Imaad Zuberi was a charming networker and an inveterate namedropper with access to powerful people. Soon, his circle of influence will shrink to the size of a jail cell.
Zuberi habitually exaggerated and embellished his stories. Still, he arranged scores or hundreds of meetings between influential people and lawmakers of both parties, starting apparently during the George W. Bush administration.
Zuberi worked on behalf of Turkey, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and other countries, and he represented countless businesses and individuals, once bragging that he had "helped the CIA with China."
His meetings even included then-Vice President Joe Biden and onetime Trump chief of staff Reince Priebus. Zuberi said that when he met with Joe Biden, it was on behalf of Saudi Arabia, which wanted to know what he thought of the country. (Zuberi reported back that Biden didn't seem to be a fan.) A spokesman for Biden recently said that Biden only met Zuberi in group settings, such as donor roundtables.
Zuberi was also on the VIP list for Trump's inauguration, and his efforts in Trumpland were extensive.
Most of Zuberi's access came from passing along donations illegally. He barely tried to hide it. He often used his personal credit card on behalf of others, borrowing or making up names as he went. He used his mother's name even after she had died. Most addresses traced back to a warehouse where his sister-in-law had a small Chinese-herb business.
Barr's Justice Department investigation was relatively cursory, apparently. Even so, during the punishment phase, prosecutors filed more than 100 items "under seal," meaning they were secret. By prosecution standards, that's a huge number. The Associated Press had to do its own investigation to find out what happened.
Zuberi pled guilty to campaign finance violations, failing to register as a foreign agent and tax evasion. Now, federal prosecutors want him sentenced to at least 10 years' imprisonment, a $10 million fine, and $16 million to the IRS.
“If Zuberi was willing to comply with the minimal, basic transparency requirements in law and just knew more rich people who might have given more money to politicians in response to solicitations, he might have been able to do this in a lawful way,” said a campaign-law expert quoted by the Associated Press.
Would you like to know what's in those sealed files? Do you think it's right to withhold the names of the participants in Zuberi's meetings?
Would Zuberi's career be much different if he had worked legally?
What are your ideas about lobbying reform? Is it even possible? How much lobbying is too much?
https://apnews.com/article/imaad-zuberi-sold-donor-access-5a6b71bd05ddf2c1655847bb064edcc9
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