Earlier this month, John Tomlin, a former Democratic operative in New York, reached out to a top official handling the state’s response to coronavirus with an offer to help.
Tomlin had been connected to the official through a former senior aide to Andrew Cuomo, New York’s Democratic governor. That former aide, Charlie King, now works with Tomlin at the lobbying and public-affairs firm Mercury.
King provided an email address for Larry Schwartz, a top Cuomo staffer whom the governor had tapped in March to oversee the procurement of medical devices and personal protective equipment to combat the coronavirus. Tomlin reached out with a unique business opportunity: He wanted to know if New York or any of the states with which it’s working on coronavirus relief needed a new source for that equipment.
The email was sent on May 6, according to foreign-agent filings with the Department of Justice. In January, Tomlin officially registered as a representative of the Turkey-U.S. Business Council, a Mercury client. And, conveniently enough, he told Schwartz that the trade group, which represents large Turkish companies and is overseen by the country’s trade ministry, would be the right conduit to help with that task.
“I am working with the Turkey-US Business Council, which represents some of the largest companies in Turkey,” Tomlin wrote. “A number of the members of the council manufacture and export medical equipment and PPE. Given the Governor’s announcement of a consortium of northeaster [sic] states to buy these products, my client wanted to reach out and see if New York or other states in the consortium would be interested in connecting with Turkish companies who can fulfill these needs.”
The emergence of coronavirus in the United States has sparked a mad dash among governors and federal agencies to procure the needed tests and equipment to control the virus’ spread. In the wake of that ensuing chaos, novel opportunities have opened up for influence peddlers to get clients, some of them fairly controversial, a seat at the proverbial table.
Tomlin, like many others, has jumped at that opportunity. In addition to the email he dashed off to Schwartz, he attached a letter from a wealthy Turkish businessman who leads the council—which goes by its Turkish acronym, TAIK—and has sought to ingratiate himself with policymakers in Washington, even as, in recent months, Turkey has tried to fight off efforts to punish the country over its military incursions into Syria and its patronage of Russian arms manufacturers. That businessman, TAIK Chairman Mehmet Ali Yalcindag, also happens to be a one-time business partner of the Trump Organization, with which Yalcindag partnered to open the Trump Towers Istanbul in 2012.
But it’s not just Tomlin who has seen doors open in the midst of the pandemic. For clients with political and business interests in Turkey and elsewhere, the coronavirus presents its own opportunity to burnish its image in the United States amid an economic and public-health crisis. The country maintains a large lobbying footprint in D.C., and its American representatives have lately sought to play up its efforts to help the U.S. acquire PPE and otherwise respond more effectively to the coronavirus outbreak.
The U.S. welcomes international assistance in that respect, and senior administration officials such as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have thanked countries by name for lending a hand as the U.S. tries to get the outbreak under control. But that help isn’t purely altruistic. A number of those governments are working to capitalize on the goodwill their help is creating, and making sure that policymakers and journalists are aware of it.
Lobbyists at Mercury in particular have regularly hit up their contacts over the last month to hype efforts by Turkish companies and the Turkish government to assist with U.S. coronavirus relief, in particular through the sale of PPE supplies (though Turkish shipments to other countries have been of spotty quality). The firm frequently shares copies of news stories to that effect with other reporters, as well as crafting its own news bulletins linking to those stories and sharing official press releases from the Turkish government.
In late April, when the White House National Security Council’s Twitter account sent a thank-you message to the Turkish government for a PPE shipment, Mercury sent out a link to the tweet on TAIK’s behalf.
In the memo attached to Tomlin’s email to Schwartz this month, Yalcindag, TAIK’s chairman, sought to use that goodwill to establish a supply pipeline to New York, which has been particularly hard-hit by the virus.
“Given the Turkish government’s large donation of medical supplies to the US federal government last week, it is clear that our country is committed to helping our friends in America,” he wrote. “For these reasons, I strongly encourage the consortium to work with Turkish medical suppliers to fulfill your equipment needs for the remainder of this crisis.”
Yalcindag’s memo also cc’d the governors of Massachusetts, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, New Jersey, and Connecticut.
It’s not just Turkey or its representatives at Mercury who are using coronavirus relief in the U.S. to boost a foreign government client’s image. A host of foreign governments have ordered their lobbyists and PR flacks in Washington to ensure that key policymakers are aware of the steps they’re taking to assist.
So it was that former Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) reached out late last month to four congressional staffers, three of them aides to House Foreign Affairs Chairman Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY) and one to Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL), who chairs a subcommittee that oversees the Middle East. Stupak, a partner at the lobbying firm Venable, represents the government of Qatar, and he wanted to be sure that the staffers knew the steps his client was taking to help Americans abroad during the coronavirus crisis.
“In fact, Secretary Pompeo recognized and expressed his appreciation to Qatar for their help in repatriating U.S. citizens,” Stupak wrote. “If you would like additional information or have any questions regarding Qatar, please feel free to reach out to a member of team.”
Other Gulf states are making similar overtures in efforts to boost their standing in Washington. Lobbyists with the firm Akin Gump, which represents the United Arab Emirates embassy in D.C., have even courted local media in Washington, D.C. with press releases about the embassy’s support of local nonprofits such as Good Food Markets, a “mission-driven grocery” operating a pop-up food bank during the coronavirus pandemic.
“Ambassador Al Otaiba and his wife Abeer are supporting Feed the Fight, a grassroots organization that is paying for meals and distributing them to health care workers and first responders in the Maryland, Virginia and Washington, DC area,” wrote Akin Gump’s Hagir Elawad in a release in late April.
The release also plugged the UAE ambassador’s donations to the Children’s National Hospital in Washington for its drive-through coronavirus testing location, and to Chef Jose Andres’ World Central Kitchen, which is providing meals to those affected by the virus.
Like representatives for Turkey and Qatar, Elawad was also sure to mention Pompeo’s shoutout to the Emirati government for its assistance.
