Crapo voted against Yemen resolution
Crapo
By MAUREEN DOLAN
Staff Writer
COEUR d’ALENE — Sen. Mike Crapo of Idaho is among five U.S. senators who voted Wednesday against advancing a resolution to limit U.S. support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen and, who, according to U.S. Department of Justice filings, received campaign money from pro-Saudi Arabia lobbyists.
Crapo and four other Republican senators — Roy Blunt of Missouri, John Boozman of Arkansas, Tim Scott of South Carolina and Richard Burr of North Carolina — each received political campaign contributions from firms representing Saudi interests, according to a report released last month by the Center for International Policy.
Lindsay Nothern, Sen. Crapo’s communications director, told The Press Thursday that Crapo and Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) opposed advancing the resolution because it hadn’t gone through the proper procedures.
“Not everything in the language of the resolution is accurate,” Nothern said. “… There is an issue that Saudi Arabia has a right to their own self-defense, and that was part of the reason for some of the no votes.”
Advancement of the resolution comes at a time of heightened anti-Saudi sentiment in the U.S., Nothern noted.
A similar measure failed in Congress several months ago, but passed now, on a bipartisan vote of 63 to 37, after the Oct. 2 death at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul of Jamal Khashoggi, a U.S. resident and Washington Post columnist.
The political contributions to senators from firms representing Saudi interests were brought to light by the Center for International Policy (CIP) investigation of Saudi Arabia’s “influence operation” in the U.S.
The CIP analyzed records filed by firms registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) to represent Saudi clients in 2017.
The report reveals that Crapo is far from alone as a U.S. politician receiving money from the oil-rich kingdom.
Foreign agents working at firms registered to represent Saudi Arabia in 2017 gave $2.3 million to U.S. political campaigns, much of it going to political action committees, or PACs, where the spending can’t be traced. But $1.5 million in campaign contributions went to individual candidates.
Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign received $94,496 from firms representing Saudi Arabia, more than any other single candidate.
Crapo is among 75 different Republican and Democratic senators and representatives who received campaign contributions from registered foreign agents at firms who contacted them or their staff in their Congressional offices on behalf of Saudi Arabia.
The report says, “In at least twelve cases, a lobbyist working for the Saudis contacted a Congressional office on the exact same day that the firm or a registered foreign agent at the firm made a campaign contribution to that same Member of Congress.”
Crapo is in that group.
On Sept. 26, 2016, when Congress was debating whether to override President Obama’s veto of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), Sen. Boozman of Arkansas received a $1,000 contribution from Squire Patton Boggs PAC. That same day, the firm’s lobbyists, according to its FARA filings with the DOJ, reported calling Boozman’s chief of staff and emailing his legislative director on behalf of the firm’s Saudi client, the Center for Studies and Media Affairs at the Saudi Royal Court.
Crapo’s campaign committee, the Mike Crapo for U.S. Senate committee, also received a $1,000 contribution on Sept. 26, 2016, the same day Squire Patton Boggs’ lobbyists working on behalf of the Saudi Royal Court called Crapo’s chief of staff and emailed his legislative director, according to the firm’s supplemental NARA report.
Congress voted to override the president’s veto on JASTA on Sept. 28. In the Senate, the vote was 97 to 1, with Boozman and Crapo voting for the override.
Nothern said that while he could discuss the reasoning behind Crapo’s vote on the Yemen resolution, any comments or information about political contributions from Saudi lobbyists would have to come from the senator’s campaign. Representatives of Crapo’s campaign committee did not immediately respond to a request from The Press for information.