Romney Campaign Press Release - Reuters: Gingrich Hired Lawyer to Advise Him on Lobbying Laws

"Lawyer Says He Advised Gingrich On Lobbying Laws In 2000"

Reuters

David Ingram

January 24, 2012

http://www.reuters.com

The man hired by Newt Gingrich more than a decade ago to advise him how to walk the line between consulting and lobbying is the co-author of a leading legal text on lobbying and the chief lobbyist of the American Bar Association.

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Gingrich did not identify the expert at the time, but his consulting firm confirmed to Reuters that it was Thomas Susman, a lawyer and lobbyist who is well known in Washington.

In an interview, Susman said he took on Gingrich as a client in the fall of 2000, as the former lawmaker was ramping up the consulting firm known as the Gingrich Group.

"He hired me to give him advice on state and federal lobbying requirements," Susman said.

"The subject matter," he added, "was simply to advise him and his associates in his business what the lobbying laws were because he did not want to have to cross the line to register as a lobbyist in any of those jurisdictions."

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Susman has specialized for years in lobbying compliance. He co-writes "The Lobbying Manual," a legal text now in its fourth edition, and he is a former ethics chairman for the American League of Lobbyists, a trade group.

When Gingrich hired him, Susman managed all legislative and regulatory lobbying-related business at the law firm Ropes & Gray LLP.

Susman said Gingrich wanted advice on what would trigger a requirement for him to register as either a state or federal lobbyist. "It was simply, where's the line, and if we take certain actions, will we be crossing it?" he said.

Susman said he has no memory of why Gingrich was intent on not having to register. There were critical news stories at the time about other former congressmen who had taken lobbying jobs.

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Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonprofit group that files ethics complaints against elected officials, this month asked the U.S. Justice Department to investigate whether Gingrich violated lobbying law during a 2003 debate over healthcare expansion. Prosecutors have not commented.

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Susman said most of his work for Gingrich came within a year or two of his hiring in 2000.