The indictment of Paul Manafort last year on charges that included breaking foreign-lobbying law thrust two prominent Washington lobbying firms into the spotlight.

One of them, the Podesta Group, collapsed within weeks of Manafort’s indictment. The other, Mercury, just had its best year ever, according to the firm.


While neither firm has been charged with wrongdoing, top lobbyists at both firms have come under scrutiny by special counsel Robert Mueller. Manafort, President Donald Trump’s former campaign chief, arranged the hiring of both firms to work on behalf of a nonprofit that was ostensibly independent but which prosecutors say was “under the ultimate direction” of the Ukrainian president.

Tony Podesta responded by stepping down as chairman of his firm the same day the Manafort indictment came down. But former Rep. Vin Weber (R-Minn.), a partner at Mercury whose signature is on the contract for the Ukraine work, has continued to lobby for clients foreign and domestic, though he’s representing fewer clients than he did a year ago and several big clients have left.

“There’s been no change in my status,” Weber said in a brief interview last month.

There’s no single, clear explanation for why one firm imploded while the other appears to be relatively unscathed, but it’s evident the Podesta Group was under pressures that Mercury did not face.

The Podesta Group had seen its lobbying revenue slump after Trump’s surprise election victory, which sent companies and trade groups scrambling to hire lobbyists with ties to the new administration. (While the Podesta Group was a bipartisan firm, Tony Podesta was a major Democratic donor, and his brother, John, was Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman.)

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Tony Podesta was also the face and sole owner of the Podesta Group, a firm of about 60 employees built on his reputation and outsize personality. Weber, on the other hand, is one lobbyist — albeit the most prominent one — in a larger firm. And unlike the Podesta Group, Mercury’s lobbying practice makes up a relatively small portion of its overall business, which also includes political consulting, crisis communications and other public affairs work.

Podesta also had to contend with the president. “The biggest story yesterday, the one that has the Dems in a dither, is Podesta running from his firm,” Trump tweeted the day after Podesta stepped down. “What he know [sic] about Crooked Dems is … earth shattering.”

Trump has never tweeted about Weber.

The Podesta Group was struggling with declining lobbying revenue even before NBC News reported in October that Tony Podesta and his firm were under investigation. The firm brought in $15.5 million in the first three quarters of 2017, before the Manafort indictment came down, compared with nearly $18 million in the first three quarters of 2016, a POLITICO analysis of disclosure filings shows.

Meanwhile, Mercury’s domestic lobbying practice brought in $7.3 million last year, compared with $5.4 million in 2016.

“Mercury is an international firm with 17 offices across the globe that had its best year ever in 2017, both as a firm and in our Washington, D.C., office, and 2018 is starting strong,” Mike McKeon, a Mercury partner, said in a statement. “Like our clients, we have confidence in our entire team of nearly 150 of the most talented, experienced and committed professionals.”

In addition to money laundering and other charges, Manafort was charged with violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which requires lobbyists for foreign governments and political parties to register with the Justice Department.

Neither the Podesta Group nor Mercury was named in the indictment — they were identified only as “Company A” and “Company B” — but prosecutors suggested they may have been aware that the nonprofit was really controlled by the Ukrainian government. The indictment quotes an email that Rick Gates, Manafort’s deputy, wrote to someone at Mercury stating that the firm would be “representing the Government of Ukraine in [Washington,] DC.” Mercury declined to comment on which staffer had received that message.

Weber hasn’t emerged from the past year completely unscathed. Five of the 10 domestic lobbying clients he represented last year have cut ties with Mercury, including high-profile ones such as eBay and Airbnb.

Nick Papas, an Airbnb spokesman, wrote in an email that the company’s contract with Mercury had “expired at the end of the year and was not renewed.” He declined to comment further. None of the other clients would comment on why they left.

Disclosure filings suggest Weber is lobbying less these days. He reported representing only three clients in the fourth quarter of 2017, including eBay, which has since split with Mercury.

Still, Francis Dietz, a spokesman for one of Weber’s remaining clients, the Air-Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Institute, said the trade group had been happy with Mercury’s work and never considered cutting ties with it.

“It never came up in any meeting,” Dietz said. “We continued apace with them. … It’s been really business as usual.”

Justice Department filings show that Weber also met with three Texas congressmen — GOP Rep. Joe Barton and Democratic Reps. Henry Cuellar and Gene Green — on behalf of the government of Qatar on Nov. 1, just two days after the indictment came down.

Republicans who know Weber say his long reputation in Washington may have helped Mercury weather the storm.

“I think the respect for him is a lot of why [Mercury has] been able to come out the other end OK,” said former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, who served with Weber in the House and is now a lobbyist at Squire Patton Boggs.

“He’s a genuine straight arrow,” said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who’s known Weber since they were both conservative House backbenchers in the 1980s.

“I’ve always thought that Vin was very cautious, always obeyed the rules,” Gingrich added. “So I was very surprised when his name came up” in Mueller’s investigation.

Former Sen. Norm Coleman, a fellow Minnesota Republican who’s now a lobbyist at Hogan Lovells, said he didn’t think people in Washington had put much credence in reports that Weber was under investigation.

“Vin’s not a hustler,” Coleman said. “Vin’s a serious policy guy.”

