Justice Department questions top lobbying firm with Republican connections.

From Rawstory:


The Washington lobbying firm Barbour Griffith & Rogers, which was hired by former Iraqi prime minister Ayad Allawi, is being questioned by the Department of Justice about improperly disclosing how Allawi is

paying his lobbying bill, Newsweek reports in a story by Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball.


When Barbour Griffith made its legally required filing of their Allawi account with the Justice Department, the firm listed only Allawi in their records--a fact that drew instant attention from the department's Foreign Agents Registration Unit when Allawi told CNN that his BG&G bill was actually being taken care of by an unnamed Iraqi.


Allawi previously told Newsweek that two Iraqi supporters were paying his $300,000 lobbying contract with Barbour Griffith, a firm closely aligned with Republicans and the Bush administration. However, Allawi refused to identify those backers, saying there were "security reasons" and that "[t]hey may be killed by Iranians, they may be killed by the sectarian people...These are details I am not interested in answering."


"While acknowledging the need to amend their filing with Justice, however, Barbour Griffith officials may not shed much additional light on a lobbying blitz that has injected new elements of controversy into the Washington debate over Iraq policy," Newsweek reports.