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| Podesta staff members |
Albania's Democratic Party hired Podesta Group in Washington to lobby on its behalf in the Government and Congress of the United States .
This news is announced by documents released by the US Department of Justice under the Act of Foreign Agents Registration.
According to excerpts published, "Podesta will advise the Party on relevant policy and activities of the Congress, will seek and analyze issues and will be able to organize meetings with officials of the executive branch of the United States, members of Congress, media and non-profit organizations.The duration and the cost of the contract is expected to be published later.
The contract was signed on March 8, 2016.
A few days later, the chairman of the Democratic Party, Lulzim Basha leaves for an official visit to US.
Podesta, a US lobbying company run by Anthony T. Podesta, is not an unknown company in Albania.
Democratic Party Government hired this company in 2011 to 2013, with a fee of 60 thousand dollars per month, paid with the money of Albanian tax payers.
Officially, Podesta had to lobby for the improvement of political relations between the Governments of the two countries. However, a former BIRN investigation revealed that Podesta had lobbied in some American conservative websites to write negative stories against Rama, at the time, the opposition leader.
Albanian political parties in the past have attempted to influence the US government attitudes toward them by paying costly lobbyist , especially during periods of various political crises or during election periods.