that it has taken on a Dubai-based trading company called ASM
International General Trading LLC as a client. A Daily Beast analysis of
open source materials—including website registration information,
leaked offshore investment documents, and résumé sites—indicates that
ASM International General Trading is affiliated with a member of Syria’s
wealthy Foz family of international businessmen, which reportedly has
close links to the Assad regime.
Reached for comment, Ballard told The Daily Beast his firm will cut ties with the company if it has links to Assad.
“We’re
going to do more due diligence,” Ballard said. “We’re not the CIA, but
if it were to turn out that there was any connection at all, we would
withdraw from our representation of the Dubai trading company.”
Ballard’s firm also represents an anti-Assad group, according to disclosure filings.
“We
also represent a group of Syrian-American doctors and others who want a
Syria free of Assad, which we fully support,” Ballard added. “We’ve
lobbied for that and we’ve never lobbied anything but that, and never
been asked to, out of fairness to the trading company.”
Representatives for the Foz family did not respond to requests for comment.
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Source: The Daily Beast
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