Michael Flynn (pictured), who briefly served as Donald Trump’s national security adviser before being fired, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and is cooperating with Robert Mueller’s investigation. | Susan Walsh/AP Photo Mercury registers to lobby for Turkish group linked to Flynn

One of the lobbying firms under scrutiny for past work with Paul Manafort has registered to represent a group linked to another target of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, Michael Flynn.

The lobbying firm, Mercury, has registered to represent the Turkey-U.S. Business Council, a trade group that promotes business ties between the two countries, according to a Justice Department filing made public on Monday.


The group’s former chairman, Ekim Alptekin, hired Flynn as a lobbyist in 2016 while he was advising Donald Trump’s campaign. Flynn, who briefly served as Trump’s national security adviser before being fired last year, pleaded guilty in December to lying to the FBI and is cooperating with Mueller’s investigation.

Mercury decided to register as a foreign agent for its work on behalf of the Turkey-U.S. Business Council “out of an abundance of caution,” according to the new Justice Department filing.

The firm has good reason to be careful.

POLITICO Influence Intelligence and analysis on lobbying — weekday mornings, in your inbox. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Lobbying firms are required to register as foreign agents when they do work in the U.S. on behalf of foreign governments or political parties, as well as third-party groups controlled or funded by them. Failing to do so has been a central theme of the Mueller investigation.

Manafort has been accused of failing to register as a foreign agent over his work on behalf of Ukraine, in addition to a host of other charges from the special counsel’s team. Mueller was appointed to investigate Russia’s role in the 2016 election, but he can prosecute any criminal activity he discovers. Manafort fell under his scrutiny because of his time as Trump’s campaign chief; his deputy, Rick Gates, has pleaded guilty to lying to investigators.

Mercury and another lobbying firm, the Podesta Group, attracted Mueller’s attention for failing to register for their work on behalf of the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine, an ostensibly independent group that, according to Mueller, was really controlled by Ukraine’s president and his allies.

Both firms were hired by Manafort and Gates. Mercury has maintained that the pair misled the firm about their client.

Gates “admitted that he didn’t tell the truth to the Government and didn’t tell the truth to our lawyers when he spoke to them about this project,” Mike McKeon, a Mercury partner, wrote in email in on Friday, when Gates pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with Mueller.

Mercury later registered retroactively as a foreign agent for the work.

Flynn also got into hot water for working for a client that claimed it wasn’t controlled by a foreign government — in Flynn’s case, Turkey.

Flynn and Alptekin, the Turkey-U.S. Business Council’s former chairman, both initially insisted that the Turkish government wasn’t behind Flynn’s lobbying work on behalf of Alptekin’s company, even after Flynn retroactively registered as a foreign agent. But Flynn later admitted that he’d lied and that the Turkish government had supervised and directed the work.

In its new work regarding Turkey, which began Feb. 15, Mercury doesn’t appear to be taking its client at its word that it isn’t controlled by a foreign government.

The firm “has been informed” that the Turkey-U.S. Business Council “is not owned, controlled or directed by any government or government-affiliated person or institution,” according to the filing. But the council “operates under the Foreign Economic Relations Board of Turkey (DEIK), which in turn operates indirectly under the auspices of the Turkish Ministry of Economy.”

While the ties are limited, “because of the indirect linkage to the Ministry of Finance via DEIK, Registrant has opted to file this registration,” according to the filing.

Mercury will advise the Turkey-U.S. Business Council on trade policy and other issues and “perform government relations services, which may include outreach to US government staff and officials,” according to the disclosure filing. The contract is worth $30,000 a month and lasts three months.

One of the lobbyists representing the trade group is Bryan Lanza, a former Trump campaign and transition staffer who joined Mercury right after Trump’s inauguration.

