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FBI Ties Chicago Representatives to Zimbabwe Lobbying
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Candidate
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| Contributor | IndyGeorgia |
| Last Edited | IndyGeorgia Aug 07, 2013 08:15pm |
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| Category | Investigation |
| Author | Emma Dumain |
| News Date | Thursday, August 8, 2013 02:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Two Democratic lawmakers from Illinois worked to help lift economic sanctions against Zimbabwe after being targeted by an illegal $3.4 million lobbying scheme, according to FBI testimony unsealed in federal court.
Reps. Danny K. Davis and Bobby L. Rush, both of the Chicago area, were identified by Chicago media as “U.S. Representative A” and “U.S. Representative B” in the case, given that they were the only Illinois Democrats to have sponsored a failed 2010 resolution to lift sanctions against Zimbabwe cited in court documents.
Two other Chicagoians, Prince Asiel Ben Israel and C. Gregory Turner, are charged with accepting millions in illegal payments from Zimbabwe officials to lobby U.S. lawmakers to remove sanctions against the African nation. Such sanctions have been in place for almost a decade due to long-time President Robert Mugabe’s record of abuses of power.
Davis and Rush were not named in the affidavit filed by FBI Special Agent Steven D. Noldin, dated July 16.
According to the affidavit, U.S. Representative A sent a letter on official Congressional letterhead to Mugabe in August 2009 requesting a meeting, saying that he had been briefed by Ben Israel, “who continues to ‘inform and sensitive African American Leadership on not only the plight of the people of Zimbabwe, but on the economic and political direction of the African Continent.’”
On Oct. 17, 2009, U.S. Representative A wrote a letter to Mugabe thanking him for “the most positive and productive meeting in New York” and confirming the best dates to travel to Zimbabwe for a follow-up.
“Know that I am fully committed to working toward the removal of the sanctions placed upon Zimbabwe,” the letter said. |
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