The US-based newspaper, Washington Examiner, has revealed that the Libyan Presidential Council's government has contracted the public relations firm that helped launch President Trump’s election campaign and that this lobbying firm is lining up a fact-finding tour of Libya as part of its $1.5-million contract.
According to the newspaper, Gotham Government Relations and Communication is recruiting journalists to gather information on "alleged war crimes" committed by the forces of Khalifa Haftar, who won the endorsement of Trump this year for his attempt to wrest control of the Libyan capital.
"The effort pits Trump and his former consultants on opposite sides of an increasingly deadly conflict that has now extended its lobbying reach to Washington." The newspaper added.
"According to documents filed under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, the GNA signed a one-year, $1.5-million contract with Gotham Government Relations and Communications to prepare and develop factual reports about Haftar’s human rights violations and crimes against Libyan civilians, work on messaging to think tanks, and outline the GNA’s anti-terrorism work." The contract between the Libyan government and the lobbying firm reads.
Washington Examiner said that this week, the firm sent out a message seeking freelance journalists to travel to Libya to report on the insurgence against the democratic government.
Over the last months since the April offensive of Haftar's forces on Tripoli, the Head of the Presidential Council Fayez Al-Sarraj has asked the UN mission in Libya and the international community to send a fact-finding mission to Libya to document human rights violations and war crimes in Libya, especially in Tripoli.