A lobbying group with close ties to President Trump is representing the government of Somalia.
The Somalian government hired Sonoran Policy Group as a foreign agent for work on bilateral relations and security matters, including having Somalia excluded from the Trump administration travel ban and reversing U.S. aid cancellation to the Somali National Army. For its work, SPG is making $100,000 per month from August 1 to December 1, according to a recent Justice Department disclosure.
The firm's staff roster includes a number of former high-level Trump advisers, including Jacob Daniels, who headed Trump's campaign efforts in Michigan, and Robin Townley, who was fired from Trump's National Security Council after being denied a top-secret security clearance. Stuart Jolly, the former political director of a pro-Trump PAC, stepped down as firm president last year.
SPG's team aren't the only Trump allies doing work on Somalia. Last winter, Roger Stone, a former Trump campaign adviser and ex-business partner to Paul Manafort, disclosed that he had spent the previous months working for Capstone Financial Group Inc., a Buffalo, N.Y.-area firm that specializes in international commodities, on "commodity rights and security of the same in Somalia," per a filing.
