trump, citgo, rosneft, corey lewandowski

"Under the administration of President Donald Trump, those efforts entailed beefing up its D.C. influence operation with lobbyists with deep ties to the president’s political operation.

 In April, it hired Avenue Strategies, the firm co-founded by former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and campaign adviser Barry Bennett.

Since then, Citgo has paid Avenue Strategies $160,000 to lobby the White House, the Treasury Department, the Justice Department, and the Energy Department on the “potential impact of U.S. energy and foreign policy restrictions on CITGO Petroleum Corporation's operations and valuation of assets,” according to disclosure filings.
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Citgo sought favor with the Trump administration even before the president took office. It pitched in $500,000 to fund the president’s inaugural ceremony, according to Federal Election Commission records— a break from previous inaugurations, which the company had not bothered to finance.

The exemption Citgo received from the Trump administration in this latest round of sanctions won’t just benefit PDVSA, it will also benefit a Russian company that has been fighting U.S. sanctions on a wholly separate front.

 Months before the Trump inauguration PDVSA mortgaged 49.9% of Citgo to state-owned Russian energy giant Rosneft as collateral for a $1.5 billion loan to the Venezuelan parent company. Rosneft paid another $1 billion this month for crude oil from the cash-strapped PDVSA, which is the Russian firm’s largest non-Russian supplier."

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-just-gave-a-big-carve-out-to-citgo-an-oil-giant-repped-by-his-ex-aides