John Weaver, an anti-Trump Republican consultant, on Thursday backed out of a contract with a Russian-owned nuclear energy company following backlash online.
Weaver said on Twitter Thursday he has dropped of his contract with Russia-owned nuclear energy company Tenam Corporation, which is part of the Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation. Weaver had registered as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act in order to lobby against any possible new sanctions by the U.S. against Russia.
“I’m rejecting the contract. My only focus is the replacement of Donald Trump as ‘president’ and his low traveling minions,” Weaver wrote.
Weaver’s original alignment with the Russian-owned utility turned heads due to his previous criticisms of Trump on a range of issues, including alleged coziness with Moscow. In January 2019, he tweeted, “Of course Trump ended the sanctions on Deripaksa [a Russian business-owner and oligarch]. You think Putin invested all of that just for chaos?” And in December 2018, he attacked Trump for “releasing sanctions on Putin’s best oligarch friend.” Weaver repeatedly called for the passage of “sanctions on Putin” in January 2017.
Weaver is best-known as a longtime consultant to, and ally of, the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a leading critic of Trump’s approach to Russia. Weaver has also been a consultant to former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a 2016 Republican primary rival of Trump, who hasn’t ruled out challenging the incumbent for the 2020 nomination.
Weaver originally tried to defend himself over the Russia contract, writing he became convinced after he “learned a stable market is in line with US national security interests, keeps supplies stable for American energy producers and keeps nuclear proliferation at bay.” And Weaver claimed that “adding uncertainty to the uranium market would make this globe even more dangerous.”
But on Thursday, Weaver went the other direction, with his lawyers informing Tenam the deal was off.
The Foreign Agents Registration Act requires anyone who is working on behalf of a foreign government — whether a lobbyist, a business, a K Street firm, or a media outlet — disclose this relationship by registering with the Justice Department. Weaver’s 13-page filing with DOJ’s FARA Unit showed that Weaver and his consulting firm, The Network Companies, agreed to “render the provision of government strategies, advice, and lobbying directed toward the U.S. Congress and Administration, and the U.S. nuclear energy industry, on behalf of Tenam.” Weaver’s lobbying would have focused on “without limitation … on any sanctions or other restrictions in the area of atomic (nuclear) energy, trade, or cooperation involving in any way the Russian Federation.”
The contract disclosed by Weaver showed he would be receiving a $250,000 advance payment for his work followed by another $100,000 advance payment 30 days later. His contract was set to go through Oct. 31, 2019, with the possibility of renewals through the end of November 2019, December 2019, and January 2020 at the rate of another $40,000 each additional month.
Weaver’s contract was contingent upon further sanctions against Russia not becoming U.S. law, with a clause specifically stating that Tenam could end the agreement with Weaver “if during the term of this agreement any bill containing sanctions or other restrictions in the area of atomic (nuclear) energy, trade, or cooperation involving in any way the Russian Federation is signed into law by the US President (or his veto is overridden by both Houses of the US Congress).”
Weaver’s filing with the FARA unit is dated May 10, 2019, and it appears that he entered into the agreement itself on April 29, 2019. The contract signature page shows Weaver’s signature along with that of Fletcher Newton, the President of the Canadian uranium mining company Uranium One, which is also a wholly-owned subsidiary of Rosatom.
Sale of Uranium One to Russian state-owned Rosatom was the focus of great controversy and scrutiny from Republicans who claimed that then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton helped approve the deal and that the Clinton Foundation may have stood to benefit from it. Attorney General Jeff Sessions asked U.S. Attorney John Huber to review these allegations in November 2017.
Originally passed during the World War II era to combat Nazi propaganda efforts, the rarely prosecuted FARA laws gained new attention after special counsel Robert Mueller secured convictions under the statute against Trump associates, including Paul Manafort and Rick Gates during his investigation into Russian interference during the 2016 campaign. Brandon Van Grack, who spent a year-and-a-half working for Mueller, was put in charge of the Justice Department’s Foreign Agents Registration Act unit earlier this year as the department promised to step up enforcement.
