Politics

Monica Crowley Registers As Foreign Agent For Ukrainian Oligarch

(Photo: JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images)

Chuck Ross Investigative Reporter
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Donald Trump’s initial pick to serve in a senior role on the national security council has registered with the Justice Department as a foreign agent for a Ukrainian oligarch who has recently softened his stance toward Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Monica Crowley, a conservative commentator, will be working for political consultant Doug Schoen on behalf of the billionaire oligarch, Victor Pinchuk.

Schoen, a former pollster for the Clinton political dynasty, has worked for Pinchuk since 2011.

Crowley’s filing, which was submitted under the Foreign Agent Registration Act, states that she will be providing “outreach services” for the Ukrainian billionaire. Those activities will include “inviting government officials and other policy makers to attend conferences and meetings,” the documents read.

Crowley was set to take a senior communications strategist position on the National Security Council. In that role, she would have worked under Michael Flynn, Trump’s short -lived national security adviser.

But Crowley was removed from consideration for the job just before Trump took office after CNN reported dozens of examples of plagiarism in books and articles Crowley has written over the years.

Flynn is a foreign agent in his own right. Last week he registered as one for the Republic of Turkey. The former directory of the Defense Intelligence Agency disclosed that he received $530,000 in payments between August and November from a Dutch shell company with close ties to the Turkish government.

Why Crowley was hired by Schoen is unclear, though both have a connection in Fox News, where they provide political analysis.

In a statement, Schoen said that he did not discuss the contract with Crowley until after her White House job was scuttled.

“I was very pleased that Monica agreed to join my firm and she has been working on a number of matters for me and my firm, only since she chose to resign from the position she was appointed to in the Trump Administration,” he said.

Schoen has used his connections to the Clintons to help Pinchuk, other lobbying disclosures show.

Schoen’s 2012 filings with the Justice Department reveal that Melanne Verveer, a close friend of then-Sec. of State Hillary Clinton’s who served at the time as ambassador-at-large for global women’s issues.

Pinchuk has his own connections to Clintonworld. He has given tens of millions of dollars to the Clinton Foundation. He also attended a dinner in 2012 at Clinton’s home.

Pinchuk has recently been criticized for softening his position on Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and its occupation of Crimea. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed in December, he called for Ukraine to make “painful compromises” regarding Russia and over membership in the European Union and NATO.

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