After Rep. John Bryant (D-Texas) left office in 1997 after an unsuccessful bid for the Senate, he avoided the revolving door that many of his colleagues went through.
But 20 years after leaving Washington for Dallas, where he set up a solo law practice, Bryant finds himself as a first-time federal lobbyist. His mission: to convince President Barack Obama to commute the federal prison sentences of five Islamic charity leaders convicted in 2008 of providing financial support to Hamas, a group that U.S. has designated as a terrorist organization. And despite a record number of commutations by President Obama, Bryant's clients were not among them. With Donald Trump in the White House, Bryant is unlikely to find a sympathetic ear.
The case revolves the now-defunct Holy Land Foundation, which Bryant represented. Bryant himself testified in the trial that he had "asked the FBI and State Department to warn him if any of the charities had terrorist ties but got no response," according to a Texas newspaper.
Now, years later, Bryant recently accepted $80,000 from the non-profit Muslim Legal Fund of America in an unsuccessful attempt to have the Holy Land Foundation sentences commuted, according to disclosure forms.
