Haftar hires ex-Clinton aide, ex-Republican leader to lobby Washington for Libya elections’ run

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has said that whom it described as the Libyan warlord, Khalifa Haftar, has hired ex-Clinton aide, Lanny Davis, and ex-Republican House Leader Bob Livingston, to lead a nearly $1 million effort to lobby the Biden administration for political support.

The US newspaper said on Wednesday that the Russian-backed warlord had signed with Lanny Davis and former Rep. Robert Livingston (R., La.) to try to arrange meetings with officials at the White House, State Department and Congress before Libya’s national election scheduled for December, as per documents filed with the US Justice Department.

It added that Haftar had agreed to pay $160,000 a month total over six months for Messrs. Davis and Livingston’s services, and intends to visit Washington for meetings with senior U.S. officials “to advocate for the December 24, 2021 elections in Libya.”

“Among the two men’s priorities will be to free Haftar from the label warlord, broadly applied to him over the years since he broke with the authorities in Tripoli and launched a rogue military campaign in 2014.” WSJ added.