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A new Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) filing with the U.S. Justice Department is a sure sign that the Manatt, Phelps & Phillips issue is still alive.
The US law firm reveals that it got US$15,000 more to lobby on behalf of the Jamaican government than it had previously disclosed.
The controversy over the governing party's hiring of the US law firm, sanctioned by Party Leader and Prime Minister Bruce Golding, has been catapulted back into the news with the June 30 supplemental filing.
In its latest FARA filing, Manatt states that it received US$15,000 from attorney Harold Brady on March 19, more than a month after the Jamaican government terminated its agreement with the firm.
That is in addition to the roughly $50,000 Manatt received last September in connection with its lobbying efforts.
More details revealed
According to legal publication AM Law, the 24 page document details activities performed under Manatt's agreement with Jamaica including discussions about extradition issues held with director of the Justice Department's Office of International Affairs, Molly Warlow.
Specifically, the filing states that Manatt lawyers met with Warlow on December 17, last year, to discuss "extradition treaty process requirements".
The filing makes no mention of Christopher "Dudus" Coke, the alleged Jamaican drug lord whose contested extradition to the US was finally approved a month ago.
Just like past Justice Department filings, Manatt says it represented the Government of Jamaica in the U.S. regarding existing political and economic matters, including existing treaty agreements between Jamaica and the U.S., until its engagement was terminated on February 8.
Not involved in Coke matter
Manatt has maintained that it had nothing to do with the Coke matter, a position which seemingly contradicts Prime Minister Bruce Golding's statements that the firm was indeed hired, by the Jamaica Labour Party, not the government, to help resolve the extradition dispute.
A spokesman reiterated the firm's position to The Am Law Daily on Wednesday.
Manatt spokesman, Lawrence Martinez, in an email response to AM Law, said that Manatt did not represent Mr. Coke and neither was the firm retained to lobby the U.S. government in connection with the Coke matter.
More calls for independent enquiry
Meanwhile, the man who blew the whistle in Parliament about the hiring of the US law firm, Opposition MP Dr. Peter Phillips, says the latest revelation demands independent enquiry of the whole affair.
“They have not been complete with the truth even up to now and at this point I don’t think the Jamaican people are going to accept anything other than an independent enquiry which can give us all the facts. There are many persons who have indicated that they would be prepared to talk but only under the circumstances of some judicial or quasi-judicial authority,” Dr. Phillips.
He says there are other questions that the government must answer regarding the circumstances surrounding the extradition of Christopher “Dudus” Coke and the Security Forces' action in West Kingston.
He believes the restoration of the people's trust in the political system depends on this.
“This matter for me goes way beyond the issues of partisan political competition. This matter really goes to the heart of the standards of governance we have in the country, it goes to the heart of the issue of correcting the ills of our political process and defining a new set if acceptable standards but we can only do that against the background of full knowledge of what happened,” he said.
