Vin Weber | |
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Secretary of the House Republican Conference | |
In office January 3, 1989 –January 3, 1993 | |
Leader | Bob Michel |
Preceded by | Robert J. Lagomarsino |
Succeeded by | Tom DeLay |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Minnesota | |
In office January 3,1981 –January 3,1993 | |
Preceded by | Rick Nolan |
Succeeded by | David Minge |
Constituency | 6th District (1981-1983) 2nd District (1983-1993) |
Personal details | |
Born | John Vincent Weber July 24,1952 Slayton,Minnesota,U.S. |
Political party | Republican |
Education | University of Minnesota,Twin Cities (attended) |
John Vincent Weber (born July 24,1952) is an American politician,lobbyist and former Republican Congressman from Minnesota. [1]
Weber was born in Slayton,Minnesota. He attended the University of Minnesota,Twin Cities from 1970 to 1974.
![]() | This section of a biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification .(August 2022) |
Weber was press secretary to Representative Tom Hagedorn from 1974 to 1975 and a senior aide to Senator Rudy Boschwitz from 1977 to 1980. He had been the co-publisher of Murray County newspaper from 1976 to 1978 and the president of Weber Publishing Company. Weber was a delegate to the Minnesota State Republican conventions in 1972 and 1978. In 1980, at the age of 28, he was elected to the U. S. House of Representatives, defeating Archie Baumann, 53% to 47%. Baumann had been an aide to former Representative Richard Nolan.
Weber chose not to run for reelection in 1992 and retired from Congress following the House banking scandal, in which he was implicated for writing 125 bad checks worth nearly $48,000. [2]
As secretary of the House Republican Conference and key adviser to incoming Speaker Newt Gingrich, he was considered one of the architects of the Republicans' success in 1994. He was a commentator on National Public Radio (NPR) the following year about developments in Congress after the Republicans took control of the House, providing commentary on the "revolution" he had helped create. Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting reported that Weber frequently offered his opinions on NPR about health care issues, but never revealed that he was a paid lobbyist for several health insurance giants. [3]
Weber was a member of the now defunct Project for the New American Century (PNAC) and was one of the signers of the PNAC Letter [4] sent to US President Bill Clinton on January 26, 1998, advocating "the removal of Saddam Hussein’s regime from power", along with Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and 29 other notable Republicans. [5]
Weber opened and managed the Washington, D.C. branch of lobbying firm Clark & Weinstock. In 2006, home mortgage giant Freddie Mac paid Weber $360,297 to lobby on its behalf to fend off meaningful regulation in the lead-up to the subprime mortgage crisis. [6] Weber also lobbied for Gazprom, Russia's state-owned natural gas company. [7] In 2011, Clark & Weinstock merged with Mercury, [8] and Weber became a partner in the combined firm. [9]
Weber is a prominent strategist in the Republican Party, serving as a top advisor on Dole for President in 1996, the Bush reelection campaign in 2004, and Romney for President in 2008. [10] Weber is chairman of the National Endowment for Democracy, a private, nonprofit organization designed to strengthen democratic institutions around the world through nongovernmental efforts. He is a senior fellow at the Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota, where he is co-director of the Policy Forum. He also serves on the Advisory Board of the Institute for Law and Politics at the University of Minnesota Law School [11] and the nonprofit America Abroad Media. [12]
Weber is a board member of several private-sector and nonprofit organizations, including ITT Educational Services, Department 56, and the Aspen Institute. He also serves on the board of The Council on Foreign Relations and co-chaired the Independent Task Force on U.S. Policy toward Reform in the Arab World with former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. In addition, Weber is a member of the U.S. Secretary of Energy's Advisory Board.
Weber was one of the Republicans who turned against the surprise Donald Trump candidacy, telling CNBC on August 3, 2016, "I can't imagine I'd remain a Republican if he becomes president." [13] [14] [15] But in 2019, Weber said that the Trump administration "was not as bad as I thought it would be" and that he would "probably" support Trump for reelection. [16]
On August 17, 2016, the Associated Press reported that Mercury Public Affairs LLC, which Weber heads, had received $1.02 million from Paul Manafort's European Centre for a Modern Ukraine to lobby Congress to support pro-Russia Viktor Yanukovich during the Autumn 2012 Ukrainian elections and to block the release from prison of Yanukovich's rival, Julia Tymoshenko. [17] [18] [19] For his lobbying Congress on behalf of pro-Russia entities, Weber received at least $700,000. [20]
Established in 2012, the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine had been supported by Yanukovich's pro-Russia Party of Regions and continued to pay Mercury for lobbying until February 2014, when Yanukovich fled Ukraine for Russia after the Maidan revolution. [17] From 2012 until February 2014 and directed by Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, Weber, who was the principal for Mercury's Ukraine-related lobbying portfolio beginning in 2012, acted as an unregistered agent of a foreign government and foreign political party, a felony offense under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), with a penalty of up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. [17] [20] [21] [22] On April 28, 2017, Mercury retroactively filed with FARA within the Justice Department that it had been hired by the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine. [23] [24] Mercury had filed its lobbying efforts with Congress under the Lobbying Disclosure Act. [25] Files between Mercury and the Manafort and Gates firms connected to Yanukovich and his Party of Regions were subpoenaed by the Mueller investigation. [26]
In July 2018, New York prosecutors were referred by Mueller to investigate any wrongdoing by Weber and Mercury Public Affairs LLC. [27] The Department of Justice dropped the probe of Weber and Mercury Public Affairs LLC in September 2019. [28] [29]
The Podesta Group was a lobbying and public affairs firm based in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1988 by brothers John and Tony Podesta and has previously been known as Podesta Associates, podesta.com and PodestaMattoon. John Podesta left the firm in 1993, and Tony Podesta left the firm on October 30, 2017, after finding out about increased scrutiny of the firm. It has essentially ceased to exist since then. The firm reorganized in January 2007 after chairman Tony Podesta split with former business partner Dan Mattoon.
Gregory Bestor Craig is an American lawyer and former White House Counsel under President Barack Obama, from 2009 to 2010. A former attorney at the Washington, D.C. law firm of Williams & Connolly, Craig has represented numerous high-profile clients. Prior to becoming White House Counsel, he served as assistant to the President and special counsel in the White House of President Bill Clinton, where he directed the team defending Clinton against impeachment. Craig also served as a senior advisor to Senator Edward Kennedy and to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
Paul John Manafort Jr. is an American former lobbyist, political consultant, and attorney. A long-time Republican Party campaign consultant, he chaired the Trump presidential campaign from June to August 2016. Manafort served as an adviser to the U.S. presidential campaigns of Republicans Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Bob Dole. In 1980, he co-founded the Washington, D.C.–based lobbying firm Black, Manafort & Stone, along with principals Charles R. Black Jr. and Roger Stone, joined by Peter G. Kelly in 1984. Manafort often lobbied on behalf of foreign leaders such as former President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych, former dictator of the Philippines Ferdinand Marcos, former dictator of Zaire Mobutu Sese Seko, and Angolan guerrilla leader Jonas Savimbi. Lobbying to serve the interests of foreign governments requires registration with the Justice Department under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA); on June 27, 2017, he retroactively registered as a foreign agent.
Anthony Thomas Podesta is an American lobbyist best known for founding the Podesta Group. The brother of former White House Chief of staff John Podesta, he was formerly one of Washington's most powerful lobbyists and fundraisers.
The European Centre for a Modern Ukraine (ECFMU) was an organisation based in Brussels and operating internationally. It described itself as "an advocate for enhancing EU-Ukraine relations".
Anthony Fabrizio is an American Republican pollster and strategist. The principal in Fabrizio, Lee & Associates, Fabrizio was the pollster for Donald Trump's fall 2016 presidential campaign, former Senator Bob Dole's 1996 presidential campaign, U.S. Senator Rand Paul's U.S. Senate and 2016 presidential campaign, and former Governor Rick Perry's 2012 presidential campaign, among others. He also served as a pollster for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in the 2014 midterm elections.
Since Donald Trump was a 2016 candidate for the office of President of the United States, myriad suspicious links between Trump associates and Russian officials have been discovered by the FBI, Special counsel, and several United States congressional committees, as part of their investigations into the Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. Following intelligence reports about the Russian interference, Trump and some of his campaign members, business partners, administration nominees, and family members were subjected to intense scrutiny to determine whether they had improper dealings during their contacts with Russian officials. Several people connected to the Trump campaign made false statements about those links and obstructed investigations. These investigations resulted in many criminal charges and indictments.
The Robert Mueller special counsel investigation was an investigation into 45th U.S. president Donald Trump regarding Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections and was conducted by special prosecutor Robert Mueller from May 2017 to March 2019. It was also called the Russia investigation, Mueller probe, and Mueller investigation. The investigation focused on three points:
Richard William Gates III is an American former political consultant and lobbyist who pleaded guilty to conspiracy against the United States for making false statements in the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. He is a longtime business associate of Paul Manafort and served as deputy to Manafort when the latter was campaign manager of the Donald Trump presidential campaign in 2016, and after under Kellyanne Conway.
Konstantin Viktorovich Kilimnik is a Russian–Ukrainian political consultant. In the United States, he became a person of interest in multiple investigations regarding Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, particularly due to his ties with Paul Manafort, an American political consultant, who was a campaign chairman for Donald Trump.
This is a timeline of major events in the first half of 2017 related to the investigations into links between associates of Donald Trump and Russian officials and spies that are suspected of being inappropriate, relating to Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. Following the timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections before and after July 2016 up until election day November 8 and the post-election transition, this article begins with Donald Trump and Mike Pence being sworn into office on January 20, 2017, and is followed by the second half of 2017. The investigations continued in the first and second halves of 2018, the first and second halves of 2019, 2020, and 2021.
This is a timeline of major events in first half of 2018 related to the investigations into links between associates of Donald Trump and Russian officials and spies that are suspected of being inappropriate, relating to Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. It follows the timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections before and after July 2016 up until election day November 8, the transition, and the first and second halves of 2017, but precedes the second half of 2018, the first and second halves of 2019, 2020, and 2021. These events are related to, but distinct from, Russian interference in the 2018 United States elections.
The two criminal trials of Paul Manafort were the first cases brought to trial by the special counsel's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Manafort served as campaign chair for the Donald Trump 2016 presidential campaign from June 20 to August 19, 2016. In July 2017, the FBI conducted a raid of Manafort's home, authorized by search warrant under charges of interference in the 2016 election. Manafort and his business assistant Rick Gates were both indicted and arrested in October 2017 for charges of conspiracy against the United States, making false statements, money laundering, and failing to register as foreign agents for Ukraine. Gates entered a plea bargain in February 2018.
W. Samuel Patten is an American political consultant and lobbyist who received international attention in spring 2018 in relation to the Special Counsel investigation led by former FBI director Robert Mueller. This was due to Patten's relationship with Konstantin Kilimnik, a subject of the investigation. In summer 2018, attention intensified due to Patten's emergence as a subject of the investigation in his own right, followed by his guilty plea, after being charged in August 2018 with violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act for failing to register as a foreign agent with the Justice Department when he represented the Opposition Bloc, a Ukrainian political party, from 2014 through 2018.
This is a timeline of events in the first half of 2019 related to investigations into the many suspicious links between Trump associates and Russian officials and spies relating to the Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. It follows the timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, both before and after July 2016, until November 8, 2016, the transition, the first and second halves of 2017, the first and second halves of 2018, and followed by the second half of 2019, 2020, and 2021.
The Special Counsel investigation was a United States law enforcement and counterintelligence investigation of the Russian government's efforts to interfere in United States politics and any possible involvement by members of the 2016 Trump presidential campaign. It was primarily focused on the 2016 presidential election.
This is a timeline of events related to Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, sorted by topics. It also includes events described in investigations into the many suspicious links between Trump associates and Russian officials and spies. Those investigations continued in 2017, the first and second halves of 2018, and 2019, largely as parts of the Crossfire Hurricane FBI investigation, the Special Counsel investigation, multiple ongoing criminal investigations by several State Attorneys General, and the investigation resulting in the Inspector General report on FBI and DOJ actions in the 2016 election.
This is a timeline of major events in second half of 2018 related to the investigations into the many suspicious links between Trump associates and Russian officials and spies relating to the Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. It follows the timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections before and after July 2016 up until election day November 8, and the transition, the first and second halves of 2017, and the first half of 2018, but precedes that of the first and second halves of 2019, 2020, and 2021. These events are related to, but distinct from, Russian interference in the 2018 United States elections.
This is a timeline of major events in the second half of 2017 related to the investigations into the many suspicious links between Trump associates and Russian officials and spies relating to the Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. It follows the timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections before and after July 2016 up until election day November 8, the post-election transition, and the first half of 2017. The investigations continued in the first and second halves of 2018, the first and second halves of 2019, 2020, and 2021.
This is a timeline of major events in second half of 2019 related to the investigations into the myriad links between Trump associates and Russian officials and spies that are suspected of being inappropriate, relating to the Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. It follows the timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections before and after July 2016 up until election day November 8, and the transition, the first and second halves of 2017, the first and second halves of 2018, and the first half of 2019, but precedes that of 2020 and 2021.