{"id":8029,"date":"2018-02-25T13:44:14","date_gmt":"2018-02-25T10:14:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/?p=8029"},"modified":"2021-01-21T19:25:01","modified_gmt":"2021-01-21T15:55:01","slug":"mojahedin-khalq-attempt-place-lobbyist-josh-hawley-senate-may-yet-backfire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/posts\/8029","title":{"rendered":"Mojahedin Khalq attempt to place lobbyist Josh Hawley in Senate may yet backfire"},"content":{"rendered":"

In July 2016 Josh Hawley was implicated in a scandal exposed by the Financial Times. Hawley, along with John Bolton and Michael Mukasey were paid by the foreign terrorist organisation Mojahedin Khalq (MEK) for advocacy.<\/p>\n

Hawley is currently running for Senate, presumably with MEK backing. It is not clear yet whether his past will catch up with him.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u2013<\/p>\n

Josh Hawley could be drawn into Eric Greitens investigation despite hands-off approach<\/strong><\/h3>\n

David M. Drucker, Washington Examiner, Feb 23, 2018<\/p>\n

Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley, the presumptive Republican nominee for Senate, could be drawn into the investigation into Gov. Eric Greitens, who was indicted Thursday by a grand jury on charges relating to allegations of sexual impropriety.<\/p>\n

Republican insiders are fretting that the Greitens affair could put undo political strain on Hawley\u2019s bid to unseat Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., who is vulnerable in the midterm but is a tough campaigner. Hawley, in his position as state attorney general, could be asked to assist in the Greitens probe by local prosecuting attorneys, and plans to answer the call if it comes.<\/p>\n

\u201cA felony indictment by a grand jury is a serious matter. There is no place for party or partisanship. The criminal justice system must be allowed to work. I am confident the House\u2019s investigation will be thorough and swift, and will proceed without regard to party,\u201d Hawley said Friday, in a statement issued through his attorney general\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

Hawley exudes the image of a straight-laced conservative \u2014 the opposite of Greitens since it was revealed that he engaged an extramarital affair with a hairdresser before he was elected governor. Greitens was indicted on felony charges of invasion of privacy related to that affair.<\/p>\n

Private polling conducted before the indictment showed Greitens\u2019 support with voters holding, suggesting he might be able to weather the storm. He is vowing to fight the charges, even as Republicans in the Missouri legislature have begun to turn on him.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I have said before, I made a personal mistake before I was Governor. I did not commit a crime,\u201d the governor said Thursday, in a statement emailed to political supporters and campaign contributors.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith today\u2019s disappointing and misguided political decision, my confidence in our prosecutorial system is shaken, but not broken. I know this will be righted soon. The people of Missouri deserve better than a reckless liberal prosecutor who uses her office to score political points. I look forward to the legal remedies to reverse this action. This will not for a moment deter me from doing the important work of the great people of Missouri,\u201d Greitens added.<\/p>\n

The Hawley campaign has been gaming out how to navigate the Greitens scandal, but there\u2019s not much to do as long as the attorney general could be called on to participate in the investigation. Missouri is a Republican-leaning state, voting for President Trump by a 20-point margin.<\/p>\n

But some Republican operatives worry the matter could end up negatively impacting Hawley\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cMcCaskill is already a tough beat and we\u2019re not helped by Greitens\u2019 situation. If this isn\u2019t taken care of it runs a good chance of materially hurting our chances to take this Senate seat. The situation isn\u2019t yet critical but it shows every sign of moving in that direction,\u201d a Missouri GOP insider said.<\/p>\n

\u2013<\/p>\n

Release: Schaefer Campaign Calls on Hawley Supporters to Disclose Ties to Iranian Terror Organization<\/h3>\n

Press Release, Missouri Times, July 14, 2016<\/p>\n

COLUMBIA, Mo. \u2013 Kurt Schaefer\u2019s campaign today called on supporters of Josh Hawley to disclose their financial ties to the People\u2019s Mojahedin Organization of Iran [PMOI]. Since releasing an ad highlighting Hawley\u2019s 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\u2019s defense. The problem? They failed to disclose their paid work for the group.<\/p>\n

\u201cJosh Hawley\u2019s allies in Washington DC have spent millions falsely attacking Kurt Schaefer, and now they\u2019re defending his paid work for an organization on the State Department\u2019s list of foreign terrorist organizations,\u201d Schaefer Campaign Manager Scott Dieckhaus said. \u201cBut Hawley\u2019s 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\u2019t enough, now they have failed to disclose that they were on the group\u2019s payroll. Hawley and his allies should come clean and disclose their paid advocacy on behalf of the PMOI.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Financial Times story highlighted both, Mukasey and Bolton\u2019s involvement with the group. Excerpts from a story include:<\/p>\n

\u201cAn Iranian exile group is spending millions of dollars in a lobbying effort to be removed from the US\u2019s 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 \u2013 from conservative John Bolton to liberal Howard Dean \u2013 have been paid tens of thousands of dollars to speak at events organised by supporters of the Mujahedin-e-Khalq, or People\u2019s Mujahedin, in the US, the Financial Times has learnt.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLee 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMr Bolton, George W. Bush\u2019s ambassador to the UN, said he did not see the fact he was being paid \u201cas an issue\u201d, while Mr Dean, the former Democratic national committee chairman, dismissed the question as a \u201csideshow\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cNone 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. \u201cBut even if I was paid $50,000, I wouldn\u2019t do it if I didn\u2019t believe in it,\u201d he said.\u201d<\/p>\n

The full story can be found here:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.ft.com\/cms\/s\/0\/cc6d5774-b23d-11e0-9d80-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz4EJHoryLp<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

But Hawley\u2019s friends in Washington DC have failed to disclose that they have been compensated, just like Hawley, by the PMOI\/MKO\/MEK\/ to advocate for their removal from the terrorist list. As if their work on behalf of a terrorist group that killed American soldiers wasn\u2019t enough, now they have failed to disclose ….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8032,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[179],"tags":[642,20],"module":[81],"ctype":[17],"blog":[],"class_list":["post-8029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-iran-interlink","tag-paid-advocacy-for-mko","tag-third-view-mek","module-article","ctype-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8029"},{"taxonomy":"module","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/module?post=8029"},{"taxonomy":"ctype","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctype?post=8029"},{"taxonomy":"blog","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog?post=8029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}