존 볼턴 (John Bolton)에게 조언을 해주고 있는 매쓔 프리드먼.
NSC 에 구직자가 500명 정도 몰리는데, 존 볼턴이 임명하는 권한이 있는 모양이다. 그런데 NSC 를 훤히 잘 알고 있는 프리드먼이 인사권까지 간여하고 있다.
필리핀 마르코스 대통령과도 밀접한 연관이 있는 프리드먼이다. 미국의 정치 브로커, 로비스트들의 실체 중에 한 인물. 이런 자들이 한국 북한 미래를 좌지우지 하려들다니.38선 시대도 아니고.
.
Bolton relied on ex-lobbyist as he staffed NSC
Matthew Freedman, who currently runs a global consulting firm, had a hand in shaping the National Security Council.
John Bolton, President Donald Trump's national security adviser, has had a long working relationship with the former lobbyist. | Susan Walsh/AP Photo
As he prepared to start his job as President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton relied on the advice of a longtime colleague — Matthew Freedman, a consultant and former lobbyist with decades of experience in foreign policy.
But while Freedman may have been a trusted hand, he also came on with a checkered past, having worked for now-indicted former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and, more recently, getting fired from the Trump transition team for reportedly using his global consulting firm email for transition work.
Still, Bolton leaned on Freedman earlier this year, and multiple people familiar with the matter said Freedman played a central role meeting with potential job applicants for the National Security Council before Bolton officially started.
Some former foreign policy officials say such an arrangement is disturbing, and that an outsider — with his own global consulting business — should not have been shaping the agency that handles the most sensitive foreign policy matters.
“If Freedman is screening career officials for NSC jobs, I find that inappropriate,” Loren DeJonge Schulman, who was senior adviser to former national security adviser Susan Rice, told POLITICO. “If Freedman is simply acting as an outside proxy for Bolton and has no intention of being in government, period, it’s bizarre.”
A source familiar with the situation denied that Freedman played any formal role and described his meetings with job candidates as closer to “listening sessions” than interviews.
Robert Palladino, a spokesperson for the NSC, confirmed that Freedman and Charles Kupperman, another Bolton friend who has joined him at the NSC, helped him weigh job applicants after H.R. McMaster was ousted following repeated policy clashes with Trump and other aides.
“Ambassador Bolton received over 500 résumés from applicants seeking to join his team on the National Security Council,” Palladino said. “Consulting with trusted colleagues, such as Mr. Freedman and Dr. Kupperman, not only makes practical sense, it also makes strategic sense.”
Freedman declined to comment for the record.
While there does not appear to be anything illegal about Freedman’s informal work helping Bolton, the prominent advisory role of a former lobbyist and current consultant highlights how the Trump government has failed to distance itself from politically connected people with foreign and corporate ties, despite the president’s repeated promises to “drain the swamp” of such figures.
Freedman has proven to be an especially notable example.
He was brought back to help Bolton after getting fired from the Trump transition team, where he was specifically focused on the NSC.
Freedman was ousted from the team shortly after the election for using his consulting firm email address to set up meetings with other transition officials, which some on the team viewed as an attempt to boost his consulting business, according to one person familiar with the matter.
“It is his style of how he does business,” said a different person, who worked on the transition. “I’ve never understood how he is able to pull that off. … He keeps his hands in lots of different stuff. That is his value proposition.”
Freedman’s sprawling business interests also landed him a role in another controversy, after it was revealed that he helped plan a trip to Australia for Scott Pruitt, the embattled administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, who has drawn scrutiny for his extensive ties to lobbyists, among other controversies.
Freedman has a long history as a lobbyist and consultant working with foreign governments. He cut his teeth working for Manafort in the 1980s, lobbying for the governments of the Bahamas, Barbados, Dominican Republic, St. Lucia, Nigeria and Peru. He notably represented dictator Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines.
Prior to joining Manafort’s firm, Freedman worked at the U.S. Agency for International Development as an international development adviser. Later, he was Secretary of State Colin Powell’s transition director for USAID, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and the United States Trade and Development Agency.
James Carafano, who worked with Freedman on the transition team, told POLITICO that Freedman has extensive experience that made him a logical choice to help set up the NSC.
“He knows a lot about how the government personnel works, he knows a lot about how different NSCs are run,” Carafano said of Freedman. “He is an encyclopedia of how government works. He knows everybody; he’s a handy guy to have around.”
Freedman also has had a long working relationship with Bolton.
Freedman worked with Bolton at USAID and was an adviser to Bolton when he was Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, as well as ambassador to the United Nations. He was also listed as a director at Bolton’s Foundation for American Security and Freedom, according to a 2016 filing.
While Freedman may have had the subject expertise, it’s not clear whether he took efforts to wall off his recent advisory role to the NSC from his consulting business — Global Impact Inc., which provides advice strategic advice to both the public and private sector.
He also is no longer registered as a lobbyist, which means there’s little visibility into his exact business interests.
"These are people who are going to be responsible for our national security in high-ranking positions," said Richard Painter, former chief ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush and now a Democratic candidate for Senate in Minnesota. "They are being screened by someone who has private clients, which could include foreign governments. We have no idea who his clients are; the risk is obvious."
And one of Freedman’s business ties — his work as treasurer of the American Australian Council — has already drawn scrutiny.
Emails sent in 2017 between Freedman and Millan Hupp, a scheduling official at the EPA, reveal that he played an important role in planning a trip for Pruitt to Australia, after an email connection from Rick Smotkin, a former lobbyist for Comcast. (The trip was eventually canceled.)
In follow-up exchanges between Hupp and Freedman in July 2017, Freedman offered “additional thoughts on scheduling” and advice for Pruitt’s talking points. In one email, Freedman suggested a strategy for how the administration should address questions about climate change. “While climate change will not be on the agenda, expect it to come up and we need to be able to say we ‘agree to disagree’ as good friends,” Freedman wrote.
Some of his suggestions were more tourism-focused. “You can take a 15 minute ride to Bondi Beach from Circular Quay and walk as long as you want on a long and winding paved walking trail along the sea...I can send some photos if useful to visualize,” he wrote in another email. “Dinner? Could be at a traditional German place in The Rock, if the Administrator likes German, but I’ll come up with other options.”
Barry Jackson, president of the nonprofit, told POLITICO that Freedman resigned from the council after media reports about his trip-planning on Pruitt’s behalf.
Nancy Cook, Eliana Johnson and Eric Geller contributed to this report.
Matthew C. Freedman
Matthew Freedman serves as CEO of Global Impact, Inc, providing both the public and private sectors global strategic advisory services and developing and implementing innovative technology solutions. He has thirty years of experience leading development programs and projects overseas. He has also served as an Operating Partner at a NY-based private equity firm.
A national security and economic development expert, Matthew has advised ten USG agencies. In 2001, he served as the White House Transition Director reporting to the Secretary of State for the Agency for International Development, Trade and Development Agency, and Overseas Private Investment Corporation. Later, he was appointed Deputy to the US Ambassador to the United Nations, Special Advisor to the Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, and Counselor, Bureau of Verification, Compliance and Implementation at the State Department. At the Defense Department he served as Senior Advisor, Department of the Navy. He was also appointed to the Advisory Board for Africa of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.
Mr. Freedman has worked with numerous US and multinational corporations around the world in key sectors: consumer products, energy, information technology, cyber-security and telecommunication, global services, entertainment and media, capital markets/finance, trade, and defense/homeland security.
Mr. Freedman served as Chief of Party for numerous global efforts on behalf of the World Bank, the USG, and the private sector. He is also a recognized international health expert having advised the USG/Gates Foundation’s Global Alliance for Vaccinations and Immunizations (GAVI), the World Health Organization’s Rollback Malaria Program, and the US Government’s flagship international child health program, BASICS II.
A native of New York, Mr. Freedman holds a Master’s Degree with Honors in International Affairs from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and an undergraduate degree from Kenyon College. In 2002 he received the Department of State’s “Superior Honor Award.” He also has studied at the University of York, England, and The Hague Academy of International Law in the Netherlands.
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