China ends $35,000 per month job for ROC lobbyist Trent Lott

The merger of two top Washington lobbying firms, Patton Boggs and Breaux Lott Leadership Group, spells the end of a tidy $35,000 per month contract between former Senator Trent Lott, Republican from Mississippi, and the Republic of China in-exile.

Lott and fellow rainmaker John Breaux, a former Democrat Senator from Louisiana, signed a contract in May of 2009 to lobby for the ROC as a registered foreign agent with the United States government. Former 1996 Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole has also been a longtime paid mouthpiece of the ROC.

Breaux released a statement about the merger and promised that the new venture would continue to provide “boutique-level personal attention to our clients”. However, one of Lott’s clients won’t be getting the boutique-level service in the future.

Edward Newberry, deputy managing partner of Patton Boggs, told the Legal Times that because the People’s Republic of China embassy was one of Patton Boggs’ clients the ROC would be dropped..

Lott’s chief contact from Taiwan was the ROC representative, Jason Yuan, from the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office--the unofficial embassy. The United States does not formally recognize the exiled Chinese Nationalist government. Under terms of the San Francisco Peace Treaty the U.S. is the “principal occupying Power” of Taiwan, formerly called Formosa.

What exactly did Lott and Breaux do to earn the monthly $35,000?

According to the contract the two former Senators were busy men. The contract stated that Breaux and Lott would “advance and promote” the ROC “at all levels of the departments and agencies of the U.S. Government.”

Lott and Breaux were joined in their lobbying activities by Bret Boyles and John Flynn and the four lobbyists were a beehive of activity. In addition to monthly reports to their ROC paymaster, the group made “Introductions to and negotiations with senior officials” of the U.S. government.

The Lott team arranged meetings with members of Congress including “lunch or dinner at the Twin Oaks estate or other venues.” Lott agreed to be “Working diligently to exhort members of Congress and the United States Senate to act favorably on matters of interest and benefit to Taiwan.”

The final clause of Lott’s lobbying contract tasked him with “Providing any recommendations and advice with which will help improve relations between Taiwan and the United States.”

Lott’s contract with the ROC was signed within a few days of a ruling by the District of Columbia U.S. Court of Appeals that admonished President Barack Obama to act “expeditiously” to end Taiwan’s post-World War II “political purgatory” and the timing suggests Lott was hired for damage control by the Republic of China in-exile following the federal appellate court ruling in Lin v. United States.